Deal W.E. Handbook To Life In Medieval And Early Modern Japan

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

to exhibit loyalty and obedience to their parents. In

more concrete terms, this meant caring for one’s

parents once they became old and inﬁrm, and, upon

a parent’s death, to engage in rituals of veneration

that conferred the status of ancestor on the

deceased. In China, the family was thought of as the

basic unit of society and therefore filial piety was

considered the foundation that made this social unit

work properly. The Japanese also embraced this

Confucian notion of ﬁlial piety but extended it to

apply to the ideal of loyalty to one’s lord. To be loyal

was to be ﬁlial. As a result, ﬁlial piety also resonated

with the warrior class and was a way to frame the

lord-vassal relationship within the prevailing philo-

sophical discourse of the Edo period.

LOYALTY

The Confucian value system places a strong empha-

sis on loyalty (chu), a concept closely related to ﬁlial

piety. In medieval and early modern Japan, loyalty

was especially associated with the reciprocal, but

hierarchical, relationship between superior and infe-

rior. A warrior, for instance, was obligated to serve

his lord, even to the death, in exchange for the lord’s

patronage. In Japan, such loyalty was observed

throughout both warrior culture and also in govern-

ment which was organized along a series of hierar-

chical relationships up to the shogun, to whom

loyalty was considered among the highest virtues.

BENEVOLENCE

Benevolence (jin) is a fundamental Confucian virtue

that is concerned with the fundamentally relational

and social nature of Confucian ethics and notions of

government. Those who have cultivated benevo-

lence express humanity and compassion through the

way they treat other people. A person who has culti-

vated benevolence is able to act toward others in an

altruistic way. The attainment of the virtue of

benevolence is also considered transformative in the

sense that one cannot be truly moral without it.

SUPERIOR PERSON

According to Confucian thought, the superior per-

son (kunshi) is one who has attained the highest level

of self-cultivation of Confucian values and lives in

accordance with principle. Such a person has devel-

oped a heightened sense of awareness of propriety so

that rules and codes of behavior are naturally

enacted. The superior person thus provides a model

of self-cultivation toward which others should strive.

SINCERITY

Sincerity (makoto; sometimes translated as “truthful-

ness”) is a central Confucian value. The term refers

to the idea of being true to one’s nature. Both

heaven and humanity have sincerity at their core,

but human beings must cultivate sincerity to fully

realize this virtue. Sincerity generally denotes the

cultivation of a sincere mind and heart whereby one

can endeavor to undergo self-purification and live

harmoniously according to the way of heaven.

Edo-Period

Philosophical Schools

Although Neo-Confucianism, especially the Zhu Xi

school, represented the intellectual foundation for

the Tokugawa shogunate, the Edo period was a time

of vigorous philosophical speculation and debate.

The following philosophical schools were among

the most important.

SHUSHI SCHOOL

The Shushi school (Shushigaku), was based on the

thought of the inﬂuential Chinese Confucian phi-

losopher Zhu Xi (in Japanese, Shushi; 1130–1200).

According to Zhu Xi’s thought, reality consists of

both principle and vital force. It is the interaction of

these two that produces all things in the world,

including human beings. For Zhu Xi, human beings

have both an original nature, which is made up of

nothing but principle and is solely good, and a

nature that is the product of human interactions in

the world, through which different kinds of vital

force—some good, some evil—accumulates. Thus,

it is possible for a person to fall away from the origi-

nally good nature. Because people interact with their

environment differently, everyone possesses differ-

ent kinds of vital force, which explains an individ-

H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN M EDIEVAL AND E ARLY M ODERN J APAN

224

ual’s unique disposition. The focus of the Zhu Xi

school was on the puriﬁcation of vital force through

self-cultivation by means of education, the study of

principle, and introspection.

Although Zhu Xi’s writings were transmitted to

Japan in the Kamakura period, they did not have a

signiﬁcant impact at that time. During the Muro-

machi period, Zhu Xi’s thought was studied by Zen

monastics. However, it was not until the Tokugawa

shogunate assumed power that Shushigaku became

the official orthodoxy, providing specific guidance

on both ethics and government. The philosophy

legitimized the strict hierarchical social system

advocated by the shogunate because it provided a

rational order to society that the government could

control. By 1790, only the Shushi school of Neo-

Confucianism was formally sanctioned and all other

philosophical schools were ofﬁcially banned.

In the Edo period, the shogunate began to regard

principle as a law with which to rule society and not

just as a philosophical concept abstractly comment-

ing on the nature of the ultimate good. If rulers

enacted principle, that is, if they governed only

through the ultimate good, then subjects would

remain loyal and obedient. In the same way, the

importance of loyalty began to take precedence over

that of ﬁlial piety. Rather than the primacy of ﬁlial

relations to parents and lord, there was an increasing

emphasis on loyalty to institutions such as the

shogunate or domain. Such a value shift provided

the shogunate with the assurance of loyalty from its

subjects.

