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, born , was a Japanese samurai (retainer of the Mito Domain) and a nationalist thinker of the
, born , was a Japanese samurai (retainer of the Mito Domain) and a nationalist thinker of the Mito school
refers to a school of Japanese historical and Shinto studies that arose in the Mito Domain (modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture).
Early
The school had its genesis in 1657 when Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), second head of the Mito Domain, commissio ...
during the late shogunate period
was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. ...
.
In 1799 he became involved in the compilation of the ''Dai Nihon-shi
The ''Dai Nihonshi'' (大日本史), literally ''History of Great Japan'', is a book on the history of Japan. It was begun in the 17th century, during the Edo period, by Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the head of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa family. Aft ...
'' (Great History of Japan) being undertaken by the Mito school.
In 1825 he wrote his ''Shinron'' ("New Theses"), a collection of essays that dealt with issues such as Tokugawa defence policy and how the ships were a threat to Japan. Aizawa also tried to describe conditions in the West and theorize why those states had gained so much control; in his opinion Westerners used religion to inculcate conformity in the masses.
He also claimed that Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
was used by the colonial powers to subvert native cultures and governments by creating a fifth column
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...
that would collaborate with and facilitate military conquest by Europeans. He discussed the religious policies established by the Toyotomi government and continued by their successors, the Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
, in this context.
Furthermore, he believed that if Japan's way of life was to survive, it would need to take up its own state religion in order to prevent cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural assi ...
via Christianization and discussed the concept of ''kokutai
is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as "system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constituti ...
'' ("national polity") in this context. The ''Shinron'' would become an important work for the ''sonnō jōi
was a ''yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sought ...
'' movement and his theory of the Kokutai would be developed by future thinkers.Wakabayashi
In 1840 Aizawa became the first head of professors of the Mito school's ''Kōdōkan'' but was forced to resign in 1844 when Tokugawa Nariaki
Tokugawa Nariaki (徳川 斉昭, April 4, 1800 – September 29, 1860) was a prominent Japanese ''daimyō'' who ruled the Mito Domain (now Ibaraki Prefecture) and contributed to the rise of nationalism and the Meiji Restoration.
Biography
C ...
resigned as domain leader. He later returned to the ''Kōdōkan''.
Quotes
See also
*Gaspar Coelho
Gaspar Coelho ( – 1590) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary. He replaced Francisco Cabral as the Superior and Vice-Provincial of the Jesuit mission in Japan during the late 16th century. He catalyzed the disfavor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi against t ...
, who came into conflict with Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
over the issue of Christian subversion
* San Felipe incident (1596)
On October 19, 1596, the Spanish ship ''San Felipe'' was shipwrecked in Urado on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. The local daimyō Chōsokabe Motochika seized the cargo of t ...
, after which Hideyoshi became convinced of Christian plans for the ultimate conquest of Japan
Sources
* *Notes