The Transformation of the Meaning and Concept of Zoku 俗

Abstract

This paper clarifies why the characters sei 聖 and zoku 俗 were adopted as the Japanese translations for the terms “sacred” and “profane,” respectively, as well as the circumstances in which these characters took on a diversity of meanings that go beyond those terms in contemporary society at large. While the character zoku has acquired various meanings over its long history, its fundamental nuance is the “general,” in contrast to the particular; accordingly, it only acquires a concrete meaning when contrasted with something else. This ambiguity led to its adoption as the translation of “profane,” as well as the continued expansion of the sei-zoku set’s meaning, resulting in a paired set that can refer to “something mysterious and something not mysterious.” When discussing the above, I also engage with international scholarship on how the cultural background of non-Western societies influenced the meanings and interpretations of imported modern Western concepts.