YOMEI SCHOOL

The Yomei school (Yomeigaku) was a form of Neo-

Confucianism based on the thought of Chinese

philosopher Wang Yangming (1472–1529). Wang

was born into a family of accomplished scholars and

ofﬁcials. After his own less-than-distinguished stint

as a government bureaucrat, Wang resigned his

position and took up the life of a world renunciant in

order to study Daoist and Buddhist ideas. His expe-

riences led him to formulate a new theory of Confu-

cian learning that blended elements of Daoism and

Buddhism with Neo-Confucianism.

In contrast to the Shushi school, where principle

must be learned through outside sources, the main

tenet of Yomeigaku was that everyone innately pos-

sesses principle, and therefore by reﬂecting on the

mind instead of the external world, one can become a

sage and live in harmony with the universe.

Yomeigaku emphasizes the idea that everyone pos-

sesses the ability to become a sage and live according

to the way of heaven. Knowledge of good is expressed

through moral action and by extending compassion

to oneself, to one’s family, and one’s community, con-

tinually radiating outward into the cosmos until one

can show compassion for all living things.

Yomeigaku was introduced to Japan during the

early Edo period by Nakae Toju (1608–48). He was

the exemplar of the notion of ﬁlial piety, resigning a

government position to take care of his aging

mother. Nakae advocated that cultivating the mind

was equally important for men and women, and that

women should be given greater access to educational

opportunities. Yomeigaku never received signiﬁcant

support from the government and was eventually

banned in the late 18th century. By stressing the

pursuit of personal betterment and by allowing for

social equality of men and women, its doctrine

threatened the ultimate supremacy of the shogunate

with its stress on social hierarchy.

ANCIENT LEARNING SCHOOL

The Ancient Learning school (Kogaku) was an Edo-

period movement that sought a return to the origi-

nal teachings of Confucius. Confucian scholars such

as Ito Jinsai (1627–1705), Yamaga Soko (1622–85),

and Ogyu Sorai (1666–1728) strictly opposed Neo-

Confucian thought, including both the Shushi and

Yomei schools, on the basis that they had obscured

the true and original teachings of Confucius.

Although all three scholars developed their own sys-

tems of thought, they did share the view that there

must be a return to the original teachings of Confu-

cius, instead of reliance on Chinese commentaries

and other later interpretations of Confucius, if the

true import and meaning of the Confucian classic

texts was to be understood.

Ito Jinsai was particularly concerned with ethics.

He strongly opposed the regimented nature of Neo-

Confucian thought and maintained that morality

was not related to nature or the way of heaven.

Although he believed that humans are inherently

P HILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, AND S CIENCE

225

good, this good could only be nurtured and culti-

vated through actions and participation in society.

He also emphasized loyalty and sincerity.

Yamaga Soko called attention to the ethical prin-

ciples of Confucianism, focusing on the idle warriors

of the Edo period. He was the first scholar to at-

tempt the codiﬁcation of a warrior ethic. His work,

The Way of the Warrior, became the foundation for

the development of the Bushido ideal later in the

Edo period. He claimed that the warrior should

serve as the paradigm of the virtue of duty to all lev-

els of society.

Ogyu Sorai took a philological approach to the

interpretation of the original Confucian texts. He

claimed that the fundamental Confucian message

became distorted when it was transmitted in a

language other than the classical Chinese in which

it was originally written. The Chinese of Confu-

cius’s day was considerably different from the Chi-

nese in use by Edo-period Japanese Confucian

scholars. He attempted to read and interpret the

Confucian classics as the ancient Chinese would

have done and concluded that the “way” was not

innate like many scholars before him had claimed,

but rather, was created and instituted by the ancient

Chinese sages.

MITO SCHOOL

Scholars of the Mito school (Mitogaku), situated in

the Mito domain, attempted to synthesize Confu-

cian thought with native Japanese Shinto beliefs.

The school is credited with compiling the monu-

mental 243-volume Dai Nihon shi (History of great

Japan), largely written by 1720 but not fully com-

pleted until the early 20th century. Some Mito

school ideas were a threat to the shogunate, espe-

cially in the waning years of the Edo period, because

they effectively opposed the rule of the shogun in

favor of a return to rule by the emperor. According

to Mito thought, the emperor stands at the top of a

moral and political hierarchy, thus supplanting the

shogun as head of the Japanese nation. This philoso-

phy was used by pro-imperial advocates in making

their case for a return to direct imperial rule that

ultimately led to the downfall of the Tokugawa

shogunate and the establishment of the Meiji

Restoration in 1868.

