Page 37 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) retheorized Shinto in the same vein. His view of the kami, or gods,
was that they really existed, a statement that very few strict Confucians or even Sorai would be able
to support. Even all of history, the good with the bad, he believed, should be seen as the activity of the
gods. Intrigued by what these kami ultimately were, Norinaga devoted three decades to the study of
Japan's myths and Ancient Way, coming up with a rather inclusive list of awe-inspiring things. Kami
included mountains, the sea, human beings, and such, and Norinaga remarked at the end of that list:
"Again, the sea or mountains are also often called kami. This does not refer to the spirit of the mountain
or the sea; it points directly to the sea or the mountain in question." 55

Thus, in the realm of religion as explained by Norinaga, religious objects were not signifiers
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36 pointing to a referent, a spirit beyond. There was no other dimension; what was material was also
the spiritual. Reality, material and spiritual undifferentiated, did not extend beyond what the eye saw.

FORM An extensive interest in form is further evident in the development of a whole popular culture that
C O N F O U N D E D elicited loud laughter as a response to the innumerable ways in which form was confounded through

play, visual and word play, punning, and even burlesque. The authorities made fitful attempts to sup-
press this laughter but were generally unsuccessful.
One should distinguish between various degrees of playful deconstructions of form and serious-
ness and should start from a generic fascination with form, a sort of taxonomy craze. Hiraga Gennai
(1729 -1779), for instance, held exhibits of minerals and rocks assembled from all over the country
(fig. 5). Others collected shells. Another example is the detailed, realistic paintings of varieties of insects,

fig. 5
Exposition of Oddities
by Kitao Shigemasa is a spoof on
the craze for collecting
specimens, which here include
a two-headed snake,
mermaids, a spendthrift son
whose father has imprisoned
him in a bottle as an object
lesson, and little people.
Illustration from Santo Kyóden,
Ko wa mezurashii
misemono-gatari (1801),
Tokyo Metropolitan Central
Library, Maeda Collection