emperorism

English

Etymology

From emperor +‎ -ism, possibly a calque of Japanese 天皇制 (tennō-sei, “emperor system”) or 天皇主義 (tennō shugi, “emperor doctrine”).

Noun

emperorism (uncountable)

1. The form of government in Japan prior to WWII, with the emperor as head of state.
   • 1970, H. D. Harootunian, Toward Restoration:

     He called for a restoration ( chūkǒ ) of the true principles ( seiron ) of emperorism and of the bakufu, and reminded the Japanese that it had been long - standing practice of the shogunate to protect the correct theory of imperial authority.

   • 1990, Cheryl Marie Allam, The Path to Surrender, page 32:

     The other portion was emperorism ( tennoism ), an imperial ideology which held up the emperor as the ultimate source of morality and political legitimacy.

   • 1997 July 1, Motoyama Yukihiko, edited by J.S.A. Elisonas and Richard Rubinger, Proliferating Talent: Essays on Politics, Thought, and Education in the Meiji Era‎^[1], University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 103:

     His solution was an educational design based not on Shintoism or Confucianism per se but rather on an eclectic notion of Kōdō—his Emperorism incorporated a mix of Shinto, Confucian, and Western thought.

2. Extreme Japanese nationalism before and during WWII, especially support for the policies of the emperor.
   • 1978, British Association for Japanese Studies, Proceedings of the British Association for Japanese Studies‎^[2], volumes 3-4, University of Sheffield, Centre of Japanese Studies., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 124:

     It is difficult to argue with much contained in these analyses of the pathology of Japanese emperorism. Certainly emperorism was the value system that provided the foundations of Japanese aggression and bureaucratic fascism.

   • 1994, Kiyoshi Ōsawa, Marivi Nañagas, Go South, Japanese, page 104:

     He was a known supporter of "emperorism," a term used to describe those who espoused others to give up their life for the emperor and to the oppressive military regime.

   • 1997, Joshua Safier, Yasukuni Shrine and the Constraints on the Discourses of Nationalism in Twentieth Century Japan, page 33:

     Each death in his name fortified the spiritual and psychological appeal of emperorism, ethnocentrism, aggression, and nationalism.

3. A belief in or support for the absolute authority of an emperor or similar supreme ruler.
   • 1988, Richard Samuel West, Satire on Stone: The Political Cartoons of Joseph Keppler, page 68:

     The charge that Keppler made most often in his anti-third-term campaign was that of “emperorism,” a fear many Americans shared.

   • 1993, Peace Magazine - Volume 9, page 25:

     Anyone who tells you the Chinese government is Marxist is living inside an ideological slogan. It is Chinese emperorism masked by a Marxian moment of social responsibility.

   • 1995, Daily Report: Near East & South Asia, page 62:

     He is a jet-setting fuhrer whose advocacy of emperorism in far-flung lands continues to evoke the images of ethnic conquest, of Storm Troopers trampling on the lesser race.

   • 2016, Rick Pietlicki, Blow the Trumpet in Zion:

     Why, the Roman Empire lost its republic, and embraced emperorism from just such a scenario.

   • 2018, Conor MacDari, Irish Wisdom Preserved in Bible and Pyramids:

     So the religion which these Roman despots committed so many crimes to establish should not be called Christianity, but “Romanism” or “Emperorism,” in other words “Popery”; for the head of the Roman State aimed to be not only Emperor but also Pop Universal as soon as the Irish Pope, whose seat was at Tara, could be dethroned.

4. Synonym of authoritarianism
   • 1917, Current History - Volume 6, Part 2, page 142:

     Wilson and many Americans with him have undergone an ugly development from an honest democratic republicanism to a bedizened emperorism.

   • 1922, United Mine Workers Journal - Volume 33, page 15:

     We begin to feel like we are again free from the 'emperorism' of a radical element.

   • 2020, Doug Rosenberg, Barry Boehm, Matt Stephens, Parallel Agile – faster delivery, fewer defects, lower cost, page 187:

     Emperorism asserts that knowledge comes from top down and making decisions based on rank and power.

See also

• tennoism