Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Philip Fountain, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. 

ABSTRACT

This talk introduces the construction of a Shinto discourse by Nativist scholars, in particular Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843), for overcoming an epistemological and national crisis that was intensified by threatening knowledge of Christianity and Western astronomy and the threat of Russian colonization from the north at the turn of the nineteenth century. The basic category of this Shinto discourse is the “gods” or in Japanese, the kami. The goal of this construction was to mobilize the agency of the gods for structuring a new, supreme form of knowledge in establishing a new human subject position which could save the nation from the deepening crisis. This talk addresses this question: how were the Nativists able to creatively integrate the Catholic doctrine of salvation and the astronomical knowledge of sun, earth and moon as three separate yet related physical entities with the Divine Age narratives of Kojiki and Nihon shoki, two local texts elevated as canons of the teaching about the kami which however mention nothing about salvation or astronomy? Investigating this question leads us to the heretofore ignored tensions in Shinto which characterized religion and science in early modern Japan and had deep political implications.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Zhong Yijiang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Religion and Globalization Cluster of Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore. His research interests concern historical issues of religion, knowledge, and political power in East Asia. His dissertation which he is revising into a manuscript is a “biography” of a Shinto god who challenged and compromised the authority of the imperial ancestor the Sun Goddess in nineteenth century Japan. While currently exploring the constitutiveness of religious freedom for the nation-state, he is also interested in researching into religion and culture from the perspective of space.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP to Mr Jonathan Lee at Email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg