2019 Volume 93 Issue 1 Pages 1-24
The purpose of this paper is to re-construct the basic framework of the theology and works of Yamazaki Ansai, the early Edo period notable shintoist as well as Neo-Confucian scholar, from the viewpoint of the structure and interpretation of Nihonshoki Jindai-kan (“Age of the Gods” from the Chronicles of Japan), which Ansai highly valued as a holy book. Applying the concept of mystical philosophy as espoused by Izutsu Toshihiko onto Ansai’s theology, I demonstrate that this theology is based on the structure of mystical philosophy and that the main theological concept Tenjin yuiitsu (the Way of the single unity of Heaven and man) is a significant Japanese turn in mystical philosophy.
In the process of his quest for universal truth, Ansai constructed his own theology after struggling with the bounds of Neo-Confucian rationalism and finally transcended them. To be specific, he worked to integrate practice with philosophy, by incorporating the embodied (“somatic”) reading of Nihonshoki into the structure of mystical philosophy. The essence of Ansai’s theology lies in its pursuit for a higher state of consciousness, which it regards possible by acquiring rationalism first, and then transcending it, through Shinto practices. It can be said that Ansai’s theology is an integral system that is vertically structured between Shintoism and Neo-Confucianism.
