Abstract

This paper examines the historical development of death concepts within the Shinto tradition, from the early centuries of the Japanese empire up through the work of prominent Kokugaku scholars Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) and Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) as they evolve under the influence of foreign traditions such as Confucianism and Buddhism. An examination of the work of these two scholars reveals their anxieties over the influence of foreign epistemologies, the drive to return to native Japanese texts for understanding about the cosmos and death, and the argument against the Buddhist and Confucian traditions. After tracing the gradual deconstruction of the idea of death as a ritual pollutant, this analysis dissects the new constructions of death developed by Norinaga and Atsutane through their use of sources, such as the Kojiki (8th century), a mythical account of the creation of Japan, as well as a record of the legendary emperors of early Japan. Investigating the various passages each of these scholars used, this paper demonstrates both new meanings these scholars brought to these sources in order to fit into their changing cosmologies and various excerpts that were purposefully ignored, revealing a more complicated picture of death than typically presented as part of Shinto traditions.

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