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Before the Nation: Kokugaku and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan
BURNS, Susan L. Before the Nation: Kokugaku and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. 296p. ISBN 0-8223-3183-7 (hc), $84.95. 0-8223-3172-1 (pb), $23.95. Index, bib. Acid-free.
The idea of a unique and original Japanese identity is one that permeates many works about Japan and the Japanese. Susan L. Burns, a history professor at the University of Chicago, focuses questions about Japanese identity, and especially Japanese community, around the Koukgaku (national study movement). Central to her discussion is Motoori Norinaga’s work Kojikiden, which attempted to study the Kojiki, the oldest written record in Japan, as a work that revealed the true nature, language, and spirit of the Japanese people. Burn’s goal is to “explore this process of production [of the Japanese community] in relation to a distinct historical moment.”
The first two chapters of the book provide detailed background information. Chapter 1 discusses not only the political and social situation of Tokugawa Japan--such as the shifting power structure from Samurai to merchants--but provides detailed biographical information about each Kokugaku scholar is discussed. Chapter 2 discusses the intellectual changes from the old Chinese centered modes of thought up to Motoori’s writing of the Kojikiden. Chapters 3-7 are each dedicated to a individual Kokugaku scholar, breaking down their publications and ideas in dialogue with how they personally were effected by the scholarship that came before them.
This book is Burn’s debut work, though she published several articles and has another book titled The Body in Question: The Politics and Culture of Medicine in Nineteenth Century Japan, in progress. Many of her articles deal with gender and health issues, so in some ways Before the Nation is departure from her usual subject matter. However, she seems to often relate these subjects to identity and community, so the book does fall into a linear path of research.
This book was not only well written, but is straightforward, making it highly readable, a point of excellence for contemporary history texts. The section discussing the background social situation of the era was extremely useful in framing the rest of the book’s argument, providing a rich narrative that could have been cursory, but instead was thoroughly enjoyable. The sections on the scholars broke down their individual works into manageable sections. I have not read extensively on the topic of Kokugaku, but I feel that this book is more inclusive in its views as it includes these others scholars instead of just focusing on Norinaga. Theories of history, language, public versus private issues, and ethical questions are just some of the issues discussed in regards to each scholars approach to Kokugaku. This could have been overwhelming, to synthesize so many ideas, but each is carefully explained piece by piece. Burns draws on the history of scholarship leading up to each aspect of the works in question, as well as examine the authors personal experiences and biases that framed intellectual discourse at the time. The fact that Burns does point out bias and contradictions makes the work more balanced, a study of Kokugaku rather than either a defense or dismissal of it. Not knowing very much about this topic, I appreciated the balance because I could learn without being swayed one way or the other.
One criticism of the text is that sometimes Burns sometimes included too much information beyond the field of study. For example, in discussing Motoori Norinaga’s approach to the language of the Kojiki, Burns includes a lengthy discussion linguistic details. While this book is probably targeted towards academics, only those who had studied linguistics would fully grasp these details.
This book would be useful for any library that had a strong Japanese history emphasis. Kokugaku is often associated with the militant government in Japan leading up to World War II, so this book would also be appropriate for general World War II collections. As the book is readable, and not as highly specialized as some history texts can be, it could be enjoyed by patrons outside of academic libraries. As the book also deals with Japanese identity, Hawaii public and academic libraries would benefit from having this book for anyone working on Japanese or Asian Pacific studies.
Submitted Fall 2009 by Rachel Rozdzial, LIS Student.
The idea of a unique and original Japanese identity is one that permeates many works about Japan and the Japanese. Susan L. Burns, a history professor at the University of Chicago, focuses questions about Japanese identity, and especially Japanese community, around the Koukgaku (national study movement). Central to her discussion is Motoori Norinaga’s work Kojikiden, which attempted to study the Kojiki, the oldest written record in Japan, as a work that revealed the true nature, language, and spirit of the Japanese people. Burn’s goal is to “explore this process of production [of the Japanese community] in relation to a distinct historical moment.”
The first two chapters of the book provide detailed background information. Chapter 1 discusses not only the political and social situation of Tokugawa Japan--such as the shifting power structure from Samurai to merchants--but provides detailed biographical information about each Kokugaku scholar is discussed. Chapter 2 discusses the intellectual changes from the old Chinese centered modes of thought up to Motoori’s writing of the Kojikiden. Chapters 3-7 are each dedicated to a individual Kokugaku scholar, breaking down their publications and ideas in dialogue with how they personally were effected by the scholarship that came before them.
This book is Burn’s debut work, though she published several articles and has another book titled The Body in Question: The Politics and Culture of Medicine in Nineteenth Century Japan, in progress. Many of her articles deal with gender and health issues, so in some ways Before the Nation is departure from her usual subject matter. However, she seems to often relate these subjects to identity and community, so the book does fall into a linear path of research.
This book was not only well written, but is straightforward, making it highly readable, a point of excellence for contemporary history texts. The section discussing the background social situation of the era was extremely useful in framing the rest of the book’s argument, providing a rich narrative that could have been cursory, but instead was thoroughly enjoyable. The sections on the scholars broke down their individual works into manageable sections. I have not read extensively on the topic of Kokugaku, but I feel that this book is more inclusive in its views as it includes these others scholars instead of just focusing on Norinaga. Theories of history, language, public versus private issues, and ethical questions are just some of the issues discussed in regards to each scholars approach to Kokugaku. This could have been overwhelming, to synthesize so many ideas, but each is carefully explained piece by piece. Burns draws on the history of scholarship leading up to each aspect of the works in question, as well as examine the authors personal experiences and biases that framed intellectual discourse at the time. The fact that Burns does point out bias and contradictions makes the work more balanced, a study of Kokugaku rather than either a defense or dismissal of it. Not knowing very much about this topic, I appreciated the balance because I could learn without being swayed one way or the other.
One criticism of the text is that sometimes Burns sometimes included too much information beyond the field of study. For example, in discussing Motoori Norinaga’s approach to the language of the Kojiki, Burns includes a lengthy discussion linguistic details. While this book is probably targeted towards academics, only those who had studied linguistics would fully grasp these details.
This book would be useful for any library that had a strong Japanese history emphasis. Kokugaku is often associated with the militant government in Japan leading up to World War II, so this book would also be appropriate for general World War II collections. As the book is readable, and not as highly specialized as some history texts can be, it could be enjoyed by patrons outside of academic libraries. As the book also deals with Japanese identity, Hawaii public and academic libraries would benefit from having this book for anyone working on Japanese or Asian Pacific studies.
Submitted Fall 2009 by Rachel Rozdzial, LIS Student.
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