The disfiguring of nativism: Hirata Atsutane and Orikuchi Shinobu

There can surely be no nativists so driven throughout their lives by the pain they suffered for their disfigurement as Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) and Orikuchi Shinobu (1887–1953). Of course, the face of that distinctive nativist from the Kyoto area, Ueda Akinari (1734–1809), was also disfigured with the small pox he suffered as a child of five. Akinari also wrote jestingly in Ugetsu monogatari about another physical oddity: the middle finger on his right hand and the first finger of his left were no bigger than his baby fingers. Akinari could never express his pain directly; he always jested, which may constitute evidence, perhaps, of his self-reliance. ¹ Hirata and Orikuchi were, however, tormented in a much more immediate way than Akinari by the pain of their disfigurement. Hirata and Orikuchi both bore facial markings.