## 1. Matters of Definition



The Japanese word *kokugaku* has been variously translated into
English and this makes simple definition difficult. English terms like
'Japan Studies', 'National Learning/Studies',
'nativism' and 'essentialism' all have their
advocates. One approach is to think of *kokugaku* as having
broad and narrow meanings. Scholarship of all sorts expanded
dramatically in Japan during the seventeenth century spurred on by
relative tranquility, and increasing levels of prosperity and
literacy. Alongside the more traditional studies of China, there arose
new historical studies of things Japanese--history, literature,
philology, poetics, customs, mythology, the tradition of *kami*
worship and so on. Collectively those forms of Japanese studies can be
thought of as *kokugaku* in the broad sense. 



More narrowly, some of these studies in the eighteenth century came to
focus on Japanese distinctiveness principally vis a vis China, which
was now posited as an Other whose historical influence on Japan was
construed as harmful. In the nineteenth century the frame of reference
expanded to include Europe and the world as a whole. This nativist
essentialism was also sometimes called *kokugaku*, and it came
to be the crucible in which Japanese identity was forged. One
interpretation was that to be Japanese was to partake in an intuitive
conformity with the rhythms of nature, and to possess an untutored
heart-mind that fostered the ancient arcadia. Yet another
interpretation was that the Japanese people were descended from and as
varied as the innumerable *kami*, some good and some bad, but
unmistakably blessed when taken as a whole. 



Strictly speaking, Kokugaku during the Tokugawa period
(1600-1868) was neither a movement nor a school but rather a
succession of schools--private academies--that had their own
distinctive orientations and specialties, and in the analysis that
follows we will begin by following the lead of Japanese scholarship by
seeing the essence of Kokugaku in the writings of its Tokugawa-era
paragons: Keichu, Azumamaro, Mabuchi, Norinaga, and Atsutane.




After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 Kokugaku became an ideologically
charged academic field that was harnessed to create empire and
imperial subjects at home and abroad. It also spawned related
enquiries into folklore and ethnography. Following Japan's
military defeat and during the Allied Occupation 1945-52, aside
from a handful of places such as Kokugaku-in University, Kokugaku was
stripped of its imperial and spiritual coloring, leaving behind
sterilized notions of what was asserted to be uniquely Japanese about
Japan and its people. From roughly the 1980s these came to be grouped
under the rubric *Nihonjinron* or theories of Japaneseness,
reintroducing a spiritual component that can be seen in the animism
characteristic of much *anime* and "soft power"
diplomacy. As a result, the word *kokugaku* is no longer used
in contemporary discourse to refer to present-day nativist or
essentialist scholarship. 


## 2. The Emergence of Kokugaku


### 2.1 Keichu (1640-1701)



Because the preeminent Motoori Norinaga located a genesis for his own
studies in the scholarship of Keichu, most students of Kokugaku
today accept Keichu as at least its forerunner. Keichu had a
solidly samurai pedigree, though his father and grandfather fared
poorly after 1600 under the new Tokugawa regime. He had a rigorous
early education supervised by his mother, and at the age of 12 to
fulfill a parental vow began the ten-year path to ordination in the
Shingon Buddhist priesthood, becoming a high priest (*Ajari*)
in 1663. 



Keichu developed an interest in traditional *waka*,
(31-syllable) Japanese verse, including the verses in Japan's
most ancient extant poetry anthology, the eighth-century
*Man'yoshu*. One feature of seventeenth-century
Japanese poetics was an awakening interest in the anthology, but only
about 10% of its 4400 poems were accessible to Keichu's
contemporaries owing to the arcane method of its original
transcription. To remedy this lacuna the Daimyo of Mito commissioned a
commentary, the responsibility for which, in a roundabout fashion,
devolved upon Keichu. It was for that philological work that he
remains best known.



In terms of the Kokugaku tradition, three factors stand out in terms
of why later *Kokugakusha* (native studies scholars) came to
see him as a pioneer of their own work. First was Keichu's
near-mystical reverence for *waka*. By tradition *waka*
were thought to be an invention of the *kami* rendering them
ultimately beyond human ken, and Keichu felt this numinous
quality intensely. Second was the relative sophistication of
Keichu's philology, which balanced historical linguistic
analysis with an intuitive sense of the meaning behind the text. Later
scholars attributed this to Keichu's earlier study of
Sanskrit as part of his study for the Shingon Buddhist priesthood. And
third was his representation of the ancient pre-Buddhist and
pre-Confucian past as the "land of the *kami*"
(*shinkoku*) characterized by a simple self-sufficiency rooted
in the native Way.



As Keichu wrote in his commentary on the
*Man'yoshu*:



> 
> 
> Japan is the land of the *kami*. Therefore in both our
> histories and our government administration, we have always given
> priority to the *kami* and always placed humans second. In high
> antiquity, our rulers governed this land exclusively by means of
> Shinto..., and there was no philosophizing of the sort one finds
> in Confucian classics and Buddhist writings. (c. 1690,
> *Man'yo daishoki: zassetsu*, adapted from SJTa:
> 395) 
> 
> 
> 



Additionally in his later retirement from active priesthood
Keichu produced a number of studies of Japan's other major
poetry anthologies, treatises on ancient Japanese language, and
studies of the emergent canon of literary and historical prose works,
all of which resonated with the topics taught in later Kokugaku
academies.


### 2.2 Kada no Azumamaro (1666-1736)



Raised in the environment of the Inari Shinto Shrine in Fushimi just
south of Kyoto, Azumamaro moved to Edo in 1700 lecturing on Shinto
topics to a small school of mostly priests, and establishing a
reputation as an authority on antiquarian matters. Perhaps inspired by
Ito Jinsai's success during the 1680s in establishing a
Confucian private academy in Kyoto, and also perhaps by the Hayashi
family's success in garnering Bakufu support for a Confucian
academy in Edo, Azumamaro also sought potential sponsors for his dream
of founding a school dedicated to Japanese studies.



