God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory Ancient Myths and Modern Empire
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
David Weiss is Assistant Professor of Japanese Premodern Literatures and Languages at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.The first in-depth study in the English language of Susanoo. <i>Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory</i> is a welcome addition to the growing literature on Japanese deities and Japan’s colonial history, as well as the question of Korea in Japanese intellectual history more generally.
Sujung Kim, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, DePauw University, USA
David Weiss has tackled the long overdue task of heaping Amaterasu’s ‘shady’ brother out of the shadows, arguing for his importance not only in Japanese mythology and Shinto, but also for political purposes under Japanese Imperialism. Uncovering the ‘Korean link’ of Susanoo together with his representations and interpretations not only benefits scholars, but it also supplies under- and postgraduate students with an authoritative introduction to Susanoo and the diverse roles he plays in Japan’s cultural memory.
Juljan E. Biontino, Assistant Professor of Japanese and Korean Modern History at Chiba University, Japan
This book discusses how ancient Japanese mythology was utilized during the colonial period to justify the annexation of Korea to Japan, with special focus on the god Susanoo. Described as an ambivalent figure and wanderer between the worlds, Susanoo served as a foil to set off the sun goddess, who played an important role in the modern construction of a Japanese national identity.
Susanoo inhabited a sinister otherworld, which came to be associated with colonial Korea. Imperialist ideologues were able to build on these interpretations of the Susanoo myth to depict Korea as a dreary realm at the margin of the Japanese empire that made the imperial metropole shine all the more brightly. At the same time, Susanoo was identified as the ancestor of the Korean people. Thus, the colonial subjects were ideologically incorporated into the homogeneous Japanese “family state.”
The book situates Susanoo in Japan’s cultural memory and shows how the deity, while being repeatedly transformed in order to meet the religious and ideological needs of the day, continued to symbolize the margin of Japan.
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Introduction
Part I. BLURRED BOUNDARIES AND LIMINAL IDENTITIES
1. At the Margin of the Divine Country: Korea in Japanese Cultural Imagination
2. A Foil to Set Off the Sun Goddess: Susanoo in the Ancient Sources
3. Passion for Transgression: Susanoo’s Liminal Character
Part II. POLITICAL MYTHOLOGY: A GENEALOGY OF SUSANOO’S CONNECTION TO KOREA
4. “I Do Not Want to Stay in This Land”: Susanoo’s Sojourn to Korea in the Ancient Court Chronicles
5. The God with a Thousand Faces: Susanoo and His Alter Egos in Medieval Mythology
6. Korea as a Realm of Death: Susanoo and Korea in Modern Discourses
EPILOGUE: After the War: Susanoo in Scholarship, Tourism, and Popular Culture
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The Shinto tradition is an essential component of Japanese religious culture. In addition to indigenous elements, it contains aspects mediated from Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and, in more recent times, Western religious culture as well—plus, various forms of hybridization among all of these different traditions. Despite its cultural and historical importance, Shinto Studies have failed to attract wide attention partly due to the lingering effects of Japanese ultranationalist propaganda during World War II that made use of aspects of Shinto. The Series makes available to a broad audience a number of important academic works that help dispel widespread misconceptions, according to which Shinto is intrinsically related to Japanese nationalism and constitutes the essence of Japanese culture. By putting such stereotypes into perspective, the series promotes further research and understanding of what is still an underdeveloped field.
Editorial Board
Irit Averbuch, Associate Professor of Japanese Culture, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Erica Baffelli, Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Manchester, UK
Heather Blair, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
John Breen, Professor of Japanese History, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan
Bernard Faure, Professor of Japanese Religions, Columbia University, New York, USA
Allan Grapard, Professor of Japanese Religions Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Helen Hardacre, Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University, USA
Sato Hiroo, Professor of Japanese Intellectual History, Tohoku University, Japan
Max Moerman, Associate Professor of Japanese Religions, Barnard College at Columbia University, USA
Bernhard Scheid, Senior Researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Mark Teeuwen, Professor of Japanese Cultural history, Oslo University, Norway
Sarah Thal, Associate Professor of Japanese History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA