was a '' kokugaku'' scholar, poet and philologist during mid- Edo period Japan. Along with Kada no Azumamaro, Motoori Norinaga, and Hirata Atsutane, he was regarded as one of the

Four Great Men of Kokugaku The Four Great Men of Kokugaku (國學の四大人, ''Kokugaku no shitaijin'' or ''Kokugaku no shiushi'') are a group of Edo-period Japanese scholars recognized as the most significant figures in the Kokugaku tradition of Japanese philology, relig ...

, and through his research into the spirit of ancient Japan (through his studies of the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'' and other works of ancient literature) he expounded on the theory of ''

magokoro is a principle known in Japan related in particular to the origin of the country, the . It has also been described in Japanese literature. Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801) devoted about 35 years of his life to the elaboration of a Commentary (Ko ...

'', which he held to be fundamental to the history of Japan. Independently of and alongside his contemporary Motoori Norinaga, Mabuchi is accredited with the initial discovery of

Lyman's Law is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of a non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word. In modern Japanese, ''rendaku'' is common but at times unpredictable, with certain words una ...

, governing '' rendaku'' in the Japanese language, though which would later be named after

Benjamin Smith Lyman Benjamin Smith Lyman (11 December 1835 – 30 August 1920) was an American mining engineer, surveyor, and an amateur linguist and anthropologist. Biography Benjamin Smith Lyman was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard Uni ...

Biography

Mabuchi was born in 1697 in the village of Iba in Tōtōmi Province (currently part of the city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka), as the third son of Okabe Masanobu. The Okabe were hereditary '' kannushi'' of Kamo Shrine in Kyoto, but his father was from a

cadet A cadet is an officer trainee or candidate. The term is frequently used to refer to those training to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. Its meaning may vary between countries which can include youths in ...

branch of the clan and was a farmer. In 1707, he began training under Sugiura Kuniakira, a ''kokugaku'' scholar with a private academy in Hamamatsu and a disciple of Kada no Azumamaro. Mabuchi married in 1723, but his wife died the following year. At the age of 37, Mabuchi moved to Kyoto to study directly under Kada no Azumamaro. Following the master's death in 1736, Mabuchi moved to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

in 1738 where he taught ''kokugaku''. In 1746, he was hired by

Tokugawa Munetake was a Japanese samurai of the mid-Edo period, also known as Tayasu Munetake (田安宗武). The first head of the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan, he held daimyō-level income, but was not a daimyō himself, instead having his residence insi ...

, the head of the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan. Mabuchi's works include commentaries on the ''Man'yōshū'', '' norito'' (Shinto prayers), '' kagura'' (Shinto dances), the '' Tale of Genji'', the meaning of poems, and other ancient works and their themes. His disciples included Motoori Norinaga, Arakida Hisaoyu, Kato Chikage, Murata Harumi,

Katori Nahiko Katori can refer to: Places * Katori, Chiba, a city in Japan *Katori District, Chiba *Katori Shrine *Katori Station, junction passenger railway station *Katori Sea, was an inland sea People *Katori Masaru, author *Hidetoshi Katori, physicist *Shi ...

, Hanawa Hokiichi, Uchiyama Matatsu, and Kurita Hijimaro, and also included several women. In 1763, while Mabuchi was on his way to Ise Shrine, Motoori Norinaga sought him out and became a disciple. This single night of discussions, later known as "the night in Matsuzaka", was the only occasion on which Norinaga directly received teaching from Mabuchi, although the two men later corresponded. Mabuchi died in 1769 in Edo, at the age of 73. His grave can be found in the Tōkai-ji cemetery in Shinagawa and was designed a National Historic Site in 1926. An explanatory marker stands at the site of Mabuchi's residence in Edo ( Hisamatsu-cho,

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

Chūō, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward that forms part of the heart of Tokyo, Japan. The ward refers to itself in English as Chūō City. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyobashi and Nihonbashi wards following Tokyo C ...

), and a memorial museum was built beside the house where he was born in Hamamatsu.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mabuchi, Kamo no Kokugaku scholars 18th-century Japanese philosophers 1697 births 1769 deaths People from Hamamatsu Japanese writers of the Edo period 18th-century Japanese poets

Biography

See also

References