Beyond "Japanization" and "Modernization" : A Comprehensive Perspective on Tokugawa Intellectual History

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The dominant interpretations of Tokugawa thought up to now have taken the Chu Hsi view of heaven and human nature as their starting point and have attempted to trace the "modernization" or "Japanization" of that outlook in the Tokugawa context. By contrast, the present project has focused on a wider range of Chinese perspectives and by tracing from various angles their conjuncture with Tokugawa thought has sought to develop a more multidimensioned image of Tokugawa thought.Legal historians have conceptualized the early modern state as "patrimonial" in nature. By contrast, by tracing the historical evolution in the concept of the state presented by Tokugawa thinkers such as Hayashi Razan and Arai Hakuseki in the early and mid-Tokugawa period and the kokugaku and Mito schools in the latter half of the Tokugawa period, the present project has directed attention to the process by which a distinctive view of the state oriented towards incorporation of the ruled took shape.Other issues explored by the present project include the impact of the new notions of the world disseminated by rangaku scholars on the existing image of Japan as "the country of the gods" and the worldview of popular religion, the connection between the spread of Confucian-Shinto thought in the latter Tokugawa period and the development of a "house" -oriented social structure, and the formation of intellectual networks through which the thought of Ogyu Sorai was transmitted throughout country and became a motivating force in domain reform movements of the latter half of the Tokugawa period.Over the course of the two years of the project, the participants have collected and categorized a wide range of primary sources. To make more widely available the fruits of this effort, they plan to publish a thematically-organized selection of these sources in the near future.