The subversive girl and national discourse in pre-war Japan: Takeda Taijun's Kizoku no kaidan

This article examines representations of the 26 February 1936 Incident in Japan as seen through the eyes of Himiko, the daughter of the fictional leader of the House of Peers. The text discussed is a 1959 medium length novel, entitled kizoku no Kaidan (The Staircase of the Aristocracy), by post-war novelist, Takeda Taijun (1912-1976). A feature of the text is its subversion of hegomonic interpretations of Japanese military masculinity.