ABSTRACT
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.