Returning to Fushimi and the Shrine in 1713, Azumamaro's later
writings spanned the entire range of what would become the Kokugaku
curriculum: commentaries on prose and poetry classics, studies of
ancient histories (especially the 720 CE *Nihon shoki*),
historical linguistics, and antiquarian matters generally. The core of
his scholarship, however, was Shinto and Shinto-related topics.
Azumamaro's focus was on the most ancient texts, seeking to
disentangle the Shinto of his day from centuries of Buddhist
syncretism and, less successfully, more recent decades of
Confucianized Shinto. Nonetheless, he did champion Shinto and its
ancient links with the monarchy as the native Japanese Way, the
essence of Japaneseness, and the principal factor behind the
historical stability of the Japanese polity.



Azumamaro's contributions to later Kokugaku lie in the Shinto
tone he set, the methodology of historical linguistics he championed,
the binary opposition with Chinese studies he established, the
institutional development of the nativist private academy, and the
accomplishments of his students. 



Many scholars credit Azumamaro with petitioning the Bakufu in 1728 to
found a school of Kokugaku. Though nothing came of it, the Petition
represents a succinct statement of Kokugaku's aims and the Kada
School's vigorous rationale for it:



> 
> 
> Alas, how ignorant the Confucian scholars were of the past, not
> knowing a single thing about the imperial Japanese learning....
> False doctrines are rampant, taking advantage of our weakness....
> If the old words are not understood, the old meanings will not be
> clear. If the old meanings are not clear, the old learning will not
> revive. The Way of the former kings is disappearing; the ideas of the
> wise men of antiquity have almost been abandoned. The loss will not be
> a slight one if we fail now to teach philology. (SJTa:
> 401-402)
> 
> 
> 



After Azumamaro's death in 1736, the center of native studies
shifted from Kyoto to Edo, where Azumamaro's scholarship was
already represented by his adopted son Arimaro (1706-51).
Arimaro was then joined in Edo by another of his father's
students, Kamo no Mabuchi, whose *magnum opus* would be a
comprehensive study of *Man'yoshu* and the
effort to glean from it an authentic ancient native Way believed to be
encoded within its verses.


## 3. Philological Kokugaku


### 3.1 Kamo no Mabuchi 1697-1769



Mabuchi was raised in Hamamatsu along the roadway linking Kyoto and
Edo. Taught to read by Kada no Azumamaro's niece, he developed
an early interest in Shinto and *waka*, which would become for
him an escapist passion. In 1728 he registered in Azumamaro's
school and moved there for full time study in 1733, which is where he
received his introduction to the *Man'yoshu*
including Keichu's commentary and the full range of
Kokugaku topics taught there.



Mabuchi moved to Edo in 1737 and in 1746 replaced Kada Arimaro as the
authority on Japanese studies in service to Tayasu Munetake, the
younger brother of the feeble regnant shogun, a position Mabuchi
retained until 1760. Mabuchi produced essays on a range of topics, but
the focus of his study during these years was a philological analysis
of the *Man'yoshu* through which he believed
one could learn the words and spirit (*kokoro*) of Japan before
these were Sinified and thereby corrupted during the Nara period of
the eighth century. Mabuchi depicted the Japan of the
*Man'yoshu* as a natural arcadia ruled by the
descendants of the *kami* who governed in accordance with a Way
(*michi*) that conformed to the natural rhythms and dictates of
nature (literally, "heaven and earth") itself:



> 
> 
> From the time when the imperial court was at Otsu in Omi
> through the period of the Fujiwara court at Yamato, grand august
> government filled the heavens and reached to every nook and cranny of
> the earth; and thanks to this glorious tranquility, literary
> expression was blessed with beauty and elegance. (*Engishiki norito
> kai jo*, KKMZ:SH 1: 446 author translation)
> 
> 
> 



Retirement from service to Munetake in 1760 made Mabuchi less prone to
the charge of *lese majeste*, and he was free to
give rein to the implications of his earlier study. He began to
describe his current age as one that had declined since ancient times
because the old natural virtues had been crushed and catastrophically
replaced by the artificial morals of China:



> 
> 
> Ancient Japan was governed well in accordance with the spirit of
> heaven and earth, and there was none of this petty sophistry; but then
> suddenly when these convincing theories were imported from China,
> ancient men in their straightforward fashion took these theories as
> truth, and the theories spread far and wide.... [and no sooner
> were these theories introduced ... than tremendous chaos erupted.
> (*Kokui ko*, SJTa: 406)
> 
> 
> 



He taught that if one will advance to the stage of being able to
recite the most ancient *Man'yoshu* verses
aloud, one will be affected to the point where only one's body
remains mired in the here-and-now, as one's language and heart
(*kokoro*) are transported back to the ancient past. In the
process one will spontaneously acquire the virtues of that
past--truthfulness, directness, manliness, vitality, and native
elegance--which were the antithesis of the notoriously corrupt
political culture of his times. He also became virulently
anti-Chinese, insisting that the absence of native Japanese words for
the classic Confucian virtues was evidence that such teachings were
unnecessary in ancient Japan when life enjoyed a morally and ethically
untutored order rooted in its conformity to the natural rhythms of
heaven and earth.



Mabuchi began lecturing to hundreds of students, many of whom would
gather by the veranda of his home on the fringes of Edo. His was the
first successful Kokugaku private academy--others would
follow--and he was also a notorious antiquarian eccentric; years
after his death in 1769, Mabuchi's biography was the opening
entry in Ban Kokei's celebrated 1790 study of contemporary
eccentrics. Of his roughly three hundred students, none would achieve
greater renown as a scholar of Kokugaku than Motoori Norinaga, who
only met Mabuchi on one fateful evening in 1763 when Mabuchi stayed
the night in Matsusaka on a tour of Japan. 


### 3.2 Motoori Norinaga 1730-1801



Motoori Norinaga made pioneering and lasting contributions in all
aspects of Kokugaku: he elevated literary criticism on *The Tale of
Genji* to new heights, with an impact that endures into the
present; his *magnum opus* was a philological analysis of and
complete commentary on the 712 CE *Kojiki*, which was the last
of Japan's most ancient classics to be linguistically
deciphered; and he used that analysis to construct a new form of Shinto, the *kami no michi* or Way
of the *kami* (deities) that he claimed to be the original. Furthermore, his
scholarship was known to Kyoto courtiers, and his counsel sought
by daimyo. Remarkably Norinaga accomplished all this while spending
almost his entire life in Matsusaka in the virtual shadow of the Ise
Shrines.



