The Emergence of Japanese Literature (Third Draft) - The Meaning of Marebito

Who were the visitors once welcomed into Japanese villages as deities? In this wide-ranging essay, Orikuchi Shinobu develops his conception of marebito: beings arriving from afar to bless households, instruct communities, and renew the year.

Moving between court records, ancient poems, regional festivals, and the Ryukyu Islands, he examines gate-entry rites, rain capes and masks, ancestral processions, living spirits, and the origins of theatrical performance. Hospitality becomes a clue to older religious life, while Tokoyo, the imagined country beyond the sea, opens a discussion of souls, abundance, longevity, and literature.

Published in January 1929, The Emergence of Japanese Literature (Third Draft): The Meaning of Marebito presents a major thread of Orikuchi’s folklore scholarship. This complete English translation preserves all fourteen sections, physical verse lines, and the original diagram, with notes explaining names, ritual terms, uncertain readings, and the author’s historical conjectures. AI-assisted translation.