In Orikuchiism, is a plot

archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...

found in

Japanese folklore Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, Tradition, customs, and material culture. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The Folklor ...

and

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

. In these narratives, a hero is exiled from their society, faces a variety of trials and ordeals, and either returns to their society in triumph or dies in exile. Though stories depicting this archetype date to as early as the classical period of Japanese history, use of the term "''kishu ryūritan''" to describe these kinds of stories collectively was originated by ethnologist Shinobu Orikuchi in 1918.

Characteristics

Orikuchi argued that stories about wandering nobles contain three core elements: a hero of divine birth, the theme of exile, and the movement of the protagonist from a center to a remote margin. The hero is typically a person of high social standing, such as a deity, emperor, or court noble, though stories also focus on other social classes such as criminals and pilgrims. A defining trait of a ''kishu ryūritan'' story is the manner in which the hero begins their exile as powerless, but as a result of those they encounter during their wanderings, acquire greater or even god-like powers. Orikuchi saw the archetype as representing a crucial link between early oral accounts of gods and mythical figures collected in the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'', and the emergence of more formalized Japanese historical and literary traditions. The ''kishu ryūritan'' archetype is especially common in stories of the

Heian era The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. Notable examples include ''

The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century. It is one of history's first novels, the first by a woman to have wo ...

'', ''

The Tales of Ise is a Japanese '' uta monogatari'', or collection of '' waka'' poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period. The current version collects 125 sections, with each combining poems and prose, giving a total of 209 poems in most vers ...

'', '' The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', and the legends of Ōkuninushi and Yamato Takeru. Orikuchi argues that ''kishu ryūritan'' reached its apex in ''The Tale of Genji'', after which changing social conditions lead to a decline in variants and new expressions of the archetype.

Origins of the term

Shinobu Orikuchi's earliest use of ''kishu ryūritan'' was in 1918, in the book .; . He later wrote about it in the 1924 book . In ''Nihon Bungaku no Hassei Josetsu'', Orikuchi attempted to connect the various strands he believed formed the Japanese literary tradition. He argued that the ''kishu ryūritan'' archetype was a link between early oral tradition and archaic myths to later literary narratives. Sociologist noted a similarity between Orikuchi's theory and the 1920 essay by his mentor

Kunio Yanagita was a Japanese author, scholar, and Folklore studies, folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a change in his career. His pursuit of this led to his eventual e ...

. In turn, Jonathan Stockdale argues that

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

's 1853 work "" may have influenced Yanagita's essay.

Criticism

While critics have concurred with Orikuchi's general analysis of Japanese literature, some have questioned whether ''kishu ryūritan'' represents a uniquely Japanese archetype as distinct from other expressions of the

hero's journey In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's quest or hero's journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home ch ...

across cultures. Jonathan Stockdale argues that while Orikuchi correctly identifies the exiled noble as a common motif in Japanese literature, Orikuchi's analysis reveals "an ongoing quest to uncover the origins of a purely ''Japanese'' identity, untainted by 'foreign' influence", an approach that is typical of the ''

Kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...

'' movement that neglects Chinese and Korean contributions to this archetypal story. Theologian Alain Rocher argued that the link to Japanese mythology was "often somewhat doubtful" and that the hero's descent and exile was only an "extremely tenuous link" between the ''Kojiki'' and later stories.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{refend Japanese literary terminology Mythological archetypes Narrative techniques Comparative mythology