Norinaga applied the concept of *mono no aware* (the
sadness/pity of things) to *The Tale of Genji* as well as to
the *waka* of the *Shin Kokinshu* poetry anthology,
works that his teacher Mabuchi eschewed because of their alleged
femininity and artifice in contrast to the
*Man'yoshu*'s natural masculinity.
Norinaga, by contrast, argued that *The Tale of Genji*
realistically depicts how emotions profoundly infuse life's
major events, and how this contributed to the novel's uncanny
ability to inspire its readers to suspend didactic or moralistic
interpretation and instead to enter emotionally into the tenth-century
world that was its setting. From this perspective, when a character in
*Genji* acts or emotes in a certain way, the reader is invited
not to enquire into the Confucian moral or ethical propriety of the events
depicted, but rather into whether the reader has ever shared the
experience. This also overturned centuries of didactic Buddhist criticism
of the novel on the grounds that it failed to praise good and condemn
evil, and to show evil's consequences. So Norinaga's
approach opened the door to a more modern literary criticism. In his
words: 



> 
> 
> The novel is neither like the Buddhist Way... nor like the
> Confucian Way.... It is simply a tale of human life that leaves
> aside and does not profess to take up at all the questions of good and
> bad and that dwells only on the goodness of those who are aware of the
> sorrow of human existence. (*Tama no ogushi*, SJTa: 421)
> 
> 
> 



In an analogous manner, Norinaga extolled the elegance and refinement
(*miyabiyaka*) of the verses of *Shin Kokinshu*.
This, he explained, was the consequence of its many poets'
ability to detach sufficiently from their individual circumstances so that
through their artistry (*waza*) they could capture the essence
of *mono no aware* in just thirty-one syllables. This
appreciation of poetic sophistication also desanctified *waka*
from the cosmological significance that Mabuchi had attached to the
oldest Japanese verses.



Norinaga's work on *Kojiki* formed the basis for his
understanding of Japan's Way of the *kami* (*kami no
michi*, or in its Sino-Japanese reading *Shinto*).
With his fundamentalist confidence in the text as a True Book
(*makoto no fumi*) Norinaga argued that, as described in
*Kojiki*, the native Way of Japan was a Way created not by
humans like the imported Chinese Ways, but by the native *kami*
who are ultimately responsible for all human action and activity. And,
because of the centrality of *kami* to Norinaga's
thoughts on a native Japanese Way, Kokugaku has at times been referred
to as a Shinto Revival. 



Norinaga's definition of the notoriously difficult term
*kami* was more comprehensive than that of any of his
predecessors in Kokugaku and has stood the test of time:



> 
> 
> ...the word *kami* signifies first the deities of heaven
> and earth who appear in the ancient records and the spirits of the
> shrines where they are worshiped. It is unnecessary to add that it
> includes birds and beasts, trees and plants, seas and mountains, and
> so forth. In ancient usage, anything whatsoever which was outside the
> ordinary, which possessed superior power or was awe-inspiriting was
> called *kami*.... Evil and mysterious things, if they are
> extraordinary and dreadful, are also called *kami*, and among
> human beings who are called *kami*, the successive generations
> of divine emperors are all included. (*Kojiki-den*
>  adapted from Holtom, 1938, quoted in SJT, 2001, 18.) 
> 
> 
> 



In this *kami*-determined world, people are as varied as the
"eight million" *kami*, who are themselves some
good and some wicked:



> 
> 
> The true heart (*magokoro*) is that heart with which one is
> born by virtue of the Musubi (creating) *kami*, and among true
> hearts some are wise and some clumsy, some are good and some
> bad.... Thus even the *kami* of the divine age were some
> good and some bad, for they all behaved in accordance with their
> individual true hearts. (*Kuzubana* {1968-1975: 8:
> 147]
> 
> 
> 



This allowed for an acceptance of individual difference, but it also
inhibited any doctrine of personal, moral and ethical responsibility.




Because of the all-pervasive influence of *kami* and the fact
that the operations of the *kami* are beyond human ken, the
world always retains a wondrous quality and is never fully
knowable:



> 
> 
> Consider the human body: It has eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to
> speak, feet to walk, and hands to do a thousand things. Are they not
> truly wonderful? Birds and insects fly in the sky, plants and trees
> bloom and bear fruit--they are all wonderful.... Thus the
> universe and all things therein are without a single exception strange
> and wondrous when examined carefully.... [And] one must
> acknowledge that human intelligence is puny while the acts of the
> *kami* are illimitable and wondrous. (*Kuzubana*
> {1968-1975: 8: 160]
> 
> 
> 



All one can know with certainty, according to Norinaga, is what is
recorded in the Divine Age chapters of *Kojiki*, and this text
rendered the Divine Age proximate and no longer remote as it was for
Mabuchi. One's human responsibility is to act
*kannagara*, i.e., in conformity to the wishes of the
*kami*, and Norinaga cast the monarch (*tenno*) in
Kyoto as the physical link in a metaphysical chain that connected the
Japanese people with the solar deity Amaterasu. For Norinaga,
Amaterasu was both sun goddess and the sun itself, and so the world as
a whole owed a daily debt of gratitude to this quintessential Japanese
deity for the very gift of solar warmth and light. Beyond this
Norinaga claimed that on the basis of Japanese mythology, Japan was
the primal source of all the world's countries compounding the
world's obligation to Japan.



For Norinaga, the native Japanese Heart (*mikunigokoro*) is
damaged in every generation by contaminating exposure to Chinese
moralism as represented especially by Confucianism; in its place an
inferior Chinese Heart takes shape with the same deleterious effects
in Japan as what Norinaga claimed one could observe in Chinese
history. As he expressed this in verse:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Though he may think himself |  Karagokoro |
| Rid of the Chinese heart |  nashi to omoedo |
| The heart of a man |  fumira yomu |
| Who reads Chinese |  hito no kokoro wa |
| Is still Chinese |  nao zo Kara naru.  |
| (adapted from
Muraoka 1964: 148) |



The way to purify and reanimate one's Japanese Heart was not
through the medium of an ancient text like
*Man'yoshu*, but rather through exorcising
Chinese contamination through the mediation of the *kami*.



