In its broadest sense,kokugaku has been used to refer toscholarship that takes Japan as its focus instead of China. In theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, it came to refer morenarrowly to the effort to discern a native Way distinct from Buddhismand Confucianism within Japan’s most ancient writings, and tothe attendant effort to resurrect that Way in the present. Mostscholars agree on the major leaders of these studies during theTokugawa period, with Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801) thought to beits greatest intellectual and Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) itsmost effective popularizer.

Motoori Norinaga saw the roots of the discipline inKeichū’s (1640–1701) use of historical linguistics toanalyze the eighth-century collection of poems calledMan’yōshū, whereas Atsutane found it in theJapanese-studies academic efforts of Kada no Azumamaro(1669–1736). Both included Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769) intheir list of founders. In any case, after Hirata Atsutane, thelineage of Kokugaku’s leaders became more complex as the newMeiji state used Kokugaku notions of racial identity and culturalsuperiority to mobilize support for Japan’s nationalist ideologyand purported international destiny. After 1945 such notions of racialidentity and cultural superiority were briefly considered taboo andreplaced by less toxic arguments regarding Japanese uniqueness, thoughthese too have morphed yet again into the broad category ofNihonjinron, “theories of Japaneseness” which isa major strain within contemporary Japanese popular culture.

• 1. Matters of Definition
• 2. The Emergence of Kokugaku
  • 2.1 Keichū (1640–1701)
  • 2.2 Kada no Azumamaro (1666–1736)
• 3. Philological Kokugaku
  • 3.1 Kamo no Mabuchi 1697–1769
  • 3.2 Motoori Norinaga 1730–1801
• 4. Popular and Grassroots Kokugaku 1800–1868
  • 4.1 Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843)
  • 4.2Kokugaku in theKuni (Provinces)
    • Miyahiro Sadao (1797–1858)
  • 4.3 FemaleKokugakusha
    • Matsuo Taseko (1811–1894)
  • 4.4 Hirata Disciples in the Northeast
    • Hirao Rosen (1808–1880) and Tsuruya Ariyo (1808–1871)
  • 4.5 Kokugaku and the Meiji Restoration
    • Yano Gendō or Harumichi (1823–1887)
• 5. Meiji Period (1868–1912) Kokugaku
  • Ōkuni Takamasa (1792–1871) and Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907)
• 6. Kokugaku after Meiji
• Bibliography
  • Primary
  • Secondary
• Academic Tools
• Other Internet Resources
• Related Entries

1. Matters of Definition

The Japanese wordkokugaku has been variously translated intoEnglish and this makes simple definition difficult. English terms like‘Japan Studies’, ‘National Learning/Studies’,‘nativism’ and ‘essentialism’ all have theiradvocates. One approach is to think ofkokugaku as havingbroad and narrow meanings. Scholarship of all sorts expandeddramatically in Japan during the seventeenth century spurred on byrelative tranquility, and increasing levels of prosperity andliteracy. Alongside the more traditional studies of China, there arosenew historical studies of things Japanese—history, literature,philology, poetics, customs, mythology, the tradition ofkamiworship and so on. Collectively those forms of Japanese studies can bethought of askokugaku in the broad sense.

More narrowly, some of these studies in the eighteenth century came tofocus on Japanese distinctiveness principally vis a vis China, whichwas now posited as an Other whose historical influence on Japan wasconstrued as harmful. In the nineteenth century the frame of referenceexpanded to include Europe and the world as a whole. This nativistessentialism was also sometimes calledkokugaku, and it cameto be the crucible in which Japanese identity was forged. Oneinterpretation was that to be Japanese was to partake in an intuitiveconformity with the rhythms of nature, and to possess an untutoredheart-mind that fostered the ancient arcadia. Yet anotherinterpretation was that the Japanese people were descended from and asvaried as the innumerablekami, some good and some bad, butunmistakably blessed when taken as a whole.

Strictly speaking, Kokugaku during the Tokugawa period(1600–1868) was neither a movement nor a school but rather asuccession of schools—private academies—that had their owndistinctive orientations and specialties, and in the analysis thatfollows we will begin by following the lead of Japanese scholarship byseeing the essence of Kokugaku in the writings of its Tokugawa-eraparagons: Keichū, Azumamaro, Mabuchi, Norinaga, and Atsutane.

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 Kokugaku became an ideologicallycharged academic field that was harnessed to create empire andimperial subjects at home and abroad. It also spawned relatedenquiries into folklore and ethnography. Following Japan’smilitary defeat and during the Allied Occupation 1945–52, asidefrom a handful of places such as Kokugaku-in University, Kokugaku wasstripped of its imperial and spiritual coloring, leaving behindsterilized notions of what was asserted to be uniquely Japanese aboutJapan and its people. From roughly the 1980s these came to be groupedunder the rubricNihonjinron or theories of Japaneseness,reintroducing a spiritual component that can be seen in the animismcharacteristic of muchanime and “soft power”diplomacy. As a result, the wordkokugaku is no longer usedin contemporary discourse to refer to present-day nativist oressentialist scholarship.

2. The Emergence of Kokugaku

2.1 Keichū (1640–1701)

Because the preeminent Motoori Norinaga located a genesis for his ownstudies in the scholarship of Keichū, most students of Kokugakutoday accept Keichū as at least its forerunner. Keichū had asolidly samurai pedigree, though his father and grandfather faredpoorly after 1600 under the new Tokugawa regime. He had a rigorousearly education supervised by his mother, and at the age of 12 tofulfill a parental vow began the ten-year path to ordination in theShingon Buddhist priesthood, becoming a high priest (Ajari)in 1663.

Keichū developed an interest in traditionalwaka,(31-syllable) Japanese verse, including the verses in Japan’smost ancient extant poetry anthology, the eighth-centuryMan’yōshū. One feature of seventeenth-centuryJapanese poetics was an awakening interest in the anthology, but onlyabout 10% of its 4400 poems were accessible to Keichū’scontemporaries owing to the arcane method of its originaltranscription. To remedy this lacuna the Daimyo of Mito commissioned acommentary, the responsibility for which, in a roundabout fashion,devolved upon Keichū. It was for that philological work that heremains best known.

In terms of the Kokugaku tradition, three factors stand out in termsof why laterKokugakusha (native studies scholars) came tosee him as a pioneer of their own work. First was Keichū’snear-mystical reverence forwaka. By traditionwakawere thought to be an invention of thekami rendering themultimately beyond human ken, and Keichū felt this numinousquality intensely. Second was the relative sophistication ofKeichū’s philology, which balanced historical linguisticanalysis with an intuitive sense of the meaning behind the text. Laterscholars attributed this to Keichū’s earlier study ofSanskrit as part of his study for the Shingon Buddhist priesthood. Andthird was his representation of the ancient pre-Buddhist andpre-Confucian past as the “land of thekami”(shinkoku) characterized by a simple self-sufficiency rootedin the native Way.

