was a

Confucianist 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 religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

scholar-bureaucrat The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

, academic, administrator, writer and politician in Japan during the middle of the

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 character ...

, who advised the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

'' Tokugawa Ienobu. His personal name was Kinmi or Kimiyoshi (君美). Hakuseki (白石) was his pen name. His father was a Kururi han samurai Arai Masazumi (新井正済).

Biography

Hakuseki was born in

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 ...

and from a very early age displayed signs of

genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabili ...

. According to one story, at the age of three Hakuseki managed to copy a Confucian book written in

Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

, character by character. Because he was born on the same year as the Great Fire of Meireki and because he was hot tempered and his brow would crease looking like 火 or "fire", he was affectionately called ''Hi no Ko'' (火の子) or ''child of fire''. He was a retainer of

Hotta Masatoshi was a ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in Shimōsa Province, and top government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He served as '' rōjū'' (chief advisor) to ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ietsuna from 1679–80, and as ''Tairō'' (head of ...

, but after Masatoshi was assassinated by Inaba Masayasu, the

Hotta clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled the Sakura Domain in Shimosa Province in the late Edo period. Jindai-ji in the present-day city of Sakura was the clan's bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, tak ...

was forced to move from

Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...

to Yamagata then to Fukushima and the domain's income declined. Hakuseki offered to leave, becoming a ''

rōnin A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master' ...

'' and studied under Confucianist

Kinoshita Jun'an was a Japanese philosopher and Confucian scholar of the early Edo period, in the Neo-Confucian tradition of Zhu Xi. Biography Born in Kyoto as the second of five brothers, Kinoshita was a child prodigy, and studied under Matsunaga Sekigo. I ...

. He was offered a post by the largest ''han'', that of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

, but he offered the position to a fellow samurai. In 1693, Hakuseki was called up to serve by the side of

Manabe Akifusa was a close person confidant and loverCrompton, Louis, ''Homosexuality and Civilization'', Harvard University, 2003. Page 442 of Shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu and held numerous important posts within the administration of the Tokugawa shogunate. He ...

as a "brain" for 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 ...

and shogun Tokugawa Ienobu. He went on to displace the official

Hayashi Hayashi ( 林, literally " woods"), is the 19th most common Japanese surname. It shares the same character as the Chinese surname Lin. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese synchronized swimmer *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese s ...

advisers to become the leading confucianist for Ienobu and Tokugawa Ietsugu. While some of Hakuseki's policies were still carried out after Ienobu's death, after the 6th shogun, Tokugawa Ietsugu, died and

Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lineage Yoshi ...

's rule began, Hakuseki left his post to begin his career as a prolific writer of Japanese history and Occidental studies. He was buried in

Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the . History The ...

(current day Taitō, Tokyo), Hoonji temple but was later moved to

Nakano, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Nakano City. Under the top Rōjū, Abe Seikyo, with strong support from Ienobu, he launched Shōtoku no chi, a series of economic policies designed to improve the shogunate's standing. By minting new and better quality currency, inflation was controlled. Calculating from trade records, Hakuseki deduced that fully 25% of gold and 75% of silver in Japan had been spent on trades with foreign countries. Concerned that Japan's national resources were at risk, he implemented a new trade policy, the ''Kaihaku Goshi Shinrei'' (海舶互市新例), to control payments to Chinese and Dutch merchants by demanding that instead of precious metals, products like silk, porcelain, and dried seafoods should be used for trading. However, the beneficial effects of this policy were limited as the trade of precious metals from Tsushima and Satsuma was uncontrolled by the ''

bakufu , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura ...

''. He also simplified rituals for welcoming the

Joseon Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

dynasty's ambassadors, in the face of opposition from the Tsushima Confucianist Amenomori Hōshu.

Constitutional policy

Hakuseki applied the

mandate of heaven The Mandate of Heaven () is a Chinese political philosophy that was used in ancient and imperial China to legitimize the rule of the King or Emperor of China. According to this doctrine, heaven (天, '' Tian'') – which embodies the nat ...

to both the emperor and the ''

''. Since there had been no revolution to change Japan's basic institutions, he argued that the shogun was subordinate to the emperor and that in showing good governance, moral fortitude and respect to the emperor a shogun proved that he held divine right. He also traced Tokugawa family roots back to the

Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during th ...

and thus to a line of imperial descent in order to show that Ieyasu's political supremacy had been fitting. To strengthen the shogun's power and maintain national prestige he proposed changing the title to koku-ō – nation-king.

Selected works

Hakuseki's published writings encompass 237 works in 390 publications in 6 languages and 3,163 library holdings. * 1709 – 本朝軍器考 * 1709 – .Screech, p. 66. * 1711 – , also known as ''Honchō hōka tsūyō jiryaku'' ("Short Account of the circulation of currency in this realm").Screech, p. 65. ** _________. (1828). ''Fookoua Siriak: traité sur l'origins des richesses au japon'' (translation of ''Hōka shiryaku'' by Julius Klaproth). Paris. (1712). ' * 1712 – . * 1715 – . A work describing the Occident, based on Hakuseki's conversations with Giovanni Battista Sidotti * 1729 – 蝦夷志 * 1760 – 同文通考 * 1805 – 東雅 * 1894 – '' Hankanfu'' (藩翰譜). A list of daimyo's family tree * 1936 – 新井白石集 * 1964 – 戴恩記 * 1977 – 新井白石全集 * 1977 – 新編藩翰譜 * 1981 – 新令句解 * ''Koshitsu'' (古史通). A work that detailed ancient history of Japan * '' Oritaku Shiba-no-ki'' (折りたく柴の記). A diary and memoir

Notes

References

* * * * Brownlee, John S. (1997) ''Japanese historians and the national myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu.'' Vancouver:

University of British Columbia Press The University of British Columbia Press (UBC Press) is a university press that is part of the University of British Columbia. It was established in 1971. The press is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and has editorial offices in Kelo ...

. Tokyo:

University of Tokyo Press The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university. Honors * Japan Foundation: Special Prize, 1990. Location The headquarters o ...

. *Brownlee, John S. (1991). ''Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712).'' Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. * * * * Screech, Timon. (2006). ''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822.'' London:

RoutledgeCurzon Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arai, Hakuseki Hatamoto Advisors to Tokugawa shoguns Japanese writers of the Edo period 17th-century Japanese philosophers Japanese Confucianists 1657 births 1725 deaths People from Chiba Prefecture People of Edo-period Japan 18th-century Japanese historians 18th-century Japanese philosophers