Toward the end of his life Norinaga composed a liturgy for personal
morning worship, which was his way of elevating his thoughts on
Japan's native ancient Way into something approaching a
contemporary religion. If Norinaga was constrained in this regard,
however, it was by *Kojiki* itself, which depicted life after
death as an uninviting eternity in the depraved and polluted nether
world called Yomi. As he expressed this in verse:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Polluted Yomi |  Kitanakuni |
| Bourne of darkness-- |  yomi no kunibe |
| How dirty and disgusting! |  inashikome |
| I want to stay in this world |  chi yo toko to wa ni |
| A thousand ages evermore! |  kono yonomogamo.  |
| (adapted from
Muraoka 1964: 151) |



It is perhaps unsurprising that after Norinaga's death the
orientation of his school inclined toward the literary. There were no
major texts from Japan's ancient past that required deciphering,
and the linguistic challenges to such enquiries were prohibitively
difficult for Kokugaku to reach a broader audience. The mantle to the
more religious side of his Kokugaku was, in turn, claimed by a student
whom Norinaga never met.


## 4. Popular and Grassroots Kokugaku 1800-1868


### 4.1 Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843)



Hirata Atsutane hailed from Japan's northeast and moved to Edo
in 1795 at age 19. He had not even heard of Motoori Norinaga until two
years after his death, but his introduction to Norinaga's
thought so moved him that two years after that he was admitted to
Norinaga's school, which was being run by Norinaga's son
Haruniwa. Throughout his future career Atsutane distinguished himself
from his more philologically oriented forebears in Kokugaku by seeking
verification for his views in the broadest range of places, including
Confucian and even Christian sources, which he disguised by making
them appear Shinto-based. Atsutane even sought the testimony of those
who claimed astral travel, reincarnation, and supernatural pedigree in
support of his understandings. This can be understood as his effort to
universalize Shinto, which he styled True Shinto (*makoto no
shinto*) by representing it as the fountainhead from which
derivative and inferior foreign doctrines later emerged. This
xenophobia together with his vast array of subjects of inquiry ranging
from spiritual matters and kami worship to folklore likely contributed
to the popularity of his teachings which he intended "to touch a
person's heart" (from *Kodo taii*, HAZ: vol.
1, ch.1, 15). 



Atsutane championed the pleasures of the here-and-now--good food
and wine, love and sexual passion--even querying why some long
for the afterlife when the present is so blissful. Like Kamo no
Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga, Atsutane's Kokugaku included the
belief that persons in Japan are endowed as a birthright with True
Hearts (*magokoro*) that make possible spontaneous conformity
to the Way of the *kami* and restoration of an ancient social
perfection in the present. Through prayer to specific deities, one
could "learn from the kami" (*kaminarai*) in a
manner that did not even require literacy. 



Regarding the ancient past, Atsutane made a number of claims that went
well beyond the near-paradisiac constructions of Kamo no Mabuchi and
Motoori Norinaga, including perfect health (and ironic invention of
the presumably unneeded Way of Medicine); an ancient native script
prior to the incorporation of Chinese characters; population in
ancient times by a race of Japanese giants; and the argument that the
rest of the world was fashioned from inferior materials leftover after
the pristine creation of Japan. At their worst these expressions of
superiority became unsavory racialized critiques of Others who now
included Europeans.



Atsutane endeavored to recast Motoori Norinaga's gloomy
assessment of what befalls humans when their earthly bodies perish.
Where Norinaga followed *Kojiki* in presuming Yomi as the
soul's final resting spot, Atsutane taught that humans all
become *kami* who proceed to a concealed world that in its
essential aspects resembles the revealed world of the living. Atsutane
took this eschatology a step further by extrapolating implications for
the polity. 



Atsutane repeatedly insisted upon Japan's and the Japanese
people's superiority to other countries and peoples:



> 
> 
> Since Japan has no match among other countries, and since both
> materially and in terms of human affairs it is superior to all other
> countries, the people of this land, because it is a divine land, have
> been automatically endowed with true hearts which since ancient times
> have been known as the "Japanese heart" (*Yamato
> gokoro*) or "Japanese spirit" (*Yamato
> damashii*; from *Kodo taii*, HAZ: vol. 1, ch.1,
> 3).
> 
> 
> 



To Atsutane this in turn had implications for Japan's destiny in
the world: because Japan is 



> 
> 
> the ancestral country of the ten thousand countries... our great
> ruler is the great ruler of the ten thousand countries..., and
> the nature of the peace of mind that this provides is likewise
> superior to the peace of mind provided by other lands. (from *Tama
> no mihashira*, HAZ: vol. 2, ch.1, 89) 
> 
> 
> 



Before Atsutane, Shinto theologians and Kokugaku scholars said
relatively little about the afterlife for human beings. Norinaga had
concluded that after death everyone was destined to go to the filthy
and unpleasant land of Yomi beneath the earth. In his seminal work,
*August Pillar of the Soul* (*Tama no mihashira*) which
he completed in 1812, however, Atsutane asserts the importance of
knowing the destination of human souls after death and, thereby, made
eschatology central to Kokugaku scholarship. Atsutane criticized his
teacher Norinaga for having overlooked the evidence on the matter.
After death human souls go neither to heaven nor the Yomi underworld,
according to Atsutane, but rather it is certain concerning the souls
of the Japanese, 



> 
> 
> from the purport of ancient legends and from modern examples that they
> remain eternally in Japan and serve in the realm of the dead governed
> by Okuninushi-no-kami. (*Tama no mihashira* in SJT: 45)
> 
> 
> 
> 



This, in turn, had implications for the polity, since in the revealed
world one is subject to the emperor, but in the concealed world one
becomes a ghostly spirit, and one's loyalty transfers to
Okuninushi-no-kami. Traditionally, this deity had been worshiped
as an "earthly god" (*kunitsu kami*) and ruler over
the Central Land of Reed Plains (*Ashihara no nakatsu kuni*),
and yet Atsutane identified Okuninushi as lord of the
*kakuriyo* realm whom souls of the dead were expected to serve
faithfully. Atsutane describes the spiritual realm of
*yumeikai* or *kakuriyo*
(You Ming Jie /You Ming ) as dark and,
therefore, invisible to those inhabiting the world of the living,
though those in the spiritual realm could freely see the realm of the
living. Because the invisible *kakuriyo* and visible realm of
the living occupied common space, it was believed that souls of the
dead dwelt near graves or shrines from where they watched over and
offered protection to their surviving descendants.



