KEYS TO JAPAN IN THE EDO (TOKUGAWA) PERIOD

After the 3rd of the 3 Great Unifiers, Tokugawa Ieyasu, defeated his enemies at the Battle of Sekigahara, all the remaining Daimyo in the land became his vassals.

He is now the defacto political ruler of all Japan....And yet, Japan is still divided into 250 feudal domains or Han which are theoretically autonomous. Each Daimyo still rules directly over his own Han; that is why we call it a "Hybrid" system, or the Baku-Han system.

The first half of the equation

--Baku for the Bakufu = "tent" or "military" government--represents central authority.

--The second half was the Han or "Feudal Domains," which stands for local autonomy.

Paradoxical? Yes. Sometimes it is referred to as "centralized feudalism" which is kind of an oxymoron because the feudalism part implies de-centralization and the rise of regional and local power centers.

But Tokugawa Iyeasu's system was all about controlling the Daimyo and disincentivizing any ideas about rebelling against Tokugawa Laws and Regulations.

First and foremonst, his han or fief was huge, far outstripping any other single Daimyo in all of Japan. His lands were worth about 4.1 million koku (a measure of rice--about 5 bushels). Making it about 4 x larger than his closest opponent.

So Ieyasu is kind of a "Super Daimyo." But his authority is far from absolute; he is not like a European King; he does not claim nor command all the land in his realm directly. He exercises quite a bit of control, but only indirectly. Technically, each of the approximately 250 Feudal Lords or "Daimyo" controls his own domain or han.

In 1603, Ieyasu gets the Imperial Court to grant him the title of Shogun. This helps. It is a "national" title but it is granted by the emperor.

He retires in 1605 in favor of his son Hidetada but still rules; so he guarantees avoidance of a "crisis of succession." Smart.

But the key to everything is his strong VASSAL CONTROL system. How can these 250 Daimyo be regulated?

The Sengoku jidai (戦国時代) or "Warring States Period" was identified with Gekokujo (下克上) or the phenomenon of "those below overthrowing those above."　How can this very disruptive and destabilizing process be controlled?

Hideyoshi made an important first step:

--Removing samurai and their arms from the Land; --combined with performing cadastral surveys, assigning income to removed samurai now living in castle towns, and tying peasant families to the land they farmed.

Ieyasu continues this process first by classifying all the Daimyo and regulating them = he has an ingenious system of strategic distribution of wealth and power in order to disincentivize rebellion.

Then he adds furhter measures of controlling and regulating them:

1. Exercising the Right to transfer Daimyo from one domain to another; awarding land to allies; the capability to strip Daimyo of some or all of lands. In first 50 years of Tokugawa rule in fact some 213 Daimyo were stripped of part or all of their land; some 281 Daimyo transferred.

2. Castle and road building campaigns: Daimyo had to contribute materials and labor so it strengthens Tokugawa, while weakening his enemies financially. Costly.

3. Oaths of Fealty 1611--pledge to respect laws established by the bakufu. So Daimyo or Fedual Lords accept limitations on their power.

4.Military House Codes (1615)

--Article 1: Study of Literature (文) and the Martial Arts (武) must both be cultivated. Reminds us of Zhou Kings Wen (文) and Wu (武). But note how Bun, Literature comes first. It is Peacetime now, my brothers! So that is the priority.

--This will be a regime of Laws: "Law is the foundation of social order. Reason may be violated in the name of Law, but Law may not be violated in the name of reason. Anyone who violates the law must be severely punished." Shades of Qin Emperor and Legalism!

--Castles may be repaired but new construction is forbidden.

--Marriages between Daimyo houses cannot be contracted without prior bakufu approval.

--To form a factional alliance through marriage is the root of treason.

--The practice of Sankin-kotai or Alternate Attendance on the Shogun is required

--Daimyo spend 50% of their time in residence at Edo; must build Daimyo Residences there;

--this is costly, weakens han financially, as well as administratively.

--also, Sankin-Kotai is coordinated with a hostage system: Daimyo wives and Children remain in Edo when Daimyo returns to han. Incentive to plot or revolt v. Shogun? Not so much.

--Introduction of Zhu Xi Neo Confucianism as the basis for Tokugawa Education which took place, of course, in academies for samurai children but also in "temple schools" for merchant and farmer's children.

