Hisashi Hoshino, Professor of Japanese Language, Literature and History

was a Japanese

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, active in the late 19th century debates over the role of Japanese history.

Career

Hoshino was appointed professor at

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1888. Historical work had previously been carried out in a government department dedicated to writing the official history of Japan, but it was decided in 1888 to move this work to the university. Hoshino,

Kume Kunitake was a historian in Meiji and Taishō period Japan. He had a son, Kume Keiichirō, who was a noted painter. Biography Kume was born in Saga Domain, Hizen (present-day Saga Prefecture), and was active in attempting to assist the administrat ...

, and

Shigeno Yasutsugu Shigeno may refer to: * Shigeno Station, railway station of Shinano Railway Line in Tōmi City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan * 12788 Shigeno, a main-belt asteroid * Battle of Shigeno, fought in the final months of 1614, was one element in the siege of ...

were the first three history professors appointed. Hoshino and Kume took opposite views on the historical treatment of Japanese mythology: Hoshino held that the

Age of the Gods In Shinto chronology, the is the period preceding the accession of Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. The kamiyo myths are chronicled in the "upper roll" (''Kamitsumaki'') of the ''Kojiki'' and in the first and second chapters of the '' Nihon Sho ...

was a historical age, in which actual historical events took place and had been recorded, whereas Kume argued the founding myths were allegorical, and promoted a more skeptical, scientific approach to history. Hoshino, Kume, and Shigeno nonetheless all shared a general belief in taking a more scholarly, scientific approach to history, and Hoshino joined the others in criticizing the emphasis on heroic myths in Japanese history. After Kume attacked state Shinto in an 1892 article deemed offensive by the government, Kume was expelled from the university, and the Department of Japanese History was closed. The latter may have also been due in part to the government's decreased interest in the project of writing a grand history of Japan, especially one written in ''

kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. ...

''. The government recreated a history institute at Tokyo Imperial University in 1895, and brought Hoshino back as its first head. This new department, which would become the Historiographical Institute, had a narrower mission devoted to compiling historical documents, and no longer included the project of writing an overall history of Japan. Hoshino disapproved of the reduction in scope, since he remained one of the few supporters of a grand history in ''kanbun''. He nonetheless served as the Institute's first head, from 1895 to 1899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoshino, Hisashi 1839 births 1917 deaths 19th-century Japanese historians Historians of Japan University of Tokyo faculty