As Keichū wrote in his commentary on theMan’yōshū:

Japan is the land of thekami. Therefore in both ourhistories and our government administration, we have always givenpriority to thekami and always placed humans second. In highantiquity, our rulers governed this land exclusively by means ofShinto…, and there was no philosophizing of the sort one findsin Confucian classics and Buddhist writings. (c. 1690,Man’yō daishōki: zassetsu, adapted from SJTa:395)

Additionally in his later retirement from active priesthoodKeichū produced a number of studies of Japan’s other majorpoetry anthologies, treatises on ancient Japanese language, andstudies of the emergent canon of literary and historical prose works,all of which resonated with the topics taught in later Kokugakuacademies.

2.2 Kada no Azumamaro (1666–1736)

Raised in the environment of the Inari Shinto Shrine in Fushimi justsouth of Kyoto, Azumamaro moved to Edo in 1700 lecturing on Shintotopics to a small school of mostly priests, and establishing areputation as an authority on antiquarian matters. Perhaps inspired byItō Jinsai’s success during the 1680s in establishing aConfucian private academy in Kyoto, and also perhaps by the Hayashifamily’s success in garnering Bakufu support for a Confucianacademy in Edo, Azumamaro also sought potential sponsors for his dreamof founding a school dedicated to Japanese studies.

Returning to Fushimi and the Shrine in 1713, Azumamaro’s laterwritings spanned the entire range of what would become the Kokugakucurriculum: commentaries on prose and poetry classics, studies ofancient histories (especially the 720 CENihon shoki),historical linguistics, and antiquarian matters generally. The core ofhis scholarship, however, was Shinto and Shinto-related topics.Azumamaro’s focus was on the most ancient texts, seeking todisentangle the Shinto of his day from centuries of Buddhistsyncretism and, less successfully, more recent decades ofConfucianized Shinto. Nonetheless, he did champion Shinto and itsancient links with the monarchy as the native Japanese Way, theessence of Japaneseness, and the principal factor behind thehistorical stability of the Japanese polity.

Azumamaro’s contributions to later Kokugaku lie in the Shintotone he set, the methodology of historical linguistics he championed,the binary opposition with Chinese studies he established, theinstitutional development of the nativist private academy, and theaccomplishments of his students.

Many scholars credit Azumamaro with petitioning the Bakufu in 1728 tofound a school of Kokugaku. Though nothing came of it, the Petitionrepresents a succinct statement of Kokugaku’s aims and the KadaSchool’s vigorous rationale for it:

Alas, how ignorant the Confucian scholars were of the past, notknowing 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 beclear. If the old meanings are not clear, the old learning will notrevive. The Way of the former kings is disappearing; the ideas of thewise men of antiquity have almost been abandoned. The loss will not bea slight one if we fail now to teach philology. (SJTa:401–402)

After Azumamaro’s death in 1736, the center of native studiesshifted from Kyoto to Edo, where Azumamaro’s scholarship wasalready represented by his adopted son Arimaro (1706–51).Arimaro was then joined in Edo by another of his father’sstudents, Kamo no Mabuchi, whosemagnum opus would be acomprehensive study ofMan’yōshū and theeffort to glean from it an authentic ancient native Way believed to beencoded within its verses.

3. Philological Kokugaku

3.1 Kamo no Mabuchi 1697–1769

Mabuchi was raised in Hamamatsu along the roadway linking Kyoto andEdo. Taught to read by Kada no Azumamaro’s niece, he developedan early interest in Shinto andwaka, which would become forhim an escapist passion. In 1728 he registered in Azumamaro’sschool and moved there for full time study in 1733, which is where hereceived his introduction to theMan’yōshūincluding Keichū’s commentary and the full range ofKokugaku topics taught there.

Mabuchi moved to Edo in 1737 and in 1746 replaced Kada Arimaro as theauthority on Japanese studies in service to Tayasu Munetake, theyounger brother of the feeble regnant shogun, a position Mabuchiretained until 1760. Mabuchi produced essays on a range of topics, butthe focus of his study during these years was a philological analysisof theMan’yōshū through which he believedone could learn the words and spirit (kokoro) of Japan beforethese were Sinified and thereby corrupted during the Nara period ofthe eighth century. Mabuchi depicted the Japan of theMan’yōshū as a natural arcadia ruled by thedescendants of thekami who governed in accordance with a Way(michi) that conformed to the natural rhythms and dictates ofnature (literally, “heaven and earth”) itself:

From the time when the imperial court was at Ōtsu in Ōmithrough the period of the Fujiwara court at Yamato, grand augustgovernment filled the heavens and reached to every nook and cranny ofthe earth; and thanks to this glorious tranquility, literaryexpression was blessed with beauty and elegance. (Engishiki noritokai jo, KKMZ:SH 1: 446 author translation)

Retirement from service to Munetake in 1760 made Mabuchi less prone tothe charge oflèse majesté, and he was free togive rein to the implications of his earlier study. He began todescribe his current age as one that had declined since ancient timesbecause the old natural virtues had been crushed and catastrophicallyreplaced by the artificial morals of China:

Ancient Japan was governed well in accordance with the spirit ofheaven and earth, and there was none of this petty sophistry; but thensuddenly when these convincing theories were imported from China,ancient men in their straightforward fashion took these theories astruth, and the theories spread far and wide…. [and no soonerwere these theories introduced … than tremendous chaos erupted.(Kokui kō, SJTa: 406)

He taught that if one will advance to the stage of being able torecite the most ancientMan’yōshū versesaloud, one will be affected to the point where only one’s bodyremains mired in the here-and-now, as one’s language and heart(kokoro) are transported back to the ancient past. In theprocess one will spontaneously acquire the virtues of thatpast—truthfulness, directness, manliness, vitality, and nativeelegance—which were the antithesis of the notoriously corruptpolitical culture of his times. He also became virulentlyanti-Chinese, insisting that the absence of native Japanese words forthe classic Confucian virtues was evidence that such teachings wereunnecessary in ancient Japan when life enjoyed a morally and ethicallyuntutored order rooted in its conformity to the natural rhythms ofheaven and earth.

Mabuchi began lecturing to hundreds of students, many of whom wouldgather by the veranda of his home on the fringes of Edo. His was thefirst successful Kokugaku private academy—others wouldfollow—and he was also a notorious antiquarian eccentric; yearsafter his death in 1769, Mabuchi’s biography was the openingentry in Ban Kōkei’s celebrated 1790 study of contemporaryeccentrics. Of his roughly three hundred students, none would achievegreater renown as a scholar of Kokugaku than Motoori Norinaga, whoonly met Mabuchi on one fateful evening in 1763 when Mabuchi stayedthe night in Matsusaka on a tour of Japan.

3.2 Motoori Norinaga 1730–1801

Motoori Norinaga made pioneering and lasting contributions in allaspects of Kokugaku: he elevated literary criticism onThe Tale ofGenji to new heights, with an impact that endures into thepresent; hismagnum opus was a philological analysis of andcomplete commentary on the 712 CEKojiki, which was the lastof Japan’s most ancient classics to be linguisticallydeciphered; and he used that analysis to construct a new form of Shinto, thekami no michi or Wayof thekami (deities) that he claimed to be the original. Furthermore, hisscholarship was known to Kyoto courtiers, and his counsel soughtby daimyo. Remarkably Norinaga accomplished all this while spendingalmost his entire life in Matsusaka in the virtual shadow of the IseShrines.