From this point forward in Japan, the official guiding philosophy of the Tokugawa period (1603-1867) was Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism. It provided a heavenly sanction for the existing social order. In the Neo-Confucian view, harmony was maintained by a reciprocal relationship of justice between a superior, who was urged to be benevolent, and a subordinate, who was urged to be obedient and to observe propriety.

The Chinese Neo-Confucian scholar Chu Hsi's (aka Zhu Xi) (1130-1200) ideas were the most influential, but they were by no means the only ones studied in the Tokugawa period.

See also:

http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/Asia%20201/AS%20201%20Tokugawa%20Japn.html

The Confucian 4-Class system is perfect for Ieyasu's aims:

1. Samurai or shi replace Chinese Scholar official (shih) as the Top class but it is 100% hereditary; No Exam System exists to allow non-samurai to enter officaldom. In fact, there were not enough positions for the large samurai class (6% of total population)--the cuase of considerable tensions.

2. Peasants;

3. Artisans;

4. Merchants

Unintended Consequences of Ieyasu's Vassal Controls:

--Sankin Kotai required Roads, Travel, Shipping of Goods up to Edo;

--Spread of Urbanism and Commerce;

--Osaka becomes staging point and Commercial Center;

--Spread of money economy, credit system, proto- banking;

--Urbanization:

Edo over 1 million;

Osaka and Kyoto at 500,000;

--Nagasaki an International trade Center

--All major metropolitan areas governed by a Shogunal Official

--Sakoku or "Closed Country" Policy ordered 1639: no han is allowed to trade with outside powers;

--This was a way to preserve existing balance of power

--Market Economy grows as in 11th and 12 century China; we see lots of rural proto-industrialization;

--Peace, Urbanization, Population Growth demand in cities for foodstuffs and other household goods generates demand for food and other products;

--stimulated increases in Agricultural production;

--as in Song dynasty China (960-1230), new strains, new crops, new, improved tools, new agricultural technologies, more lands brought under cultivation;

--farmers specialize and produce for the market;

--see the variety of goods via Guilds handout.

--Education spreads, literacy rates grow to 30-40% of total population. Staggering!

--Terakoya Temple Schools even for farmers children;

--So Japan between 1600-1850 is "feudal" in name only; just in a narrow, political/structural sense;

--it is really a peaceful, urbanized, sophisticated, literate and bureaucratic order with considerable cultural dynamism and intellectual vitality;

Former Harvard Professor and US Ambassador to Japan under the Kennedy Administration, Edwin S. Reischauer, made some key summative points in the video we watched about the nature of the “Feudal Experience” in Tokugawa Japan

1. Feudalism does not lie far in the past in Japan but continued right up until the mid-19th century.

2. One of its key legacies was for Japanese people to seek identification as members of a group rather than to extoll the virtues of Individualism which was a dynamic which drove European history and led to political revolutions against the arbitrary and despotic right of rule by Divine Monarchs.

3. Military men and the military life retained high prestige in japan.  Does this signify a Pragmatic way of looking at the world and problem-solving?

4. There was a significant technology gap between Japan and the west as a result of “Closed County” (sakoku) policy.  In many respects, Tokugawa Japan’s economy and society resembled the most advanced societies in Europe except in the realm of modern science and technology.

5. Late feudalism in Japan was different from anything known by that name in Europe.

6. It did not entail warfare but two-and-a-half centuries of Peace, Order, and Prosperity.

7. The samurai or warrior class had evolved more into bureaucrats and administrators than fighting men so they were more like modern government officials engaged in modern forms of government.

8. The economy was not a typical feudal economy but s sophisticated, urban-centered, complex market centered economy with a proto money and banking system.

9. The society was educated and literate, steeped in Confucian values that promoted high-ethical standards in government combined with the warrior code of personal loyalty to rulers and leaders helped create a stable, gnerally efficient administrative system.

10. Confucianism also left a strong belief in the value of education, which helps account for the very high literacy rates in Japan in the mid-1800s.

11. It also resulted in remarkable intellectual vitality during the Tokugawa period

So, ALL OF THE 11 POINTS ABOVE CONTRIBUTED TO JAPAN’S RAPID MODERNIZATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY.