HEART LEARNING SCHOOL

The Heart Learning school (Shingaku, or Sekimon

Shingaku) is based on the teachings of Ishida Baigan

(1685–1744). Baigan’s thought is a moral philosophy

synthesizing Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism, as well as

Zen Buddhist and Shinto ideas. Baigan was particu-

larly interested in the problems of the merchant

class, the lowest social class according to formal Edo

ideology. To this end, Baigan promoted a merchant

ethic called “the way of the townsman” (chonindo),

and claimed that it was equal to the way of the samu-

rai (Bushido). Morals, he argued, transcend the class

system, and therefore the merchant could cultivate

morality the same as the samurai. Among the virtues

that Baigan promoted were honesty and frugality. If

merchants cultivated these values, then the profit

motive was in accord with the way of heaven.

SUIKA SHINTO

Suika Shinto is a synthesis of Shushi Neo-Confu-

cianism and Shinto. Its founder, Yamazaki Ansai

(1619–82), identiﬁed the “way” as being present in

both Neo-Confucianism and in Shinto. He synthe-

sized the teachings of Zhu Xi and placed a greater

importance on loyalty to a ruler than on ﬁlial piety.

He put the emperor at the top of the hierarchy

rather than the shogun, and underscored the divinity

of Japan as a nation, citing the unbroken line of

emperors descended from the sun goddess, Amate-

rasu. Yamazaki’s teachings allowed for the venera-

tion of kami and other Shinto spiritual practices

while Confucianism was restricted to governing and

running the country. Along with Mitogaku, Suika

Shinto played a role in the development of Shinto

ideas in the Meiji period.

NATIONAL LEARNING SCHOOL

The National Learning school (Kokugaku) refers to

a movement to rediscover a unique core of Japanese

values and cultural sensibilities that, it was believed,

had long been obscured by the importation of

foreign religions and philosophies—including

Buddhism and Confucianism—into Japan over the

centuries. For Kokugaku scholars, the way back to a

pristine and pure Japanese past was through the

study of ancient texts such as the Kojiki (Record of

H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN M EDIEVAL AND E ARLY M ODERN J APAN

226

ancient matters), Japan’s earliest writing, and the

Manyoshu (Collection of ten thousand leaves), the

earliest collection of Japanese poems. By focusing

on Japan’s own literary tradition and classical

mythology and poetry, its purpose was to rid Japan-

ese culture of all foreign ideas and influences,

whether Chinese or Western. Besides the attempt

to reclaim Japan’s past, one of the signiﬁcant ramiﬁ-

cations of National Learning was its use by those

who wanted to return to imperial rule. The quest

for a unique Japanese spirit—located in Shinto val-

ues—became, at least in the hands of some, closely

aligned with a strong nationalist view of the Japan-

ese state.

Although there are a number of philosophers

associated with Kokugaku, Motoori Norinaga

(1730–1801) and Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) were

particularly significant thinkers within this move-

ment. Norinaga took a philological approach to the

study of Japanese language and literature. He spent

30 years writing the Kojikiden, his commentary on

the Kojiki, and systematically attempted to strip all

non-Japanese notions, such as Confucianism, Bud-

dhism, and other Chinese ideas, from this work. In

his quest to locate a pure Japanese character and

sensibility untainted by foreign inﬂuence, he applied

these same philological methods to the examination

of other ancient and classical writings such as the

poetry of the Manyoshu and the narrative of the Tale

of Genji. His studies of classical Japanese literature

convinced him that the concept of mono no aware,

the pathos of things, was central to a pure Japanese

sensibility that valued the ability to truly feel human

emotion. For Norinaga, not only was literature a

way to discover the pathos of things, but reverence

for the kami as a force of nature was central to trig-

gering such a response. He criticized the rational

and abstract views of Confucianism and Buddhism,

claiming that they promote ideals impossible to

attain and do not allow for the coexistence of good

and evil as it is expressed in texts like the Kojiki.

Hirata Atsutane’s National Learning movement

was known as Fukko Shinto (return to ancient

Shinto), which sought to reclaim a pristine Shinto

purged of foreign, and especially Buddhist and Con-

fucian, ideas. He maintained that the Age of the

Gods was a paradigm for how to live in the present,

and that the Ancient Way (Kodo) must be reclaimed

so the pure Japanese spirit could be actualized in the

present. This meant that only by emulating the gods

as described in the Kojiki could one understand

Japan’s ancient and sacred past. Atsutane claimed

that Confucianism and Buddhism were false because

foreign teachings corrupt the purity of the Ancient

Way. With Atsutane, Kokugaku took on a decidedly

nationalist ﬂavor, especially in his notion that Shinto

was superior to the ways of action and thought of all

other cultures.

