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- Convenor:
-
Robert F. Wittkamp
(Kansai University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Raji Steineck
(University of Zurich)
- Stream:
- Intellectual History and Philosophy
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso 0, Sala 04
- Sessions:
- Saturday 2 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
In the research on Japanese mythology, particularly in research on the Kojiki, sakuhin-ron (provisional translation: "textimmanence-based analysis") has established itself as a fairly popular concept. The main aim of this panel is to shed light on the pros and cons of this approach.
Long Abstract:
In the research on Japanese mythology, particularly in research on the Kojiki, sakuhin-ron 作品論 ("textimmanence-based analysis") has established itself as a popular concept. Although various approaches of sakuhin-ron exist, the fundamental idea is to read each text as "a whole", i.e. as a thoroughly elaborated and coherent work. In this endeavor, the work of Kōnoshi Takamitsu has attracted particular attention. Kōnoshi has demonstrated, in Torquil Duthie's words, that the "idea of an original unified mythical system that preceded the extant written versions is itself a kind of myth created by commentary and scholarship." On the other hand, David Lurie noticed that contemporary scholarship is "critical of such general notions as »myths of Japan« (Nihon shinwa) or »(common) myths of the records and chronicles« (kiki shinwa)", and this stance presumably is a result of Kōnoshi's work as well. Kōnoshi himself calls these once generally accepted concepts "the old paradigm", which implies that sakuhin-ron has led to a paradigm shift. Correspondingly many scholars are taking his works, as Herman Oom's sees it, as a "radical break with a centuries-old hermeneutics, guided by the unquestioned aim to clarify »the« Japanese mythology."
However, there are some problems in such epic depictions of sakuhin-ron. First we should not forget that historical and comparative approaches to mythology constituted a "radical break" as well, if not a true paradigm shift, and they have not lost their significance. Kōnoshi's focus on the "work as a whole", on the other hand, allows neither comparison with non-Japanese mythemes nor deductive assumptions concerning preceding historical developments, such as orality or the genesis of the text itself. In fact, this purist focus on the text as a whole has already given way to recent attempts making Japanese mythology again accessible to interdisciplinary research programs.
The main aim of this panel is therefore to shed light on the pros and cons of sakuhin-ron. We will discuss the developments of this approach, its methods and its applicability, and will try to determine its actual impact on Japanese Kojiki research. In addition, we will also point out the weak points and limitations of sakuhin-ron.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 2 September, 2017, -Robert F. Wittkamp (Kansai University)
Paper short abstract:
Kōnoshi Takamitsu's influential sakuhin-ron approach reveals the underlying ideologies of Kojiki and Nihon shoki. The paper provides a survey of the approaches to Kojiki from Kojiki-den to the present in order to determine the historical position and to reveal the particular aims of sakuhin-ron.
Paper long abstract:
Kōnoshi Takamitsu's influential sakuhin-ron approach - i.e. his close reading of the mythological works as unique and coherent narratives - tries to reveal the underlying ideologies of the chronicles Kojiki and Nihon shoki, i.e. the political and religious intentions to consolidate and legitimize the supremacy of Tenmu Tennō and his successors. In addition, he draws distinctions between the Kojiki myths and the myths collected in other texts, in order to uncover the plurality of the original myths and the process of their subsequent unification (ichigenka 一元化).
While from the perspectives of historical and comparative mythological studies Kojiki myths appear as an incoherent bricolage of distinct mythical episodes, Konoshi regards them as a consistent narrative based on a certain concept. In fact, this kind of sakuhin-ron approach can be traced back to Saigō Nobutsuna who rejected the exclusively analytical "dissecting" approaches of modern research. Instead, he demanded to read the Kojiki as a coherent work (sakuhin) of mythical language.
This presentation provides a survey of the approaches to Kojiki from Motoori's Kojiki-den to the present in order to determine the historical position and to reveal the particular aims of sakuhin-ron. Two models will help to achieve these goals: One will explain the turns within the history of Kojiki research, the other one will present three areas - from the preliterate and semi-literate levels to the level of literacy - in order to show where the different approaches are aiming at. This will reveal the eras which are getting out of view by the sakuhin-ron as well.
The sakuhin-ron has already reached its limitations and many studies of the new millennium try to overcome or expand it, for example by making the close reading accessible again to other disciplines such as religious studies, folklore, or the philological reconstruction of textual genesis. This does not imply a relapse into post-war theorems because today, and thanks to sakuhin-ron, plurality and difference, or the understanding of the text as a coherent whole, are belonging to the basic knowledge of Japanese research.
Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
My presentation will take the motif of "forbidden gazes" in ancient Japanese mythology and ask what can be gained and what would be lost by analyzing it in a strict sakuhin-ron way.
Paper long abstract:
In my presentation I will focus on the motif of the forbidden gaze, which can be found in a range of mythological stories in Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Starting with Izanaki's and Izanami's encounter in the world of the dead, Hohodemi's glance into the parturition hut, etc., forbidden gazes are usually intertwined with erotic conflicts and lead almost inevitably to the production of "shame", usually by the female protagonist. This phenomenon has of course been analyzed before (c.f. Allan Grapard's "Visions of Excess and Excess of Vision", 1991), but typically in a context that fuses the "kiki" and other sources into one coherent mythological body. I will ask what we can gain if we look at "forbidden gazes" in a sakuhin-ron way, analyzing the various sources separately from each other and pointing out differences rather than similarities.
David Weiss (Kyushu University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will introduce the major theoretical trends which informed modern mythological studies in Japan. Contrasting comparative approaches with the sakuhin-ron approach, it will shed light on potencies and limitations of either approach and situate sakuhin-ron within an international context.
Paper long abstract:
Kōnoshi Takamitsu, one of the most influential proponents of sakuhin-ron, strongly criticized the allegedly universalistic comparative approaches which used to dominate the field of mythological studies in modern Japan. He opposed scholars like Ōbayashi Taryō or Yoshida Atsuhiko, who applied the methods they had learned during their long stays of study in Europe to the ancient Japanese texts, isolating individual motifs and juxtaposing them with similar motifs from other cultures. The meaning of individual myths, Kōnoshi argues, can only be understood within the specific worldview depicted by a given text. Instead of intercultural parallels, he emphasizes the differences between the structures and logics of the mythical plots in individual chronicles like the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki.
Whether Kōnoshi is aware of the fact or not, his sakuhin-ron approach is to a great extent congruent to the postmodernist emphasis on différance which came to dominate mythological studies on a global scale after the deconstruction of Mircea Eliade's universalistic interpretations. A new focus on cultural and historical context replaced the former universalistic assumptions and yielded many important insights. However, an overemphasis on cultural context involves the danger of cultural essentialism. In recent years, new scholarly initiatives are beginning to reverse this trend in international mythological studies. For instance, joint initiatives with natural scientists endeavour to place the formerly often highly speculative 'reconstructions' and 'transmission routes' of individual mythical motifs on a more solid scientific foundation. Since the majority of sakuhin-ron proponents seems to be remarkably disinterested in scholarly developments outside Japan, there is a real danger that experts on Japanese mythology will miss the opportunity to participate in the construction of new theoretical approaches to mythology which might overcome the one-sided emphasis on either similarities or differences.
This paper will offer an introduction to the major theoretical trends which informed modern mythological studies in Japan with a special emphasis on comparative approaches. Thereby it will situate the sakuhin-ron approach in an international perspective. Using the myth of Susanowo as an example, it will also shed light on potencies and limitations of comparative and sakuhin-ron approaches to the study of myth.