Norinaga applied the concept ofmono no aware (thesadness/pity of things) toThe Tale of Genji as well as tothewaka of theShin Kokinshū poetry anthology,works that his teacher Mabuchi eschewed because of their allegedfemininity and artifice in contrast to theMan’yōshū’s natural masculinity.Norinaga, by contrast, argued thatThe Tale of Genjirealistically depicts how emotions profoundly infuse life’smajor events, and how this contributed to the novel’s uncannyability to inspire its readers to suspend didactic or moralisticinterpretation and instead to enter emotionally into the tenth-centuryworld that was its setting. From this perspective, when a character inGenji acts or emotes in a certain way, the reader is invitednot to enquire into the Confucian moral or ethical propriety of the eventsdepicted, but rather into whether the reader has ever shared theexperience. This also overturned centuries of didactic Buddhist criticismof the novel on the grounds that it failed to praise good and condemnevil, and to show evil’s consequences. So Norinaga’sapproach opened the door to a more modern literary criticism. In hiswords:

The novel is neither like the Buddhist Way… nor like theConfucian Way…. It is simply a tale of human life that leavesaside and does not profess to take up at all the questions of good andbad and that dwells only on the goodness of those who are aware of thesorrow of human existence. (Tama no ogushi, SJTa: 421)

In an analogous manner, Norinaga extolled the elegance and refinement(miyabiyaka) of the verses ofShin Kokinshū.This, he explained, was the consequence of its many poets’ability to detach sufficiently from their individual circumstances so thatthrough their artistry (waza) they could capture the essenceofmono no aware in just thirty-one syllables. Thisappreciation of poetic sophistication also desanctifiedwakafrom the cosmological significance that Mabuchi had attached to theoldest Japanese verses.

Norinaga’s work onKojiki formed the basis for hisunderstanding of Japan’s Way of thekami (kami nomichi, or in its Sino-Japanese readingShintō).With his fundamentalist confidence in the text as a True Book(makoto no fumi) Norinaga argued that, as described inKojiki, the native Way of Japan was a Way created not byhumans like the imported Chinese Ways, but by the nativekamiwho are ultimately responsible for all human action and activity. And,because of the centrality ofkami to Norinaga’sthoughts on a native Japanese Way, Kokugaku has at times been referredto as a Shinto Revival.

Norinaga’s definition of the notoriously difficult termkami was more comprehensive than that of any of hispredecessors in Kokugaku and has stood the test of time:

…the wordkami signifies first the deities of heavenand earth who appear in the ancient records and the spirits of theshrines where they are worshiped. It is unnecessary to add that itincludes birds and beasts, trees and plants, seas and mountains, andso forth. In ancient usage, anything whatsoever which was outside theordinary, which possessed superior power or was awe-inspiriting wascalledkami…. Evil and mysterious things, if they areextraordinary and dreadful, are also calledkami, and amonghuman beings who are calledkami, the successive generationsof divine emperors are all included. (Kojiki-den adapted from Holtom, 1938, quoted in SJT, 2001, 18.)

In thiskami-determined world, people are as varied as the“eight million”kami, who are themselves somegood and some wicked:

The true heart (magokoro) is that heart with which one isborn by virtue of the Musubi (creating)kami, and among truehearts some are wise and some clumsy, some are good and somebad…. Thus even thekami of the divine age were somegood and some bad, for they all behaved in accordance with theirindividual true hearts. (Kuzubana {1968–1975: 8:147]

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

Because of the all-pervasive influence ofkami and the factthat the operations of thekami are beyond human ken, theworld always retains a wondrous quality and is never fullyknowable:

Consider the human body: It has eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth tospeak, feet to walk, and hands to do a thousand things. Are they nottruly wonderful? Birds and insects fly in the sky, plants and treesbloom and bear fruit—they are all wonderful…. Thus theuniverse and all things therein are without a single exception strangeand wondrous when examined carefully…. [And] one mustacknowledge that human intelligence is puny while the acts of thekami are illimitable and wondrous. (Kuzubana{1968–1975: 8: 160]

All one can know with certainty, according to Norinaga, is what isrecorded in the Divine Age chapters ofKojiki, and this textrendered the Divine Age proximate and no longer remote as it was forMabuchi. One’s human responsibility is to actkannagara, i.e., in conformity to the wishes of thekami, and Norinaga cast the monarch (tennō) inKyoto as the physical link in a metaphysical chain that connected theJapanese people with the solar deity Amaterasu. For Norinaga,Amaterasu was both sun goddess and the sun itself, and so the world asa whole owed a daily debt of gratitude to this quintessential Japanesedeity for the very gift of solar warmth and light. Beyond thisNorinaga claimed that on the basis of Japanese mythology, Japan wasthe primal source of all the world’s countries compounding theworld’s obligation to Japan.

For Norinaga, the native Japanese Heart (mikunigokoro) isdamaged in every generation by contaminating exposure to Chinesemoralism as represented especially by Confucianism; in its place aninferior Chinese Heart takes shape with the same deleterious effectsin Japan as what Norinaga claimed one could observe in Chinesehistory. As he expressed this in verse:

The way to purify and reanimate one’s Japanese Heart was notthrough the medium of an ancient text likeMan’yōshū, but rather through exorcisingChinese contamination through the mediation of thekami.

Toward the end of his life Norinaga composed a liturgy for personalmorning worship, which was his way of elevating his thoughts onJapan’s native ancient Way into something approaching acontemporary religion. If Norinaga was constrained in this regard,however, it was byKojiki itself, which depicted life afterdeath as an uninviting eternity in the depraved and polluted netherworld called Yomi. As he expressed this in verse:

It is perhaps unsurprising that after Norinaga’s death theorientation of his school inclined toward the literary. There were nomajor texts from Japan’s ancient past that required deciphering,and the linguistic challenges to such enquiries were prohibitivelydifficult for Kokugaku to reach a broader audience. The mantle to themore religious side of his Kokugaku was, in turn, claimed by a studentwhom 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 Edoin 1795 at age 19. He had not even heard of Motoori Norinaga until twoyears after his death, but his introduction to Norinaga’sthought so moved him that two years after that he was admitted toNorinaga’s school, which was being run by Norinaga’s sonHaruniwa. Throughout his future career Atsutane distinguished himselffrom his more philologically oriented forebears in Kokugaku by seekingverification for his views in the broadest range of places, includingConfucian and even Christian sources, which he disguised by makingthem appear Shinto-based. Atsutane even sought the testimony of thosewho claimed astral travel, reincarnation, and supernatural pedigree insupport of his understandings. This can be understood as his effort touniversalize Shinto, which he styled True Shinto (makoto noshintō) by representing it as the fountainhead from whichderivative and inferior foreign doctrines later emerged. Thisxenophobia together with his vast array of subjects of inquiry rangingfrom spiritual matters and kami worship to folklore likely contributedto the popularity of his teachings which he intended “to touch aperson’s heart” (fromKodō taii, HAZ: vol.1, ch.1, 15).

