Wilburn Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832094
- eISBN:
- 9780824869304
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832094.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter examines the relationship between Hirata Atsutane and Kozo Torakichi. The close relationship between the author and the narrator—or the ethnographer and the informant—gives rise to the ...
More
This chapter examines the relationship between Hirata Atsutane and Kozo Torakichi. The close relationship between the author and the narrator—or the ethnographer and the informant—gives rise to the question of whether and to what extent Atsutane has altered Torakichi’s stories. Although manipulation can be shown at several junctures, this does not suggest that Atsutane merely employed a religious charlatan, or that the two of them conspired to deceive educated Edo salon society. All evidence points to Atsutane’s believing—or at least wanting or even needing to believe—in the Other World, but his personality and his own convictions and intelligence would never allow Torakichi’s imagination to exert control over his own vision of that Other World.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between Hirata Atsutane and Kozo Torakichi. The close relationship between the author and the narrator—or the ethnographer and the informant—gives rise to the question of whether and to what extent Atsutane has altered Torakichi’s stories. Although manipulation can be shown at several junctures, this does not suggest that Atsutane merely employed a religious charlatan, or that the two of them conspired to deceive educated Edo salon society. All evidence points to Atsutane’s believing—or at least wanting or even needing to believe—in the Other World, but his personality and his own convictions and intelligence would never allow Torakichi’s imagination to exert control over his own vision of that Other World.
Wilburn Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832094
- eISBN:
- 9780824869304
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832094.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter illustrates the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe. In many ways, the Other World was supposed to be the same as the revealed world, but it was important that Torakichi ...
More
This chapter illustrates the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe. In many ways, the Other World was supposed to be the same as the revealed world, but it was important that Torakichi also showed it to be qualitatively different. Indeed, the plants and animals of that world were mostly the same as the revealed world, but certain fantastic examples were introduced from time to time. However, the ultimate goal of the ethnography was to discover the practitioners of Atsutane’s Ancient Way who resided there. The process by which Atsutane discovered the sanjin hiding among the tengu is a prime example of how an eager ethnographer can manipulate a willing native informant into telling him exactly what he wants to hear.Less
This chapter illustrates the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe. In many ways, the Other World was supposed to be the same as the revealed world, but it was important that Torakichi also showed it to be qualitatively different. Indeed, the plants and animals of that world were mostly the same as the revealed world, but certain fantastic examples were introduced from time to time. However, the ultimate goal of the ethnography was to discover the practitioners of Atsutane’s Ancient Way who resided there. The process by which Atsutane discovered the sanjin hiding among the tengu is a prime example of how an eager ethnographer can manipulate a willing native informant into telling him exactly what he wants to hear.
Wilburn Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832094
- eISBN:
- 9780824869304
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832094.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This introductory chapter provides a background of Hirata Atsutane’s Senkyō ibun, which he wrote in 1822. Senkyō ibun is a voluminous work centered upon Atsutane’s interviews with the so-called ...
More
This introductory chapter provides a background of Hirata Atsutane’s Senkyō ibun, which he wrote in 1822. Senkyō ibun is a voluminous work centered upon Atsutane’s interviews with the so-called tengu, Kozo Torakichi. Deeply interested in supernatural experiences, Atsutane was captivated by Torakichi’s claim that supernatural experiences were part of his everyday life for several years of his early youth. However, this study argues that the results of Atsutane’s supernatural inquiries should be characterized as a pseudo-ethnographic account of Atsutane’s, rather than Torakichi’s, imagined world of the supernatural. This suggests that Atsutane used Torakichi as a medium to spread his own message.Less
This introductory chapter provides a background of Hirata Atsutane’s Senkyō ibun, which he wrote in 1822. Senkyō ibun is a voluminous work centered upon Atsutane’s interviews with the so-called tengu, Kozo Torakichi. Deeply interested in supernatural experiences, Atsutane was captivated by Torakichi’s claim that supernatural experiences were part of his everyday life for several years of his early youth. However, this study argues that the results of Atsutane’s supernatural inquiries should be characterized as a pseudo-ethnographic account of Atsutane’s, rather than Torakichi’s, imagined world of the supernatural. This suggests that Atsutane used Torakichi as a medium to spread his own message.
Wilburn Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832094
- eISBN:
- 9780824869304
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832094.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
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 ...
More
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. This book focuses on Senkyō ibun (1822), which centers 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. It uncovers 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. The book begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane’s project was an early attempt at ethnographic research. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane’s position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyō 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 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. Finally, the book addresses Atsutane’s contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. The book counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire.Less
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. This book focuses on Senkyō ibun (1822), which centers 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. It uncovers 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. The book begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane’s project was an early attempt at ethnographic research. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane’s position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyō 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 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. Finally, the book addresses Atsutane’s contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. The book counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire.
