Download or read book Things Seen and Unseen written by Harry D. Harootunian and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1988-03-15 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This long-awaited work explores the place of kokugaku (rendered here as "nativism") during Japan's Tokugawa period. Kokugaku, the sense of a distinct and sacred Japanese identity, appeared in the eighteenth century in reaction to the pervasive influence of Chinese culture on Japan. Against this influence, nativists sought a Japanese sense of difference grounded in folk tradition, agricultural values, and ancient Japanese religion. H. D. Harootunian treats nativism as a discourse and shows how it functioned ideologically in Tokugawa Japan.