Language and Nationalism in Kojiki and Nihon-shoki(<Special Issue>The 57th JLA Convention (2nd Day))

Abstract

Takuya Okimori once pointed out that anything Japanese actually originated from Korea. Indeed, in spite of Motoori-Norinaga's belief in the pure Japanese language, there is etymologically no such thing in the origin of the language. On the wooden letters of the late seventh century which were recently unearthed can be found not a word of the Japanese language but instead there are inscribed some unfamiliar characters, quite different even from Chinese and Korean ones. And it is those uncanny letters that Kojiki followed in style. But the foreign style of Kojiki is as strategic as the nationalistic style of Nihon-shoki. As Motoori aimed to create the "true" Japanese language to get free from the influence of China, Hieda-no-Are, seemingly indifferent to nationalism, turned the uncanny style of the letters into the language of the country's own quite independent of the Chinese language. Although different in their approaches, both of the texts are the attempt to achieve linguistic and cultural independence from China.