FROM COUNTRY TO NATION by Gideon Fujiwara

Author:Gideon Fujiwara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CORNELL EAST ASIA SERIES
Published: 2020-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Thus, Rosen challenged the theories of Zhang Zai and other Song Confucianists for their interpretation of kishin as abstract and lifeless, and argued they were in fact “real” and dynamic, with personified features. He asserted that documentation of spiritual matters in China was sparse and misleading. In emphasizing the power and actions of deities, Rosen argued that references to “heaven” in Chinese writings in fact referred to creation deities from the Japanese pantheon—Ame no minakanushi no kami and Musubi no kami. He identified their functions, stating, “these deities created heaven and earth, gave birth to the solar deity and lunar deity, make the four seasons function, and give life to all things and such. They are truly wondrous, truly mysterious, and incomprehensible events are entirely the works of these great deities; the four seasons do not change on their own.”66 As central themes throughout the text, Rosen asserted that spirits (kishin) were living, personified entities with “minds” and “corporeality,” and that the three creator deities of the myths narrated in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki—Ame no minakanushi no kami, Kamu musubi no kami, and Takami musubi no kami—possessed the ability to create heaven and earth, as well as the solar and lunar deities, and to cause seasonal change.

What was Rosen’s reason for writing New Treatise on the Spirit Realm? He stated his purpose clearly in the first volume:

However, the Great Man of Ibukinoya was the only one to argue the fact that spirits (kishin) are real entities that have minds and corporeality, and explained the truth of the matter that they must be greatly feared and respected, and this terribly startled people in the world and caused them to fear. And so, while an unlearned person like me can add little more, [let me say that] this Kishin shinron from the Old Man (Okina), which is still a manuscript and not yet a published book, is a rare find in our country of Tsugaru (waga Tsugaru no kuni), and it is terribly lamentable that there are so few people who have seen it. And so, with this text as a basis, I write all that I have collected from here and there over the years regarding matters of spirits (kishin), and wish to show it to my friends, people who are unaware of gods (kami), and reveal to them the notable evidence of their great spiritual power, which must be feared and respected . . .67

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