How did Norinaga Motoori develop his Geographical Knowledge in his Youth?

Abstract

The circulation of knowledge is made through the complex interrelationship between invention and reception in various contexts. In the study of geographical knowledge in the Edo era in Japan, however, while there has been a great deal of research into its creation, we are unable to sufficiently understand the process of receiving and developing geographical knowledge.The focus of this paper is on Norinaga Motoori (1730-1801), who was one of the most famous scholars of ancient Japanese thought and culture in the Edo era, and an analysis is given of how he received and developed his geographical knowledge in his youth.First, it is necessary to understand the context of his reception of geographical information in his youth. Two important factors are indicated in the second section: the economic and cultural context of Matsusaka where he lived, and the environment of his primary education.The geographical materials provided by Norinaga in his youth are surveyed in the third section. Norinaga left eight books about geography, and six of these are clearly dated. It has been already noticed that other published books of his time have been influenced by the style and content of these, except for Dainihon-tenka-shikai-gazu, which will be explored later. We will also discover how books about Kyoto were important for Norinaga.He wrote a great many documents besides geographical ones. According to all of them, he broadened his interests from the writings of Ekiken Kaibara (who was one of the most popular scholars at that time), Buddhism, pedigree of the Imperial Court, to Japanese poetry and tales. It is not difficult to imply that these interests shaped and were shaped by Norinaga's georaphical interests. We can confirm these relationships based on the dating of these materials.In the fourth sedtion, I discuss the experiences from his trips. He traveled six times before he was 23 years old, and, among these, the trips to Kyoto and Edo were very important experiences for him when he was 16 years old. He began to write papers and draw maps about Kyoto just after the trip to Kyoto, which was the first full-scale trip for him. Although it was only one month between his return from Kyoto and the departure for Edo, he also sketched the topography of his hometown, Matusaka-syoran, during that month. he was able to do this because of his experience of other places outside of Matsusaka. On the other hand, after he returned from Edo one year later, he wrote nothing about Edo. Instead, he started to create a map of japan, Dainihon-tenka-shikai-gazu.Upon closer scrutiny in the fifth section, it becomes clear that Dainihon-tenka-shikai-gazu was also made under the influence of various published maps about Japan, especially the most popular map, Ryusenzu. We can understand that he knew, the 'shape' of Japan with a high degree of accuracy and that he wanted to draw the right map of Japan by combining various maps. This is in contrast to places outsede of Japan, such as Gando and Rasetshukoku, which were rendered inaccurately. We can understand that Norinaga was interested in Japan itself.There are over 3000 place-names in the map, and much of this information was taken out of a road map published in 1744. We can also find that some place-names were cited from other maps or books, such as names around Kyoto, Ise, and Mt. Fuji. In addition, he had experiences of going to these places. Some information, suh as distances, is emphasized in it, while other information regarding places of scenic or cultural interest is absent. This shows clearly that his travel experiences also influenced his cartographic work. He seems to have made this map with the intention of providing practical and logistical information. These motives reveal the other name of the map, Dainihon-ooezu-koteiki.