was a Japanese

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

scholar of the early

Edo 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 characteriz ...

, in the

Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in th ...

tradition of

Zhu Xi Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...

Biography

Born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

as the second of five brothers, Kinoshita was a

child prodigy A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...

, and studied under Matsunaga Sekigo. In 1682, the fifth

Tokugawa shōgun Tokugawa may refer to: *Tokugawa era, an alternative term for the Edo period, 1603 to 1868 *Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan during the Edo period **Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan ***Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), most nota ...

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, as well as the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.Nussbaum, Louis-Fr ...

, appointed him tutor to the court. A famed educator, Kinoshita's students include

Arai Hakuseki was a Confucianist, scholar-bureaucrat, academic, administrator, writer and politician in Japan during the middle of the Edo period, who advised the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ienobu. His personal name was Kinmi or Kimiyoshi (君美). Hakuseki (白� ...

(who became advisor to the sixth Tokugawa shōgun,

Tokugawa Ienobu (June 11, 1662 – November 12, 1712) was the sixth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Tsunashige, thus making him the nephew of Tokugawa Ietsuna and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the grandson of Tokugawa Iemi ...

), Amenomori Hōshū,

Gion Nankai Gion Nankai, originally Gion Yu (祇園南海; 1676, Edo - 26 October 1751, Edo) was a Japanese confucianist, author and painter in the nanga style. His other art names included Hōrai (蓬莱), Kanraitei (観雷亭), Kikyo (箕踞), Shōun (湘 ...

Muro Kyūsō or Muro Naokiyo () (March 30, 1658 – September 9, 1734), was a Edo neo-Confucianism, Neo-Confucian scholar and an official of the Tokugawa shogunate during the rule of Tokugawa Yoshimune. Muro was responsible for the reintroduction of orthod ...

Nishiyama Juntai Nishiyama(surname) ( ja, 西山, "western mountain") may refer to: People with the surname *Hidetaka Nishiyama, American martial arts exponent and founder of Shotokan *Kazutaka Nishiyama, Japanese baseball player *Keiki Nishiyama, Japanese volleyb ...

, and

Sakakibara Kōshū is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, a Japanese samurai and martial artist *Nobuyuki Sakakibara, a Japanese businessman and mixed martial arts promoter *Seito Sakakibara, alias of the perpetrator of the Kobe child mur ...

References

* Zenan Shu (2009). ''Cultural and political encounters with Chinese language in early modern Japan : the case of Kinoshita Jun'an (1621-1698)'', Thesis (D.Phil.),

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

* Hiroyuki Takeuchi and Hideto Ueno (1991), ''木下順庵 / Kinoshita jun'an''. Tokyo:

Meitoku Shuppansha Meitoku (明徳) was a Japanese era name (年号 ''nengō'', "year name") of the Northern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after ''Kōō'' and before ''Ōei''. This period spanned the years from March 1390 to July 1394. After ...

. * Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.) (1979), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press. 1621 births 1699 deaths 17th-century Japanese philosophers 17th-century Japanese people Neo-Confucian scholars {{NeoConfucianism-stub