A Reflection on "The Pirate" : Akinari's Attempt to Answer the Question of Wakonkansai (Attaining the Chinese Knowledge but Maintaining the Japanese Spirit) through a Narrative

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  • 「海賊」論 : <和魂漢才>説の物語的解答の試み
  • カイゾク ロン ワコンカンサイ セツ ノ モノガタリテキ カイトウ ノ ココロ

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Abstract

What Akinari was intensely aware in such stories as "The Bloody Gown," "A Winged Maiden" and "The Pirate" in Harusame Monogatari are the fatalistic view of life represented by such concepts as fuguhakumei (predestined obscurity and early death) and tenroku (predetermined life-span) and the problem of wakonkansai, or attaining the Chinese knowledge but maintaining the Japanese spiritual virtues. I have argued that the latter problem of wakonkansai, in particular, was distinct from the concept of yamato damashii (the unique nobility of the Japanese national character) that constituted the foundation of the Kokugaku ideology, reflecting Akinari's taste for disinterestedness and distaste for amorous passion; I have also pointed out that out of his personal predilection for disinterestedness, Akinari wrote the story of the man who turns into a pirate, in reaction to the moralistic teaching of Bunshitsu Akitsu, while sharply denouncing Norinaga through his displaced attack on Kino Tsurayuki. I maintain that Akinari uniquely redefined the concept of the Japanese spirit by turning, the conventional definition of fuguhakumei into the state of freedom gained through deviation from conventional behaviors.

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