The influence of the theory of totemism and exogamy

Frazer’s theories of totemism and exogamy belonged to the principal theories discussed

by the scholars of the French School of Sociology. In addition, since Matsumoto had already

employed the theories of totemism and exogamy in his graduation thesis at Keio University, he

had the chance to develop his understanding of these theories under the guidance of his French

335 Matsumoto, Nobuhiro, Nihon shinwa no kenkyū, Dōbunkan, 1931, p. 208. “Kodai bunkaron,” Gendai shigaku taikei, Kyōritsusha shoten, 1932, p. 52-53.

336 Consultation with Shiraishi Masaya, Professor of the Waseda University Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, 24 November 2014, Waseda University.

teachers.

As a result of the French sociologists’ influence, Matsumoto learnt about sociological

aspects of totemism and exogamy. Matsumoto’s statement in his book The Research of the

Japanese Myths suggests that Matsumoto understood the meaning of totemism as a social

phenomenon connected with religious ideas: “When we consider the origins of legends, we can

trace the life of the ancient villages in them to a very distant antiquity. As we can find in the

traces of the old social life such as totemism, potlatch, etc. in Ainu’s legends, the legends of Fuji

and Tsukuba from Hitachi Fudoki also give the modern people glimpses of the ancient religious

ideas that the ancient Japanese had.”³³⁷ Thus, under Mauss’ and Granet’s influence, Matsumoto

thought that totemism could be discussed as a social phenomenon in Japan. However,

Matsumoto did not discuss it in this way. He just claimed the existence of totemism as he did in

his other writings during the period 1919-1923.

Concerning the existence of totemism, Matsumoto proposed a theory that its traces could

be found in the Japanese legend of Princess Toyotama. In more concrete terms, he suggested that

the killing of an animal in the legend was an expression of totemism in his bookThe Research of

the Japanese Myths: “… it can explain important aspects in legends, such as the legend of

Princess Toyotama. That is, to acquire the animal crest means to kill and send off the animal.

…this is a variation of a story where the outer soul was expressed in the form of an animal, a

337 Matsumoto, Nobuhiro,Nihon shinwa no kenkyū, Dōbunkan, 1931, p. 39.

story about acquiring an totem-emblem through of which a young man can succeed [in the

society].”³³⁸ His claims were based on comparing the legend of Princess Toyotama with the

Ainu legend of the owl god which he interpreted as an expression of totemism.³³⁹ In Section

2.2.2. (The theory of the gift and of the potlatch), it was argued that Matsumoto pointed out the

similarities between an Ainu tale and a North American Indian tale that had totemism. Thus,

Matsumoto’s reason for suggesting totemism in the Japanese legend Princess Toyotama was the

similarity found in both tales in the phenomenon of killing an animal. This means that

Matsumoto did not try to find evidence for the belief in the totem in the legend of Princess

Toyotama in order to demonstrate totemism in this legend. Rather, he matched the Japanese

legend with an Ainu tale on which totemism could be proved due to similarities with a North

American Indian tale.

Besides totemism, Matsumoto pointed out exogamy (izoku kekkon, 異族結婚) in the

legend of Princess Toyotama. In his book The Research of the Japanese Myths, Matsumoto

discusses a tale in which a young man fails to hunt down an animal, the animal escapes back to

its country where animals live like people. The young man follows him to this country, heals an

injured woman of a different tribe who is in fact the animal, becomes rich because of marrying

the woman and returns home.³⁴⁰ Matsumoto interpreted the legend as a form of exogamy after

he had mentioned about the existence of exogamy among the Tsimshian tribe in America in the

338 Matsumoto, Nobuhiro,Nihon shinwa no kenkyū, Dōbunkan, 1931, pp. 96-97.

339 Ibid, p. 96.

340 Ibid, p. 97.

same book.³⁴¹ Thus, he came to a conclusion that the marriage of Princess Toyotama was an

exogamic tie because of this comparison with North American Indian culture. As it turned out,

Matsumoto did not examine the phenomenon of exogamy in itself in the legend of Princess

Toyotama, but he referred to the similarity with the Indian culture which was considered to have

exogamy by Western scholars.

Furthermore, Matsumoto employed the theory of plant totems that was discussed by his

teacher Jean Przyluski in his paper “The Clan ‘Coconut tree’ and the Popular Tale ‘Coconut’ of

Cham People.” ³⁴² This paper was a study of totemism in Indochina and it was the only study

that Matsumoto dealt exclusively with totemism in which he pointed out the use of coconut and

betel palms as plant totems among the Cham people. In fact, Matsumoto was using Frazer’s

accounts of totemism in Indochina (Totemism and Exogamy) as pointers, and he connected them

with Wilhelm Schmidt’s theory of the Austro-Asiatic languages. Since the Austro-Asiatic

languages are distributed in Indochina, Matsumoto suggested that totemism was typical for the

area inhabited by the Austro-Asiatic peoples.³⁴³ First, Matsumoto argued that totemism might

have existed in Đông Sơn Culture in Indochina although the people of this culture had already

reached a relatively high stage of civilization based on Przyluski’s opinion.³⁴⁴ Then, Matsumoto

attempted to prove the existence of plant totems among the Cham people through an analysis on

341 Matsumoto, Nobuhiro,Nihon shinwa no kenkyū, Dōbunkan, 1931, p. 95.

342 Matsumoto, Nobuhiro, “Chamu no yashizoku to ‘yashi no mi’ setsuwa,”Minzokugaku, dai 5 kan, dai 6 gō, 1933, pp. 449-465.

343 Ibid, p. 449.

344 Ibid, p. 455.

their legends which told about the existence of two clans – the Betel Palm Clan and the Coconut

Palm Clan.³⁴⁵ The common characteristic of these legends was that they paid attention to the

significance of the plants which Matsumoto took as an evidence of totemism. Thus, Matsumoto

combined Przyluski’s interpretation of Frazer’s theory of totemism with Schmidt’s theory of

Austro-Asiatic languages in this research.

In summary, Matsumoto discussed totemism and exogamy in the Japanese culture in

connection with non-Japanese cultures including Southeast Asian cultures. Thus, he surmised the

existence of totemism in ancient Japan based on the similarities of the Japanese legend with

non-Japanese cultures which were considered to have totemism by Frazer and French scholars.

Therefore, Matsumoto did not examine totemism in the Japanese culture, but rather explored the

similarities of the Japanese culture with the non-Japanese primitive cultures including those of

Southeast Asia. Thus, his research of totemism and exogamy was an association of data from the

Japanese legend with Western scholars’ theories and with the data of the non-Japanese primitive

cultures including Southeast Asian primitive culture.