In his concern with eschatology, fertility, the affective realm, the
supernatural and cosmology, Atsutane moved Kokugaku in distinctively
religious directions, and by jettisoning the arduous philological
exegesis of forebears like Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga,
Atsutane made the nativist spirituality of Kokugaku immeasurably more
accessible, with a special appeal directed toward the farmers who
comprised some 80% of the population during his lifetime.


### 4.2 *Kokugaku* in the *Kuni* (Provinces)


#### Miyahiro Sadao (1797-1858)



The Hirata academy had attracted over 500 disciples during
Atsutane's lifetime and over 4,200 total disciples by the early
years of the Meiji period including posthumous disciples who had
joined after the master's death in 1843. One of the major
centers of Hirata disciples was in Shimosa province of
today's northern Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures, whose
registrants numbered over 200 by the time of the Meiji Restoration.
Members of the Hirata family visited Shimosa--Atsutane gave
lectures, while adopted son and administrator of the academy, Hirata
Kanetane (1799-1880), raised funds for publishing.



The result was the recruitment of many disciples, including Miyahiro
Sadao (1797-1858) who himself registered with the academy in
1826. Sadao had overcome excessive drinking and corruption and
transformed himself into a hardworking and respected village headman
(*nanushi*) of Matsuzawa village. A self-proclaimed
"potato-digging headman", Sadao reclaimed agricultural
land, repaired roads, and grew medicinal herbs. Later that same year
of 1826, the Hirata family began to publish several agricultural
manuals beginning with Sadao's *Essentials on
Agriculture* or *Nogyo yoshu*, which
offers instruction to farmers on the practice and profitability of
planting. The Hirata academy facilitated the publishing of hundreds of
copies of such farming manuals to meet a growing demand in
agricultural communities, while Sadao and other disciples contributed
capital. *Records of Plant Seed Selection* or *Somoku
tane erami*, also authored by Sadao, explains plant gender and
argues that planting female seeds would lead to a large harvest.



In 1832, Sadao completed *Thesis on National Profit* or
*Kokueki honron*. For the sake of the national economy, Sadao
uses Atsutane's teachings as a call to revere and worship
*the kishin* spirits, who have the will and power to create
prosperity but, when angered, will become wrathful and bring about
misfortune (KH: 292). He writes:



> 
> 
> First, a country's decline is the result of people's being
> unjust in mind and carrying out crooked behavior, as well as staining
> their minds, staining their bodies, and staining their households. It
> is a result of them turning their backs on the hearts of
> *kishin* spirits of heaven and earth and, thereby, escaping
> their grace. Moreover, in years of bad harvest and famine, or
> encountering calamities such as fires and epidemic, people dwindle and
> their fortunes shrink. A country's decline all results from such
> rebuke from the *kishin* spirits. (KH: 292)
> 
> 
> 



Atsutane is credited for popularizing Kokugaku among agriculturalists
across rural Japan by linking their mundane farm work with the Ancient
Way, valuing their labor as service to the gods. In Matsuzawa, Sadao
was one Hirata follower whose writings and leadership equated
agriculturalist labor of the peasant masses with sacred service to the
gods.



According to Sadao, another key to achieving the goal of national
prosperity was to educate peasants. He laments the state and
availability of agricultural education:



> 
> 
> Furthermore, knowledge or ignorance in agriculture, or the skill or
> lack of skill greatly affects a country's profit and loss.
> Therefore, I say, "agriculture is the foundation of the
> country", because it is an industry which cannot be neglected.
> Yet, the general tendency is that there are few skilled
> agriculturalists and many unskilled farmers. This is precisely because
> there are no expert agricultural teachers. If those lords
> (*ryoshu*) issued orders, and selected agriculturalists
> knowledgeable about horticulture and appointed them as agricultural
> teachers who educated those unskilled farmers, this would surely
> contribute to that national profit. (KH: 292)
> 
> 
> 



As an experienced farmer himself, Sadao asserts the need for proper
training, and the farming manuals he wrote and helped to publish were
meant to contribute to this purpose.



The influence of Hirata Atsutane's theories on the invisible
*kakuriyo* realm of spirits as articulated in the *August
Pillar of the Spirit* (*Tama no mihashira*) and *New
Treatise on Spirits* (*Kishin shinron*) surfaces in
Sadao's writings. Sadao reaffirms the theories asserted by
Atsutane that divine spirits which dwell and act in the
*kakuriyo* realm also intervene in the lives of the people
living in this visible world (*arahaniyo*). Sadao observes that
the kami look upon human beings and see their good and bad, unjust and
just, and even perceive the thoughts within their minds. He points to
the ancient accounts of the divine age which state that good things
are born out of pure and bright matter, while bad things result from
filth. When the state is stained and the people are also stained, the
*kishin* spirits are angered, and calamities result in the
world.



Sadao asserts his thesis, 



> 
> 
> Thus, when the actions of these people are rectified and are pleasing
> to the hearts of the gods so they avoid calamities, all things see no
> decline, and the people and fortunes are abundant throughout the
> country. This, therefore, is the national profit. (KH: 307) 
> 
> 
> 



He advocates appointing people attuned to the Way and virtue as
teachers to instruct local lords (*myoshu*) and terakoya
school teachers on proper education, so they can then instruct the
people--men and women, young and old. Thus, he hoped that many
would return to the "simplicity" of the ancient peoples as
described by Atsutane, live by the Way, and respond to the heavenly
and earthly *kishin* spirits. This would then result in
stability of the state, no calamity, population growth, increase in
riches, development of lands, and robust security. This would result
in Japan being a prosperous imperial country. Sadao asserts that
Imperial Japan would be invincible in the world and subjugate
barbarian nations, as it added to its own riches.


