"The primary goal of this book is to restore historicity to the study of nativism by recognizing Hirata Atsutane's role in the creation and perpetuation of an intellectual tradition that remains a significant part of Japanese history and culture. Arguing that conflict among scholars and intellectuals begets ideas, Mark McNally shows that nativism was rife with internal competition. The mid-nineteenth-century suppression of this multiplicity of views led to the emergence of what we now think of as "nativism." By focusing on the competition among the rival strands of nativism, McNally demonstrates that "nativism" resulted not from Atsutane's conscious attempt to formulate a new intellectual tradition but from his greater political skills at putting his views across."--Jacket.