Some considerations about Motoori Norinaga's notions on Japanese vocalism

This paper focuses on the Mojigoe no kanazukai (1776) and the Kanji san'onko¯ (1785), two essays written by the Japanese scholar Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801). Generally engaging with the debate about the emendation of the Japanese writing system, these essays borrow two sound-related categories, namely kaigo¯ 'open-closed' and keiju¯ 'light-heavy', from previous linguistic, philological and musicological studies and offer a brand new interpretation of their meanings. In particular, Norinaga employs kaigo¯ and keiju¯ for his account of the Japanese fivefold vocalic system. Once taken into consideration the previous studies on the topic produced by Kuginuki (1998) and Matsushige (2002, 2008), this paper will translate into "modern terms" the significance of Norinaga's attempt to classify the Japanese vowels. It will show that the category of kaigo¯ serves for a synchronic description of the different uttering patterns of the five vowels, whereas the category of keiju¯ is used to account for the diachronic changes that, in Norinaga's view, brought to the formation of the five vowels from the original vowel a.