### 4.3 Female *Kokugakusha*


#### Matsuo Taseko (1811-1894)



Shinano province of present-day Nagano prefecture was home to another
major agricultural community of Hirata disciples which totaled over
630 members. This group featured one of only twenty-nine female
disciples who registered with the national academy. Matsuo Taseko
(1811-1894) was a peasant woman of the Ina Valley who worked in
farming and sericulture. She was remarkably well educated in the
Japanese classics and poetic tradition and composed *waka*
poetry. Through her travels and interactions with important political
men, Taseko participated in significant events of the late Tokugawa
period and Meiji Restoration. Following the arrival of U.S. Commodore
Matthew C. Perry's "Black Ships" and the
"opening" of Japan's ports to Western vessels,
Taseko travelled to Edo in 1855 where she interacted with the Daimyo
of the Takasu domain, Matsudaira Yoshitatsu (1824-83), with whom
she probably discussed poetry and politics. While in Kyoto for six
months from 1862 to 1863, Taseko conversed with prolific Tsuwano
domain nativist Fukuba Bisei (1831-1907) and Hirata Kanetane,
and even played a part in delivering a copy of Atsutane's
*Lectures on Ancient History* (*Koshiden*) to Lord
Sanjo. In her second visit to Kyoto in 1868, Taseko used her
connections and influence to help *samurai* establish
credentials as imperial loyal subjects, and she eventually gained a
position in the household of court noble and Meiji leader, Lord
Iwakura Tomomi (1825-83).



It was through her *waka* poetry that Taseko voiced her loyalty
to the imperial court and the cause of the Imperial Restoration. She
expressed her ardent patriotism in verses like the following:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Even though I am not worthy to be counted |  Sono michi ni  |
| among the mighty warriors |  idete tsukauru  |
| who go out to serve |  mononofu no  |
| on that way |  kasunarazu tomo  |
| graced with |  o-nakata no  |
| the departed souls |  kami no mitama wo  |
| of the imperial ancestors |  tamawarite  |
| I shout bravely  | Yamato kokoro wo  |
| to enflame |  furi okoshi  |
| true Japanese hearts. |  isami takebite  |
|  (quoted in Walthall 1998:
229) |



Like many of Taseko's verses, this poem expresses her reverence
for soldiers who served the imperial court, even to the point of
death. She evokes the memory of such figures like the samurai general
Kusunoki Masashige (1294-1336) who in loyal support of Emperor
Go-Daigo led his outnumbered army against the forces of Ashikaga
Takauji at the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336. There Masashige faced
defeat and committed ritual suicide. Taseko joined a growing number of
imperial loyalists in the late-Tokugawa years including fellow Hirata
disciples. In other verses, she lamented the sale of silk to foreign
countries, complaining that she would rather reject quick profits from
foreign trade than sell silk to "barbarians".



As a poet who was well travelled and interacted with important daimyo
leaders and courtiers, Taseko expressed her admiration for men who
devoted themselves to the cause of imperial loyalism, while lamenting
that she was held back because she was a woman:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| How awful  |  Masurao no  |
| to have the ardent heart  |  kokorobayare to  |
| of a manly man  |  taoyame no  |
| and the useless body  |  kai naki mi koso  |
| of a weak woman.  |  kanashi kari keri |
|  (quoted in Walthall 1998:
231) |



The Hirata academy was not known for recruiting women or actively
welcoming them into the school, and their percentage of female
followers was significantly less than in the schools of Kamo no
Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga. Regardless, Taseko's actions
demonstrate her role in the events of the Restoration, as well as
highlight the opportunities which the Hirata academy provided her to
interact with notable political figures and to have her voice heard by
them and her fellow Kokugaku students.


### 4.4 Hirata Disciples in the Northeast


#### Hirao Rosen (1808-1880) and Tsuruya Ariyo (1808-1871)



Situated at the northern edge of Honshu were the Tsugaru group of
Hirata disciples living in Hirosaki castle town of Hirosaki (or
Tsugaru) domain. They were among the enthusiastic followers of
Atsutane's teachings on spirits and the spirit world of
*kakuriyo* or *yumeikai*. Of the eighteen students
who registered with the academy from Hirosaki, group leader and
merchant-class poet Tsuruya Ariyo (1808-71), along with
classmate and friend Hirao Rosen (1808-80), a merchant-class
painter and scholar, were especially interested in the realm of
spirits that affect the visible world of human beings. 



Rosen's most important scholarly writings are devoted to
introducing the strange and mysterious phenomena witnessed in his
castle town and neighboring villages and landscape. His *New
Treatise on the Spirit Realm* (*Yufu shinron*)
completed in 1865 cites the teachings of Atsutane on the invisible
*kakuriyo* spirit realm and utilizes these to explain
previously inexplicable events in his community. Rosen asserts such
objectives of his most seminal work: 



> 
> 
> I write all that I have collected from here and there over the years
> regarding matters of spirits (*kishin*), and wish to show it to
> my friends, people who are unaware of gods (*kami*), and reveal
> to them the notable evidence of their great spiritual power, which
> must be feared and respected ... (from *Yufu shinron*,
> quoted in Fujiwara 2021: 145)
> 
> 
> 



In *New Treatise on the Spirit Realm*, Rosen attributes
sightings of the deceased to the actions of the souls of these
dead. Moreover, he reasons that thunder and lightning are the work of
deities.



Likewise, Ariyo relies on Atsutane's theories of the invisible
other world to explain how human lives and the local land are governed
by spirits. Ariyo's *waka* poems express reverence for
the deities of the Japanese tradition who protect and rule over Mount
Iwaki and the surrounding terrain. He asserts the reality of their
spirit realm in the following verses:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Though invisible  |  Tadabito no  |
| to the eye of common people,  |  me ni wa mienedo  |
| how can one doubt  |  Iwaki ne no  |
| the spirit realm of gods  |  kami no yufu wo  |
| of the Iwaki peaks?  |  utagau beshi ya |
|  (from *Iwaki san sanbyaku shu*, quoted in Fujiwara 2021: 159) |



In his seminal treatise, *Enjoyment Visible and Invisible*
or *Ken'yu rakuron*, completed in 1867, Ariyo argues
that these deities should be revered, worshiped, and served not only
during one's lifetime, but even after death when people become
spirits dwelling in the otherworld. Ariyo encourages people to live
life with a positive outlook and to embrace enjoyment both while on
earth and also in the afterlife.



