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The Resource When tengu talk : Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world, Wilburn Hansen

When tengu talk : Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world, Wilburn Hansen

Creator
Summary
Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) has been the subject of numerous studies that focus on his importance to nationalist politics and Japanese intellectual and social history. Although well known as an ideologue of Japanese National Learning (Kokugaku), Atsutane's significance as a religious thinker has been largely overlooked. His prolific writings on supernatural subjects have never been thoroughly analyzed in English until now. In When Tengu Talk, Wilburn Hansen focuses on Senkyo ibun (1822), a voluminous work centering on Atsutane's interviews with a fourteen-year-old Edo street urchin named Kozo Torakichi who claimed to be an apprentice tengu, a supernatural creature of Japanese folklore. Hansen uncovers in detail how Atsutane employed a deliberate method of ethnographic inquiry that worked to manipulate and stimulate Torakichi's surreal descriptions of everyday existence in a supernatural realm, what Atsutane termed the Other World. Hansen's investigation and analysis of the process begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane's project was an early attempt at ethnographic research, a new methodological approach in nineteenth-century Japan. Hansen posits that this "scientific" analysis was tainted by Atsutane's desire to establish a discourse on Japan not limited by what he considered to be the unsatisfactory results of established Japanese philological methods. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane's position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyo ibun unfolds. There follow chapters explaining the relationship between the implied author and the outside narrator, the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe, and Atsutane's nativist discourse concerning Torakichi's fantastic claims of a newly discovered Shinto holy man called the sanjin. Sanjin were partly defined by supernatural abilities similar (but ultimately more effective and thus superior) to those of the Buddhist bodhisattva and the Daoist immortal. They were seen as holders of secret and powerful technologies previously thought to have come from or been perfected in the West, such as geography, astronomy, and military technology. Atsutane sought to deemphasize the impact of Western technology by claiming these powers had come from Japan's Other World. In doing so, he creates a new Shinto hero and, by association, asserts the superiority of native Japanese tradition. In the final portion of his book, Hansen addresses Atsutane's contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. By the late Tokugawa, many intellectuals had grown uncomfortable with continued cultural dependence on Neo-Confucianism, and the Buddhist establishment was under fire from positivist historiographers who had begun to question the many contradictions found in Buddhist texts. With these traditional discourses in disarray and Western rationalism and materialism gaining public acceptance, Hansen depicts Atsutane's creation of a new spiritual identity for the Japanese people as one creative response to the pressures of modernity. When Tengu Talk adds to the small body of work in English on National Learning. It moreover fills a void in the area of historical religious studies, which is dominated by studies of Buddhist monks and priests, by offering a glimpse of a Shinto religious figure. Finally, it counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire. Lucid and accessible, it will find an appreciative audience among scholars of Shinto and Japanese and world religion. In addition to religion specialists, it will be of considerable interest to anthropologists and historians of Japan
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (268 pages)
Contents
  • Introduction: A new medium for an old message
  • Constructing Japanese identity: Senkyō ibun
  • The medium finds a promoter: Torakichi and Atsutane
  • Manipulating the medium: separating the sanjin from the tengu
  • The critique of China and defense of native culture
  • The critique of Buddhism and defense of native religion
  • The critique of the west and defense of native knowledge and ability
  • Conclusion: The medium is the message
Isbn
9781441619792
Instance
Label
When tengu talk : Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world
Title
When tengu talk
Title remainder
Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world
Statement of responsibility
Wilburn Hansen
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) has been the subject of numerous studies that focus on his importance to nationalist politics and Japanese intellectual and social history. Although well known as an ideologue of Japanese National Learning (Kokugaku), Atsutane's significance as a religious thinker has been largely overlooked. His prolific writings on supernatural subjects have never been thoroughly analyzed in English until now. In When Tengu Talk, Wilburn Hansen focuses on Senkyo ibun (1822), a voluminous work centering on Atsutane's interviews with a fourteen-year-old Edo street urchin named Kozo Torakichi who claimed to be an apprentice tengu, a supernatural creature of Japanese folklore. Hansen uncovers in detail how Atsutane employed a deliberate method of ethnographic inquiry that worked to manipulate and stimulate Torakichi's surreal descriptions of everyday existence in a supernatural realm, what Atsutane termed the Other World. Hansen's investigation and analysis of the process begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane's project was an early attempt at ethnographic research, a new methodological approach in nineteenth-century Japan. Hansen posits that this "scientific" analysis was tainted by Atsutane's desire to establish a discourse on Japan not limited by what he considered to be the unsatisfactory results of established Japanese philological methods. