<Articles>Jesuits as Yamabushi: Japan as Seen by an Enlightenment Thinker

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Other Title
  • <論文>山伏に擬せられたイエズス会士 --とある啓蒙思想家から見た日本--
  • 山伏に擬せられたイエズス会士 : とある啓蒙思想家から見た日本
  • ヤマブシ ニ ギセラレタ イエズスカイシ : ト アル ケイモウ シソウカ カラ ミタ ニホン

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Abstract

The French-language play Les Jammabos ou les moines japonois (1779) was published without the name of the author or publisher, in the style of prohibited books under the French Ancien Régime. However, it was written by Charles Georges Fenouillot de Falbaire de Quingey (1727-1800) and published by the Société typographique de Neuchâtel (STN). More than 1, 200 copies were sold, and the work was widely distributed throughout Europe. The Jammabos in the title is taken from the Japanese Yamabushi, who often appeared as an adversary in Jesuit missionary reports. The play superficially appears to be a Jesuit school play, but its purpose is quite the opposite. The content is set in a fictional East Asia. The main story takes place in Japan, while Korea and China are also mentioned. It portrays a competition for religious power within the court, and a love triangle between two Japanese princes and a beautiful Korean princess. The main antagonist, Uranka, a Jammabos, is a dark figure who seeks power and wealth. He and his followers are idolaters and hostile to the heroes, including the king's adviser, who is a Confucianist from China. Of course, the play does not attempt to faithfully reflect the customs and lifestyle of contemporary Japan. Using the mirror of Japan as a prism, it is in fact a critique of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church in Europe, who are represented by the monks and Jammabos, while the Confucianists can be seen as referring to the philosophers of the Lumières. Hisasada Nakagawa once analysed the references to Japan in the Encyclopédie and pointed out that in the discourse of 18th-century French Enlightenment thinkers, Japan was used as a mirror to criticise the religious and political systems in Europe. This is no exception in the works of almost unknown writers such as Les Jammabos. This study attempts to place Les Jammabos in a historical perspective, using the Nakagawa Collection of the Institute for Research in the Humanities as well as STN-related materials in the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire Neuchâtel.

Journal

  • 人文學報

    人文學報 121 93-117, 2023-06-20

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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