Kokugaku

For other meanings of the word Kokugaku, see 国学.

• Japanese: 国学 (kokugaku)

Kokugaku, commonly referred to in English as "national learning" or "nativism," was a prominent school of thought in the Edo period which looked to classical Japanese culture in efforts to discover a purer version of Japanese culture and identity, less marred by elements of Chinese culture. During the Edo period, much kokugaku writing was concerned chiefly with aesthetics, cultural identity, philosophy, and linguistics. They saw the essence of the Japanese spirit as "free, spontaneous, pure, lofty, and honest," in contrast to Chinese culture, which they saw as stiff, rigid, cramped, and artificial.

However, kokugaku thought was later employed by pro-Imperial (sonnô jôi) factions during the Bakumatsu period, and by Japanese militarists & ultranationalists in the early 20th century, in formulating and justifying their ideologies.

History and Development

Kokugaku began in the philological examination of classical Japanese texts, including the Kojiki (712), Man'yôshû (c. 760s), and Tale of Genji (c. 1000). The Kojiki was taken as a particularly appropriate text, since it is the earliest known written history of Japan, and was written in kana, in a form more closely resembling the recording of earlier oral traditions, in contrast to the Nihon shoki of 720, which was written in kanji (Chinese characters), in a format emulating the official dynastic histories of China.

The school drew particularly upon Shinto, Taoism, and the ideas of China's school of Ancient Learning which sought to uncover the earlier, "truer" meanings of the Chinese classics prior to their supposed corruption by Neo-Confucian reinterpretations.

Kokugaku scholars also revived and emphasized ideologies relating to the divine origins of the Emperor, and to Japan as the "land of the gods" (shinkoku, 神国). The school of thought known as Mitogaku, based in Mito han, drew upon this approach or attitude in its production of the Dai Nihon Shi, an ambitious history of Japan which centered on the succession of emperors.

Selected Kokugaku Scholars & Texts

• Kamo no Mabuchi (1697-1769), who ran a private kokugaku academy
• Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801)
• Hanawa Hokinoichi (1746-1821), compiler of Gunshoruijû
• Arakida Hisaoyu (1746-1804), known for his study of the Man'yôshû
• Konakamura Kiyonori (1821-1895)
• Nanma Uhô (1822-1909)
• Sasaki Nobutsuna (1872-1963), poet