平田篤胤『新鬼神論』の射程

Hirata Atsutane(1776-1843)is one of the four great scholars of Japanese kokugaku studies. He is known by being the founder of Hirata kokugaku, which thrived in late Tokugawa period. He established his ownunique theories in Shinto religion, and founded a sect called Hirata Shinto. Shin kishinron is one of his early works. In this book, Hirata Atsutane cited Chinese and Japanese classical literal materials in wide ranges, proofed the existence of spirits, argued against the Confucian rituals in veneration of spirits, explained the connections between spirit and human, and finally concluded why it is important and necessary for commoners to hold their own rituals in veneration of spirits However, there have been only few prior studies brought up the connections between Shin kishinron and Buddhism, which was the dominant religion throughout the whole Tokugawa period. In this article, I used literal materials including Shin kishinron, Shutsujoshogo, Tama no mihashira, and KinshinShinron, which is a renewal version of Shin kishinronto trace the development progress of Hirata Atsutane’s theories in spirits and religious rituals. Hirata Atsutane is deemed the first advocator of Nationalism since he proposed to seek final salvations in Japanese Empire and classical literal materials. 　Through analyzing his early works, my intention is to re-examine the religious side in Hirata Atsutane’s theories.