Meanings of Antiquity : myth interpretation in premodern Japan / Matthieu Felt

Object Details

author

Felt, Matthieu

issuing body

Harvard University Asia Center

Contents

Writing Imperial Myths -- Reading Kojiki and Nihon shoki -- The Study of Myth -- From Dynastic Book to Origin Story -- The Crisis-Response Model of the Historical Past -- Enmeshment Strategies -- Universal Unification -- A Japanese Origin Story -- Origin Episodes -- Afterlife of an Origin Story -- Flexible Meanings of "Nihongi" in Early Poetic Treatises -- The Ubiquity of the Nihongi in Poetic Treatises -- In Pursuit of the Origins of Japan -- A New Creation Story -- Sun Goddess and King Māra -- Sword, Mirror, and Jewels -- Parallelism in Commentary -- Metaphysics for Japan -- Commentary after the Sanso -- Commentary as a Spiritual Exercise -- Rationalizing Divinity -- Yamazaki Ansai and Prince Toneri -- Suika Commentary after Ansai -- Myths for a New World -- Creating a World Origin Story -- The Kawamura Family and Nihon shoki Commentary -- The World of Motoori Norinaga -- A New World in Pictures -- The End and Beginning of Japanese Mythology -- Canon and Commentary -- Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and the Future of Japan

Summary

"The first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts "Kojiki" and "Nihon shoki", changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were, and are, a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years"-- Provided by publisher.

2023

Restrictions & Rights

Current Copyright Fee: GBP8.16 0. Uk

Type

Books

Physical description

xvi, 358 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place

Japan

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Mythology, Japanese

Mythology, Japanese--Historiography

Mythologie japonaise

Mythologie japonaise--Historiographie

Kings and rulers

Mythology

Historiography

Folklore--Mythology--Shintosim--History

Record ID

siris_sil_1171661

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0