Atsutane championed the pleasures of the here-and-now—good foodand wine, love and sexual passion—even querying why some longfor the afterlife when the present is so blissful. Like Kamo noMabuchi and Motoori Norinaga, Atsutane’s Kokugaku included thebelief that persons in Japan are endowed as a birthright with TrueHearts (magokoro) that make possible spontaneous conformityto the Way of thekami and restoration of an ancient socialperfection in the present. Through prayer to specific deities, onecould “learn from the kami” (kaminarai) in amanner that did not even require literacy.

Regarding the ancient past, Atsutane made a number of claims that wentwell beyond the near-paradisiac constructions of Kamo no Mabuchi andMotoori Norinaga, including perfect health (and ironic invention ofthe presumably unneeded Way of Medicine); an ancient native scriptprior to the incorporation of Chinese characters; population inancient times by a race of Japanese giants; and the argument that therest of the world was fashioned from inferior materials leftover afterthe pristine creation of Japan. At their worst these expressions ofsuperiority became unsavory racialized critiques of Others who nowincluded Europeans.

Atsutane endeavored to recast Motoori Norinaga’s gloomyassessment of what befalls humans when their earthly bodies perish.Where Norinaga followedKojiki in presuming Yomi as thesoul’s final resting spot, Atsutane taught that humans allbecomekami who proceed to a concealed world that in itsessential aspects resembles the revealed world of the living. Atsutanetook this eschatology a step further by extrapolating implications forthe polity.

Atsutane repeatedly insisted upon Japan’s and the Japanesepeople’s superiority to other countries and peoples:

Since Japan has no match among other countries, and since bothmaterially and in terms of human affairs it is superior to all othercountries, the people of this land, because it is a divine land, havebeen automatically endowed with true hearts which since ancient timeshave been known as the “Japanese heart” (Yamatogokoro) or “Japanese spirit” (Yamatodamashii; fromKodō taii, HAZ: vol. 1, ch.1,3).

To Atsutane this in turn had implications for Japan’s destiny inthe world: because Japan is

the ancestral country of the ten thousand countries… our greatruler is the great ruler of the ten thousand countries…, andthe nature of the peace of mind that this provides is likewisesuperior to the peace of mind provided by other lands. (fromTamano mihashira, HAZ: vol. 2, ch.1, 89)

Before Atsutane, Shinto theologians and Kokugaku scholars saidrelatively little about the afterlife for human beings. Norinaga hadconcluded that after death everyone was destined to go to the filthyand unpleasant land of Yomi beneath the earth. In his seminal work,August Pillar of the Soul (Tama no mihashira) whichhe completed in 1812, however, Atsutane asserts the importance ofknowing the destination of human souls after death and, thereby, madeeschatology central to Kokugaku scholarship. Atsutane criticized histeacher 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 soulsof the Japanese,

from the purport of ancient legends and from modern examples that theyremain eternally in Japan and serve in the realm of the dead governedby Ōkuninushi-no-kami. (Tama no mihashira in SJT: 45)

This, in turn, had implications for the polity, since in the revealedworld one is subject to the emperor, but in the concealed world onebecomes a ghostly spirit, and one’s loyalty transfers toŌkuninushi-no-kami. Traditionally, this deity had been worshipedas an “earthly god” (kunitsu kami) and ruler overthe Central Land of Reed Plains (Ashihara no nakatsu kuni),and yet Atsutane identified Ōkuninushi as lord of thekakuriyo realm whom souls of the dead were expected to servefaithfully. Atsutane describes the spiritual realm ofyūmeikai orkakuriyo(幽冥界／幽冥) 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 theliving. Because the invisiblekakuriyo and visible realm ofthe living occupied common space, it was believed that souls of thedead dwelt near graves or shrines from where they watched over andoffered protection to their surviving descendants.

In his concern with eschatology, fertility, the affective realm, thesupernatural and cosmology, Atsutane moved Kokugaku in distinctivelyreligious directions, and by jettisoning the arduous philologicalexegesis of forebears like Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga,Atsutane made the nativist spirituality of Kokugaku immeasurably moreaccessible, with a special appeal directed toward the farmers whocomprised some 80% of the population during his lifetime.

4.2Kokugaku in theKuni (Provinces)

Miyahiro Sadao (1797–1858)

The Hirata academy had attracted over 500 disciples duringAtsutane’s lifetime and over 4,200 total disciples by the earlyyears of the Meiji period including posthumous disciples who hadjoined after the master’s death in 1843. One of the majorcenters of Hirata disciples was in Shimōsa province oftoday’s northern Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures, whoseregistrants numbered over 200 by the time of the Meiji Restoration.Members of the Hirata family visited Shimōsa—Atsutane gavelectures, while adopted son and administrator of the academy, HirataKanetane (1799–1880), raised funds for publishing.

The result was the recruitment of many disciples, including MiyahiroSadao (1797–1858) who himself registered with the academy in1826. Sadao had overcome excessive drinking and corruption andtransformed himself into a hardworking and respected village headman(nanushi) of Matsuzawa village. A self-proclaimed“potato-digging headman”, Sadao reclaimed agriculturalland, repaired roads, and grew medicinal herbs. Later that same yearof 1826, the Hirata family began to publish several agriculturalmanuals beginning with Sadao’sEssentials onAgriculture orNōgyō yōshū, whichoffers instruction to farmers on the practice and profitability ofplanting. The Hirata academy facilitated the publishing of hundreds ofcopies of such farming manuals to meet a growing demand inagricultural communities, while Sadao and other disciples contributedcapital.Records of Plant Seed Selection orSōmokutane erami, also authored by Sadao, explains plant gender andargues that planting female seeds would lead to a large harvest.

In 1832, Sadao completedThesis on National Profit orKokueki honron. For the sake of the national economy, Sadaouses Atsutane’s teachings as a call to revere and worshipthe kishin spirits, who have the will and power to createprosperity but, when angered, will become wrathful and bring aboutmisfortune (KH: 292). He writes:

First, a country’s decline is the result of people’s beingunjust in mind and carrying out crooked behavior, as well as stainingtheir minds, staining their bodies, and staining their households. Itis a result of them turning their backs on the hearts ofkishin spirits of heaven and earth and, thereby, escapingtheir grace. Moreover, in years of bad harvest and famine, orencountering calamities such as fires and epidemic, people dwindle andtheir fortunes shrink. A country’s decline all results from suchrebuke from thekishin spirits. (KH: 292)

Atsutane is credited for popularizing Kokugaku among agriculturalistsacross rural Japan by linking their mundane farm work with the AncientWay, valuing their labor as service to the gods. In Matsuzawa, Sadaowas one Hirata follower whose writings and leadership equatedagriculturalist labor of the peasant masses with sacred service to thegods.

