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Abstract:: Compared with the first half of the twentieth century，the three decades from the 1950s to the1980s witnessed highly visible progress in the studies on Chu Ci 楚辞（known in English as the Songs ofChu or transliterated as the Chu Tz’u） in Japan. Instead of following the Qianjia 乾嘉 tradition（ literallythe tradition dating back to the period from Emperor Qianlong’s reign to Emperor Jiaqing’s reign），scholars in Japan wanted to blaze a new trail in the field. Methodologically，they put more emphasison using unearthed materials，which were compared against the classics and on adopting folkloristicperspectives，thus establishing strong arguments based on three such types of evidence. Moreover，they tried to elaborate on their opinions from philosophical，sociological，religious，anthropologicalperspectives. Some Japanese scholars even gave holistic accounts and explanations，which speak of theirmacroscopic vision and ambition to construct a holistic system for the studies on Chu Ci.