jupanese journal of religious studies 712-3

8/10/2019 Jupanese Journal of Religious Studies 712-3

1/33

Yanagita Kunio

n Interpretive Study

Interes t in th e life an d work of Yanagita Kun io has grownsteadily in recent years in Japan. It is no tew orth y, forexample, that some leaders of the student movements

protesting against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in 1960and again n 19 70 becam e disenchanted w ith Marxist ideasof social change and turned t o the study of Yanagita. Asimilar shift in orientation occurred at the beginning of theShcw a period (1926- , but at that t ime governmentoppression of Marxism was th e chief facto r. By con trast,th e chief factor in the postwar student leaders turn t oYanagita, if occasioned by reflection on the breakdown

of their m ovem ents, was their o w n free will.Paul Tillich once maintained that one of the greatestissues in modern life is the religious encounter with Marxism.T he focus of Yanagita s research is on th e faith of the Japa -nese people, and the turn from Marxism to Yanagita wouldseem t o suggest a tacit refuta tion, or a t least mo dification,of Tillich s view. Fro m this perspective alone th e m otivatio nsand m etho ds of Yanagita s research consti tute a study them e

of considerable imp ortance.FORM TIVE INFLUENCES

Family Yanag ita K un io was born in 18 75 in a small villagein the w estern part of Jap an . His fath er, Ma tsuoka Yakusai,was a physician who, like many doctors of his day, studiedthe Chinese classics and the National Learning of HirataAtsutane in addition t o medical science. After th e MeijiRestoration, Yakusai relinquished his medical practice and


2/33

became a Sh into priest.

Ku nio was the fifth of eight children. (When he mar-ried, he took the family name of his wife, Yanagita Taka.)Th ree died in childh ood . Of the surviving fo ur ap art fromKunio, the two older brothers became doctors , one ofwhom was also a talented poet and close friend of thenovelist Mori og ai. His next youn ger bro ther became anaval man who in his later years took an interest in lin-guistics and wrote several books about various South Pacific

island p eoples. His young est bro th er was a painter.As his bro thers careers sho w, Yanagita s ho me placedgreat value not only o n science but also on understandingthe classics, bo th Japanese and Chinese. T he ho m e breathedan atm osp here of artistic sensitivity, and the art o f po etry,especially the w k for m , was cultivated. This hom e en-vironment greatly influenced the form ation o f Yanagita scharacter and later played a significant role in his attitudetoward research and methodology.

Schoolirzg Yanagita lived with his parents until the age ofthirteen, by which time he had already read in desultoryfashion a num ber o f Japan ese an d C hinese classics th at heborrow ed from a wealthy farmer. A t th e age of thirteenhe was placed un der th e care of his tw o olde r bro thers w howere then living o n the outsk irts of T ok yo . He enteredjunior high sch ool, b u t for som e reason changed fromschool to school. This prevented his leading an ordinarystudent life, but even so he spent great blocs of time readingat an astounding pace not only the Chinese and Japaneseclassics but also modern literature, both Japanese andWestern.

Af ter graduating from Dai ichi Kb tbgakkb , on e of themost prestigious o f th e prewar high sch ools, he co ntinuedhis studies at T ok y o Imperial University. Throu gh his next

older brother, Michiyasu, Yanagita had become acquainted,


3/33

even as a high school student, with a number of literaryfigures. While a university student, he started writing him-self, both poetry and prose. Several of his works appearedin Bungakkui which in the Japan of that day occupied aplace similar to that of the Sturday review of l i tera turein the U.S. Suffused with romanticism and exuding thearoma of medieval Japanese literature (not to mention aWordsworth-like naturalism), Yanagita s writings treatedmainly of love, death, and nature (Nakamura 1974, pp.115-1 16; Hashikawa 1973, p. 262).

Western literature. Yanagita was probably more widelyread in Western literature than any Japanese writer ofhis day. Masamune Hakucha, a novelist, playwright, andliterary critic just a few years younger than Yanagita,wrote in a subsequent reminiscence that it was Yanagita,then barely out of university, who had advised him to readDaudet, Maupassant, and others. According to Masamune,

Yanagita was one of the founders of the Ibsen Associationof Japan (1966, p. 410). He took particular interest in hesufferings and struggles of the peoples of northern Europeas they converted from their native faith to Christianity-a situation described in Ibsen s Viking (Yanagita 1964,vol. 3 1 pp. 347-348).

Another Western author who attracted Yanagita wasAnatole France. Fascinated by ethnology, France was on

friendly terms with James Frazer and wrote a preface tothe French edition of his Golden bough. Yanagita, whoread and reread France s complete works both in Englishand in French, showed interest in this author because hedescribed the preChristian culture that still survived inwestern Europe (Yanagita 1964, vol. 25, p. 253). For thesame reason h e was attracted to Heinrich Heine s G ot te rin Exil (Yanagita 1962, vol; 7, p. 244). Only later, as he

began to study folklore, did Yanagita read the works ofJupdnese Journal of Religious Studies 712-3 unrSeptember 198 8


4/33

Edward Burnett T ylor, James F razer, and oth er ethnologists(Yanag ita 1 964 , vol. 25, pp. 232 -247).

Yanagita's reading of Western literature during his for-mative years had considerable influence on his subsequentlife and work. M any Meiji period writers, including hisfriends Shirnazaki Tbson and Kunikita Doppo, were in-wardly drawn to Christianity, but Yanagita responded toit a bit differen tly. He familiarized himself with W esternculture as i t came to him through Western li terature, butthis reading also m ade him aware of th e continuing ex-istence of non-Christian cultur e in western Eu rop e. Herecognized, therefore, that Western culture and Christiancultu re were n ot necessarily identical.

In his autobiography Yanagita wrote that only once inhis life did h e find himself attr ac ted to Christianity. Th ishappened during his university years. Fa r from ho m e andlonesome, he began to attend a church near his boardinghou se and was favorably impressed by the chara cter of a

Cana dian m issionary then serving tha t church (Yanagita196 4, suppl. vol. 3 , p. 448). His motivation for con tactwith Christ ianity, the s tep h e took, and at tract ion heexperienced paralleled the experiences of many fellowstudents who, while in the cities, turned to Christianchurches. Yanagita, howev er, had fashioned a strong senseof identity with traditional Japanese cultural values andtherefore did not become a believer despite his willingness

to receive influences from W estern cultur e. As he pu t it:The life patte rn of Japanese Christians did n o t suit m ine.The Christians in Tokyo at that t ime were a westernizedand new type of people (1 97 5, p. 153).