According to Sadao, another key to achieving the goal of nationalprosperity was to educate peasants. He laments the state andavailability of agricultural education:

Furthermore, knowledge or ignorance in agriculture, or the skill orlack of skill greatly affects a country’s profit and loss.Therefore, I say, “agriculture is the foundation of thecountry”, because it is an industry which cannot be neglected.Yet, the general tendency is that there are few skilledagriculturalists and many unskilled farmers. This is precisely becausethere are no expert agricultural teachers. If those lords(ryōshu) issued orders, and selected agriculturalistsknowledgeable about horticulture and appointed them as agriculturalteachers who educated those unskilled farmers, this would surelycontribute to that national profit. (KH: 292)

As an experienced farmer himself, Sadao asserts the need for propertraining, and the farming manuals he wrote and helped to publish weremeant to contribute to this purpose.

The influence of Hirata Atsutane’s theories on the invisiblekakuriyo realm of spirits as articulated in theAugustPillar of the Spirit (Tama no mihashira) andNewTreatise on Spirits (Kishin shinron) surfaces inSadao’s writings. Sadao reaffirms the theories asserted byAtsutane that divine spirits which dwell and act in thekakuriyo realm also intervene in the lives of the peopleliving in this visible world (arahaniyo). Sadao observes thatthe kami look upon human beings and see their good and bad, unjust andjust, and even perceive the thoughts within their minds. He points tothe ancient accounts of the divine age which state that good thingsare born out of pure and bright matter, while bad things result fromfilth. When the state is stained and the people are also stained, thekishin spirits are angered, and calamities result in theworld.

Sadao asserts his thesis,

Thus, when the actions of these people are rectified and are pleasingto the hearts of the gods so they avoid calamities, all things see nodecline, and the people and fortunes are abundant throughout thecountry. This, therefore, is the national profit. (KH: 307)

He advocates appointing people attuned to the Way and virtue asteachers to instruct local lords (myōshu) and terakoyaschool teachers on proper education, so they can then instruct thepeople—men and women, young and old. Thus, he hoped that manywould return to the “simplicity” of the ancient peoples asdescribed by Atsutane, live by the Way, and respond to the heavenlyand earthlykishin spirits. This would then result instability of the state, no calamity, population growth, increase inriches, development of lands, and robust security. This would resultin Japan being a prosperous imperial country. Sadao asserts thatImperial Japan would be invincible in the world and subjugatebarbarian nations, as it added to its own riches.

4.3 FemaleKokugakusha

Matsuo Taseko (1811–1894)

Shinano province of present-day Nagano prefecture was home to anothermajor agricultural community of Hirata disciples which totaled over630 members. This group featured one of only twenty-nine femaledisciples who registered with the national academy. Matsuo Taseko(1811–1894) was a peasant woman of the Ina Valley who worked infarming and sericulture. She was remarkably well educated in theJapanese classics and poetic tradition and composedwakapoetry. Through her travels and interactions with important politicalmen, Taseko participated in significant events of the late Tokugawaperiod and Meiji Restoration. Following the arrival of U.S. CommodoreMatthew 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 Daimyoof the Takasu domain, Matsudaira Yoshitatsu (1824–83), with whomshe probably discussed poetry and politics. While in Kyoto for sixmonths from 1862 to 1863, Taseko conversed with prolific Tsuwanodomain nativist Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907) and Hirata Kanetane,and even played a part in delivering a copy of Atsutane’sLectures on Ancient History (Koshiden) to LordSanjō. In her second visit to Kyoto in 1868, Taseko used herconnections and influence to helpsamurai establishcredentials as imperial loyal subjects, and she eventually gained aposition in the household of court noble and Meiji leader, LordIwakura Tomomi (1825–83).

It was through herwaka poetry that Taseko voiced her loyaltyto the imperial court and the cause of the Imperial Restoration. Sheexpressed her ardent patriotism in verses like the following:

Like many of Taseko’s verses, this poem expresses her reverencefor soldiers who served the imperial court, even to the point ofdeath. She evokes the memory of such figures like the samurai generalKusunoki Masashige (1294–1336) who in loyal support of EmperorGo-Daigo led his outnumbered army against the forces of AshikagaTakauji at the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336. There Masashige faceddefeat and committed ritual suicide. Taseko joined a growing number ofimperial loyalists in the late-Tokugawa years including fellow Hiratadisciples. In other verses, she lamented the sale of silk to foreigncountries, complaining that she would rather reject quick profits fromforeign trade than sell silk to “barbarians”.

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

The Hirata academy was not known for recruiting women or activelywelcoming them into the school, and their percentage of femalefollowers was significantly less than in the schools of Kamo noMabuchi and Motoori Norinaga. Regardless, Taseko’s actionsdemonstrate her role in the events of the Restoration, as well ashighlight the opportunities which the Hirata academy provided her tointeract with notable political figures and to have her voice heard bythem 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 Honshū were the Tsugaru group ofHirata disciples living in Hirosaki castle town of Hirosaki (orTsugaru) domain. They were among the enthusiastic followers ofAtsutane’s teachings on spirits and the spirit world ofkakuriyo oryūmeikai. Of the eighteen studentswho registered with the academy from Hirosaki, group leader andmerchant-class poet Tsuruya Ariyo (1808–71), along withclassmate and friend Hirao Rosen (1808–80), a merchant-classpainter and scholar, were especially interested in the realm ofspirits that affect the visible world of human beings.

Rosen’s most important scholarly writings are devoted tointroducing the strange and mysterious phenomena witnessed in hiscastle town and neighboring villages and landscape. HisNewTreatise on the Spirit Realm (Yūfu shinron)completed in 1865 cites the teachings of Atsutane on the invisiblekakuriyo spirit realm and utilizes these to explainpreviously inexplicable events in his community. Rosen asserts suchobjectives of his most seminal work:

I write all that I have collected from here and there over the yearsregarding matters of spirits (kishin), and wish to show it tomy friends, people who are unaware of gods (kami), and revealto them the notable evidence of their great spiritual power, whichmust be feared and respected … (fromYūfu shinron,quoted in Fujiwara 2021: 145)

InNew Treatise on the Spirit Realm, Rosen attributessightings of the deceased to the actions of the souls of thesedead. Moreover, he reasons that thunder and lightning are the work ofdeities.

Likewise, Ariyo relies on Atsutane’s theories of the invisibleother world to explain how human lives and the local land are governedby spirits. Ariyo’swaka poems express reverence forthe deities of the Japanese tradition who protect and rule over MountIwaki and the surrounding terrain. He asserts the reality of theirspirit realm in the following verses:

In his seminal treatise,Enjoyment Visible and InvisibleorKen’yū rakuron, completed in 1867, Ariyo arguesthat these deities should be revered, worshiped, and served not onlyduring one’s lifetime, but even after death when people becomespirits dwelling in the otherworld. Ariyo encourages people to livelife with a positive outlook and to embrace enjoyment both while onearth and also in the afterlife.

