Articles [Special Issue: The Meiji Restoration and Religion]
The Hirata School and the Meiji Restoration
2018 Volume 92 Issue 2 Pages 183-205
Details
2018 Volume 92 Issue 2 Pages 183-205
An old question is the subject of this survey: Did the nativism of the Hirata School bring about the Meiji Restoration?
There are major three points to this issue.
Firstly, post-war researchers favored viewing Atsutane as a spiritualist and avoided examining the nationalistic side of the Hirata School. However, scholars were not be able to deny the influence of Atsutane on the nationalistic movement during the Restoration.
Secondly, Hirata Atsutane's writings and other related artifacts in the National Museum of Japanese History have given us so much richer information on him, his family, and his disciples. Thus, research without the aid of these materials has lost much of its validity.
Thirdly, the Tsuwano School and the Satsuma School, which were in conflict with the Hirata School (and also each), and also the successors to Atsutane need to be taken into account. Hence, we must not mythicize the fall of the nativism of Atsutane.
