- 著者
-
島薗 進
- 出版者
- 東京大学文学部宗教学研究室
- 雑誌
- 東京大学宗教学年報 (ISSN:02896400)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- no.13, pp.1-16, 1995
Those theories that insist there are definite personality or cultural traits which are unique to the Japanese alone are called u Nihonjin-ron", or "Japan Theory". Since the post World War II period up to the present, Nihonjin-ron have been produced and consumed on a large scale in Japan. Since about 1980, more and more Nihonjin-ron have dealt with religion as a main subject. These Nihonjin-ron evaluate positively what they assume to be a unique Japanese religiosity. For this reason, I call them "affirmative Japan Religion theory". Such theorists argue, for example, that animism preserved since the Jomon period, constitutes a stratum on the Japanese religious consciousness. This animistic religiosity has the capacity to overcome the limit actions of modern rationalism and of Western Civilization. The prototype of such affirmative Japan Religion theory may be found in Motoori Norinaga who wrote during the Tokugawa period, but emerged again between 1930 and 1945. Since the 1980s we have been witnessing a second resurgence that corresponds with the internationalization and neo-nationalism of a wealthy society.