As Rosen and Ariyo continued their inquiry into spirits and the spirit
realm, the Meiji Restoration was proclaimed. As a result, their domain of
Hirosaki faced political turmoil and was forced to take a stance in
the Boshin War of 1868 to 1869. A fellow Hirata disciple and domainal
samurai fought and died for the emperor's army. Shinto priests of
their circle conducted a funerary ritual to "call back" and venerate
the spirits of these fallen soldiers. In the early years of the Meiji
period, members of the Tsugaru Group variously celebrated the
Restoration of Imperial rule, carried out religious reforms of the
state, continued *kokugaku* studies, and struggled with the
rapid changes of a modern society. 


### 4.5 Kokugaku and the Meiji Restoration


#### Yano Gendo or Harumichi (1823-1887)



The Meiji Restoration's reinstatement of imperial rule inspired
many of Atsutane's disciples who dreamed of a new
"dawn" in the early years of the Meiji period. One such
individual was Yano Harumichi or Gendo (1823-1887) who
worked with like-minded Kokugaku scholars, Shinto priests, and
educators in reviving ancient institutions and rites as an essential part of modern society. Harumichi was a retainer of Ozu
domain. After moving to Edo, he studied at Shoheiko academy
and enrolled as a posthumous disciple of Hirata Atsutane. He served as
an instructor to the Shirakawa family from 1863 and became the
academic head of the Yoshida Shinto school in 1867. During the
Restoration and the revival of imperial rule, Harumichi worked with
Iwakura Tomomi, Tamamatsu Misao, and others in government planning and
issuing memoranda. During the Meiji years he served in the Council of
Divinity (*Jingikan*) to research genealogies at the Imperial
Household Ministry.



In the twelfth month of 1867 (Keio 3), Harumichi issued his *Humble
Petition of a Fool* (*Kenkin sengo*) just after the
imperial court declared the "Restoration of Imperial Rule"
(*Osei fukko*). This seminal treatise is a comprehensive Kokugaku prospectus on the politics of
restoring imperial politics, calling for a revival of ancient
government practices. Harumichi begins by declaring the Tokugawa regime's return of political authority to the imperial
court to be the grandest event in over 600 years since the establishment
of the first samurai government in the Kamakura shogunate of the late twelfth century. He then asserts three principles for imperial
governance: the "rites" (*saishi*) to worship gods
and ancestors as did the ancient sage kings of China; the
"benevolent government" (*jinsei*) that cares for
the people like foremost "treasures" as practiced from
ancient times according to the decree of the Imperial Ancestral Gods;
and the "authority" (*ibu*) to protect loyal
subjects and to quell those who dare to resist.



Harumichi presents various proposals for the new Meiji government
including the creation of a university or *daigakko* in
the palace in Kyoto. In terms of rites, he asserts the primary
importance of restoring the Daijosai, the inaugural Great New
Food Festival ceremony to offer the first crops of rice to the
ancestral gods in the eleventh month following the new emperor's
ascension to the throne. For his textual authorities, Harumichi cites
his readings of the classical works of Japan beginning with *The
Record of Ancient Matters* (*Kojiki*), *The Chronicles
of Japan* (*Nihon shoki* and *Jingishiki*), and
Kokugaku writings such as Motoori Norinaga's *Commentaries on
the Record of Ancient Matters* (*Kojikiden*) and Hirata
Atsutane's *Lectures on Ancient History*
(*Koshiden*). He also cites Chinese classics beginning with the
*Analects*, the *Book of Filial Piety*, and Six
Classics, as well as writings of Western learning, astronomy, and
geography.



Although Harumichi asserted lofty ideals for the Restoration at the
outset, by the early years of Meiji, the state leaders increasingly
adopted Western ideas and institutions. Furthermore, the efforts of
radical members of the Hirata faction were suppressed and after a few
years the National University was closed. In disappointment, Harumichi
composed the following poem:




|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| My assumption |  Kashiwara no  |
| that we were returning |  miyo ni kaeru to  |
| to the divine age of Kashiwara |  omoishi wa  |
| has become nothing more than |  aranu yume nite  |
| the impossible dream.  | arikeru mono wo |
|  (quoted in Walthall 1998:
301) |



Harumichi lamented that the dream of resurrecting the ideal ancient
society of the seventh century shaped exclusively by Shinto and
Kokugaku doctrine would not be realized. Harumichi's sentiment
was shared by many others in the Hirata school.



## 5. Meiji Period (1868-1912) Kokugaku


### Okuni Takamasa (1792-1871) and Fukuba Bisei (1831-1907)



Okuni Takamasa (1792-1871) and Fukuba Bisei
(1831-1907) were samurai of Tsuwano domain, and both studied at
the domanial school Yorokan. Takamasa learned Kokugaku from
Hirata Atsutane and Murata Harukado, and studied for a time at
Shoheiko Academy in Edo. In 1853, U.S. Commodore Perry led a
fleet of four "Black Ships" to the bay of Edo, which led
to the Tokugawa bakufu signing treaties which opened Japanese ports to
Western powers. Facing the challenges of domestic politics and
encroaching Western powers, Takamasa noted that the Kokugaku of the
Motoori school which focused on "ancient matters" and
literary texts, and that of Atsutane which concerned itself with the
spirit realm of "*yumei*" or
"*kakuriyo*" were insufficient to respond to
foreigners. Takamasa renamed his version of Kokugaku
"*hongaku*" or "*mototsu
manabi*", the "essential learning", based on
"*honkyo*" or the "essential
teachings" which he quoted from the *Kojiki*. In his
*Hongaku kyoyo*, completed in 1855, Takamasa outlines the
goal of his "*hongaku*" scholarship:



