The Kaitokudō (Japanese:懐徳堂) was a merchant academy located in

Osaka, Japan is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third most populous city in Ja ...

, during the

Tokugawa period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterize ...

. Although it opened its doors in 1724, it was founded officially in 1726 by Nakai Shūan. It remained a public institution until 1868, although there have been modern revivals. The Kaitokudō began as a small meeting group of Osaka merchants, Tashōdō, who met to discuss virtue, or moral education, through the reading and study (''gakumon'') of classic texts. A fire at the Tashōdō in 1724 spurred already developing plans to establish a legal institution in the form of a public academic with a continued focus on the moral education of merchants. This was gained in 1726. Land was granted in perpetuity, provided that the academy be financed by the local merchants. The original finances are attributed to the members of the Tashōdō. The main remit of the school was on moral education of merchants. Public lectures maintained this focus and classes were regularly scheduled on business, whereas private seminars moved beyond

the four books ''The Four Books'' ( ar-at, ٱلْكُتُب ٱلْأَرْبَعَة, '), or ''The Four Principles'' (''al-Uṣūl al-Arbaʿah''), is a Twelver Shia term referring to their four best-known ''hadith'' collections: Most Shi'a Muslims use dif ...

to examine Chinese poetry, native literature, and also science and astronomy based on the expertise and interests of the teacher (''jusha''). Lines were drawn against teaching unverifiable knowledge, such as that pertaining to

shingaku Shingaku (心学, lit. "heart learning") or Sekimon-shingaku (石門心学) is a Japanese religious movement, founded by Ishida Baigan and further developed by Teshima Toan, which was especially influential during the Tokugawa period. Shingaku h ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, dreams and other mysticism.

Significance

This school was significant during the Tokugawa period not only for permitting merchants to participate freely in

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

at a time when engagement was rare or discouraged, but focusing almost exclusively on the education of merchants. As a school of thought, its scholars consciously contributed greatly to reconciling merchants and contemporary views of merchants in Tokugawa society; and have been credited with advancing the articulation of contradictions between the demand for verifiability in knowledge and the reliance on the reading of text as history. Although consciously only extending to the equality of people in their capacity for virtue and learning, the significance of the school lay in its advocacy of acceptance of wider scientific and geographical scholarship, as instanced in the works of

Yamagata Bantō was a well-known resident of Osaka who was both a scholar and a merchant. He was the able head clerk of the money exchange merchant Masuya. He studied Confucianism from Nakai Chikuzan and his brother Nakai Riken, and astronomy from Asada Goryu at ...

, whose radical reorganization of knowledge and admiration for Western scientific methods remained, however, marginalized since they challenged the remit of the school. The Kaitokudō's commitment to the Chinese classics, however, did not allow this marked change to occur within the walls of the academy. Later scholars would regularly cite Yamagata as an influence toward science. Najita marks the academy's decline with reference to the rise of the

Tekijuku Tekijuku (適塾) was a school established in , Osaka, the main trading route between Nagasaki and Edo in 1838 during the Tenpō era of the late Edo period. Its founder was Ogata Kōan, a doctor and scholar of Dutch studies (Rangaku). The forei ...

as a nearby foreign language school of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and other (western)

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

s which gained in popularity since its inception in 1838.

Academic headship

* Miyake Sekian, 1726–1730 (with Nakai Shuan directing of external affairs) * Miyake Shunro, 1730–1782 (public lectures conducted by Goi Ranju and Nakai Chikuzan) *

Nakai Chikuzan was a leading academic in the Kaitokudō academy tradition of scholarship. He was the first son of Nakai Shuan (d. 1758), one of the Kaitokudō's two founders, and was influenced by his teacher and mentor Goi Ranju (五井蘭洲:1697-1762). He bec ...

, 1782–1804 (closely associated with his brother

Nakai Riken was a leading academic in the Kaitokudo academy tradition of scholarship. He was the younger son of Nakai Shuan (1758 d.), one of the Kaitokudo's two founding leaders, and was influenced by his teacher and mentor Goi Ranju. His intellectualised ...

* ?

, 1804–1817 (delivered lectures but lived away from the academy with no involvement in administrationNajita (1987), p. 187 * ?Nakai Sekka,

Modern era

The academy was revived in 1910 based on a publication called the ''Kaitoku'', which sponsored lectures and meetings in the spirit of the Kaitokudō from funds contributed by

Sumitomo The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period. History The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Masa ...

and other commercial Osaka operations. The academy building was also renovated at that time; however it was burned down in the fire bombings of the following

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. The library, much of it in Dutch, has survived, however, and is housed at

Osaka University , abbreviated as , is a public research university located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's former Imperial Universities and a Designated National University listed as a "Top Type" university in the Top Global University Project. ...

as ''Kaitokudō Bunkan''. With the end of the

Tokugawa Bakufu 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 1868, the Kaikokudō also closed its gates to further instruction.

Notable scholars

Miyake Sekian Miyake may refer to: Places * Miyake, Nara, a town located in Kansai * Miyake, Tokyo, a village located in Tokyo * Miyakejima, an island in the Izu Islands, often shortened to Miyake * Miyakezaka, a neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo, often shortened t ...

, 1665–1730 *

Nakai Shuan Nakai may refer to: People * Nakai (surname) * In botany, an abbreviation for author Takenoshin Nakai Places * Nakai, Kanagawa, Japan * Nakai District, Laos * Nakai Misl, former principality of the Punjab Region Others * Nakai (Japanese vocation ...

, d. 1758 * Goi Ranju, 1697–1762 *

, 1730–1804 *

, 1732–1817 *

, 1748–1821

References

External links