二重の偽装など

「日本人論」というのは戦後における「国家神道」の代替品であると、島薗進先生は言っていなかったっけ(『国家神道の日本人』)。

国家神道と日本人 (岩波新書)

国家神道と日本人 (岩波新書)

To Dream of Dreams: Religious Freedom and Constitutional Politics in Postwar Japan

To Dream of Dreams: Religious Freedom and Constitutional Politics in Postwar Japan

さて、David M. O'brien To Dream of Dreams*1の中で、「神道」と「日本人論」の関係が論じられている。

Shinto (literally, “kami way,” or “way of the gods”) is the ancient, indigenous religion of Japan. Centered on neither a founder nor a doctrine, it has no organized theology o monotheistic creed. Instead, Shinto rites and rituals revolve around the special cahracter of the Japanese and their relationship to the kami according to enturies-old myths and regends. Japan's religion has repeatedly benn said to be a “religion of Japaneseness.” Devotion to “things Japanese” is undeniable, and Shinto is the heartbeat of “things Japanese” in a country for centuries populated basically by one race, under one government. (…)
The expression “religion of Japaneseness” became popular in 1970s. Although Japanese and other scholars enthusiasstically embraced it in their theories of' “Japanese uniqueness”(Nihonjin-ron), the idea itself is cwnturies old. The exopression was popularized in the 1970s by several bestselling books, in particular The Japanese and the Jews, by Isaiah Ben-Dasan, a pseudonym allegedly used by a Hebrew University historian, Ben-Ami Shilloy. That work drew some illuminating analogies between the Jews and the Japanese in terms of both groups identifying with divine origins, being a chosen people, and living in a promised holy land.(...) (pp.16-17)
イザヤ・ベンダサンの『日本人とユダヤ人』で以て「日本人論」を代表させることの是非はともかくとして、「日本人論」を theories of' “Japanese uniqueness”と英訳したのは興味深い。さて、ベンダサンが Ben-Ami Shilloyの筆名として設定されていたというのはあまり注目されていなかったのでは? まあ、Ben-Ami Shilloy名義の本も出ていたと思う。しかし、それを見たとき、この著者とイザヤ・ベンダサンが同一人物だということは思い浮かばなかった。
日本人とユダヤ人 (角川文庫ソフィア)

日本人とユダヤ人 (角川文庫ソフィア)


Although in some ways illuminating Shinto and Japanese culture, The Japanese and the Jews was deceptive and self-serving, because it aimed to legitimize the idea of Japanese uniqueness b cleverly expropriating stereotypes of Jewish cultural identity. The book largely succeded in that regard and sold more than a million copies in Japan before it was translated into English. Yet the book's author was not in fact Jewish. There was no Ben-Dasan or Professor Shilloy. That was a hoax. Years later, supposed translator and publisher of the book, Shichihei Yamamoto, a well-known novelist and Chrisitian, finally admitted to having written the book. (pp.17-18)
本当に、山本七平は、ベンダサンは私だ、と告白しちゃったの? 著者は、このエピソードに関して、David J. Goodman*2 and Masanori Miyazawa Jew in the Japanese Mind: History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype (Free Press, 1995)をリファーしている。
さて、著者は「日本人論」及び「日本人論」検討・批判の文献として、 以下の文献を挙げている*3


本田総一郎『日本神道入門』日本文芸社、1985
Takeyoshi Kawashima(川島武宜*4) “The Legal Consciousness of Context in Japan” Law in Japan 7, 1974
Michael Banton Racial and Ethnic Competition Camnbridge University Press, 1983
Shoichi Watanabe(渡部昇一*5The Peasant Soul of Japan St, Martin's, 1989
石川真澄*6『日本政治の透視図』現代の理論社*7、1985
Steven Reed Making Common Sense of Japan University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993
Karel van Wolferen『日本権力構造の謎』ハヤカワ文庫、1990*8

日本 権力構造の謎〈上〉

日本 権力構造の謎〈上〉

日本 権力構造の謎〈下〉 (ハヤカワ文庫NF)

日本 権力構造の謎〈下〉 (ハヤカワ文庫NF)

Roy A. Miller Japan's Modern Myth Weatherhill, 1982
Gregory Clark The Japanese Tribe: Origin of a Nation's Uniqueness Saimaru Press, 1977
Peter Dale The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness Nissan Institute for Interantional Studies, 1988
Ross Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto Images of Japanese Society: A Study in the Structure of Social Reality KPI Limited, 1986
John C. Campbell Politics and Culture in Japan University Michigan Center for Political Studies, 1988


ベンダサン(=山本七平)については、浅見定雄『にせユダヤ人と日本人』 をマークしておく。また、「日本人論」を巡っては、青木保『「日本文化論」の変容』*9はやはりmust read

にせユダヤ人と日本人 (朝日文庫)

にせユダヤ人と日本人 (朝日文庫)