Motoori Norinaga（1730-1801）
Motoori Norinaga, a medical doctor and a Japanese classical scholar, born in Matsusaka in the Edo period.
Works
He studied ancient Japanese thought and culture before Confucianism and Buddhism were brought to Japan. Through the study of Japanese classics, he dedicated his whole life to studies into the culture of traditional Japan and the Japanese language.
Scholars before Norinaga never questioned the works done by predecessors and added their own works to them. Eventually, vague points were left untouched. Norinaga was different. He never blindly accepted the predecessors' works. He reconsidered everything by going back to the starting point. He tried to prove everything, one step at a time. Because of this method, his studies are rational and reasonable. They are easy to understand even for modern minds.
Life
He was born into a merchant's family. Everyone around him naturally expected him to succeed the family business, but from childhood he had been aware that he was not fit to be a merchant. Living with this dilemma, he began to think, "For what do I exist?" That question was the starting point of his career as a scholar. Fortunately with the help of his understanding mother, he was saved from taking over his father's business. Instead, he studied medicine and became a doctor. Working as a doctor all his life in Matsusaka, he was deeply involved in Japanese studies. He had many pupils and followers and taught them the joy of learning.
Works
He studied ancient Japanese thought and culture before Confucianism and Buddhism were brought to Japan. Through the study of Japanese classics, he dedicated his whole life to studies into the culture of traditional Japan and the Japanese language.
Scholars before Norinaga never questioned the works done by predecessors and added their own works to them. Eventually, vague points were left untouched. Norinaga was different. He never blindly accepted the predecessors' works. He reconsidered everything by going back to the starting point. He tried to prove everything, one step at a time. Because of this method, his studies are rational and reasonable. They are easy to understand even for modern minds.
Life
He was born into a merchant's family. Everyone around him naturally expected him to succeed the family business, but from childhood he had been aware that he was not fit to be a merchant. Living with this dilemma, he began to think, "For what do I exist?" That question was the starting point of his career as a scholar. Fortunately with the help of his understanding mother, he was saved from taking over his father's business. Instead, he studied medicine and became a doctor. Working as a doctor all his life in Matsusaka, he was deeply involved in Japanese studies. He had many pupils and followers and taught them the joy of learning.
Kokugaku
Kokugaku is the scholarship that attempts to elucidate the indigenous spirit and culture of traditional Japan before the arrival of Confucianism and Buddhism. It is a philological form of study for which Japanese classics like Kojiki, Nihonshoki and Man'yo-shu serve as the basis. In a word, it attempts to discover the true spirit of Japanese people by studying Japanese culture as it was before overseas influences. Kokugaku coincided with the development of modern Japanese scholarship and the rise of nationalism.
The one who perfected this scholarship was Motoori Norinaga.
The one who perfected this scholarship was Motoori Norinaga.
"Mono-no-aware"
"Mono-no aware" describes the feeling of being moved or "a movement of the mind" which is caused by something seen, heard or experienced. "Mono no aware" is a feeling of ingenuous emotions such as sadness, pleasure and joyfulness.Norinaga defined "mono no aware" as a word of naturally expressing one's raw emotions.
Do you think it's natural to feel happy when good things happen to you?Do you think expressing one's raw emotions is what any human would do?In fact, that wasn't the case in Edo Japan.
Confucianism was widespread in Japan during the Edo period, in which Norinaga lived. One of the teachings of the Confucian doctrine said that to act according to one's raw emotions is to be like an animal, and that to live suppressing one's emotions is what it means to be human.Norinaga was against this teaching, and argued for the idea of "mono no aware."
One of the classical literature of Japan related to "mono no aware" is the "Tale of Genji".The author, Murasaki Shikibu, describes the subtle feelings of the people of the Heian period through the experience of Genji's romances.Norinaga also was a big fan of the novel.
However, even the famous "Tale of Genji" was ill-received by readers of the Edo period, followers of Buddhism and Communism, who believed that the work depicted obscene relationships between men and women.
Norinaga's advocacy of "mono no aware" raised the worth of "The Tale of Genji" as a work of literature. He claimed to the reader,"The Tale of Genji" is an expression of "mono no aware," andhas no other purpose than to transmit this pathos. It is a story filled with the spirit of the Japanese.
Do you think it's natural to feel happy when good things happen to you?Do you think expressing one's raw emotions is what any human would do?In fact, that wasn't the case in Edo Japan.
Confucianism was widespread in Japan during the Edo period, in which Norinaga lived. One of the teachings of the Confucian doctrine said that to act according to one's raw emotions is to be like an animal, and that to live suppressing one's emotions is what it means to be human.Norinaga was against this teaching, and argued for the idea of "mono no aware."
One of the classical literature of Japan related to "mono no aware" is the "Tale of Genji".The author, Murasaki Shikibu, describes the subtle feelings of the people of the Heian period through the experience of Genji's romances.Norinaga also was a big fan of the novel.
