Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 8. Schools, Groups, and Personalities
カテゴリー2： Personalities
Title
Yamaguchi Okinari
Text (1831-1886)
A Meiji-era scholar of the Grand Shrines of Ise (Ise Jingū). His childhood name was Tanekichi, his common name was Denbee, later changed to Okinari, and his epistolary names were Tōen and Shunpo. He was born in the Watarai District of Ise Province (present-day Mie Prefecture) on the eighth day of the tenth month (November 7), 1831. He was born as the second son of Noguchi Hachihei, but at the age of six became heir to Yamaguchi Mitsuaki.
In 1842 Yamaguchi studied in Mikannagi Kiyonao's family school (kajuku) and in 1856 completed the manuscript of his maiden work Hōrakushakō (Thoughts on the Chapel Hōrakusha). At the construing lecture series on Japanese learning (wagaku rinkō) of Miyazaki Library (bunko) he was in charge of the Shokugen-shō (Origins of Government Posts of 1340) and accomplished the works Shinkyō jinbutsu shiryō (Documentary Materials on Persons in Shrine Compounds) and Shinseki ichiran (A Synopsis of Shrine Registers). Shinkyō jinbutsu shiryō consists of ten volumes and includes biographical sketches of over two-hundred persons. Shinseki ichiran consists of thirteen volumes and bibliographically introduces more than three hundred books related to Shintō shrines.
Yamaguchi also managed a pharmacy called Joshinsan, but after the Restoration, as a consequence of the reorganization of shrine administration, he was appointed as Associate Junior Priest (kujō) at the Inner Shrine (Naikū) of Ise in August 1871. He undertook sermon tours and edited textbooks, beginning with Shinpan kijitsu (Account of Trials by Ordeal [Divine Will]) that collected strange stories of miraculous efficacy. He also wrote Shinkyō kōryō engi (Amplification of the Divine Teaching's Essential Points), Shinten saiyō tsūkai (Full Ccommentary for the Introduction/Use of the Sacred Scriptures) and Jinshin sanyō ron.
In 1878 he was given the position of shuten, a junior official clerical staff position serving in rituals and general affairs at the Grand Shrines, and in 1880 he was appointed a teaching official of the fifth rank and chief editor at the Grand Shrine Teaching Institute (Jingū Kyōin; see taikyō senpu). Exerting himself in raising the younger generation, he produced numerous prodigies such as Konakamura (Ikebe) Yoshikata and Aoto Namie. Yamaguchi Okinari died on February 16, 1886, at the age of fifty-six.

—Nakanishi Masayuki

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