EDUCATION

Education in the

Medieval Period

Prior to the start of the medieval period, education

had been mostly confined to aristocrats and Bud-

dhist monastics. However, with the rise of the mili-

tary class at the beginning of the Kamakura period,

education also spread to wealthy samurai. Samurai

began to educate their children in the practical mat-

ters of warrior life, including such things as proper

lord-retainer relations and rules for the inheritance

of property. With the appearance and dissemination

of popular Buddhism in the medieval period, educa-

tion began to spread slowly to the larger nonelite

population. Nevertheless, during the medieval

period, the great majority of the population was illit-

erate. Lords who were not able to read and write

would often seek assistance from literate Buddhist

monks when, for instance, they needed to prepare

formal documents for some bureaucratic purpose.

There was one particularly notable educational

institution during the medieval period. The Ashi-

kaga School (Ashikaga Gakko) was established in

1439 by Uesugi Norizane (1410–66), a high-ranking

samurai, who donated books and named a Buddhist

priest as its ﬁrst administrator. Though the school,

connected with the Ashikaga family, had origins dat-

ing back to prior centuries, it was not until the 15th

century that it formally became a school with a cur-

riculum centered on Confucian philosophy and

P HILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, AND S CIENCE

227

military strategy. By 1550, the school enrolled 3,000

students from all over Japan. The school also at-

tracted the attention of Catholic missionary Francis

Xavier who, in 1549, expressed his admiration for

the quality of the education obtained there. The

school declined during the Edo period.

There were other contributions to education in

the medieval period but they were neither wide-

spread nor systematic. For instance, in the 16th cen-

tury, Christian missionaries started schools to

provide general education. Temple schools (tera-

koya), which became important in the early modern

period, had their start around the same time. These

schools, located at Buddhist temples, were attended

by the children of samurai and wealthy peasants.

Finally, libraries were founded by elite warrior fami-

lies that collected both Chinese and Japanese texts

and became centers of learning. One of the most

notable was the Kanazawa Library (Kanazawa

Bunko) that was founded in 1275 by Hojo Sanetoki,

reflecting his interest in scholarship and learning.

Besides the family, the library collection was avail-

able to scholars and priests.

Education in the Early

Modern Period

In contrast to the medieval period, education

became widely diffused over the course of the early

modern period. Throughout the early modern

period, the Tokugawa shogunate advocated the

importance of learning and was particularly inter-

ested in promoting education based on the Neo-

Confucian philosophy of Zhu Xi (in Japanese,

Shushi) that eventually became the orthodox ideol-

ogy of the shogunate.

Formal schooling was reserved for samurai and

their children well into the 18th century. Edo-period

education for those of the samurai class typically

included learning to read and write both Japanese

and Chinese, Neo-Confucian and other Chinese

curricular topics, and military training—all matters

deemed important to those of the samurai class, and

especially males. Among the Neo-Confucian values

learned were notions of loyalty to one’s lord and

devotion to one’s parents. One of the ways that

samurai children were trained in Neo-Confucian val-

ues was through the use of readers that included

excerpts from the Confucian classics. Not only did

samurai children learn to read from such books, but

Neo-Confucian values were inculcated in them as a

result of engaging with such material.

Education for commoners during the Edo

period, especially at the start of the early modern

period, was not promoted by the shogunate, but nei-

ther was it forbidden. In discussing commoner edu-

cation, it should be noted that education for

commoners typically meant urban commoners with

wealth, especially in the earlier half of the Edo

period. While at least some shogunal authorities

viewed commoner education, especially reading and

writing, as an important tool for gaining assent for

both Neo-Confucian values in general and laws in

particular, literacy was not actively promoted by the

shogunal authorities. Thus, the encouragement of

educational opportunities for urban commoners

came from this social class itself. Many from the

merchant class, for instance, realized the signifi-

cance to business success of being able to read and

write. Besides this practical aspect to education, it

also decreased at least one aspect of the class differ-

ence between warriors and commoners. By the

1750s, urban schools were attended by the children

of many urban commoners.

Education in the Edo period spread through

most segments of the population, resulting in a rise

in literacy, a signiﬁcant change from the educational

situation in the medieval period. At the start of the

Edo period, very few people were literate and there

were very few schools. It is estimated that by 1700,

most samurai were literate, even if they were not

otherwise well educated. By the end of the period, it

is estimated that 40 percent of the Japanese popula-

tion could read and write.