National Learning Yanagita's identification with tradi-tional Japanese values derived mainly from the NationalLearning influence he received throug h his fathe r. Thisholds true even though he later criticized Hirata Atsutane

8 apanese ournal of Religious Studies 7 2 4 June September 1980


5/33

\ . \S.\c. i I . \ t i u n i t , : A n Interpretive Stucly

for treating only the classics as important and neglecting

th e real faith of th e Japanes e people (Yanagita 19 62, vol. 10,p. 438 ). Fro m childhood his father taught him, he said,that totsu kuni buri ( foreign ways, represe nted by Con-fucianism and Buddhism) andnochi no yo uri ( newfangledaffectations, meaning ways of thinking and behaving tha tentered Japan after the introduction of Buddhism in thesixth century) were always to be corrected from a perspectiveroo ted in traditio nal Japan ese values. Distinguishing indige-no us from imported values, he at tac hed greater priority toth e fo rm er. In this sense his Na tiona l Learning studies appearto have permeated, however unconsciously, Yanagita 's entireou tloo k (Yanagita 1962 , vol. 10 , p .440 .

OBJECT AND METHOD OF YANAGITA S WORK

Science as humanizing knowledge While a university stu de nt,Yanagita majored in agricultural adm inistratio n. Th is choicewas motivated no t by ivory tow er interests bu tby a desiret o help Japanese people, the majority of whom were farmers,t o overcome their poverty and at ten dan t sufferings (Yanagita1964, vol. 25, p. 327 . Even after he switched from agri-cultural administrat ion studies to folklore s tudies, themotivation remained constant.

Nakamura Akira, in an essay on Yanagita's ideas, empha-sizes the impo rtance of searching ou t his underlying inten tion .

It is impossible to gain a thorough understanding of Yanagita sfolklore studies if one touches only on their externals. Itis necessary to consider them from within, to enter deeplyinto his mind and see what he intended when he posedproblems and thought about them as he did 1974, pp. 3-4).

Nakam ura's perception is acu te, for a grasp of th e motivationguiding Y anagita 's research is essential t o com prehend ingits character. Con trasting Yanagita with Western scholarsin general, Tsurumi Kazuko observes that whereas Western


6/33

scholars seek to rema in value-neutral in ord er t o ensuretheoretical objectivity, Yanagita selected his field of studyin order to realize a clearly conceived and highly valuedpurpose (197 4, p. 14 8 and 1 97 5, pp. 224-225). Opposingcompartmentalization into pure and applied science, Yana-gita w rote:

Science should be integrated. It should ultimately con-tribute to the completion of humanity. For each scienceto be isolated in its own sphere is nothing but a temporarydivision of labor. Many o f today s scholars forget this1 964 vol. 25, p . 335).

When he turned t o the study of folklore, Yanagita's mo-tivation became, if anything, even stronger and more intense.His main purpo se when stu dying agricultural adm inistrationhad been social reform. His main purpose in studying folk-lore was to provide people with guidance that would enablethem to see how they themselves could overcome their

poverty and related sufferings.This desire to help poor and suffering people sprang from

a sym pathy for them that went back to his impressionablechildho od years. He had lived thro ug h a period of famin ewhen young, and though he himself did not go hungry, hesaw m any people suffering from lack of food . In his aut o-biography he recalls hearing about mothers who soughtou t his older brot he r, a do cto r, beseeching him t o fill ou t

death certificates for children they had killed rather thanlet them d ie slowly and painfully of starvation. He alsotells of seeing a votive picture e m ) t a chapel to Jizb,th e bodhisattva with a special fondness for children. T hepicture showed a mother wearing a headband (here a sym-bol of extreme and sacrificial action) in the act of killingher newborn ba by ; it also showed her shadow, this t imewi th ogre-like horns, a nd beside her th e figure of the weepingJizb. This childhood recollection was so vivid th at years

Japunesr Journul of Heligiuus Studies 7 2 4 June-Septeml er 198


7/33

later he wrote, I still reme mb er th at I shivered with fear(1 9 6 4 , suppl. vol. 3 p. 2 1).

Views on agricultural administration After graduating fromuniversity, Yanagita first worked at the Ministry of Agri-culture and Com merce. During th e decade following 1 901 ,he wrote thirteen imp ortant papers having to d o with hisarea of responsibility, agricultural adm inistra tion. Hisopinions on farmers' unions and on cash payment of farmre nt s have been assessed as very advan ced for th at day

(Tbhata 1961, p . 44) .In the wake of th e Ru sso-Japanese War (1904 -05) Japa-nese government leaders adopted the concept of physiocracy.They placed special value on an agricultural plan that maderice cultivation the central national industry and a militaryplan th at regarded the farm villages as th e sou rce of thenation's def end ers. Yanagita's writings on agriculturaladministration did not even touch on these physiocratic

tend enc ies. He considered im pro vem ent in the life of share-croppers and small-scale farmers as the goal of agriculturaladministration. Th e means he thoug ht essential t o attainingthis goal was not Ninomiya Sontoku's still powerful moral-ism, but scientific observation and analysis of society-anidea he m ade th e foun dation of his many studies (Hashikawa19 73 , pp. 27 7-279).

It is not clear why, during these years as a bureaucrat, 'Yanagita abandoned studies oriented to agricultural ad-ministration and turned t o the study of folklore. Tbh atamay be right in saying that he did so because his ideas weretoo advanced to win support (19 6 1, p. 44 ); it also appea rsthat he was disappointed because agricultural administrationstudies and politics in general were undertaken primarily toserve the interests of particular parties o r fac tions (Yanagita1975, pp. 150-15 1). Nonetheless, as long as he was a bu-reau crat, he performe d his role well, even becom ing chief


8/33

secre ta ry of the Upper H ouse . T he m ot iva t ion for his s tud ieswas sy m pathy fo r suffer ing comm oners , whose lo t he soughtto amel iora te , bu t he a l so remained aware of the bureau-cra t ic e l i t e , many of whom became peers (Nakamura 1974 ,p. 153).

