Kokugaku in Meiji-period Japan
Subtitle: the modern transformation of 'national learning' and the formation of scholarly societies
By: by Michael Wachutka
Publisher: Global Oriental
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 313
ISBN-13: 9789004235304
Subjects: Shinto and state; Intellectual life; Religion and state; Universities and colleges; Learned institutions and societies; Nationalism; Kokugaku; History
Description: Kokugaku in Meiji-period Japan offers a new perspective on scholarly networks and the foundations of modern Japan. Utilizing never explored original sources and with a unique focus on the persons involved, Michael Wachutka elucidates how kokugaku as a cornucopia of traditional knowledge played an important role in raising a new generation of truly national citizens. Commonly perceived as a purely premodern Edo-period phenomenon, 'national learning' counterbalanced an overly Westernization of society in the process of nation building and identity formation.

In addition to kokugaku activities in religious administration and higher education, Wachutka provides a compelling account of the organization and endeavour of three successive academic societies whose most prominent members served as junction of kokugaku's intellectual network in Meiji Japan. -- Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.