, also known as , was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. As a disciple of

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

, he established an original academic field named , which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and

Shintō Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoist ...

. He produced many works in a diversity of fields covering the history of literature, folkloric performing arts, folklore itself,

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

, the classics study, Shintōology, ancient study, and so on.

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

once called him the "Japanese

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...

Biography

Orikuchi was born in the former Nishinari,

Ōsaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

(now part of

Naniwa-ku, Osaka is one of 24 wards of Osaka, Japan. It has an area of 4.37 km², and a population of 51,567. General information Largely a residential area itself, Naniwa-ku is adjacent to and has in recent years blurred into the Namba district, wh ...

). After graduating with a degree in

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-Japanes ...

from

Kokugakuin University Kokugakuin University (國學院大學; ''Kokugakuin Daigaku'', abbreviated as 國學大 ''Kokugakudai'' or 國大 ''Kokudai'') is a private university, whose main office is in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The academic programs and research include ...

in 1910, he started to teach

and Chinese classics at junior high schools. In 1919, he was employed as a part-time instructor in Kokugakuin University. In 1922, he was promoted to professor. In 1924, he was hired as a professor at

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

as well; afterward, he taught at two different universities until he died. As a poet, he and

Kitahara Hakushu Kitahara (written: ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hakushū Kitahara or Kitahara Ryūkichi (1885–1942), Japanese tanka poet * Kana Kitahara (born 1988), Japanese footballer * Kenji Kitahara (born 1976), former ...

established a

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

magazine called ''Nikkō'' ("Sunshine") in 1924. In 1925, he published , his first tanka book, which is highly esteemed. In 1934, he received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

for his study on the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

''. He also established the . As a folklorist, Yanagita was known for rejecting every sexual subject; Orikuchi, in contrast, was very open-minded to these matters. He became a model for the protagonist in Mishima's short story , while his novel ''Shisha no Sho'' was the basis for a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

by Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Major works

* – Tanka book * – Tanka book * – Novel, translated into English in 2016 by

Jeffrey Angles (born 1971) is a poet who writes free verse in his second language, Japanese. He is also an American scholar of modern Japanese literature and an award-winning literary translator of modern Japanese poetry and fiction into English. He is a profes ...

() * – Treatise on folklore and literature in ancient Japan * –

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

review

Sources

* 加藤守雄『わが師折口信夫』朝日新聞社(1967) * 諏訪春雄『折口信夫を読み直す』講談社現代新書(1994) * 山折哲雄、穂積生萩『執深くあれ折口信夫のエロス』小学館(1997) * 富岡多恵子『釈迢空ノート』岩波書店(2000) * 安藤礼二『神々の闘争折口信夫論』講談社(2004)

External links

*
Orikuchi Shinobu
in the Encyclopedia of Shinto.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orikuchi Shinobu 1887 births 1953 deaths Japanese ethnologists Japanese folklorists Linguists from Japan 20th-century Japanese novelists Kokugaku scholars People from Osaka Keio University faculty LGBT writers from Japan Gay writers Gay academics Religion academics 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century linguists

Biography

Major works

See also

Sources

External links

References