국학자와 고전학 - 賀茂真淵와 本居宣長를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Mabuchi was the teacher of Norinaga, and although broadly speaking they shared the same common group of Kokugaku, which constituted their ideological system, they each had a considerable number of conflicting opinions or values, where they were not in agreement with each other. For instance, both believed in the restoration ideology that states: “it is possible to fix the world by using ancient times as a model.” However, Mabuchi considered the Manyosyu to be the most important document to elucidate the sense and the spirit of ancient times, whereas Norinaga pointed out that Mabuchi was so absorbed with Manyosyu that he failed to develop any profound thinking on the Kojiki or the Nihonsyoki, and was therefore unable to reveal Tao thinking properly. Norinaga himself was able to elucidate Tao thinking through research on the two aforementioned documents, professing his pride and the originality of Tao in his writings. One can say that the essence of Norinaga’s Kokugaku is in accepting the Kiki myth in folklore as “reality” and clarifying it. Also, Mabuchi rejected the idea of the human being as the lord of Creation, whereas Norinaga strongly criticized Mabuchi’s point of view that placed humans at the same level as beasts, considering humans to be special beings in Creation. As one can see from Norinaga’s criticisms of Mabuchi, there is a wide difference of opinions among Japanese Kokugaku scholars, not only in terms of the documents of their study but also in terms of the essence of their ideology. One can say that it shows the characteristics of Japanese Kokugaku, in which the content of the ideology that they are claiming is not pursued or established within a principle or system, but in the form of an antithesis, which is established and progressed by denying or opposing an existing or specific theme or opinion.