Concept ion of h is tory In his folklore studies, Yanagitato ok as h is ob jec t Japanese li fe as a whole : the way ofthinking an d the feelings of the Japan ese people . H estudied popular t radi t ion, the past in the present of theJapanese people , in o rder to he lp them know themselves ,overco me their difficult ies, and live mo re happily. In thissense, according to Hashikawa, his folklore s tudy can becalled a historical science( 973 , p . 13 ).

Wi th thi s in te n t ion , Yanagita t r ied to ma ke c lear the t ru enature of the Japanese people , both in the past and in theprese nt . F or him, however, past and present are cont inu ous.Most Western concept ions of history, as far as economicstructures are concerned, involve stages of development .

Th ey tend to represen t these s tages as d i scont inuous , asa series o f b reak throughs . T he same holds t ru e of sp ir i tua lst ructure s. An ideal pat tern is conceived such tha t for eachnew stage o history, a new spir i tual s t ructure appears , andwhatever preceded i t is no longer wo rthy o f a t te nt io n.

Yanagi ta ' s concept ion of h i s to ry, on the o ther hand , se t svalue on co nt in ui ty . He think s that in Jap an , with regardboth to soc ioeconomic and to sp i r i tua l s t ruc tures , the d iv i -

sions between prehistoric , ancient , medieval , and modernages a re no t c lear. Th us a t the presen t t ime the sp i r itua lst ructures and customs of these several s tages coexist asin a m osaic . Co ntrast ing this no t ion of layered un i ty withthe Western not ion of disparate s tages, Tsur um i characterizesYanagita 's conc ept ion of history as an icicle m odel ( 1 9 7 4 ,p . 1 50 and 1975 , pp .227-228 f . Ishida 19 63 , p . 38).

9 1 c r p c r n t ~ orirmd of K u l i ~ r n r i s t ~ t d i ~ ~ . -:< . l u n t . S q ~ ~ e m l ~ t . rY X O


9/33


10/33

merely by reading articles about what happened is like try-ing to understand someone's feelings through a camera...

In thehon

taikGki [An illustrated biography of Toyo-tomi Hideyoshi] along with terms for warlords and horsesthere of ten occurs the sign. This signifies the helmet ofthe foot soldier. Yet even though identifiedby this lowlyterm, some of these men had their own families, workedas town headmen, studied, looked after people, and in themodern period became prefectural representatives. None-theless, here they are treated coldly This kind of mistakeis not limited to the author of this picture bo ok. It also

comes out in the concept of the tami ( common people )as used by historians(1 964 , vol.25, pp. 9-10).

Scope o f anagita s research Transferring from the agri-cultural administration section to the legislative bureau,Yanagita found himself with plenty of leisure time whichhe used t o travel around the co untr y. He was able to observein person nearly all the villages of Japari and the peopleliving th er e (Yanagita 197 5, p. 50) .

His research covers the entire scope of the comm onman's life, his behavior and feelings. He classifies th e pop u-lar traditions of the com m on m an into thre e categories:(1) tangible culture, which includes housing, clothes, food,the way of acquiring the materials needed for living, trans-portation, labor, the village and the household, relatives,marriage, bir th, calamities, funerals, ann ual eve nts, festivals,dances, games, children's play, etc.; 2) linguistic arts, whichinclude the process by which new words and phrases arecreated, proverbs, riddles, incantations, songs, narratives,old stories, legends, etc .; and 3 ) mental phenomena, whichinclude knowledge of the ar t of living and. a n understandingof the purpose of life (Hashikawa 197 3, p. 305). Am ongthese three , he found the third the most important . Ac-cordingly, the stud y of faith and the mind or spiritualcr ientat ion of the common man and his life constituted

92 apunese ournal of Religious Studies 7/ -3 J u n e - S e p t e m l ~ r 198


11/33

YAN.Z ;ITA Kunio: A n Interpretive Study

the central theme of his study . For Yanagita, folklore studyultimately meant study of the history of faith (1962, vol.

10, p. 326). The research and reflection that followed ledto an enormous mass of books and articles, the definitivecollection of which comprises thirty-six volumes.

From a historian's point of view, Ienaga Saburb classifiesYanagita's research in to seven categories: (1) a history ofShintoism or of Japanese religion in general, 2) a historyof Japanese literature, (3) a history of Japanese mannersand customs, (4) a history of th e Japanese language, (5) a

history of th e family system, (6 ) a history of thought, and(7) a history of architecture (1973, pp. 144-145). Thisbreakdown enables one t o gain a clear idea of the scopeof Yanagita's research.

Materials he selected for study. Yanagita's faith in the com-m a n man's ability to create history is clearly shown in hisselection of study materials. He rejected the att itude of

historians who find their materials in literary documents.Instead, he chose the popular traditions of the illiteratecommon people as the prime source.

Our aim is to broaden our knowledge of human life by ob-serving the old ways of life, the ways of working and think-ing, preserved among the people, that is, outside the intel-lectual classes, and by means other than the written word1 96 4, vol. 25, p . 343).

Here we find that the icicle model of history becomesthe premise for his method of study.

The same outlook is evident in his assertions concerningthe materials to be examined when studying the Japanesepeople's faith. .H e rejects the idea th at the history of folkloreand the history of Shinto are to be equated. He distinguishesbetween Shinto as the indigenous faith (koyti shink6) ofJapan, preserved by the common people from prehistoric

aptrfrese ounrnl tf Religious Studies 7 2 4 June September 198 93


12/33


13/33

blem: their preconceptions. These missionaries believedfirmly in the absoluteness of their own religion. Moreover,they thought that the culture of each nation had to belocated somewhere in an evolutionary series Such ideasexercised an influence on the teaching they gave, resultingin an unnatural and unfortunate interference in people'slives and causing the weak to suffer (1964, vol. 25, p. 225).