12. So, WE CAN SAY THAT during the Long, peaceful and stable Tokugawa period, Japan did change a great deal in terms of its:

-- economy - commercialized, transportation networks helped a nationwide market spread, proto-money and banking system evolved, Merchants emerged as Wealthy and indispensable part of the new economy

-- society – yes, 4-class system WAS still in place but reality diverged markedly from theory

--culture- new poetry (haiku), prose, and theatre (kabuki) and visual art (woodblock prints) forms

--the intellectual world of discourse and philosophy thrived -- see below

--BUT it’s POLITICAL System remained virtually the same – so this now antiquated, Hybrid Baku-Han or this "mixed central controls and locally autonomous regions" arrangement– had been outstripped by the growth that took place all around it and within it.  But the political structure remained firmly in place, virtually unchanged.

13. This inevitably generated INTERNAL Tensions as the credibility and the authority of the old system eroded from within and these tensions were exacerbated when a military, diplomatic, and technological challenge appeared from WITHOUT in the form of western powers coming to Japan and demanding access in the form of Treaties and Commerce.

14. The result was a rapid turnaround and refashioning of the political structure so that within 15 years of Perry’s arrival in 1853, the Age of the Samurai was over. The MEIJI RESTORATION had reorganized domestic politics and replaced the divided polity with a centralized state structure under the nominal sovereignty of the Emperor but the realm was actually governed in his name by his “Councilors” from among those young samurai who led the rebellion that overthrew the Shogunate in 1867.

Obviously, Loyalty to Feudal Authority is a central concern of Ieyasu's and Neo-Confucianism was handy here.

One might assume that Neo-Confucianism would be a rigid, orthodoxy and that other varieties of thought were unwelcome, but actually there was considerable Intellectual Variety and Dynamism in Tokugawa times:

--- The orthodox Zhu Xi Neo Confucianism promoted Rationalism: Invenstigation of Things (Li 理) in all things; and set High Ethical Standards;

--But also, we have the following Schools of Thought or Intellectual Currents in Tokugawa times which suggest intellectual vitality:

--- School of Ancient Learning (Kogaku 古学)--emphasized pre-Han original Confucian Thought; For example, a very influential "academy" or school was Ogyu Sorai's school of Ancient Learning or Kogaku 古学. Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) considered Zhu Xi's Neo-Confuciansm of the Song Dynasty to be a distortion of the original teachings of the master. And the version of Neo-Confucianism that the Japanese were getting was third or fourth hand anyway. So he wanted scholars to go back to the original Han and pre-Han era documents and meet the ancients on their own terms; to try to read the canonic texts as they did.

So he was reminding educated Japanese that there were at least 3 major STRATA here:

1. Confucius himself aka Kongzi (551-479 B.C.E.), lived deep back in China's ancient or Classical Period. He formulated hs philosophy to help people and leaders get through tumultuous and unstable times;

2. During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) Confucianism was designated as the official philosophy to follow and on which to base education, government office, and society/social relations;

3. Then, after Buddhism entered and became established in China (8th and 9th centuries CE), Confucianism was thoroughly revised in the 1100-1200s and the result was "Neo-"Confucianism or the New and Revised 2.0 version.

 

Moreover, Sorai wanted to credit the foundational figures in Confucianism for their genius and initiative in using ideas about how to order society that were rooted not really in eternal principles like li, but grew out of the needs of the times. Ieaysu had done the same exact thing, Sorai believed.

This belief was meant to be supportive at the time; but it would have subversive potential farther down the line:

--if institutions were man made and different times called for different types of institutions, then in the early 1800s, when the Tokugawa system did not seem to be working so well any longer, there could be a rational and legitimate call for political change. Sorai could be a critic of his times, for he often pointed out that Samurai in his day were living as if they were guests at a Japanese ryokan or Inn. What do you think he meant by that?

--- Wang Yang-ming (王陽明 called Ôyômei in Japanese) philosophy from Ming, China;

It stressed "Intuition" (shin 心) over "Reason" (ri 理); Action over Words; innate knowledge was prized; Zen influence? Wang Yang-ming believed that a universal principle exists in the human mind; we need to become attuned to it.One could look out and study the "Principle" (li 理) of Things as Neo-Confucianism emphasized; or, go Inward and look at the "Heart" (shin 心) of Things. So it has this inward looking aspect. Once we do this and look inward, and cultivate the inner self, then correct moral action will result spontaneously from true this understanding. It is more intuitive and less bookish than traditiional Neo-Confucianism. More action oriented so it appealed to Tokugawa era samurai.