However, even the famous "Tale of Genji" was ill-received by readers of the Edo period, followers of Buddhism and Communism, who believed that the work depicted obscene relationships between men and women.
Norinaga's advocacy of "mono no aware" raised the worth of "The Tale of Genji" as a work of literature. He claimed to the reader,"The Tale of Genji" is an expression of "mono no aware," andhas no other purpose than to transmit this pathos. It is a story filled with the spirit of the Japanese.
"Kojikiden"
"Kojiki" is the eariest history book in Japan which was completed in 712. "Kojiki" was written in altered classical Chinese, in which words unique to Japanese can be written using Chinese characters as phonograms.
What Norinaga attempted was to exclude Chinese influence and concepts-which are, of course, inherent in the characters-from the methodology of his study of the ancient world. His efforts resulted in the famous "Kojiki-den," in which he explored the thinking and emotions of the ancient Japanese, whom he exalted.
Norinaga admired Kamo no Mabuchi's exegeses of the ancient Japanese classics. Mabuchi, already a scholar of repute, taught the classics in Edo. Norinaga would have visited Mabuchi if Edo had not been so far from Matsusaka.
In May 1763, a big change came over Norinaga. Mabuchi and his students stopped at an inn in Matsusaka on the way back from the Ise Shrine. They met at an inn called Shinjyo-ya.
Norinaga told Mabuchi that he intended to annotate "Kojiki." Mabuchi said that he, too, desired to explicate "Kojiki" and other ancient classics. But for the study of the classics, he added, it is important to understand the spiritual world of the ancient Japanese. Eschew Chinese ways of thinking, he advised, and learn the language of the ancient Japanese if you would like to know their spiritual world.
Mabuchi was sixty-six and Norinaga was thirty-three. The two scholars with a common passion are said to have talked through the night.
Mabuchi encouraged Norinaga to pursue the study of the "Kojiki" and suggested that his own research on "Man'yoshu" (the oldest existing collection of waka poems) would provide Norinaga with a firm foundation for his studies. He handed Norinaga an annotated copy of the "Kojiki." Norinaga officially became Mabuchi's student in October. They sent letters to each other between Edo and Matsusaka.
The meeting was truly fateful in that Norinaga devoted himself to the study of the "Kojiki" over the next 34 years. The fruit of that study was the forty-four-volume "Kojiki-den," his lifework.
In June 1798, after thirty-four years of study, the "Kojiki-den" was complete.
He had begun writing it at the age of thirty-four and finished it at the age of sixty-eight.
Norinaga died on September 29, 1801. He was seventy-two. Publication of the "Kojiki-den," which began sixteen years earlier, was still in progress. Twenty-one years more would elapse before the publication of the forty-fourth volume.
What Norinaga attempted was to exclude Chinese influence and concepts-which are, of course, inherent in the characters-from the methodology of his study of the ancient world. His efforts resulted in the famous "Kojiki-den," in which he explored the thinking and emotions of the ancient Japanese, whom he exalted.
Norinaga admired Kamo no Mabuchi's exegeses of the ancient Japanese classics. Mabuchi, already a scholar of repute, taught the classics in Edo. Norinaga would have visited Mabuchi if Edo had not been so far from Matsusaka.
In May 1763, a big change came over Norinaga. Mabuchi and his students stopped at an inn in Matsusaka on the way back from the Ise Shrine. They met at an inn called Shinjyo-ya.
Norinaga told Mabuchi that he intended to annotate "Kojiki." Mabuchi said that he, too, desired to explicate "Kojiki" and other ancient classics. But for the study of the classics, he added, it is important to understand the spiritual world of the ancient Japanese. Eschew Chinese ways of thinking, he advised, and learn the language of the ancient Japanese if you would like to know their spiritual world.
Mabuchi was sixty-six and Norinaga was thirty-three. The two scholars with a common passion are said to have talked through the night.
Mabuchi encouraged Norinaga to pursue the study of the "Kojiki" and suggested that his own research on "Man'yoshu" (the oldest existing collection of waka poems) would provide Norinaga with a firm foundation for his studies. He handed Norinaga an annotated copy of the "Kojiki." Norinaga officially became Mabuchi's student in October. They sent letters to each other between Edo and Matsusaka.
The meeting was truly fateful in that Norinaga devoted himself to the study of the "Kojiki" over the next 34 years. The fruit of that study was the forty-four-volume "Kojiki-den," his lifework.
In June 1798, after thirty-four years of study, the "Kojiki-den" was complete.
He had begun writing it at the age of thirty-four and finished it at the age of sixty-eight.
Norinaga died on September 29, 1801. He was seventy-two. Publication of the "Kojiki-den," which began sixteen years earlier, was still in progress. Twenty-one years more would elapse before the publication of the forty-fourth volume.