As the first book in English on the origins of Japanese historiography, using both archaeological and textual data, this book examines the connection between ancient Japan and the Korean kingdom of Paekche and how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche helped to lay the foundation for a literate culture in Japan. Illustrating how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche taught Chinese writing to the Japanese court through the prism of this highly civilized culture, the book goes on to argue that Paekche tutors guided the early Japanese court through writing, recording family history, and ultimately an early history of the ruling family. As the Japanese began to create their own history, they relied on Paekche histories as a model. Triangulating textual data from Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Sendai kuji hongi, the author here demonstrates that various aspects of early king genealogies and later events were manipulated. Offering new theories about the Japanese ruling family, it is posited that Emperor Jito had her committee put Jingu in power, and Suiko on the throne in place of original male rulers to enhance images of strong, female rulers, as she envisioned herself. The Birth of Japanese Historiography will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Japanese history, historiography, and linguistics.

As the first book in English on the origins of Japanese historiography, using both archaeological and textual data, this book examines the connection between ancient Japan and the Korean kingdom of Paekche and how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche helped to lay the foundation for a literate culture in Japan. Illustrating how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche taught Chinese writing to the Japanese court through the prism of this highly civilized culture, the book goes on to argue that Paekche tutors guided the early Japanese court through writing, recording family history, and ultimately an early history of the ruling family. As the Japanese began to create their own history, they relied on Paekche histories as a model. Triangulating textual data from Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Sendai kuji hongi, the author here demonstrates that various aspects of early king genealogies and later events were manipulated. Offering new theories about the Japanese ruling family, it is posited that Emperor Jito had her committee put Jingu in power, and Suiko on the throne in place of original male rulers to enhance images of strong, female rulers, as she envisioned herself. The Birth of Japanese Historiography will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Japanese history, historiography, and linguistics.

Kokugaku "national study" is an academic field of study that spans a number of disciplines, including philology, poetry, literature, linguistics, history, religion, and philosophy. It began as a movement to recapture a sense of Japanese uniqueness, by focusing on Japanese poetic and linguistic elements found in the earliest surviving texts. As the movement grew, there was an attempt to separate native religious elements from Buddhist elements. This expanded to a vigorous attempt to weed out Confucian (and by extension anything "Chinese") elements from native elements. This began as an investigation into the earliest anthology, Man'yoshu, which some Kokugaku scholars argued preserved a pristine picture of the "true heart" of the ancients. Kokugaku matured under the tutelage of Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga, and expanded to include literary, linguistic, and historical analysis. With the death of Norinaga the philosophy of the movement fractured, and under Hirata native religious elements were amplified, with an advance toward nationalism. This anthology contains 26 essays by 13 influential Kokugaku scholars, covering roughly two centuries of thought, from 1690 down to the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The volume is arranged according to four subjects: poetry, literature, scholarship, and religion/Japan (as a state).

Kokugaku "national study" is an academic field of study that spans a number of disciplines, including philology, poetry, literature, linguistics, history, religion, and philosophy. It began as a movement to recapture a sense of Japanese uniqueness, by focusing on Japanese poetic and linguistic elements found in the earliest surviving texts. As the movement grew, there was an attempt to separate native religious elements from Buddhist elements. This expanded to a vigorous attempt to weed out Confucian (and by extension anything "Chinese") elements from native elements. This began as an investigation into the earliest anthology, Man'yoshu, which some Kokugaku scholars argued preserved a pristine picture of the "true heart" of the ancients. Kokugaku matured under the tutelage of Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga, and expanded to include literary, linguistic, and historical analysis. With the death of Norinaga the philosophy of the movement fractured, and under Hirata native religious elements were amplified, with an advance toward nationalism. This anthology contains 26 essays by 13 influential Kokugaku scholars, covering roughly two centuries of thought, from 1690 down to the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The volume is arranged according to four subjects: poetry, literature, scholarship, and religion/Japan (as a state).

This is a partial translation of one of the most important texts produced by Motoori Norinaga. It covers a wide range of Norinaga's thought and provides a lens onto his philological methodology, as well as how he viewed literature, poetry, history, linguistics, and Shinto.

This is a partial translation of one of the most important texts produced by Motoori Norinaga. It covers a wide range of Norinaga's thought and provides a lens onto his philological methodology, as well as how he viewed literature, poetry, history, linguistics, and Shinto.