 

--- School of Native Studies (Kokugaku 国学) study Japan's own history and literature like the Kojiki, the Nihon shoki, and The Tale of Genji; mono no aware. The feeling was, perhaps, all this emphasis on Confucianism and Chinese Studies was all well and good....but what about Japan's great "native texts," its Histories, it's poetry and clasical prose literature? Was all this chopped liver? Why don't we study these texts more?

Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), the most influential of the kokugaku scholars of the Edo period, wrote extensively on the essence of Japaneseness, or Japanese culture, and disparaging Chinese culture and influence. Like Kamo no Mabuchi before him, he contrasted Chinese argumentation by rationality with a Japanese sense of the natural flow and essence of things, citing the example of the Japanese aesthetic of mono no aware. Where Mabuchi sought the true Japanese Way only in a return to ancient times, Norinaga asserted that the Way had been bequeathed to the Japanese nation through the unbroken line of divine emperors, and that as a result, this ancient Way continued to live on in the emperors, and could thus be regained - more directly than in Mabuchi's account - within contemporary times. Norinaga also focused extensively on the Kojiki, where Mabuchi had focused his attentions on analyzing the Man'yôshû. One of Norinaga's most significant contributions was in a line-by-line, word-by-word analysis of the Kojiki, a massive undertaking which ultimately resulted in his 44-volume Kojikiden. Motoori set the stage for the modern development of the study of Japanese national language and literature, and in so doing produced findings that even now are impossible to ignore. However, in the background of this scholarship was his profound faith in Shinto and the origins of the Japanese language. As the Kojikiden was published, Motoori gained disciples from all over the nation. (See: McClain pp. 124-125 and also https://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Motoori_Norinaga)

So, the Kokugaku School focused attention on Japan's distinctiveness from China, Japan's uniqueness. When these scholars looked at Japanese history they saw something not in evidence in China: rule by a single monarachical line that alledgedly goes back to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and her grandson, Prince Ninigi. Chinese history, by contrast, featured "dynastic cycles" whereby one ruling house prospered and then deteriorated and was replaced by another who gained the "Mandate of Heaven" to rule instead of the incumbent monarch. So, this focus in its own way could be subversive, too, in the sense that when you looked back to see what Japan's essence was, you could not avoid coming up against the emperor so the role of the Shogun as someone who was temporarily ruling in place of the emperor came to the fore. If the Shogun was no longer able to do what he was supposed to do--i.e., subdue the barbarians and keep them at bay, then maybe there needed to be a central role for the emperor once again. Hence the term sonno or "reverence for the emperor" came into the late Tokugawa political discourse.

--- Mito School = a Collateral Tokugawa House of Mito Domain charged with compiling a complete national history of Japan. Consequently, the Imperial Institution and the "unbroken line" emerge as Japan's unique features. This school also derives stuff from the Kokugaku 国学 school, and the the term Kokutai (国体)”National Polity” comes into use, also reinforcing notions of Japan's uniquness, distinctiveness, hence it is linked to the development ot "particularism" in the 1920s and 1930s. So, it is not so much a "school" of thought per se, but the Tokugawa commissioned Shimpan Tokugawa House of Mito to undertake the compilation of a multi-volume Dai Nipponshi or the Great History of Japan. What did this mean? Well, a community of scholars turned their attention to all available records of Japanese history and inevitably began to concentrate on the unique aspects of Japan's monarchical institution. Not subject to dynastic cycles as China's was, Japan's monarch featured amazing continuity back to the age of the gods. Since the Japanese emperor was also a chief priest of Shinto, the native religion and native texts were featured. Therefore, Mito became the locus of intense feelings of Japanese superiority and loyalty to the throne as captured in the popular pre-Restoration phrase "sonno," or "Reverence for the Emperor." In this way, it often echoed or interfaced with the School of Native Studies. 