In his eyes such ethnology may have lacked seriousness inits research motivation and placed too low a value on thepeople and culture of other nations.

Value o f comparative studies Although Yanagita pointedout what he regarded as weaknesses in ethnology and re-ligious studies, his own folklore study was not the narrowor nationalistic kind that would confine itself to one nationor assert that the way of life of any single nation was ab-solute. On the contrary, he affirmed the value of compara-tive studies and regarded his study of folklore as preparationfor this goal.

The comparative study of folklore still has a long way togo. We think of this comparative study as the final stageof human self-understanding and wait impatiently for theday it will come to maturity (1 96 4, vol.30, p. 70 .

We hop e and believe tha t sometime the day will comewhen the past of many nations that lack docum entaryrecords will be clarified through our method of study, and

tha t distinctions between our culture and theirs willdisappear as all cultures come to stand on an equal footingin a unitary study of world folklore (1964, vol. 25, p. 296).

He insisted that anthropology or the comparative study offolklore should be a science motivated by the desire forself-understanding. Criticizing Western ethnology for adopt-ing natural science and the theory of evolution as dogmas,Yanagita was of the opinion that in order to bring anthro-

Iupanese Jouniul of Religious Studies 7 X 3 June-Sep~eml er 198 95


14/33


15/33

YA N \ G I TA Kuni o : An I n t e r p r e t i ve lutly

spirit and judged everything from that point of view. Yana-gita criticized both. Against the rightists he contended that

it was unscientific to assert the importance of everythingJapanese without trying to investigate what the true Japa-nese spirit is. Against the leftists he maintained that it wasunscientific to investigate old ways with a certain plan orconviction already in mind 964, vol. 25, p. 325).

Scholars, he insisted, should observe and study the factswith an honest mind. What he meant by an honest mindappears similar to what Motoori meant by the term ma-

gokoro or sincere heart. Motoori says: In order to under-stand the human Way (michi) through study, one shouldfirst of all get to the bottom of the Chinese spirit (karagokoro) .... Fundamentally, the human way cannot beunderstood by study but only by the original 'sincere heart'which itself is the human way (Motoori 1968, vol. 1, p. 47).This outlook, together with the situation of the Japaneseacademic world in those turbulent days, appears to havebeen decisive in leading Yanagita to espouse a thoroughlyinductive method.

Yanagita and ancestor worship. In studying Japanese religionYanagita by no means forgot his inductive and empiricalmethodology. As mentioned above, his folklore researchaims at the deepest levels of the human spirit, so it naturallytook shape as a kind of sociology of religion. At the con-clusion of his study of religious feelings, festivals, ballads,and other phenomena, he offers it as his conclusion thatthe primitive pattern of the Japanese common man's re-ligion is ancestor worship, or more precisely, worship ofthe ancestral spirits. Viewed in terms of its results, Yana-gita's study of Japanese religion is in fact a study ofJapanese society as related to ancestor worship. UnlikeMotoori Norinaga or Origuchi Shinobu, however, Yanagitadid not himself believe in ancestor worship or make it his

Jupanesr Jr unrul of Religious Studies 7 2 4 June September 1980 9


16/33

own religion. Moreover, he neither absolutized nor uni-versalized it. His opinion was that ancestor worship, as theindigenous faith of the common people of Japan, was boundto seem most natural to them, and he went on t o justifythis view by asserting that ancestor worship gives the Japanesecommon man a sense of well-being. If it is permissible todistinguish between research method, on the one hand, andassessment of results, on the other, it would appear thatYanagita's method remained strictly empirical and inductive,while his evaluation was at once historical and pragmatic.

As for himself, Yanagita had contacts with Christianity,Buddhism (especially Zen), and of course with Shinto, butamong them all he felt most closely drawn to the mercifulbodhisattva Kannon. He put it thus: Once I hear thata temple is dedicated to Kannon, feel that I want to goinside (1975, p. 154). Sako Jun'ichirb, a Christian authorof the present day for whom Yanagita was a personal friend,wrote about him saying, I have never in my life met a manwho thought as seriously as Yanagita about the soul after

death (1969, p. 8 . It appears, then, that his intense inter-est in the soul after death was more than scholarly; it wasexistential.

The monograph e n z o n o h a na sh i [About our ancestors],a renowned result of his study of Japanese religiosity, waswritten in response to the urgent question of what wouldhappen to the souls of the many young people who diedin World War 11 It was in April and May 1945, not long

before the end of the war and in the midst of daily airraids, that Yanagita wrote this work. Surmising that thewar would soon be over and thinking about the many youngmen lying on battlefields in foreign countries, he declared,This time of all times we must devise a system in society

in accord with the nature of our people, something reliable,which will not be sacrificed through a reaction 1 962, vol. 10,pp. 151-152; Eng. transl., 1970, p. 20). With this intention,

9 Japanese Jourtrul o Religious Studies 7 / 2 4 J u n e S e p t e m b e r 198


17/33

Y N G I T Kunio: An Interpretive tutly

he tried to clarify Japanese religious sensibilities in orderto fmd a clue that would help answer the question of what

the new, postwar society should be like.For Yanagita ancestor worship, the core of the religionof the common people, is a natural and reasonable thinginasmuch as it has links both with family and with com-munity. He insists, however, that his idea of ancestorworship does not harmonize with that of the state as afamily (kazoku kokka), the official ideology of the Meijiand wartime Sh6wa governments. In his view one of thechief characteristics of Japanese religiosity is that the soulsof the dead, instead of going to the Pure Land or returningto nothingness, remain in Japan, especially in the mountainsnear their village communities. From there they watch overtheir descendants, who in turn communicate with them,welcome them on stated occasions, and see them off againby means of various religious observances throughout theyear. Yanagita therefore characterizes ancestor worshipas a kind of religious communication between the soulsof the ancestors and their descendants (1963, vol. 15 pp.5 60-5 6 1 . He himself felt favorably disposed toward it,deeming it too important to let go.

The thought that the soul even after death remainsin theland of the living makes me feel good perhaps becauseIam Japanese. If possible I want to stay in this land for-ever and perhaps from some small hill somewhere watchthis culture grow a bit more beautiful and see my studiesmake some small contribution to the world (1963, vol. 15,p. 561).

