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.
#4076549 in Books Univ of Hawaii Pr 1993-07-01 1993-07-01Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .63 x 6.14l; 1.23 #File Name: 0824813510274 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Very good chronicle on the subjectBy HeeiaVery good chronicle on the subject. My family was all a part of what she wrote about. It hit home.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Old rice sacks as clothingBy Harry EagarLike the food they eat; the clothes they wear help express a people's relationship to the rest of the world. But the clothing used by Japanese immigrants to Hawaii is now surprisingly scarce.Work clothes were used until they wore out. Clothes for special occasions; usually hand-woven and sometimes made from rare fabrics like bashofu (an Okinawan specialty made from plantain fiber); were carefully preserved; but after World War II; AJAs (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) sent much of this back to relatives left destitute by firebombing.Thus Barbara Kawakami; who grew up in a plantation camp on Oahu; had to search many years to find even a single example of once-common items like the kappa; a raincoat sealed with a mixture of linseed oil; turpentine and a fire-retardant.But she persisted; interviewing some 250 old-timers; many of whom generously presented her with old clothes that allow one to actually feel part of what it was like to leave home -- usually an impoverished farm -- for a strange new land that was often equally impoverished; at least in the early years.Many of the garments illustrated in 'Japanese Immigrant Clothing' have a story attached; sad; joyous; tragic or triumphant. Kawakami sometimes unwraps her mother's black montsuki; the garment worn at weddings and other most important events. 'Now; as I look at that faded montsuki;' she writes; 'with the hand-drawn design of pine; bamboo and plum on the hemline; I am grateful for the valuable lessons my mother passed on to me; which are literally "bearing fruit" in my lifetime. Yes; to receive a katami (Buddhist keepsake; personal belongings of a dead person; often clothing); no matter what it is; brings back fond memories of loved ones and how they taught us to live.'For those who have no such memories; this book is also interesting for the sense of immediacy it gives to the little stories of the pioneers. Thus the bleached rice bags; which provided cloth for bento bags (the covers of the tin lunchbuckets the cane and pineapple workers carried into the fields) and school clothes; tell of poverty. But the elaborate traditional style wedding clothes; to which nisei daughters increasingly turned in the 1930s; tell of the growing success of the AJAs.'The issei (first generation immigrant) parents; especially mothers; sacrificed much to dress their daughters in traditional bridal clothing;' writes Kawakami. 'Others took in washing -- sometimes after working 10 hours in the fields -- to make extra money . . . . A proper wedding gave issei parents a great deal of satisfaction: It linked their lives in the new land to their lives in the villages they had left behind in their youth.'It is perhaps unfortunate that this book is called simply 'Japanese Immigrant Clothing;' because that does not tip the potential reader to the treasure trove of trivia about daily life and the simple but powerful human stories that Kawakami has assembled.0 of 5 people found the following review helpful. immigrant in HawaiiBy Marie HarrisI was review it for my project that Hawaii in late 19th century and early 20th century so I need to know where the immigrant people were from other country to Hawaii..
