one The Ascendancy of Hirata Atsutane and the Invention of Kokugaku Kokugaku was one of the most important intellectual movements of the Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Put simply, it repre- sented an attempt to study Japanese antiquity and to apply its les- sons in the rectification of an epoch that many believed was mired in decline. The interest in Japan’s remote past has provoked most Western scholars to translate Kokugaku as “nativism.”1 The fact that scholars of the late Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods ————— 1. I use the term “Kokugaku” to refer specifically to the scholarship of Atsu- tane and the members of the Norinaga School during the nineteenth century. I have chosen this usage because the term itself was not widely used prior to 1800 and to emphasize Atsutane’s role in its systemization. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, scholars used various terms to signify nativism, such as Wa- gaku. Norinaga called his scholarship “ancient learning” (Kogaku or inishie ma- nabi); Atsutane followed Norinaga’s example, but he also used the term Koku- gaku. Thus, for classical literary studies prior to 1800, and for the various forms of Shinto scholarship of the nineteenth century other than Kokugaku, I use the term nativism. In the Japanese secondary literature, scholars use the term Kokugaku to signify nativist scholarship of the entire Tokugawa period. One of the themes of this study is the process by which Atsutane and the members of the Ibukinoya narrowly defined their nativist scholarship as Kokugaku, a definition that specifi- cally excluded the Edo Faction and the Mabuchi School. This narrow definition of Kokugaku contributed to its nineteenth-century institutional character, which was absent during the eighteenth century. It is for this reason that I maintain the more specific definition advocated by Atsutane and his students. 2 The Ascendancy of Hirata Atsutane used the scholarship of Tokugawa nativists to further their own ideological agendas has inspired some modern researchers to think of Kokugaku as a form of proto-nationalism. Whether as nativism or nationalism, the centrality of Kokugaku in the minds of modern scholars is undeniable. Nativists of the Tokugawa period turned their attention to the production of authentic interpretations of Japanese antiquity in re- sponse to the pervasive influence of Confucianism, and especially its impact on Shinto teachings. The eminent political scientist and intellectual historian Maruyama Masao argued that nativism grew to a point during the eighteenth century that it actually displaced Confucianism as the “hegemonic movement in the intellectual world” of Tokugawa Japan.2 Although it is clear that Maruyama’s interpretation of nativism was somewhat exaggerated, his recogni- tion of its influential position within Tokugawa intellectual his- tory was correct. For Maruyama, nativism was a predominantly literary phe- nomenon that emerged from the “private side” of the Confucian school of Ogyū Sorai (1666–1728). Motoori Norinaga and Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1765) occupy prominent positions in his analysis for this reason. Although he acknowledged the importance of Hirata Atsutane for the nineteenth century, Maruyama viewed Atsu- tane’s3 scholarship as a radical break with Norinaga and Mabuchi. Maruyama recognized that there were two forms of nativism dur- ing the Tokugawa period. Rather than account for this differentia- tion, he chose only to acknowledge the differences while emphasiz- ing its eighteenth-century literary incarnation. Atsutane himself, however, was also aware of the different forms. For much of his career, he spent his mental energies in an attempt to reconcile the two in such a way as to validate his own scholarship. In some ways, his efforts were successful; he was able ————— 2. See his Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, p. 143. Although this work is dated, it is still one of the best books in English on Tokugawa intel- lectual history. 3. Throughout this study I use the given names of pre-Meiji and early Meiji fig- ures, in order to avoid confusion over those with the same family name. For modern persons, I use the family names. .