As Rosen and Ariyo continued their inquiry into spirits and the spiritrealm, the Meiji Restoration was proclaimed. As a result, their domain ofHirosaki faced political turmoil and was forced to take a stance inthe Boshin War of 1868 to 1869. A fellow Hirata disciple and domainalsamurai fought and died for the emperor’s army. Shinto priests oftheir circle conducted a funerary ritual to “call back” and veneratethe spirits of these fallen soldiers. In the early years of the Meijiperiod, members of the Tsugaru Group variously celebrated theRestoration of Imperial rule, carried out religious reforms of thestate, continuedkokugaku studies, and struggled with therapid changes of a modern society.

4.5 Kokugaku and the Meiji Restoration

Yano Gendō or Harumichi (1823–1887)

The Meiji Restoration’s reinstatement of imperial rule inspiredmany of Atsutane’s disciples who dreamed of a new“dawn” in the early years of the Meiji period. One suchindividual was Yano Harumichi or Gendō (1823–1887) whoworked with like-minded Kokugaku scholars, Shinto priests, andeducators in reviving ancient institutions and rites as an essential part of modern society. Harumichi was a retainer of Ōzudomain. After moving to Edo, he studied at Shōheikō academyand enrolled as a posthumous disciple of Hirata Atsutane. He served asan instructor to the Shirakawa family from 1863 and became theacademic head of the Yoshida Shinto school in 1867. During theRestoration and the revival of imperial rule, Harumichi worked withIwakura Tomomi, Tamamatsu Misao, and others in government planning andissuing memoranda. During the Meiji years he served in the Council ofDivinity (Jingikan) to research genealogies at the ImperialHousehold Ministry.

In the twelfth month of 1867 (Keio 3), Harumichi issued hisHumblePetition of a Fool (Kenkin sengo) just after theimperial court declared the “Restoration of Imperial Rule”(Ōsei fukko). This seminal treatise is a comprehensive Kokugaku prospectus on the politics ofrestoring imperial politics, calling for a revival of ancientgovernment practices. Harumichi begins by declaring the Tokugawa regime’s return of political authority to the imperialcourt to be the grandest event in over 600 years since the establishmentof the first samurai government in the Kamakura shogunate of the late twelfth century. He then asserts three principles for imperialgovernance: the “rites” (saishi) to worship godsand ancestors as did the ancient sage kings of China; the“benevolent government” (jinsei) that cares forthe people like foremost “treasures” as practiced fromancient times according to the decree of the Imperial Ancestral Gods;and the “authority” (ibu) to protect loyalsubjects and to quell those who dare to resist.

Harumichi presents various proposals for the new Meiji governmentincluding the creation of a university ordaigakkō inthe palace in Kyoto. In terms of rites, he asserts the primaryimportance of restoring the Daijōsai, the inaugural Great NewFood Festival ceremony to offer the first crops of rice to theancestral gods in the eleventh month following the new emperor’sascension to the throne. For his textual authorities, Harumichi citeshis readings of the classical works of Japan beginning withTheRecord of Ancient Matters (Kojiki),The Chroniclesof Japan (Nihon shoki andJingishiki), andKokugaku writings such as Motoori Norinaga’sCommentaries onthe Record of Ancient Matters (Kojikiden) and HirataAtsutane’sLectures on Ancient History(Koshiden). He also cites Chinese classics beginning with theAnalects, theBook of Filial Piety, and SixClassics, as well as writings of Western learning, astronomy, andgeography.

Although Harumichi asserted lofty ideals for the Restoration at theoutset, by the early years of Meiji, the state leaders increasinglyadopted Western ideas and institutions. Furthermore, the efforts ofradical members of the Hirata faction were suppressed and after a fewyears the National University was closed. In disappointment, Harumichicomposed the following poem:

Harumichi lamented that the dream of resurrecting the ideal ancientsociety of the seventh century shaped exclusively by Shinto andKokugaku doctrine would not be realized. Harumichi’s sentimentwas shared by many others in the Hirata school.

5. Meiji Period (1868–1912) Kokugaku

Ōkuni Takamasa (1792–1871) and Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907)

Ōkuni Takamasa (1792–1871) and Fukuba Bisei(1831–1907) were samurai of Tsuwano domain, and both studied atthe domanial school Yōrōkan. Takamasa learned Kokugaku fromHirata Atsutane and Murata Harukado, and studied for a time atShōheikō Academy in Edo. In 1853, U.S. Commodore Perry led afleet of four “Black Ships” to the bay of Edo, which ledto the Tokugawa bakufu signing treaties which opened Japanese ports toWestern powers. Facing the challenges of domestic politics andencroaching Western powers, Takamasa noted that the Kokugaku of theMotoori school which focused on “ancient matters” andliterary texts, and that of Atsutane which concerned itself with thespirit realm of “yumei” or“kakuriyo” were insufficient to respond toforeigners. Takamasa renamed his version of Kokugaku“hongaku” or “mototsumanabi”, the “essential learning”, based on“honkyō” or the “essentialteachings” which he quoted from theKojiki. In hisHongaku kyoyō, completed in 1855, Takamasa outlines thegoal of his “hongaku” scholarship:

Honkyō refers to the genealogy of our emperor and the ancientmatters (furukoto) of the divine age which convey the truthof when heaven and earth were formed. When viewing the ancientmatters, on the surface it appears shallow, but underneath lies a deepwill. People of the world perceive shallowness of their surface anddismiss, or insult and ridicule it, and believe it is inferior toConfucian and Buddhist writings. Something I, Takamasa, remember frommy youth, is that I lamented this. Wondering how I could draw out thisdeep will, I sincerely prayed to the Great Goddess Amaterasu and theGod Omoikane, that I may discern that divine providence, to draw outthat hidden will. Thus I became one who teaches people broadly aboutthis. (1855 [1971: 404])

Takamasa characterizes Japan as a nation whose emperor is enthroned bythe Heavenly Decree and whose state is governed by the shogun. Theshogun encourages its people to uphold and preserve the virtues ofduty, filial piety, and chastity, while the daimyo protect theirdomains. The people work industriously in their various occupations.Takamasa asserts Japan’s emperor is superior among the monarchsof the world because Japan’s imperial lineage, unlike theothers, is uninterrupted from ancient times. He cites this as evidencefor the greatness and superiority of Japan among nations of the world.To make the Japanese aware of such things including their need tocontinuously uphold the virtues of duty, filial piety, and chastity isthe focal point of his “Hongaku” form of Kokugakuteachings. He goes as far as to say that such teachings should even betaught to foreigners.

While asserting the “revere emperor, expel barbarians”ideology of late-Tokugawa, Takamasa acquiesced to the opening of thecountry as a necessary initial response, but proposed to eventuallyexpel foreigners over time. He wrote inHongakukyoyō,

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

After studying at the domanial school, Fukuba Bisei later became adisciple of Takamasa and Hirata Kanetane. From 1863 Bisei becameactive politically in support of the imperial court against theTokugawa shogunate. In the late-Tokugawa years, Bisei took his ordersfrom the daimyo Kamei Koremi, working in support of political reforms.In 1867, Bisei directed the Separation ofKami and Buddhasmovement in Tsuwano, then worked with Takamasa to draft the Separationedicts issued across Japan in 1868. Those edicts forcibly removedBuddhist elements from shrines to re-establish them as exclusivelyShinto institutions. That same year, the Council of Divinity(Jingikan) was established as the highest office ofgovernment, even above the Council of State (Dajōkan),to carry out religious rituals of the imperial court and state. Biseiserved as a magistrate in this Council as well as a tutor to theimperial court. Working with Takamasa, Bisei formulated a Shinto theology which asserted thatall shrines would be used to perform rites of the state.

