Cultural Identity in the Edo Period

In the Edo period, people who started to question what it meant to be Japanese increased. This kind of cultural identity can be seen in thoughts on Japan as Shinkoku (Divine Land), K¿koku (Imperial Country), Bukoku (Martial Country). All three emphasised what made Japan special compared to other countries. In this book, I compare Shinkoku, K¿koku, and Bukoku thoughts and show how they relate to each other, and what similarities and differences they have. To do this I analyse two texts, Ch¿ch¿ jijitsu (Actual facts about the Central realm) by Yamaga Sok¿, and Seji kenbunroku (A witness account of matters in the world) by Buy¿ Inshi. The former contains typical elements from K¿koku thought, and the latter presents views that are typical of Bukoku thought. The common understanding has been that the idea of Japan as Bukoku emerged early in the Edo period and was later weakened as a result of the increasing popularity of K¿koku. However, the two texts show K¿koku in a time where Bukoku thought was more common, and vice versa. This implies that there were several intellectual layers differing from what has been accepted as the mainstream in the Edo period history of ideas.