Nonetheless, Yanagita never embraced ancestor worshipfor himself. He explains this as follows:

I was no t so circumstanced that I always had to thinkabout my own happiness.... I decided to study the nativereligion because when I wondered how people could live

apanese ournal of Religious tudies 712 3 June September 1980


18/33

MORI Kbichi

happily and quietly, I knew it was not only because of ~ud-1hism (1975, p. 154).

Yanagita left this world without any instructions concern-ing his own funeral. Even folk Shinto he could not make hisown. Sako Jun'ichir6, in a reminiscence, said that Yanagitaonce told him: "I know where the soul is for the forty daysafter death, but I don't know what happens after that9'1

(1969, p . 8). Folklore research gave him an answer to the1question of the soul's whereabouts during the first forty1days after death; it gave him no basis for answering the1

question of the subsequent place of the soul, so he wouldgo no further.From a Buddhist or Christian point of view, Yanagita's

posture seems irreligious. As Nakamura Akira puts it:

Yanagita s standpoint is beyond doubt irreligious and scien-tific (1974, pp. 234-235).

IBy limiting himself to the study of folklore, he escaped

from the problems of philosophy and religion. He did nottouch the problem of man s ultimate way o f life, a prob-lem that should be confronted in the dimension of thought(1974, p. 130 .

I

This criticism, however, assumes the Western viewpointthat an existentially authentic way of life is the most cor-rect , the most serious, and the best. To apply this Westernyardstick to Yanagita himself, t o Japanese people, or to

Eastern peoples in general illustrates the deductive stand-point that Yanagita disliked most of all. His goal is tran-tquill ityof mind, both f o r himself an d for. Japanese peoplegenerally (Yanagita 1975, pp. 155-156). Though he didnot believe in any specific religion, he was, as Sako pointedout, a deeply religious man in the sense that his life wasspiritually rich. Even when he confronted an ultimateproblem that involved his own existence, Yanagita refused

100 Japanese Journal o Religious Studies 7 24 June September 198


19/33

YAN.U;ITA Kunio: An Interpretive Study

to draw any conclusions or make any declarations unlesshis method of study gave him a basis for doing so. 1 sup-

po rt , therefore, the opinion of Hashikawa Bunz6, wh ocharacterizes Yanagita's standp oint as th at o f a spirit sofree th at we cann ot conceive of it (1 97 3, p. 320 ).

P o e t i c i n t u i t i o n . One other characteristic of Yanagita'sm ethod olog y is his use o f poe tic intuitio n o r imaginativeinsight. As indicated abov e, Yanagita soug ht t o developfolklore stu dy into a science. He collected a vast qu an tity

of materials and from them tried to identify what is essen-tial to being Japanese, paying particular attention to thereligious consciousness of t h e com m on people. In th e workof induction, however, it is necessary, because of the un-systematic nature of popular tradit ions, to organize thematerials and correlate them by means of a definite re-search m etho d. Yanagita had eno ugh stud en ts and staffmembers that he could acquire materials for study fromall over Japan, and he instructed these people and taughtthem his m etho d of research. Th eir work, how ever, endedwhen th e necessary m aterials were collected. He did n o tlet them participate in th e wo rk of organizing them. Thish e did himself, relying o n his ow n imaginative power.

Ienaga Sabur6, criticizing Yanagita's method of synthesis,speaks of it as an a rt rath er th an a science.

In order to make his historical study both a science with'anoriginal methodology and something unique, he developedgreat efficiency in collecting materials through systematiccollaboration with other stu de nts i n the field, somethingthat had-no parallel in oth er academic circles. At the finalstage of unifying the materials and formulating the historicalsystem, however, he could not but depend on his own gifts.This is 'an art rather than a science, in the sense that thevalue of his study can be sustained only if the study is hisown 1973, p. 160).

krpanese Journal of Religious Studies 712 3 June-Septernl er 1980 1 1


20/33

Yet even while criticizing Yanagita in this way, Ienaga holds,on the one hand, that social science s h o ~ l d ely t o some

extent on individual ability and personality, but, on theother, that Yanagita s historical study depended t oo muchon his own individuality. Ienaga s remarks are not withoutpoint, but they also lack clarity. The regrettable thing isnot that Yanagita used his magnificent gifts, but that sofew people are equally qualified.

When analyzing and interpreting popular traditions, Yana-gita attached great value to the attitude of sympathy orempathy.

It is important to try to look at the old days with a feelingfor the time and situation. We need in a word sympathy.This can be said not only when we study the lives of ourancestors but also when we study other peoples of thepresent time. It is essential to empty ourselves if we wouldunderstand the reality 1962, vol. 16, p. 168).

It was on the basis of this kind of subjective orientation

that Yanagita organized his materials. It would be hasty,however, to conclude that his studies are merely productsof his own subjectivity. His studies result from his extensivereading, knowledge of popular traditions, and a rare intui-tion that saw into the essence of things and was assistedby his unusually strong memory. When we realize that hisfolklore studies made phenomena expressive of the humanmind or spirit the chief object of study and interpretation,we can understand that his intuitive power, as to poet,was in fact indispensable.

YANAGITAS WORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS TIME

Scope o f his social concern In view of the fact that Yanagitaspent his life during the period that Japan was taking shapeas a modern nation, a time that coincided with its evolve-ment into a totalitarian state under the ideology of the

lo apanese ournal of Religious Studies 7 / 2 4 June-Septeml er 198


21/33

emperor system, i t is important to consider his work inrelationship to the ideology of his t ime before proceeding