--- Dutch Studies (蘭学) which was OK'd after 1720 when the importation of Western books allowed by the Shogun Yoshimune. So scholars began yo go to Deshima in Nagasaki to learn from the Dutch. Dictionaries were created, plus books on Botany, Anatomy,gunnery, etc. were also produced. Dutch Studies begins in earnest after Shogun Yoshimune's liberalization of the kind of books that could be imported from abroad. He ended the ourtight ban on western books as long as they did not prosyletize Christianity. Scholars tended to concentrate on "physical and medical sciences" like biology, botany, anatomy, opticals, etc. 

A number of Rangaku scholars managed to arrange to witness the dissection of executed criminals, and some published works based on the experience. Seeing that dissected Japanese bodies did not match with descriptions in Chinese texts, many concluded that Chinese and Japanese anatomy must be (or might be) different. But, Sugita Genpaku and Maeno Ryôtaku, after observing a dissection in 1771 with copies of the Dutch anatomy book Ontleedkundige Tafelen[2] on hand, decided that all human anatomy was alike, and that the Dutch books were simply more accurate, more correct, than the Chinese ones. The more they looked closely, the more it became clear that the Chinese depictions were completely inaccurate. Not only were they wrong, but it some cases, the Chinese texts included complete fabrications.

Incensed by this discovery, they set to translating the Dutch text. Three years later, in 1774, with the help of Nakagawa Jun'an, Katsuragawa Hoshû, and several others, they completed the translation and publication of Kaitai shinsho ("New Book of Anatomy"), the first European anatomy book to be widely published & circulated in Japanese translation. (From: https://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Rangaku) So this marks the beginning of discoveries based on real empirical data. "Dutch Learning," as Sugita put it, "expressed facts as they were, or an empirical rathewr than philological reality." The time was right for this kind of observation-based learning and so it built in a convincing belief thast Western learning was actually more rational than Eastern learning. Alas, this may have convinced some that a state based on an obsolete political philosophy of Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism, might not be the wave of the future and it could weaken the legitimacy of the whole state structure. If it was not accurate about human anatomy, then maybe it could not reveal that much about the human heart or mind, either,

BTW, Yoshimune (1684-1751), the eighth shogun, was from the Kii cadet or collateral line, one of the original "Go-sanke" or Three Collateral Houses and a great grandson of Ieyasu. So he had a fantastic pedigree and turned out to be one of the most able and best-remembered Shoguns to serve in that high-office. 

Rangaku or Dutch Studies came to be associated to openness toward western ideas and learning. Later on, Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864) would coin the phrase "Eastern morals, Western technology" (Tôyô dôtoku, Seiyô geijutsu); in other words, still rely on Neo-Confucianism for moral guidance but accept the fact that the west was the source of superior science, technology and therefore military power.  Sounds like a simple enough, pragmatic strategy to deal with the "technology gap," but while Japanese samurai-scholars could come to see this pretty early on, almost four decades later the Chinese were still struggling to accept this because for them, Confucianism could not be replaced or supplemented.

Note: McClain writes about Native Studies and the Mito Historical schools along with some new religions on pp. 124-129.

 

--- Shingaku (心学)or "Heart/Mind" Studies that support Mercantilism; merchants and tradespeople "help society" too. It had some 30,000 adherents. See Mclain, pp. 87-89.

 

There were also even a few scholars and critics who were able to think "outside the box":

a. Dazai Shundai--commerce essential to the economy so why not develop the economy? Daimyo should take advantage of this resource, commerce

b. Kaiho Seiryo--don't disparage pursuit of profit; whole world rests on the principle of exchange and profit; Han should pursue profit by exporting local products

c. Yamagato Banto-scholar of Osaka Merchant Academy--urged reformers not to fix prices but let scarce goods go where they are needed

d. Honda Toshiaki urged trade and even overseas colonization!

e. Sato Nobuhiro argues for a strong, centralized state with a Ministry to to direct all economic activities

So, Japan was very accustomed to intellectual discussions, debates, circulation of ideas, and tensions between a variety of intellectual positions. So there is considerably more intellectual vitality in Tokugawa Japan than one might assume. In a word, scholarly Neo-Confucian studies were widespread and varied. A number of Confucian "academies" (like think tanks) were established, such as the Kaitokudo in Osaka. A so-called "merchant academy," it taught, subtly, that the merchants did have value to society as well and their contribution to the welfare of the realm was significant. Generally, only the samurai class would attend these academies, so this gave merchants a place to send their sons and instill pride in what their families did.

