Secrecy in Japanese Arts: “Secret Transmission” as a Mode of Knowledge

This project explores the Japanese tradition of hidden (or the secret transmission of) knowledge within a closed and often hereditary group. The author investigates how esoteric practices function, how people make meaning of their practices, and how this form of esotericism survived into the modern age. The first two questions are examined by using esoteric texts from the 15th to 18th centuries. The last looks at theatrical treatises from the late 19th century on.