Kokugaku in Meiji-Period Japan ─ The Modern Transformation of 'National Learning' and the Formation of Scholarly Societies

Wachutka, director of the Center for Japanese Thought at Doshisha U., presents a groundbreaking study of Japanese "national learning" known as kokugaku, which he argues isn't historically peculiar to the Edo-period as has been thought. Instead, it underwent restructuring and transformation during the Meiji period and survives today in national literary and historical studies. The first four chapters deal with early Meiji involvement of kokagaku scholars in the public sphere. The study focuses therefore on those late-Edo actors and scholars who helped to transform kokugaku. Chapters five through eight examine different case studies of kokugaku in the private sphere including scholarly and other special-interest learning networks. Global Oriental is an imprint of Brill Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Wachutka, Dr. phil. (2007), University of Tubingen, Germany, is the Director of the Tubingen University Center for Japanese Language at Doshisha University in Kyoto. He has published several monographs and articles on Japanese intellectual history, national identity, and religion.