 

Here are four of the main elements of Neo-Confucianism which influenced Japan:

1) Fundamental rationalism

a. stressed objective reason as the basis of learning and conduct

b. pursued the "investigation of thing" as described in The Great Learning.

c. studied the constant laws of nature and human society (as opposed to the ceaseless change and Law of Impermanence stressed by Buddhism).

 

2) Essential humanism

a. focus on man and his relationships, not the supernatural world. The stress on social order (warrior, farmer, artisans, merchants) was supported by these ideas.

b. also stressed were the Five Confucian relationships: Ruler-Subject, Father-Son, Husband-Wife, Elder Brother-Younger Brother, Friend-Friend.

c. clearly rejected Buddhism and Taoism, as does Hayashi Razan, Ieyasu's choice to heaad his Confucian Academy.

 

3) Historicism

a. like Confucius in the Analects, scholars hearkened to the past for precedents.

b. in the Japanese case, scholars looked not to Chinese history but to Japanese history.

4) Ethnocentrism

a. In China, this meant anti-Buddhist and anti-Mongol/Turkic invaders.

b. In Japan, this meant loyalty to the emperor and intense xenophobia, which worked nicely with the National Learning scholarship of the time. Also contributed to isolationism.

 

 

The Edo period, then, was a time of growing commerce, but Confucianism was opposed to it because it held that the fortunes of the government rose and fell with the fortunes of agriculture, not those of commerce. Both commoner and samurai ethics were more dependent on Confucianism than any other system.

Hayashi Razan (1583-1657)

-Advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), the first Tokugawa shogun.
-Helped draft almost all edicts promulgated by the early Tokugawa shogun.
-Was also a scholar of Shinto and National Learning

The concept of the shi (Chinese: shih): "knight" or "gentleman," someone with a level of "spiritual/moral development, as well as academic and martial cultivation which is clearly above that of the average person." (Muller)

-the true shi would be both a good soldier and scholarly

Excepts from Neo-confucian texts:

XIII:20 Tzu Kung asked: "What must a man be like to be called a
shih?" The Master said, "One who in conducting himself maintains
a sense of honor, and who when sent to the four quarters of the world
does not disgrace his prince's commission, may be called a shih."

XIII:28 If you are decisive, kind and gentle, you can be called a shih.
With friends, the shih is clear but kind. With his brothers he is gentle.
XIV:3 Confucius said: "A shih who is addicted to comfort should not
be called a shih."

XV:8 Confucius said: "The determined shih and the man of jen will
not save their lives if it requires damaging their jen. They will even
sacrifice themselves to consummate their jen."

XIX:1 Tzu Chang said: "The shih who faced with danger can
abandon his life...he is worth something."

Hayashi equated the shi with the samurai. In Japan, the shi replaced the junzi as the ideal.
The samurai was to be learned not just in the art of war, but in the Confucian classics as well.

Yamazaki Ansai (1618-1682)

--Simple doctrine: "Devotion within, righteousness without"
--Devotion: service to the Shinto deities
--Righteousness: proper behavior in society
--Yamazaki tried hard to reconcile Shinto and Confucian philosophies.
In the end, he claimed that man must take some things on faith
(which is a Shinto statement).

Gave rise to three major trends of the following two centuries:

1. the popularization of Confucian ethics
2. the revival of Shinto and its development as a coherent system
3. intense nationalism

Yamazaki gave a special focus to education

-"the aim of education...is to clarify human relationships"
-This focus on education was continued through into the modern era.
-Yamazaki found The Great Learning particularly important
-closely associated the five relationships to education

but what is perhaps surprising is how many other vibrant, significant Schools or Currents of Thoughtin Tokugawa times:

1. The Oyomei (Chinese: Wang Yang-ming) School:

Also Neo-Confucian, but different from most Zhu Xi schools:

Stressed "Intuition" (shin) over "Reason" (ri)
Stressed Action over Words
Felt that man had an innate knowledge, and it was primarily important
for one to cultivate it.