The Hirata school had placed primacy on thekamiŌkuninushi, lord of the underworld, and Ame-no-Minakanushi, oneof the three creator deities. By contrast, that view was eclipsed bythe Shinto promoted by Takamasa and Bisei, who placed Amaterasu at thecenter of the pantheon, following the teachings of Motoori Norinagaand Aizawa Seishisai (1782–1863). Bisei worked as a highadministrator of Shinto affairs for the Meiji state and served as themain administrator of the Great Promulgation Campaign (Taikyōsenpu undō). From 1870 through 1884, this campaign aimed todevelop a popular awareness and understanding of “Shinto”,and Bisei trained priests as national evangelists to proselytize anational doctrine. As a part of these efforts to develop Shinto as astate religion, Bisei contributed to the Unity of Religion andPolitics (saisei itchi, lit. Unity of Rites and PoliticalRule) policy which presented the emperor as a sacred ruler whoperformed rituals as part of governance. Rather than articulate hisideas through writings, Bisei applied Kokugaku knowledge throughrenewed rites and policies of the court and state.

6. Kokugaku after Meiji

Looking beyond the scope of the current entry, during the earlydecades of the twentieth century one observes the fragmentation ofKokugaku into numerous fields analogous to the broader sense ofJapanese studies that informed Kada no Azumamaro’s Kokugaku twocenturies earlier: folklore and ethnographic studies that built on thepioneering work of Yanagida Kunio and Orikuchi Shinobu; rationales forthe kind of organic imperial theocracy such as was memorialized in the1890 Imperial Rescript on Education; the effort to historicize theessentialist concept of Kokutai or unique National Polity; and soon.

In the immediate years following Japan’s surrender in 1945,Kokugaku was virtually a taboo topic in Japan’s academic circlesoutside a handful of Shinto seminaries like Kokugakuin Daigaku inTokyo. Specialized studies of Japanese history, literature andreligions were of course permitted and even encouraged, but efforts tohistoricize Japanese essentialism were off-limits. Further,expressions of Japanese racial or cultural superiority such as thosethat had fueled the international excesses of the Asia-Pacific Waryears were replaced in popular discourse by alternative claims ofJapanese uniqueness: that Japanese people were naturally orintrinsically inclined toward harmonious behavior, and arecharacterized by diligence, frugality, honesty, and sensitivity toseasonal change; that these qualities explain Japan’s success ineconomic development and social stability, and that those traditionalqualities are uniquely configured in contemporary Japanese society.This began to change from the mid-1970s when scholarly studies ofKokugaku’s political and social thought—the so-callednative ancient Way—resumed in Japan, as did academicappointments for scholars with these specialties at Japan’sleading universities.

Theories of Japaneseness, collectively referred to asNihonjinron, have figured prominently in Japanese popularculture since the 1970s. Notions of Japan as an animisticspirit-infused realm in which humans can commune with animals andother objects and forces of nature are ubiquitous in Japan, coursingthrough popularmanga andanime. These enjoy notjust enormous popular appeal in Japan and worldwide, but alsogovernment support as forms of “soft power” fundamental tothe representation of Japanese society outside Japan.

Bibliography

A wealth of primary and secondary readings on Kokugaku are accessiblein English owing to the growing scholarship on this importantintellectual tradition. John R. Bentley’sAn Anthology of KokugakuScholars 1690–1868 introduces 13 key Kokugaku scholars rangingfrom Keichū to Suzuki Masayuki, and provides their various writings intranslation under the categories of poetry, literature, scholarship,and “Japan/Religion.” Published over six decades since1958,Sources of Japanese Tradition offers selected excerptsfrom representative works by major Kokugaku scholars including Kada noAzumamaro, Kamo no Mabuchi, and Hirata Atsutane.Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook devotes a section titled “Shinto and Native Studies” to key scholars of the Kokugaku and Shinto traditions. The above primary sources areaccompanied by introductions to the authors and their writings. Whilethe above collections demonstrate variety and breadth within theKokugaku school, several annotated translations of Motoori Norinaga’smajor texts allow for further in-depth study on the school’ssingle-most influential intellectual. These are thebook-lengthKojikiden Book 1 by Ann WehmeyerandTamakatsuma (Basket of Jewels) by Bentley, aswell as article-length translations of “Naobi no mitama” (RectifyingSpirit) and “Uiyambumi” (First Steps Into the Mountains) by SeyNishimura.

All the above-mentioned works are cited in the followingbibliography, along with the ever-expanding scholarship on Kokugaku inthe form of monographs, book chapters, and journal articles. Thesesecondary works provide socio-political, intellectual, and literarycontexts for the aforementioned primary sources, while also quotingthe work of these Kokugaku scholars. To delve further into Kokugakuscholarship, one can access the many translated primary sources thatthese scholars read and wrote commentaries on. These classical worksinclude the eighth-century mytho-histories of theKojiki,theRecord of Ancient Matters, andNihon shoki,theChronicles of Japan, and WakaanthologyMan’yōshū,Collection of TenThousand Leaves, as well as theTale of Genji(1008),Shin Kokinshu (1205), and tenth-centuryEngishiki.

