Revisiting Tsuda Sōkichi in Postwar Japan : “Misunderstandings” and the Historical Facts of the Kiki

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  • 戦後日本の津田左右吉を再考する : 「誤解」、そして『記紀』の史実
  • Revisiting Tsuda Sokichi in Postwar Japan : "Misunderstandings" and the Historical Facts of the Kiki

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In his later years, Tsuda Sōkichi (1873–1961) confronted his readers’ “misunderstanding” of his work on the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki (the Kiki), which had concerned him since before the war. After the war, his Kiki studies were newly recognized as “historical science.” Tsuda denounced the postwar appropriation and misinterpretation of his work, as he became renowned as a “denier of historical facts and of the earliest emperors.” This was far from what he intended, however. He was always reluctant to deal head-on with the issue of the historical existence of the early emperors. Postwar scholars formed a collective perception of Tsuda as a “denier,” and overlooked his important remark regarding the notion of “historical facts.” He loathed the postwar tendency to label him a Marxist, and he criticized new interpretations of the Kiki. Postwar scholars relied upon the “imagined Tsuda” and upon archaeological discoveries too to reconstruct a new national history minus its imperial tradition. Postwar scholars, who regarded Tsuda as a Marxist, were taken aback by his declaration of “love” for the imperial family, and struggled to understand his work in its entirety. As a result, they were guilty of oversimplifying his achievements.

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