t o th e question of i ts significance fo r the present day.With respect to politics, Yanagita can be characterizedas a progressive conservative, a gradualist who sought im-provem ent while seeking t o preserve traditio nal values.When he s toppe d working fo r th e government in 192 0, hebecame an edi tor of th e newspaper known as theAsahishinbun a posit ion h e held until 193 0. This was the t imewh en Jap an was becoming increasingly militaristic. Yanagita'sedi torials show h ow advanced his ideas were. Of MussoIini'sfascism he wrot e, Without a shado w of do u b t, there isnoth ing we can learn from Italy Tho se wh o love theirnation should no t be so narrow-minded (1 96 3, suppl. vol.1 , p. 103). He ma intained th at cab inet ministers with re-sponsibility for the army and navy should be civilians, notmilitary officers (1963, suppl. vol. I pp . 120-1 22). Heopposed the suppression of dissidence under the Peace Pre-servation Law (1964, suppl. vol. 2, p . 122). He offeredwords o f encouragem ent to th e Laborers ' and Farmers'Party, a proletarian political body banned in the name ofthe same law on the day of i ts inauguration (1964, suppl.vol. 2 , pp . 325-3 27). He protested against the ImperiaiRescript on Education saying, We should no t think th atthe Imperial Rescript on Education expresses the wholeof Japane se mo rality (G ot 6 1 97 2, p. 42). He criticizedthis rescript for enforcing an emperor-system ideology

based on Confucian ethics and for neglecting the moralitytraditional among ordinary Japanese people.

Because of the stand he took against the education re-scrip t, Yanagita cam e in fo r criticism by right-wingers. Hisposition resulted from th e value he attached t o th e tradi-t ions of th e comm on man . Fro m th e r ight-wing point ofview he appeared as a liberal, bu t in fac t he had n o interestwhatever in social revolution. His conc ern was for th e


22/33

maintenance of tradition, a goal he regarded as calling forth e gradual, no t abrup t, improvem ent o f society and cul-

ture.Yanagita s criticisms of to talitaria n an d m ilitaristic policieswere no t, it should be no ted , thoroughgoing. Th er e wasa point beyond which he refused t o go, and therefore hisviews never got him in to serious trouble. A fte r retiringfrom th e Asahi shinbun, h e m ade a lmost n o s ta tements a tall about poli t ical matters but devoted himself entirely tothe s tudy of fo lklore . ( I t was about th is t ime, as notedabove, that h e started using th e word jdmin in preferencet o th e word heimin.) He never con fronted th e rise ofmilitarism in th e 19 30 s directly, whethe r politically o r aca-dem ically. T h e chief reason fo r this lies in his view of lifean d sense of values. Fr om his Watakushi no tetsugaku [Myphilosop hy] we kn ow th at his ultimate social concern wasthe happiness of the individual in day- today l i fe (1975 ,p. 153). His conception of the individual was no t tha t ofan a ut on om ou s subject guided by his own will, bu t on ewhose daily life has its foundation in the group, in thehousehold th at is itself part of a small co m m un ity. It wasthe happiness of persons in these circumstances that wasof greatest value t o him. He did no t, however, go beyondthis assertion of t h e impo rtance of happiness for th e peoplet o a ny ideological o r principled criticism of policies o r in-stitutions that prevented the realization of this happiness.

Em peror-system ideology. Yanagita s failure t o criticizethe emperor-system ideology of his day is often cited asa defe ct. During his governm ental career, he served for atime as a secretary to the Imperial Household Agency andappears to have been a comm it ted supporter of the emperorsystem. When th e present empe ror ascended the throne ,Yanagita proposed an am en dm ent t o t h e daijcjsai, th e su-premely sacred cerem ony im mediately after th e coronation

1 1 apunese ocmlul of Religious turlirs 7. '-3 June Srpkml~er 98


23/33

when the new emperor first presents grain offerings toAmaterasu 6mikami and the various kami of heaven and

earth (1964, vol. 31 , pp. 376-381). T h e fact tha t he wasin a position to express an opinion on this ceremony showsthat he had acquired certain privileges as a result of hispublic career within th e system.

He himself preferred to speak not of the emperor-systemideology but of loyalty t o th e emperor.

I do not want to make a definite statement about the em-peror system as such, but to tell the truth I have a sense

of loyalty to the emperor. I think we should be loyal tothe emperor whatever the situation The problem of theemperor is almost identical with the problem of the destinyof the Japanese people. I t is a matter of religious feeling(1975,pp. 161-162).

This loyalty, then , embraces the em peror not only as aperson bu t also as a religious sym bol (cf. Mori 1979).

Yanagita's National Learning studies an d his experienceas a public official under the emperor system seems to haveexerted some influence on his interpretation of folkloredata. Th is influence seems evident, for exam ple, in his treat-ment of the Grand Shrine of Ise where worship is offeredto Amaterasu bmikami, the sun goddess from whom theimperial family is said t o be descended. Alluding to themyths contained in the Kojiki Yanagita speaks of the con-frontat ion between the amatsukami ( gods of heaven7')

and the kunitsukami ( gods of th e earth ) as reflecting aconfron tation between foreign conqu erors (t h e ancestorsof the imperial family) and the original inhabitants. Withreference t o th e lat ter and their kami h e continues:

The kunitsuk mi of the prehistoric age were divided intotwo groups. The m ajority, connected with people wholived in the villages, were assimilated into the ancestry ofthe imperial family; the rest went with those who lived in


24/33

the mountains and became known as men of the moun-tains sanjin) 1963, vol. 4, p. 177).

He first saw the co nfro ntatio n between the original inh abitan tsand the foreign tribe as a religious confrontation betweenpolytheistic ancestor worship and worship of the universalsun goddess. Yanagita fo un d, thou gh , tha t the Ise Shrineceremonies contain indications of faith in the tutelary deityujigami) of t h e priestly family itself. Fr om this fact he

inferred that the relationship between the sun goddess faith

and the tutelary deity faith was continuo us (19 63 , vol.1 1p. 3 8 . Th is idea of con tinu ity reflects his view tha t th eJapanese people of prehistoric times came into being throughthe fusion of many different races without outright tribalor ritual conflict. It reflects, in o th er wo rds, his belief th atthe unity of the Japanese people with the emperor at theircenter came abo ut no t as a result of subjugation b ut as analmost spontaneous occurrence.

Yanagita did not set himself into direct opposition tothe ab solutistic emperor-system ideology. Indirectly, how -ever, the value he attached t o the com mon man and to thescientific method constituted a criticism of that ideology.His empirical study of popular religion, for example, ledhim only to the ancestor worship rooted in the householdand to the tutelary deity worship roo ted in th e com mu nity.Nothing that would justify the ideology of the emperoras head of a so-called family-state came o u t of his re-search . His stu dy was in fact critical, therefo re, of themodern Japanese state insofar as it relied on such an ide-ology and sought t o unite people under an em peror-centeredState S hinto by exploiting the religious tradition s of ordinarypeople (1 96 2, vol. 10 , p . 33 ).

