Things Seen and Unseen

Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa Nativism

• Author(s): Harry D. Harootunian,
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Pages: 494
• ISBN_10: 0226317072
  ISBN_13: 9780226317076
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Family & Relationships / Family History & Genealogy , History / General , Social Science / Anthropology / General ,

Description:... This long-awaited work explores the place of kokugaku (rendered here as "nativism") during Japan's Tokugawa period. Kokugaku, the sense of a distinct and sacred Japanese identity, appeared in the eighteenth century in reaction to the pervasive influence of Chinese culture on Japan. Against this influence, nativists sought a Japanese sense of difference grounded in folk tradition, agricultural values, and ancient Japanese religion. H. D. Harootunian treats nativism as a discourse and shows how it functioned ideologically in Tokugawa Japan.