As more and more schools were established, lit-

eracy spread beyond the warrior classes to include

large numbers of the commoner population.

Although much of the literacy among commoners

was especially evident in the larger cities such

as Edo and Osaka, the rise of literacy in rural areas

is attested to by the increasing amount of bu-

reaucratic and commercial documents found in

town and village records of the Edo period. Over-

H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN M EDIEVAL AND E ARLY M ODERN J APAN

228

all, this dramatic rise in literacy during the Edo

period impacted society in many ways, including

the administration of government and the spread

of trade and commerce, both of which required

written records to fully function. Literacy also im-

pacted the development of popular literary forms.

Popular literature, and the demand for it, in turn

spurred development of publishing that had

become a significant industry by the end of the Edo

period.

Edo-Period Schools

The spread in literacy was made possible in large

part by the increase in the number and kind of

schools that were established over the course of the

Edo period. At the beginning of the Edo period,

very few schools existed. By the end of the period,

numerous schools of different types were thriving.

The shogunate founded schools to train government

bureaucrats, but other schools were also established,

including domain schools, temple schools, and pri-

vate schools. There were also more specialized

schools that taught medicine, Dutch and Western

learning, accounting, and other skills. According to

estimates, at the end of the Edo period 43 percent of

boys and 10 percent of girls attended school.

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

The Tokugawa shogunate played an important role

in promoting the necessity of education during the

Edo period. The government established schools to

promote Neo-Confucian learning generally and to

train government bureaucrats more specifically.

These school became models for similar schools set

up locally by domain leaders to educate the children

of their warriors.

The most important of all government schools

was the one known as Shoheiko (or Shoheizaka

Gakumonjo). It was closely associated with Zhu Xi

Neo-Confucianism and became the shogunate’s ofﬁ-

cial academy for training, among others, government

administrators and officials, and Neo-Confucian

scholars. Although the school’s title, Shoheiko, was

not used until 1797, its origins date to 1630. Toku-

gawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun, became a

proponent of Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism under the

influence of his Neo-Confucian adviser, Hayashi

Razan (1583–1657). In 1630, at Razan’s urging,

Iemitsu provided him with the resources necessary to

establish a school to teach Zhu Xi’s philosophy to

future shogunal bureaucrats and domain officials.

Located in Edo, the school also included a library. It

was not until 1797, seven years after the shogunate

decreed Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism the ofﬁcial state

orthodoxy, that the Shoheiko assumed its status as

the shogunate’s leading educational institution. Part

of the importance of the Shoheiko was that it trained

students to pass exams that enabled them to assume

government positions.

DOMAIN SCHOOLS

Domain schools (hanko) were institutions estab-

lished by domain authorities to educate samurai

children. These schools were headed by Neo-

Confucian scholars and focused on teaching the

Confucian classics with an emphasis on developing

the samurai child into a moral human being. A

domain school education also included training in

military arts, reading and writing in both Chinese

and Japanese, and other aspects of being a cul-

tivated Neo-Confucian. Samurai children were

expected to attend such schools to receive the ortho-

dox training required of a samurai and a domain

administrator.

Although government schools were often the

model for domain schools, domains had a fair

amount of autonomy in deciding the particular

curriculum their schools would offer. In general,

though, learning was based on memorization of

Chinese texts. Instruction also differed depending

on the status of a student’s family. It was often the

case that status was treated as more important than

ability.

Later in the Edo period, domain schools

expanded their enrollment and curriculum by allow-

ing children of other social ranks to attend and by

teaching the Japanese classics and aspects of West-

ern learning such as mathematics, astronomy, mili-

tary science, and ballistics. Forty domain schools

existed before 1750, but by the end of the Edo

period, some 225 schools had been established.

P HILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, AND S CIENCE

229

TEMPLE SCHOOLS

Despite the term, temple schools (terakoya) did not

have any necessary connection to Buddhism or Bud-

dhist teachings, though some schools were situated

on temple grounds. In general, however, terakoya

refers to small, local schools that were run out of a

home or shop. These temple schools afforded a

way for their teachers to make a living. Instruction

at these schools was often provided by just one

teacher, or perhaps by a married couple. It is esti-

mated that 33 percent of the temple schoolteachers

were women.

Temple schools were institutions for commoners,

though samurai children might also attend. Usually

samurai and commoner children were educated

together. By the end of the Edo period, tens of thou-

sands of temple schools operated throughout Japan.

Although they are believed to have existed before

1700, the ﬁrst literary reference to terakoya was not

made until 1716.