> 
> 
> Honkyo refers to the genealogy of our emperor and the ancient
> matters (*furukoto*) of the divine age which convey the truth
> of when heaven and earth were formed. When viewing the ancient
> matters, on the surface it appears shallow, but underneath lies a deep
> will. People of the world perceive shallowness of their surface and
> dismiss, or insult and ridicule it, and believe it is inferior to
> Confucian and Buddhist writings. Something I, Takamasa, remember from
> my youth, is that I lamented this. Wondering how I could draw out this
> deep will, I sincerely prayed to the Great Goddess Amaterasu and the
> God Omoikane, that I may discern that divine providence, to draw out
> that hidden will. Thus I became one who teaches people broadly about
> this. (1855 [1971: 404])
> 
> 
> 



Takamasa characterizes Japan as a nation whose emperor is enthroned by
the Heavenly Decree and whose state is governed by the shogun. The
shogun encourages its people to uphold and preserve the virtues of
duty, filial piety, and chastity, while the daimyo protect their
domains. The people work industriously in their various occupations.
Takamasa asserts Japan's emperor is superior among the monarchs
of the world because Japan's imperial lineage, unlike the
others, is uninterrupted from ancient times. He cites this as evidence
for the greatness and superiority of Japan among nations of the world.
To make the Japanese aware of such things including their need to
continuously uphold the virtues of duty, filial piety, and chastity is
the focal point of his "*Hongaku*" form of Kokugaku
teachings. He goes as far as to say that such teachings should even be
taught to foreigners.



While asserting the "revere emperor, expel barbarians"
ideology of late-Tokugawa, Takamasa acquiesced to the opening of the
country as a necessary initial response, but proposed to eventually
expel foreigners over time. He wrote in *Hongaku
kyoyo*,



> 
> 
> Now foreign countries frequently send warships to seek commercial
> relations. Although commercial relations are a good thing which are
> mutually beneficial, warships are weapons for conquering a nation.
> Utilizing these to start a war is to be a bandit. For the sake of the
> nation, it is necessary to expel and remove them. (1855 [1971:
> 428])
> 
> 
> 



After studying at the domanial school, Fukuba Bisei later became a
disciple of Takamasa and Hirata Kanetane. From 1863 Bisei became
active politically in support of the imperial court against the
Tokugawa shogunate. In the late-Tokugawa years, Bisei took his orders
from the daimyo Kamei Koremi, working in support of political reforms.
In 1867, Bisei directed the Separation of *Kami* and Buddhas
movement in Tsuwano, then worked with Takamasa to draft the Separation
edicts issued across Japan in 1868. Those edicts forcibly removed
Buddhist elements from shrines to re-establish them as exclusively
Shinto institutions. That same year, the Council of Divinity
(*Jingikan*) was established as the highest office of
government, even above the Council of State (*Dajokan*),
to carry out religious rituals of the imperial court and state. Bisei
served as a magistrate in this Council as well as a tutor to the
imperial court. Working with Takamasa, Bisei formulated a Shinto theology which asserted that
all shrines would be used to perform rites of the state.



The Hirata school had placed primacy on the *kami*
Okuninushi, lord of the underworld, and Ame-no-Minakanushi, one
of the three creator deities. By contrast, that view was eclipsed by
the Shinto promoted by Takamasa and Bisei, who placed Amaterasu at the
center of the pantheon, following the teachings of Motoori Norinaga
and Aizawa Seishisai (1782-1863). Bisei worked as a high
administrator of Shinto affairs for the Meiji state and served as the
main administrator of the Great Promulgation Campaign (*Taikyo
senpu undo*). From 1870 through 1884, this campaign aimed to
develop a popular awareness and understanding of "Shinto",
and Bisei trained priests as national evangelists to proselytize a
national doctrine. As a part of these efforts to develop Shinto as a
state religion, Bisei contributed to the Unity of Religion and
Politics (*saisei itchi*, lit. Unity of Rites and Political
Rule) policy which presented the emperor as a sacred ruler who
performed rituals as part of governance. Rather than articulate his
ideas through writings, Bisei applied Kokugaku knowledge through
renewed rites and policies of the court and state.


## 6. Kokugaku after Meiji



Looking beyond the scope of the current entry, during the early
decades of the twentieth century one observes the fragmentation of
Kokugaku into numerous fields analogous to the broader sense of
Japanese studies that informed Kada no Azumamaro's Kokugaku two
centuries earlier: folklore and ethnographic studies that built on the
pioneering work of Yanagida Kunio and Orikuchi Shinobu; rationales for
the kind of organic imperial theocracy such as was memorialized in the
1890 Imperial Rescript on Education; the effort to historicize the
essentialist concept of Kokutai or unique National Polity; and so
on.



In the immediate years following Japan's surrender in 1945,
Kokugaku was virtually a taboo topic in Japan's academic circles
outside a handful of Shinto seminaries like Kokugakuin Daigaku in
Tokyo. Specialized studies of Japanese history, literature and
religions were of course permitted and even encouraged, but efforts to
historicize Japanese essentialism were off-limits. Further,
expressions of Japanese racial or cultural superiority such as those
that had fueled the international excesses of the Asia-Pacific War
years were replaced in popular discourse by alternative claims of
Japanese uniqueness: that Japanese people were naturally or
intrinsically inclined toward harmonious behavior, and are
characterized by diligence, frugality, honesty, and sensitivity to
seasonal change; that these qualities explain Japan's success in
economic development and social stability, and that those traditional
qualities are uniquely configured in contemporary Japanese society.
This began to change from the mid-1970s when scholarly studies of
Kokugaku's political and social thought--the so-called
native ancient Way--resumed in Japan, as did academic
appointments for scholars with these specialties at Japan's
leading universities. 



Theories of Japaneseness, collectively referred to as

*Nihonjinron*, have figured prominently in Japanese popular
culture since the 1970s. Notions of Japan as an animistic
spirit-infused realm in which humans can commune with animals and
other objects and forces of nature are ubiquitous in Japan, coursing
through popular *manga* and *anime*. These enjoy not
just enormous popular appeal in Japan and worldwide, but also
government support as forms of "soft power" fundamental to
the representation of Japanese society outside Japan.