A question of sim-pathy: Encounters with Kobayashi Yoshinori

In this paper I focus on the works of Japanese manga writer and social critic Kobayashi Yoshinori. Kobayashi Yoshinori has been named a neo-nationalist, ultraconservative, and historical revisionist writer by several of his critics. In order to guard against the danger of essentializing my understanding of his work according to these labels, I have used what I call a sim-pathetic tactic of approach that requires an admission of partiality on the side of both critic and subject of criticism. By superimposing my self in the estimated virtual position of the subject, I explore the possibility of encountering him and his work, not as a single, unified entity, but as a nexus of interrelating vectors of signification. In doing so, I hope to question the validity of using such an approach on someone like Kobayashi.