These schools taught a curriculum that included

reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as practical

and vocational skills. They also placed a great deal of

importance on learning basic Neo-Confucian moral

tenets. This curriculum was designed, in part, to

give students the skills needed to take advantage of

new opportunities that Edo-period urbanization

offered.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private schools (shijuku) were established through-

out Japan during the early modern period. Before

1750 only 19 private schools existed in Japan. That

number rose to more than 1,000 by the end of the

Edo period. In the first half of the early modern

period, private schools were typically found in larger

cities such as Edo and Osaka. However, by the later

half of the early modern period, private schools

appeared even in rural locations. Regardless of loca-

tion, they were often operated out of the teacher’s

home. As a result, private schools assumed many dif-

ferent teaching styles and curriculums. These

schools were not under the immediate control or

authority of the shogunate and they had no common

administrative structure or curriculum. Many pri-

vate schools were run in such a way that curriculum

might change to suit the times and prevailing inter-

ests of the student body. This kind of ﬂexibility was

not available to government and domain schools

with their set curriculum, largely samurai con-

stituency, and the mandate to train government

bureaucrats.

One beneﬁt, intended or not, for private schools

in not receiving funding from the shogunate was

that they were given relative freedom to teach any

number of subjects that would not have been

included in a government-sponsored school, such as

Shoheiko, or at domain schools.

Private schools were usually founded by scholars

with a particular expertise or academic interest.

Thus many different subjects were taught, though

the study of Confucian and other Chinese texts was

a typical foundation. Like other Edo-period schools,

students learned to read and write both Japanese and

Chinese. Other subjects were taught at the discre-

tion and interests of a school’s teacher. In addition to

the subjects already mentioned, others might

include Dutch and Western studies, Japanese litera-

ture, medicine, and accounting. Often, students

would graduate from a private school as advocates of

the particular social and political philosophy

espoused by their teacher.

Because of the exclusive nature of domain

schools in both curriculum and samurai clientele,

private schools were established to teach common-

ers disenfranchised from the domain school system.

Although private schools might also enroll samurai,

they were particularly important to commoners.

Further, while private schools might teach Neo-

Confucian subjects, they also provided instruction in

subjects not covered by domain schools. Some pri-

vate schools, for example, offered instruction in

Dutch or Western learning (discussed in more detail

below).

Students might travel long distances to attend

the private school that taught a curriculum they

wanted to take. Students might also attend more

than one private school. In the early Edo period, pri-

vate schools were often attended by children—usu-

ally male—of a variety of social classes, including

samurai or wealthy farmers and merchants, or aris-

tocrats. By the end of the Edo period, private

schools were attended by students from a broader

socioeconomic range, and included females. The

only impediment was a lack of funds to pay tuition.

H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN M EDIEVAL AND E ARLY M ODERN J APAN

230

Private schools were important to the develop-

ment of Dutch and Western studies. The terms

Dutch learning (rangaku) and Western learning

(yogaku) refer to study of European science, medi-

cine, and military technology. Although language,

art, and other topics were also studied, of particular

importance were the sciences. Because of the

reliance on the use of Dutch for these studies, dur-

ing the Edo period itself the term Dutch learning was

often used to describe this form of study. This usage

reﬂected the Dutch presence at Dejima during the

time of national isolation when the Tokugawa

shogunate banned interaction with all other Euro-

pean countries. As a result, the first contact with

Western knowledge came through the Dutch, often

as a result of Japanese translations of Dutch texts. As

this knowledge spread, it became the subject of the

curriculum of some private schools. It was only

toward the end of the Edo period that the term

Western learning was regularly utilized, reﬂecting the

late Edo interactions with other Western nations,

including the United States, England, and France.

Women’s education was also impacted by private

schools. The education of girls and young women

during the medieval period was mostly conﬁned to

the aristocratic and wealthy warrior classes. They

learned to read and write, and some also learned eti-

quette and skills that would prepare them for mar-

riage. The expansion of education in the Edo period

included even commoner girls. Further opportuni-

ties for the education of women arose with the

development of private schools, where women

sometimes served as teachers. While preparing girls

for marriage remained a signiﬁcant reason for par-

ents to want their daughters to attend school, educa-

tion was, by the end of the Edo period, a common

activity for girls of all classes.

Like Edo-period boy’s education, the curriculum

for girls centered on reading and writing. In addition

to basic literacy skills, girls—whether warrior-class

or commoner—were also taught Neo-Confucian

moral values. Texts expounding particular moral

virtues for women, such as the famous Great Learning

for Women (Onna daigaku; early 18th century), taught

girls to respect their parents and husband, to avoid

vices like gossip and extravagance, and to take care

of their health. Interestingly, texts that on the one

hand taught the subservience of women to men at

the same time provided women with literacy skills

that placed them on a more equal educational level

with men.

