Estudio y traducción del norito: toshigoi no matsuri/kinensai

Abstract

[EN]This proposal presents for the first time a study and translation into Spanish of the first of the ritual liturgies or Norito of ancient Japan, as regulated in the administrative texts of the Ritsuryō state: the Jingiryō (757) and the Engishiki (927). Known as toshigoi no matsuri, its fixation as a state ritual is actually modeled on a ritual from Tang China transmitted to Japan, which is part of the rituals regulated by the Chinese Ministry of Rites, and which contributes the sinic reading to its Japanese name (kinensai). With this strategy, the sovereign of the Yamato / Nara court invests himself with an authority sanctioned in the Chinese political-civilizational model, while incorporating Japanese ritual elements typical of an agricultural society focused on rice cultivation as a symbol of prosperity of the State and therefore of the nation. The translation of the litany associated with this ritual, properly called norito, has been carried out taking into account the latest advances in Proto-Japanese studies, and therefore with a strictly philological approach. It has been made directly from Japanese, taking as reference the most authoritative editions of the original to date. The original spelling and the romanized transcription are provided following the criteria of the Oxford documentary corpus. And every effort has been made to be faithful to the meaning of the terms in Old Japanese. Being a text of great relevance for the knowledge of the culture of ancient Japan, this translation aims to open the door to successive translations of the Norito literature, as well as to the texts transmitted of a homogeneous and complementary type such as the Senmyō, or the archaic poetry of Japan. A whole branch of Japanese literature and culture to discover in the Hispanic field.