Japanese mythology is still often reduced to narratives that relate to the imperial chronicles written in the 8th century CE, such as the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki. This narrow definition has been criticised in the past, perhaps most notably by Isomae Jun'ichi. An open question is, however, how to define 'Japanese mythology' independent of these previously imposed limitations. Based on the theoretical framework constructed by Raji C. Steineck in Kritik der symbolischen Formen II - Zur Konfiguration altjapanischer Mythologien, the dissertation 'Mythological Narratives in the Context of Japanese Imperialism: Jingū kōgō, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and Saigō Takamori in Early Meiji Period Print Media' explores the question of how to define myth in the modern period, with a particular focus on the first half of the Meiji period (i.e. the time around 1868-1895). By focusing on narratives that are connected to Japanese imperialism, it also raises the question of the meaningfulness of a strict separation between the early modern and the modern period by analysing the narrative continuity of (mythological) narratives across the ‘rupture’ of the Meiji Restoration.
The dissertation focuses on the narratives of three different (pseudo)historical figures: Jingū kōgō 神功皇后 (trad. 169-269) and her subjugation of the Korean peninsula in the 3rd century CE; Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経 (1159-1189), originally a warrior from the late Heian and early Kamakura periods, who died at the young age of thirty but received a second lease on life during the Edo period; and Saigō Takamori 西郷隆盛 (1828-1877), whose involvement in the Seinan War (1877) turned him into an immortalised national hero. The three figures have different origins, and their narratives were formed at different points in time, but all three of them were prominent narratives in the early Meiji period. The narrative of Jingū kōgō is the one that is closest to the mainstream notion of 'Japanese mythology,' also featuring in the early imperial chronicles Kojiki and Nihon shoki, and discussed in some detail in Steineck’s Kritik der Symbolischen Formen II, but its long history after the ancient period turned it into one of the most well-known and impactful Japanese myths up to the end of World War II. Minamoto no Yoshitsune's narrative only developed during the Edo period, but it developed alongside Japanese territorial expansion, exemplifying the burgeoning imperialism of the time. Saigō was mythologised during his lifetime, and contemporary people adopted his narrative for pro- as well as anti-governmental purposes.
Though the dissertation primarily focuses on the aforementioned three narratives, it successfully proves that the study of Japanese myth in the modern period (and, by extension, the premodern period) can - and should - be continued beyond the previous limitations, and that the theoretical framework provides a meaningful tool of analysis for this category of narratives.