The Sandaikō Debate: The Issue of Orthodoxy in Late Tokugawa Nativism

Abstract

This article singles out a turning point in the development of the Nativist School (kokugaku), which was initiated by the so-called Sandaiko debate. A detailed analysis of this debate indicates that the issue at stake was actually the methodological approach of evidential learning in the tradition of kokugaku's pre-eminent figure Motoori Norinaga. This quasi-scientific approach was challenged by Hirata Atsutane who spearheaded the reintroduction of a metaphysical, speculative exegesis of the Japanese classical texts. Combining ideas about the origin of the universe, the land of Japan, and the destiny of the individual soul, he opened the way for kokugaku to develop into a politico-religious ideology. Atsutane's religious form of kokugaku was to play a prominent role in subsequent Shinto developments.