Departing from earlier studies of kokugaku (which means "the study of our country"), this title considers how three of the more marginalized participants in the movement challenged its principal founder and engaged its fundamental concerns about what defines the Japanese nation and unifies those within it.

""Before the Nation" is a significant addition to the field of Japanese intellectual history and a very fine book."--Leslie Pincus, author of "Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan: Kuki Shuzo and the Rise of National Aesthetics"