P1: Sacred Narrative - the political dimension of Japanese mythology

The overall research goal of subproject P1 is to undertake a historical-critical analysis of the reciprocal historical processes of sacralization and desacralization of the Japanese source works Kojiki (712) and Nihonshoki (720). The praxis-theoretical premise underlying the overall project, according to which texts are not profane or sacred per se, but rather are sacralized and/or desacralized – even in slow increments – in an ongoing process, proves to be especially productive for the Japanese field, particularly concerning Japanese political mythology. Originally composed as official writings to legitimize imperial authority in the early eighth century, the aforementioned source works underwent an intentional sacralization in early modern and modern Japan, followed consequently by a desacralization after the associated politico-sacral concept of rule collapsed in 1945. Methodologically, the study is committed to a historical-hermeneutical approach. The detailed textual, reception, and contextual analysis aims at clarifying the reasons why these two works in particular, with the so-called KiKi mythology incorporated into them, played such a fundamental – and foundational – role in the formation of identity discourses in early modern and modern Japan.

These general questions are first addressed in individual studies based on three exemplary focus areas for early modern, modern, and contemporary Japan:

• Focus area 1 analyzes the critical reinterpretation of the sources’ sacredness which was conducted as early as the Edo period (1603-1868) by the Japanese national philology. Here, Louise Neubronner addresses the contemporary debates regarding the sacrality of the KiKi mythology.
• Focus area 2 examines the sacralization and ideologization of myths in the context of modern nation-state formation (Meiji to early Shōwa period, 1868-1945). Here, Klaus Antoni examines the political mythology of the empire’s founding by reference to the case example of the sacralization of Jinmu-tennô.
• Focus area 3 is devoted to the mythology’s depoliticization and desacralization processes since 1945. In this context, Julia Dolkovski analyzes the change in function of the KiKi myths in Japanese popular media by, among other things, looking at different strategies of use and adaptation from the perspective of intertextuality.

In a subsequent integrative step, the insights gathered from the three focus areas will be applied to the research group's overarching question. Finally, the research will conclude with an outlook on a possible resacralization of the KiKi myths in present and future Japan.

Through the interdisciplinary exchange within the research group, Japanese textual research will, on the one hand, be formatted more comparatively as well as theoretically, and can, on the other hand, also potentially offer stimulus for the project as a whole from a methodological point of view. Additionally, the intention is a de-exoticization of East Asian, i. e. "foreign" textuality, which – in the sense of cultural diversity – should always have equal access to general theory formation.