Structuring the canon

In 1857, Ōkuni Takamasa 大国隆正 (1792–1871) enshrined the canonical figures of Edo 江戸 Kokugaku 国学, namely, Kada no Azumamaro 荷田春満 (1669–1736); Kamo no Mabuchi 賀茂真淵 (1697–1769); Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長 (1730–1801); and Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤 (1776–1843), in a hagiographic lineage known as the shitaijin or shiushi 四大人. In venerating these four intellectuals, Takamasa followed the ideological trail blazed by none other than Hirata Atsutane himself, whose self-inclusion, as related in his Tamadasuki 玉襷 (Jeweled Sleeve Cord), was closely linked to his efforts at self-legitimation. ² Takamasa lauded the efforts of his forebears to trumpet Japan’s superiority over all other lands in the world: “Among [the realms of the world] only our Japan (waga Nihonkoku 我が日本国) has had an unchanging imperial lineage (kōtō 皇統), while all others have perpetuated kingly lineages (ōtō 王統)” (Ōkuni 1973: 467). Consequently, the intellectual glue that bonded the prominent figures of the shiushi lineage was ideological, and the essence of that bond was what some scholars today call “exceptionalism.”