Motoori Norinaga
(1730–1801), Japanese scholar. Considered one of Japan's greatest scholars, Motoori Norinaga was born in Ise Province near the Grand Shrine of Ise. In 1752, he went to Kyoto to study Chinese classics and medicine, and during this time he read classical literary works from the Heian period. Toward the end of his studies, he published Ashiwake obune, in which he set forth his theory of classical waka (Japanese poems in thirty-one syllables). Returning to Ise in 1757, he established himself as a physician and also commenced a series of lectures on Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), Tosa Diary, and the Manyoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves). He subsequently published Shibun yoryo, a study of Genji monogatari, and Isonokami sasamegoto, a study of waka. In both works his interpretations focused on mono no aware (sensitivity to the transience of things). In Kyoto, Norinaga had become familiar with the works of kokugaku (national learning) movement founder Keichu (1640–1701). The kokugaku movement studied ancient Japanese texts in order to rediscover the native values of Japan prior to the introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism from China. It was not until he returned to Matsuzaka that Motoori became acquainted with the erudite kokugaku scholar Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769). A single meeting with him convinced Motoori that it was essential to study the earliest of the Japanese classics, the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, c. 712). He then turned his attention to philology, Japanese mythology, and political philosophy. In 1796, he published an exhaustive interpretation of Genji monogatari and, in 1798, completed his lifework, Kojiki den, a comprehensive study of the Kojiki. Motoori's writings had significant impact on later generations of scholars in terms of methodology and nationalistic ideology.
Further Reading
Keene, Donald. (1976) World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600–1867. Tokyo: Tuttle.
Matsumoto, Shigeru. (1970) Motoori Norinaga. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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