Was theistic, and addressed the existence of God(s)

Man's innate knowledge was closely tied to the "Supreme Ultimate"

See also: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHPHIL/NEO.HTM

In sum scholarly Neo-Confucian studies were widespread and varied. A number of Confucian "academies" (like think tanks) were established, such as the Kaitokudo in Osaka. A so-called "merchant academy," it taught, subtly, that the merchants did have value to society as well and their contribution to the welfare of the realm was significant. Generally, only the samurai class would attend these academies, so this gave merchants a place to send their sons and instill pride in what their families did.

On the popular level, though, people learnedabout their place in society and the importance of loyalty and filial piety through travelling scholars and what was taught in the terakoya or temple schools..

The establishment of Oyomei schools also helped reconcile Shintoism with Neo-Confucianism, because is allowed for supernatural element in a Confucian world.

2. School of Ancient Learning or Kogaku

One of the most significant of these "academies" was Ogyu Sorai's school of Ancient Learning or Kogaku. Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) considered Zhu Xi's Neo-Confuciansm of the Soung Dynasty to be a distortion of the original teachings of the master. And the version of Neo-Confucianism that the Japanese were getting was third or fourth hand anyway. So he wanted scholars to go back to the origianl Han and pre-Han era documents and meet the ancients on their own terms, try to read the canonic texts as they did. Moreover, he wanted to credit the foundational figures in Confucianism for their genius and initiative in using ideas about how to order society that were rooted not really in eternal principles like li, but grew out of the needs of the times. Ieaysu had done the same exact thing, Sorai believed. This belief was meant to be supportive at the time; but it had subversive potential: if institutions were man made and different times called for different types of institutions, then in the early 1800s, when the Tokugawa system did not seem to be working so well any longer, there could be a rational and legitimate call for political change.

3. School of Native Learning or Kokugaku [Literally, School of National Learning--as opposed to any kind of Chinese Learning]

Also popular were schools of "Native Studies" or Kokugaku, sometimes also called the School of National Learning. But this school can be called "Native Studies" because it suggests that Japan's own history and literature are every bit as worthy has China's are to study and learn from so they did serious linguistic and historical analysis of books like the Kojiki, the Nihon shoki, and The Tale of Genji. When these scholars looked at Japanese history they saw something not in evidence in China: rule by a single monarachical line that alledgedly goes back to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and her grandson, Prince Ninigi. Chinese history, by contrast, featured "dynastic cycles" whereby one ruling house propsered and then deteriorated and was replaced by another. So, this focus in its own way could be subversive, too, in the sense that when you looked back to see what Japan's essence was, you could not avoid coming up against the emperor so the role of the Shogun as someone who was temporarily ruling in place of the emperor came to the for. If the Shogun was no longer able to do what he was supposed to do--i.e., subdue the barbarians and keep them at bay, then maybe there needed to be a central role for the emperor once again.

Not all scholars mixed Confucianism with National Learning: some felt that one or the other was superior.

4. Dutch Studies or Rangaku

Begins in earnest after 1970 and Shogun Yoshimune's liberalization of the kind of books that could be imported from abroad. Scholars tended to concentrate on physical and medical sciences" biology, botany, anatomy, opticals, etc. This school came to be associated to openness toward western ideas and learning. Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864) would later coin the phrase "Eastern morals, Western technology" (Touyou doutoku, Seiyou geijutsu); in other words, still rely on Neo-confucianism for moral guidance but accept the fact that the west was the source of superior science, technology and therefore military power.

5. Mitogaku or Mito Historical Studies

Not so much a "school" per se but the Tokugawa commissioned Shimpan Tokugawa House of Mito to undertake the compilation of a multi-volume Dai Nipponshi or the Great History of Japan. What did this mean? Well, a community of scholars turned their attention to all available records of Japanese history and inevitably began to concentrate on the unique aspects of Japan's monarchical institution. Not subject to dynastic cycles as China's was, Japan's monarch featured amazing continuity back to the age of the gods. Since the Japanese emperor was also a chief priest of Shinto, the native religion and native texts were featured. Therefore, Mito became the locus of intense feelings of Japanese superiority and loyalty to the throne. Echoed/interfaced with School of Native Studies.

Adapted and supplemented from a page that is no longer available: http://www.albany.edu/eas/190/tokugawa.htm; the Rangaku characters come from Wikipedia.