Primary

• [SJTa] De Bary, Wm Theodore, Carol Gluck, Arthur E. Tiedemann, W.J. J. Boot, and William M. Bodiford (eds.), 2006,Volume TwoSources of Japanese Tradition: 1600 to 2000: Part One: 1600 to1868, second edition, abridged, (Introduction to AsianCivilizations), New York: Columbia University Press.
• [SJT] Tsunoda, Ryūsaku, Wm. Theodore de Bary, and DonaldKeene (eds.), 1964,Sources of Japanese Tradition, volume two,first edition, New York: Columbia University Press.
• [H&M] Haga Noboru and Matsumoto Sannosuke (eds), 1971Kokugaku undō no shisō, (Nihon Shisō Taikei,vol. 51), Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
• [JPS] Heisig, James W., Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo (eds.),2011,Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Honolulu: Universityof Hawai‘i Press.
• [HAZ] Hirata Atsutane, 1911–1918,Hirata Atsutanezenshū, Muromatsu Iwao (comp.), Tokyo: ItchidōShoten.
• [KKMZ:SH] Kamo no Mabuchi, 1942,Kōhon Kamo no Mabuchizenshū: shisō hen, Yamamoto Yutaka (comp.), Tokyo:Kōbundō.
• –––, 1765,Kokui kō (Inquiry intothe Idea of the Nation), adapted from SJT: 404–408.
• Keichū, c. 1690,Man’yō daishōki:zassetsu in SJT: 395.
• [KH] Miyahiro Sadao,Kokueki honron, in H&M.
• Motoori Norinaga, 1790 [1991], “The Way of the Gods: MotooriNorinaga’sNaobi no mitama”, Nishimura Sey(trans.),Monumenta Nipponica, 46(1): 21–41.doi:10.2307/2385145
• –––, 1798 [1987], “First Steps into theMountains: Motoori Norinaga’sUiyamabumi”,Nishimura Sey (trans.),Monumenta Nipponica, 42(4):449–493. doi:10.2307/2384988 (intro) doi:10.2307/2384989(translation)
• –––, 1799,Tama no ogushi (The ExquisiteComb), extracts in SJT: 420–421.
• –––, 1798,Kojiki-den, translationadapted from Holtom, Daniel Clarence, 1938,The National Faith ofJapan: A Study of Modern Shinto, pp. 23–24, quoted in de Bary, etal.,Sources of Japanese Tradition, second edition, Vol. 1(Columbia University Press 2001), 18.
• –––, 2013,Tamakatsuma, Introduced andTranslated by John R. Bentley. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University EastAsia Program.
• –––, 1780,Kuzubana in Ōno Susumuand Ōkubo Tadashi (comps),Motoori Norinaga zenshū,Chikuma Shobo 1968–75, Vol. 8, 123–181.
• Muraoka Tsunetsugu [d. 1946], 1964,Studies in ShintoThought, Delmer M. Brown and James T. Araki (trans.), Tokyo:Japanese National Commission for UNESCO. From hisNihon shisōshi kenkyū.
• Ōkuni Takamasa, 1855 [1971],Hongaku kyoyō,Vol. 1, inHirata Atsutane, Ban Nobutomo, ŌkuniTakamasa, (Nihon Shisō Taikei, vol. 50), Tahara Tsuguo, SekiAkira, Saeki Arikiyo, and Haga Noboru (eds), Tokyo: Iwanamishoten.
• Yano Gendō, 1867,Kenkin Sengo in H&M:547–585.

Secondary

• Bentley, John R. (ed.), 2017,An Anthology of KokugakuScholars 1690–1868, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University EastAsia Program.
• Bowring, Richard, 2017,In Search of the Way: Thought andReligion in Early-Modern Japan, 1582–1860, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
• Brownlee, John S., 1997,Japanese Historians and the NationalMyths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu,Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
• Burns, Susan L., 2003,Before the Nation: Kokugaku and theImagining of Community in Modern Japan, Durham, NC: DukeUniversity Press.
• Flueckiger, Peter, 2008, “Reflections on the Meaning of OurCountry: Kamo No Mabuchi’s ‘Kokuikō’”,Monumenta Nipponica, 63(2): 211–263.
• –––, 2011,Imagining Harmony: Poetry,Empathy, and Community in Mid-Tokugawa Confucianism and Nativism,Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• –––, 2014, “National Learning”,The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
• Fujiwara, Gideon, 2021,From Country toNation:Ethnographic Studies, Kokugaku,and Spiritsin Nineteenth-Century Japan, Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Seriesof Cornell University Press.
• –––, 2015, “Rebirth of a Hirata SchoolNativist: Tsuruya Ariyo and HisKaganabe Journal”,Nosco, Ketelaar, and Kojima 2015: 134–158.
• Hansen, Wilburn, 2008,When Tengu Talk: HirataAtsutane’s Ethnography of the Other World, Honolulu:University of Hawai‘i Press.
• Hardacre, Helen, 2017,Shinto: A History, New York:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190621711.001.0001
• –––, 1989,Shinto and the State,1868–1988, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Harootunian, Harry D., 1988,Things Seen and Unseen: Discourseand Ideology in Tokugawa Nativism, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.
• Itō Tasaburō, 1982,Sōmō no Kokugaku,Tokyo: Meicho shuppan.
• Kasulis, Thomas P., 2017,Engaging Japanese Philosophy: AShort History, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
• Katsurajima, Nobuhiro, 2005,Bakumatsu minshū shisōno kenkyū: bakumatsu Kokugaku to minshūshūkyō, Kyōto-shi : Bunrikaku.
• Marra, Michael, 1998, “Nativist Hermeneutics: TheInterpretive Strategies of Motoori Norinaga and FujitaniMitsue”,Japan Review, 10: 17–52.
• –––, 2007,The Poetics of MotooriNorinaga, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
• Matsumoto, Shigeru, 1970,Motoori Norinaga,1730–1801, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• McNally, Mark, 2005,Proving The Way: Conflict and Practice inthe History of Japanese Nativism, (Harvard East Asian monographs,245), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
• –––, 2015,Like No Other: Exceptionalism andNativism in Early Modern Japan, Honolulu: University ofHawai‘i Press.
• Najita, Tetsuo, 1991, “History and Nature inEighteenth-Century Tokugawa Thought”, inThe CambridgeHistory of Japan, Volume 4: Early Modern Japan, edited by JohnWhitney Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 596–659.doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521223553.013
• Nosco, Peter, 1981, “Nature, Invention, and NationalLearning: TheKokka hachiron Controversy,1742–46”,Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies,41(1): 75–91. doi:10.2307/2719001
• –––, 1990,Remembering Paradise: Nativismand Nostalgia in Eighteenth-Century Japan, Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press.
• –––, 2018,Individuality in Early ModernJapan: Thinking for Oneself, New York: Routledge.
• Nosco, Peter, James Edward Ketelaar, and Yasunori Kojima (eds.),2015,Values, Identity, and Equality in Eighteenth- andNineteenth-Century Japan, (Brill’s Japanese StudiesLibrary, volume 52), Leiden: Brill.
• Sakai, Naoki, 1991,Voices of the Past: The Status of Languagein Eighteenth-Century Japanese Discourse, Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press.
• Teeuwen, Mark, 2006, “Kokugaku vs. Nativism”,Monumenta Nipponica, 61(2): 227–242.
• Wachutka, Michael, 2013,Kokugaku in Meiji-Period Japan: TheModern Transformation of “National Learning” and theFormation of Scholarly Societies, Boston & Leiden:Brill.
• Walthall, Anne, 1998,The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: MatsuoTaseko and the Meiji Restoration, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.
• Wehmeyer, Ann, 1997,Motoori: Kojiki-den, Book 1, Ithaca,NY: Cornell East Asia Series.
• Yoshikawa, Kojiro, 1983,Jinsai, Sorai, Norinaga, Tokyo:Toho Gakkai.

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Other Internet Resources

• Encyclopedia of Shinto, old version of the site (the new site isn’t yet available in English)
  • Kokugaku, entry in the Encyclopedia of Shinto, by Mori Mizue, 13 March 2007.
• Early Modern Kokugaku (National Studies) And New Kokugaku: Their Growth And Significance, by Uchino Goro (1914–1985), Professor of Kokugakuin University.
• Burns, Susan, “The Kokugaku (Native Studies) School,”Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/kokugaku-school/>. [This was the previous entry on this topic in theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — see theversion history.]

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