SCIENCE

In medieval and early modern Japan, the natural

sciences—including such disciplines as medicine,

mathematics, and astronomy—were largely in-

ﬂuenced by Chinese systems of science and classiﬁ-

cation of the natural world. From the mid-16th

century, Japanese interactions with Western mis-

sionaries and traders provided exposure to European

science and medical practices. Japan did not, how-

ever, simply borrow science and medicine from for-

eign sources. Japanese innovators transformed these

borrowed systems to suit Japanese needs and inter-

ests. Among scientiﬁc ﬁelds in early modern Japan,

special attention was given to medicine, astronomy,

and mathematics.

In the medieval period, at least through the 15th

century, science understood as empirical observation

of the natural world was almost entirely lacking.

The medieval world was largely caught between

older assumptions based on Chinese cosmological

ideas about balance and harmony and new ways of

scientific thinking from renewed contacts with

China and from interactions with European mis-

sionaries and traders.

In the medieval period Buddhist views were also

inﬂuential in how people thought about the natural

world and reasons why events occur as they do.

Natural occurrences, whether earthquakes, solar

eclipses, famine, or epidemic, were often interpreted

from the Buddhist perspective of karmic conse-

quence or from a more general perspective that

reﬂected both Chinese and native Shinto sensibili-

ties about the harmony—or its lack—operating at

any moment. Lack of harmony meant the possibility

of the world falling into disorder. Natural disasters

were one way that one came to know of this disor-

der. Such medieval perspectives allowed for only the

most general of predictive capabilities about the oc-

currence of natural phenomena. In any event, the

P HILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, AND S CIENCE

231

notion of empirical measurement or experimenta-

tion that allowed knowledge and understanding of

the natural world was not a part of the medieval

Japanese mindset.

One way notions of harmony and karmic conse-

quence played out in the medieval period was in

terms of medical practice and ideas about the etiol-

ogy of disease. Medical treatments might include

exorcism of an angry spirit wreaking havoc on the

body of its victim, the recitation of sutras to neutral-

ize the deleterious action that had caused a disease,

or medications intended to put the body back in har-

mony with its environment. In all of these instances,

the functioning of the body’s organs was deemed

irrelevant to the underlying idea that one’s vital

force was driving health and sickness.

By the end of the 16th century, these traditional

ideas about the natural world were beginning to

undergo a significant transformation because of

new contacts with China that led to a Japanese

interest in Neo-Confucianism and because of en-

counters with Western science that accompanied

European missionary and trade activity. As a result,

the early modern period was a time of great intel-

lectual and scholarly ferment, a time in which, for

instance, Western taxonomic systems and other sci-

entific ways of thinking came to impact Japan.

Although the Tokugawa shogunate imposed a pol-

icy of national isolation, the introduction of

Western science and medicine through interaction

with the Dutch at Dejima and publication of

books on Chinese science and other fields ensured

that new ways of thinking about the world contin-

ued despite national policy. The seclusion policy

only permitted contact with Dutch and Chinese

traders, so it was largely through Dutch that the

Japanese gained knowledge of Western science and

medicine.

Although Chinese scientific and medical ideas

were important in early modern Japan (and remain

so today), it was interactions with the Dutch after

Japan’s formal seclusion that marked the start of

investigations of the natural world within a Western

scientiﬁc paradigm. Because of the contact with the

Dutch, the Dutch language became the medium

through which new Western scientiﬁc and medical

knowledge were disseminated. Translations of

Dutch scientiﬁc and medical books into Japanese led

to the advancement of Japanese scientiﬁc thinking

and opened up whole new ways to think about the

natural world, including anatomy, astronomy, and

geography.

There were many Japanese scientists and doctors

who embraced Western learning. Among them were

Nishikawa Joken (1648–1724), a scholar of astron-

omy and Confucianism, who wrote books on astron-

omy and geography and who was sought out by the

shogunate for his knowledge of things Western.

Similarly, Arai Hakuseki (1657–1725), a Confucian

scholar and shogunal adviser, studied geography and

wrote a book on Western geography.

It was not just scientists, though, who found

value in Western learning. The eighth Tokugawa

shogun, Yoshimune (1684–1751), seeking to in-

crease agricultural production, allowed Chinese

books that treated various Western subjects to be

imported to Japan. Previously, all foreign books had

been banned under the national isolation policy.

Yoshimune also ordered the study of Dutch. Not

surprisingly, there was also deep interest in military

technology, especially naval ships and weaponry.

Medicine

Japanese medicine in the medieval and early modern

periods was the site of multiple and conflicting

medical understandings of the human body and

of its diseases and treatment. These different

perspectives—especially, Buddhist, Chinese, and

Western—do not reﬂect some inevitable movement

from a less sophisticated understanding of medical

science to a more sophisticated (Western) one.