It was this difference between research results an d th eclaims of em peror-system ideologues tha t led h im, as no ted ,to distinguish between the Shinto of historians and theo-


25/33

Y \ S \ c ; ~ f . \ i un io : n nterpretive Study

logians who dealt solely with the ojiki and Nihon shokiand the Shinto of the common man whose fa i th , despi te

changes, wen t back t o prehistoric times. He regarded th etradit ions of the common man as the source from whichto build up the most veritable picture of the native faith.This standpoint implied a criticism of the official faith thatrelied on ojiki and Nihon shoki my ths in order to fabricatea n otion of t h e state-as-a-family with th e e m pero r as itspaterfamilias. No wh ere doe s Yanagita even com m ent o nthis notion.

Mo re directly, Yanagita oppo sed th e state policy tha tcalled for amalgamating small local shrines and incorporat-ing all shrines into a single hierarc hy 1 9 6 2 , vol. 1 0, p. 39) .Th is policy rested on the officially pro m oted idea th atSh into was not a religion bu t an institution fo r th e ritualexpression of pa trio tic feeling. Yanagita cou ntered thisidea, maintaining that the relationship between the peoplean d t he shrines is unm istakably religious 19 62 , vol. 10 ,pp. 4 3 1-432).

As indicated above, Yanagita deeply respected the em-peror a nd did no t question his r ight t o occupy that status.At the same time, however, his chief social concern wasth e h appiness of ord inary peo ple living in families andsmall com mu nities. This concern led him to protest againstpolicies that suppressed dissident thought and forced peoplein to war. His prote sts, how ever, were never stat ed in sucha way as t o invite govern men t reaction. Unlike some Japa-

nese Marxists and religious people who chose the way ofopen resistance, Yanagita concealed himself during the mili-taristic storm . While waiting for it t o pass, he prepared t ogive people clues that would enable them to choose forthemselves, on the basis of a self-understanding arrived atthrough reflection on their own tradit ions, the course theywould follow when th e storm passed.

Those who openly resisted particularistic nationalism


26/33

did so in th e na m e o f a universal religious o r ideologicalcom mitm ent. Yanagita chose a different way, bu t his free

spiri t , fvmly based on the ideas of the value of the commonman and the value of science, likewise contained universalelements that enabled him to transcend narrow particularism.

In sum, Yanagita was seeking a way of overcoming theevils that followed in the wake of a modernization programth at ignored the very people o n whom its success dep ende d.This he did through developing an immanent understandingof the life and spirit of the common man, and implicitlythrough criticizing the government-sponsored emperor-sys-tem ideology and policies that thwarted human happiness.As G o t6 pu ts it, He tried to discover, in the l ife of thepeo ple overlooked by th e state, a principle th at wouldtranscend the contradictions of the modern world and ofmo dernization 197 2, pp. 134-1 35 .

CONTEM PORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF YANAGITA S WORK

Scientific rigor and religious tolerance The foregoing ob-servations o n Yanagita's m ethodo logy and his stan ce relativeto the nationalism and ideological absolutism of his dayindicate th e con sistency of his ideas and im ply a certainevaluation of his work. T h e clear mo tivation of his research,his conception of the common man, and his insistence onthe em pirical-inductive meth od cons titute an im po rtan tcriticism of many other approaches to the study of religion.Those who study religions other than their own out of

mere curiosity, those who try to find analogies among allreligions by starting from a universal concept of man with-out thoroughly studying actual human beings, and thosewho too hastily try to fashion a universal understandingof man in order to pro m ote hum an coexistence-for allsuc h people Yanagita's work sou nd s a great warning againstresting content with externals and against deductive dog-matism.

I 0 8 Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 7 / 2 4 June Septernher 1980


27/33

Y.\N.I ;IT.~ Kunio: An Interpretive Stucly

As for his attitude toward people with religious orienta-tions he himself could not swallow, Yanagita learned the

lesson of tolerance. He expresses his tolerant attitude ingeneral terms, then tells how he learned it.

I want them to realize what they believe in, without inter-fering, if they truly believe in it from the bottom of theirhearts. It is easy to tear down wh at others have. I knowof many people, however, who, when what they had wasdestroyed, could not find anything to replace it and straight-way fell into a dissolute life. ThereforeI respect the ideathat everyone should rely on what he freely believes in.Having this feeling, I w ould no t dissuade my daughter ifshe wanted t o become a Christian.

In the past I acted contrary to this idea, and nowI amsorry for what I did. My elder sister-in-law had a strongChristian faith and was baptized. I attacked her with ameaningless argument. Since she was powerless against mywords, she gave up her faith, but soon afterwards, she died.I feel very sorry for her, thinking that she must have beenanxious during her last moments 1 975, p. 157).

For himself, Yanagita found Christianity, Confucianism,and most forms of Buddhism uncongenial. But after thisexperience, he became a staunch proponent of religioustolerance in interpersonal relations. He has nothing againstdebate between people of different religious commitments,but he warns us, in effect, against undermining the valuesthat give a person hope and confidence in this life and thenext.

Presentday responses to Yanagita The difference betweenYanagita s day and ours is great. He was raised in a timewhen people still drew light and warmth from the lingeringflame of Edo period culture. He himself was happy to havelived in such a time.

The happiness of folklorists born in today s Japanis some-thing special. I t was only a little while ago th at Japan

luprrnrsr Jr rtmul of Rdigiorts Studies 7 / 2 4 June-Septernl er 198 I B


28/33

opened her doors to foreign nations. Most Japanese peoplebelong to the folk, to use the English term, and evenamong those of us who have been modernized, folkelements remain 1964, vol. 25, p. 257).

Every t ime he stepped out his front gate, he found newstud y material. Bu t in m an y respects th at da y is past.

