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Shinobu Orikuchi

Born February 11, 1887

 Japan Osaka

Died September 3, 1953 (aged 66)

Other names 折口 信夫 (a pen name:釋 迢空)

Occupation ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet

Japanese name

Kanji 折口 信夫
 Hiragana おりくち しのぶ

showTranscriptions

Shinobu Orikuchi (折口 信夫, Orikuchi Shinobu, 11 February 1887–3 September 1953), also known
as Chōkū Shaku (釋 迢空, Shaku Chōkū), was a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist,
and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named
"Orikuchiism" (折口学, Orikuchigaku), which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics,
and Shintō. He produced many works in a diversity of fields covering the history of literature, folkloric
performing arts, folklore itself, Japanese language, the classics study, Shintōology, ancient study,
and so on. Yukio Mishima once called him the "Japanese Walter Pater".

Contents

 1Biography
 2Major works
 3See also
 4Sources
 5External links
 6References

Biography[edit]
Orikuchi was born in the former Nishinari, Ōsaka (now part of Naniwa-ku, Osaka). After graduating
with a degree in Japanese literature from Kokugakuin University in 1910, he started to
teach Japanese 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 as well; afterward, he taught at two different universities until
he died. As a poet, he and Kitahara Hakushu established a tanka magazine
called Nikkō ("Sunshine") in 1924. In 1925, he published Between the Sea and the Mountains (海山
の間, Umi Yama no Aida), his first tanka book, which is highly estimated.
In 1934, he received a doctorate for his study on the Man'yōshū. He also established the Japan
Folklorists Society (日本民俗協会). 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 Mikumano Mōde (三熊野詣), while his novel Shisha no Sho was
the basis for a film by Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Major works[edit]
 Umi Yama no Aida (海やまのあひだ, "Between The Sea And The Mountains") – Tanka book
 Haru no Kotobure (春のことぶれ, "The Spring Forerunner") – Tanka book
 Shisha no Sho (死者の書, "The Book of the Dead") – Novel, translated into English in 2016
by Jeffrey Angles (ISBN 978-0816688104)[1]
 Kodai Kenkyū (古代研究, "The Ancient Study") – Treatise on folklore and literature in ancient
Japan
 Kabuki San (かぶき讃, "Viva Kabuki") – Kabuki review
 See also[edit]
 Kishu ryūritan

Sources[edit]
 Japan portal

 Biography portal

 Poetry portal

 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[edit]
  Media related to Shinobu Orikuchi at Wikimedia Commons
 Orikuchi Shinobu in the Encyclopedia of Shinto.