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane's position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyo ibun unfolds. There follow chapters explaining the relationship between the implied author and the outside narrator, the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe, and Atsutane's nativist discourse concerning Torakichi's fantastic claims of a newly discovered Shinto holy man called the sanjin. Sanjin were partly defined by supernatural abilities similar (but ultimately more effective and thus superior) to those of the Buddhist bodhisattva and the Daoist immortal. They were seen as holders of secret and powerful technologies previously thought to have come from or been perfected in the West, such as geography, astronomy, and military technology. Atsutane sought to deemphasize the impact of Western technology by claiming these powers had come from Japan's Other World. In doing so, he creates a new Shinto hero and, by association, asserts the superiority of native Japanese tradition. In the final portion of his book, Hansen addresses Atsutane's contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. By the late Tokugawa, many intellectuals had grown uncomfortable with continued cultural dependence on Neo-Confucianism, and the Buddhist establishment was under fire from positivist historiographers who had begun to question the many contradictions found in Buddhist texts. With these traditional discourses in disarray and Western rationalism and materialism gaining public acceptance, Hansen depicts Atsutane's creation of a new spiritual identity for the Japanese people as one creative response to the pressures of modernity. When Tengu Talk adds to the small body of work in English on National Learning. It moreover fills a void in the area of historical religious studies, which is dominated by studies of Buddhist monks and priests, by offering a glimpse of a Shinto religious figure. Finally, it counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire. Lucid and accessible, it will find an appreciative audience among scholars of Shinto and Japanese and world religion. In addition to religion specialists, it will be of considerable interest to anthropologists and historians of Japan
Member of
Action
digitized
Cataloging source
E7B
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Hansen, Wilburn
Dewey number
181/.12
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Index
index present
Language note
In English
LC call number
B5244.H474
LC item number
H36 2008eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Hirata, Atsutane
  • Hirata, Atsutane
  • Takayama, Torakichi
  • Mediums
  • Kokugaku
  • Japan
  • Hirata, Atsutane
  • Takayama, Torakichi
  • Hirata, Atsutane
  • PHILOSOPHY
  • Kokugaku
  • Mediums
  • Religion
  • Japan
  • Das Übernatürliche
  • Kokugaku
  • Religion
Label
When tengu talk : Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world, Wilburn Hansen
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-257) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: A new medium for an old message -- Constructing Japanese identity: Senkyō ibun -- The medium finds a promoter: Torakichi and Atsutane -- Manipulating the medium: separating the sanjin from the tengu -- The critique of China and defense of native culture -- The critique of Buddhism and defense of native religion -- The critique of the west and defense of native knowledge and ability -- Conclusion: The medium is the message
Control code
647929040
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (268 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781441619792
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other control number
10.21313/9780824865597
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctt62thr1
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)647929040
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
Label
When tengu talk : Hirata Atsutane's ethnography of the other world, Wilburn Hansen
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-257) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: A new medium for an old message -- Constructing Japanese identity: Senkyō ibun -- The medium finds a promoter: Torakichi and Atsutane -- Manipulating the medium: separating the sanjin from the tengu -- The critique of China and defense of native culture -- The critique of Buddhism and defense of native religion -- The critique of the west and defense of native knowledge and ability -- Conclusion: The medium is the message
Control code
647929040
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (268 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781441619792
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other control number
10.21313/9780824865597
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctt62thr1
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)647929040
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

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