Yanagita thought that ancestor worship, the basic formof popular, indigenous religion, was essential to the com-m on people's sense of well-being. To da y, how ever, w iththe progress of modernization, many people, without anyparticular signs of reluctance, give up not only ancestorworship but also their residence in the land of their birth.In Yanagita's day , mo st ordinary people w ere farm ers; theirties to the land were part of their lives. Today most ordinarypeople have moved to the cities and become laborers. Itwou ld seem, therefore, that Yanagita's con cept of thecom mo n man is o ut of date. At a t ime when state pow er,industrialization, and modernization in general are bringingabout the collapse of community, his idea of ancestor wor-ship as the unifying basis for the family and, by extension,for the co m m un ity n o longer seems effective.

Among those who have written on Yanagita, TsurumiKa zuk o evaluates his work highly. She thinks th at Yanagitaforesaw t h e sad outcom e of modernization-farmers andfishermen rapidly decreasing n number as urban laborers,cut off from land, kin, an d com mu nity, increase at an

incredible speed (1974, p. 180 . She maintains that hisconcept of the com mo n man offers a challenge to theWestern con cept of mod ernization.

I myself find it difficult t o agree with this particularevaluation. I thin k tha t we have t o accep t the reality oftoday's largely urban society and not pretend that we wouldb e b ette r o ff living in villages an d cultivating fields. A fte rall, Yanagita himself accepted the changes time wrought.

11 apanese ournal o Religious Studies 7 2 4 June-Septernher 198


29/33


30/33

m aintains th at th ey fo und in his folklore studies a mirrorin which th ey could examine themselves an d a sou rce

o f su pp or t for fascism-oppressed spirits when the y we reweak (1 97 2, p. 7 .T h e second tim e was th e period aft er World War 11.

Quite apart from the motivation provided by ideologicaloppression, a nu m ber of people came to take an interestin Yanagita's w ork , p articularly a fte r th e failure of th epolitical struggle to preven t ratification o f th e Japan-U.S.Security Treaty in 1 960 . Their turn t o Yanagita was asign of their reflection o n th e deficiencies of Marxist tho ugh tin Jap an . G o t6 himself is on e of these people. Perhapsit ma y b e said th at a stu dy o f Yanagita's wo rk is a processth at Japanese Marxists need t o go throug h in ord er t o in-digenize their universal ideology.

T h e down t o earth effect of studying Yanagita comeso u t q ui te differently in th e case of Tanigawa Ken'ichi. Tani-gawa, once a Catholic, gave up his faith for two reasons:th e Catholic Church's cooperation in th e war e ffort , andits clinging to Western forms of thought while claiminguniversality. Fo r ab ou t a decade he cast ab ou t, hun tingfor an alternative. For ab ou t ten years after th e warI waslooking for a resilient way of thought suitable to the soilof Japan. I t was as I was wandering about but f inding noexit that I enco untered the work of Yanagita (Tanigawa19 73 , pp . 20-21). He thereup on becam e o n e of Yanagita'sstudents and continues the tradit ion of folklore research

t o th e present day.Judging from these responses to Yanagita's work, I find

considerable merit in Um esao Tad ao's rem ark th at Yana-gita's work effectively provides us with a landing point thatprevents our thoughts from spinning round and round inth e air above th e land of Japan (1 97 3, p. 113 .

Yanagita's wo rk do es no t have th e power t o establishin a person a strong sense of subjecthoo d. F o r this, on e


31/33

may have to turn to Marxism or Christ ianity.But both ofthese will remain confined to a small minority of people

as long as they go round and round in the air above theland of Japan, all the while insisting that they are universal.Finally, as Yanagita's work becomes known outside Ja-

pan, it may make a significant methodological contributionto people in developing nations who see the importanceof folklore and religious studies. I myself think that hismethodology is likely to prove more effective than thatof m an y W estern scholars. If, in fu tu re , a genuine inter-national study of folklore is established, Yanagita willdou btless be recognized as o ne of its most outstandingpioneers.

References

GOTO S i > i c h i r 6 jGi +--l?fi19 7 2 ktlrlgitrr K I I J I ~ ~ot josrtsn ill 11 l l) I i:,iIi. [ n t r o d u c -

t ior1 to t h e s t u d y of Ya n a g i t a K u n i o ] . 'l'o kso : 1 ) (v 1 ti ,t o (;c~r~cl;risll;l.

I r \ ~ k ~ ~ ~ < . \ ~ ~ . \h r l x i ~ h Jll :19 '7 :{ Yi t r l a~ i t aKi rn io . In ; )TO Si,ic.Il iri , j%ji i , . I d.

IIifo to shis6 )'crnrrgitrr Kruzio \ 2.$ Nlll l 4 YjI 'l'h c m a l l a n d h i s t h o u g h t: Ya n a g i t a K u r i i o ] . ' I ' o k Yo:Sari ' i t su Sl ro l ) i , .

EX;\(;;\ S a I ) u r i ) 2& :l>l;m \ I ' a n a n i t a s h i g a k u r o nPIIFHQ,'?& [ Ya n a g i ta ' s w a y of

s t u d y i n g h i s to r y ] . 111 ; )TO i t i ch i r i , j+t @- - , d.f l i to to shisd Y i l w ~ g i f nKtc~rio 2 $.$ f i l l[I I j[ ' l 'hc marl and h i s th o u g h t: Ya n a g it a K u n i o ] To k y o:S a r r ' i t s u S h o h i ~ .

~ s I ~ I I . \ kLiic11iri1 {;Ill:$- -lWi:i l i n fi n is h rd h u t r n d i n ~ :Y a n a ~ i t a K un io ' s folklore-

stuclivs. Jnprru q ~ ( ~ r t r r l ~ ( J a n u a r y - \ l a r c h ) : :{ i42

Jupunesr Jourml o Xe1igiou.v Studies 7 I - : ( I une-Septrmlwr 1980 I13


32/33

1 upunesc ournul of r l i g i o ~ sStudies 742 3 June September 198


33/33

\ . \ N . \ c ; l l . \ K u n i o : A n I n t e r p r e t i v e S t u d y

J ? l f li i S di 7 /2 3 J S l 198 5

jupanese journal of religious studies 712-3

Documents