Rather, these different medical views often coex-

isted, particularly in the early modern period. Even

today, for instance, traditional Chinese medicine

and Western medicine coexist in Japan. While

contemporary Westerners might view Chinese med-

icine as “alternative medicine” in a Western biomed-

ical context, in medieval and early modern Japan

there was nothing alternative about Chinese medical

theory and practice. Rather, it constituted the main-

stream view.

During the medieval and early modern periods,

Japanese medicine was shaped by a number of inﬂu-

H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN M EDIEVAL AND E ARLY M ODERN J APAN

232

ences. Native sources suggested ritual causes for dis-

ease, such as contact with impurity or punishment

by irate deities. Evidence for these views derives

from the earliest extant Japanese texts, such as the

Kojiki (Record of ancient matters, 712) and the

Nihon shoki (Chronicle of Japan, 720), as well as from

subsequent literature, both nonfiction and fiction.

Similarly, early Japanese views of disease prescribed

religious rituals and herbal medicine as the cure for

disease. Buddhist ideas also impacted Japanese per-

spectives on the etiology of disease and the possibil-

ities for cures.

The two most important influences during the

medieval and early modern periods were Chinese

medicine and, eventually, Western medicine. For

instance, the Ishimpo (Methods at the heart of

medicine), composed in 982 by Tamba Yasuyori

(912–995), is Japan’s oldest extant medical text and

displays the inﬂuence of Chinese medicine and med-

ical treatises on Japan’s understanding of medicine.

Its inﬂuence lasted into the medieval and early mod-

ern periods. Contacts with the West starting in the

mid-16th century gradually eroded the primacy of

Chinese medical practices and introduced new,

Western ways of understanding and treating disease.

Although the Japanese embraced different med-

ical traditions, Chinese and Western medical proce-

dures were used to treat certain common and

widespread diseases. Aside from wounds resulting

from accidents and warfare, Japanese physicians

were confronted with a number of diseases. There

are difficulties, however, in determining today

exactly what these past diseases may have been. This

is due in part to the ways in which Chinese and

Western medicine understood, described, diag-

nosed, and treated these diseases. Diseases known to

have afﬂicted the Japanese include leprosy, smallpox,

syphilis, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, and

measles.

BUDDHIST MEDICINE

In the Kamakura period, as Buddhism spread

throughout Japan, its perspectives on disease and

treatment had a large impact on Japanese medical

practice. Priests served as doctors, disseminating and

applying knowledge about medicinal herbs and

other remedies. In this sense, the medical arts were

viewed as an important aspect of their religious

activities. One way in which medieval Buddhists

made sense of disease was through the concept of

karmic disease (gobyo). According to this view,

immoral acts and transgressions performed in a past

life became manifest in the present life as disease.

Thus, disease was the direct outcome of negative

karmic acts.

Buddhist monks, besides ministering to the sick,

also compiled treatises on medicine. The Zen monk

Eisai (1141–1215), famous as the founder of Rinzai

Zen and a promoter of green tea drinking for

medicinal purposes, also wrote a medical book, the

Kissa yojoki (Drink tea and prolong life, 1214). The

Buddhist monk and physician Kajiwara Shozen

(1266–1337) is noted for two volumes Ton’isho

(Jottings on medicine, 1303) and Man’anpo (Pre-

scriptions for felicity, 1327) that detailed his under-

standing of Chinese medicine and anatomy. The

Ton’isho makes use of the idea that alimentary care—

proper food and nutrition—had healing properties.

A similar idea about the medicinal properties of cer-

tain foods is found in a medical text by the Zen

monk Yurin (died 1410).

Buddhists were also known for their aid to the

sick and indigent. The Buddhist priest Ninsho

(1217–1303), for instance, was noted for the assis-

tance he provided to those who were homeless and

impoverished. He founded two refuge centers dedi-

cated to ministering to the sick and poor, and

worked on behalf of lepers.

CHINESE MEDICINE

Chinese medical theory and practice (in Japanese,

kampo) was central to much of medieval and early

modern medicine. It provided models for such

things as the balance of vital force (Chinese: qi;

Japanese: ki) in the human body, the cause of dis-

ease, and the medicinal properties of plants and

other natural materials. Chinese medicine was intro-

duced to Japan as early as the sixth century, quickly

influencing Japanese medical perspectives. It was

practiced with little modification until the late

medieval period. In the Heian period, the aristo-

cratic court physician Tamba Yasuyori (912–995)

wrote the Ishimpo (Methods at the heart of medicine,

984), the oldest extant Japanese medical text that

P HILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, AND S CIENCE

233