Proving the Way: Conflict and Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism
by Mark McNally
Harvard University Press, 2005 Cloth: 978-0-674-01778-8 Library of Congress Classification B5244.H474M47 2005 Dewey Decimal Classification 952.0072052
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Kokugaku, or nativism, was one of the most important intellectual movements from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century in Japan, and its worldview continues to be influential today. This scholarly endeavor represented an attempt to use Japanese antiquity to revitalize what many saw as a society in decline. One important figure in this movement was Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843), a center of controversy in his own lifetime. Even though Atsutane's version of nativism came to be the standard form, many modern scholars dismiss him because of his scholarly shortcomings.
The primary goal of this book is to restore historicity to the study of nativism by recognizing Atsutane's role in the creation and perpetuation of an intellectual tradition that remains a significant part of Japanese history and culture. Arguing that conflict among scholars and intellectuals begets ideas, Mark McNally shows that nativism was rife with internal competition. The mid-nineteenth-century suppression of this multiplicity of views led to the emergence of what we now think of as "nativism." By focusing on the competition among the rival strands of nativism, McNally demonstrates that nativism resulted not from Atsutane's conscious attempt to formulate a new intellectual tradition but from his greater political skills at putting his views across.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Tables and Figures xi
Preface xiii
1The Ascendancy of Hirata Atsutane and
the Invention
of Kokugaku 1
2The Formation of Rival Nativist Schools:
The Edo-ha
and the Norinaga School 14
3The Norinaga School in Edo 65
4The Sandaikô Debate: Mythology,
Astronomy,
and Eschatology 96
5On a Dream and a Prayer: Hirata
Atsutane's
Discourse of Succession and the
Invention of a
New Nativist Tradition 131
6Forsaking Textualism: Ancient History
and
the Supernatural 179
7Bakumatsu Kokugaku and the Hirata School2
09
8Conclusion: Centrality at the Margins242
Epilogue: Twentieth-Century Ethnology
and Nationalism 257
Reference Matter
Character List 265
Works Cited 267
Index
277
Proving the Way: Conflict and Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism
by Mark McNally
Harvard University Press, 2005 Cloth: 978-0-674-01778-8
Kokugaku, or nativism, was one of the most important intellectual movements from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century in Japan, and its worldview continues to be influential today. This scholarly endeavor represented an attempt to use Japanese antiquity to revitalize what many saw as a society in decline. One important figure in this movement was Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843), a center of controversy in his own lifetime. Even though Atsutane's version of nativism came to be the standard form, many modern scholars dismiss him because of his scholarly shortcomings.
The primary goal of this book is to restore historicity to the study of nativism by recognizing Atsutane's role in the creation and perpetuation of an intellectual tradition that remains a significant part of Japanese history and culture. Arguing that conflict among scholars and intellectuals begets ideas, Mark McNally shows that nativism was rife with internal competition. The mid-nineteenth-century suppression of this multiplicity of views led to the emergence of what we now think of as "nativism." By focusing on the competition among the rival strands of nativism, McNally demonstrates that nativism resulted not from Atsutane's conscious attempt to formulate a new intellectual tradition but from his greater political skills at putting his views across.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Tables and Figures xi
Preface xiii
1The Ascendancy of Hirata Atsutane and
the Invention
of Kokugaku 1
2The Formation of Rival Nativist Schools:
The Edo-ha
and the Norinaga School 14
3The Norinaga School in Edo 65
4The Sandaikô Debate: Mythology,
Astronomy,
and Eschatology 96
5On a Dream and a Prayer: Hirata
Atsutane's
Discourse of Succession and the
Invention of a
New Nativist Tradition 131
6Forsaking Textualism: Ancient History
and
the Supernatural 179
7Bakumatsu Kokugaku and the Hirata School2
09
8Conclusion: Centrality at the Margins242
Epilogue: Twentieth-Century Ethnology
and Nationalism 257
Reference Matter
Character List 265
Works Cited 267
Index
277