Motoori Norinaga (redirected from Motôri Norinaga)

Motoori Norinaga

(born June 21, 1730, Matsuzaka, Japan—died Nov. 5, 1801, Matsuzaka) Japanese Shinto scholar. Trained as a physician, he came under the influence of the Kokugaku movement, which stressed the importance of Japan's literary heritage. The critical methods he used in his commentaries on Japanese classics provided the theoretical foundation of the modern Shinto revival. Rejecting Buddhist and Confucian interpretations, he traced the genuine spirit of Shinto to Japanese myths and sacred traditions. He reaffirmed the ancient Japanese concept of musubi (the mysterious power of all creation and growth), which has become one of the main tenets of modern Shinto.

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Motoori Norinaga 

Born 1730, in Matsuzaka, Ise Province; died there, Sept. 29, 1801. Japanese philologist and linguist of the National Learning movement.

Opposing the Japanese sinologists, Motoori rejected Confucianism and Buddhism and applied himself to the study of ancient Japanese literature, which had become incomprehensible because of its archaic language and writing system. His commentary on the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters; 712) was a panegyric to the age-old traditions and culture of Japan. Motoori idealized the governmental structure of ancient Japan and called for a revival of Shintoism and the cult of the emperor.

Motoori wrote in the old Japanese written language, avoiding Sinicisms as much as possible. However, for his prose translation of the Collection of Old and New Songs (tenth century), he used the emergent national language, providing a model for its western variant.

As an ideologist, Motoori helped to lay the foundations for bourgeois-monarchist nationalism, while undermining the foundations of the shogunate.