When Tengu Talk

WHEN TENGU TALK: HIRATA ATSUTANE'S ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE OTHER WORLD . By Wilburn Hansen . Honolulu : University of Press , 2008 . Pp. vii + 268 . Cloth, $54.00 . Hansen addresses an undervalued aspect of early modern Japanese intellectual history, namely inquiries into the supernatural by Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843). Atsutane was a seminal scholar of kokugaku, or Nativism, who promoted the reestablishment of Japan's “ancient ways” as he denigrated “foreign” traditions such as Buddhism and Chinese teachings. In When Tengu Talk, Hansen introduces us to Atsutane's 1822 treatise Senkyō ibun (Strange Tales of the Land of Immortals), which consists primarily of Atsutane's interviews with Torakichi, a young boy from the Edo slums who claimed to have been raised in the mountains by supernatural beings called tengu. Hansen counters dominant interpretations in kokugaku studies that marginalize Senkyō ibun as a “superstitious” curiosity in Atsutane's oeuvre. Instead, he treats this work as a serious attempt by the Nativist scholar to compose a thick description of the “other world” and discover native Japanese religious virtuosi (called sanjin) who are superior to Buddhist bodhisattvas and Daoist immortals. The author argues thereby that Senkyō ibun not only serves as an important source of religious justifications for Japanese nationalism, but as a legitimate example of anthropological inquiry by an early modern thinker. Hansen is perhaps overly enthusiastic in making his case, as his descriptions of Atsutane's “ethnography” at times create the impression that the Tokugawa-era scholar thought of himself in terms created by late twentieth-century anthropologists. Also, the book would have benefited from the inclusion of at least a partial critical translation of Senkyō ibun in lieu of some redundant exposition on theoretical concerns. However, the six chapters and conclusion include long translated passages supplemented by interpretation that will prove useful to students of intellectual history, anthropology, religion, and cultural studies, and Hansen's reinterpretation of Atsutane as ethnographer promises to inspire new conversations among scholars of early modern Japan

Aesthetics · Art · Buddhism · Curiosity · Ethnography · Literature · Nationalism · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Anthropology · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies