.gif)
Hayashi clan (Confucian scholars)
Encyclopedia
The was a Japanese samurai
clan which served as important advisors to the Tokugawa shoguns
. Among members of the clan to enjoy powerful positions in the shogunate was its founder Hayashi Razan
, who passed on his post as hereditary rector
of the neo-Confucianist Shōhei-kō school to his son, Hayashi Gahō
, who also passed it on to his son, Hayashi Hōkō
; this line of descent continued until the end of Hayashi Gakusai's tenure in 1867. However, elements of the school carried on until 1888, when it was folded into the newly organized Tokyo University.
In this period, the Tokugawas and the fudai
daimyō were only the most powerful of the nearly 250 domain-holding lords in the country. By filling the high offices of the shogunate with his trusted, loyal daimyō, the shoguns paradoxically increased the power of these office holders and diminished the powers which were once held by Ieyasu alone., which caused each to more zealously guard against anything which might be seen to minimize intertwined power and prestige; and the varying characters of the shoguns further exacerbated this development. The Edo period
power structure itself discouraged of dissent from what became the accepted Hayashi othodoxy.
In the spectrum of the Tokugawa retainer band, the Hayashi family head himself was a high-ranking hatamoto
(thus coming under the jurisdiction of the wakadoshiyori
), and possessed an income of 3,500 koku
.
In the early years of the Edo period, the seidō or Confucian "Hall of Sages" was located in Shinobugaoka; but in 1961, it was moved to a new location at the top of a hill in the Yushima section of Edo. The hereditary heads of the Yushima Seidō (later, the Edo daigaku) are identified below.
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
clan which served as important advisors to the Tokugawa shoguns
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
. Among members of the clan to enjoy powerful positions in the shogunate was its founder Hayashi Razan
Hayashi Razan
, also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shoguns of the Tokugawa bakufu. He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.Razan was...
, who passed on his post as hereditary rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the neo-Confucianist Shōhei-kō school to his son, Hayashi Gahō
Hayashi Gaho
, also known as Hayashi Shunsai, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period...
, who also passed it on to his son, Hayashi Hōkō
Hayashi Hōkō
, also known as Hayashi Nobutatsu, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period...
; this line of descent continued until the end of Hayashi Gakusai's tenure in 1867. However, elements of the school carried on until 1888, when it was folded into the newly organized Tokyo University.
Critical analysis
The Hayashi family's special position as personal advisors to the shoguns gave their school an imprimatur of legitimacy that no other contemporary Confucian academy possessed. This meant that Hayashi views or interpretation were construed as dogma. Anyone challenging the Hayashi status quo was perceived as trying to challenge Tokugawa hegemony; and any disagreements with the Hayashi were construed as threatening the larger structure of complex power relations within which the Confucian field was embedded. Any disputes in the Confucian field in the 1650s and 1660s may have originated in personal rivalries or authentic philosophical disagreements, but any issues became inextricably intertwined with the dominating political presence of the shogun and those who ruled in his name.In this period, the Tokugawas and the fudai
Fudai
was a class of daimyo who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa in Edo period Japan. It was primarily the fudai who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration.-Origins:...
daimyō were only the most powerful of the nearly 250 domain-holding lords in the country. By filling the high offices of the shogunate with his trusted, loyal daimyō, the shoguns paradoxically increased the power of these office holders and diminished the powers which were once held by Ieyasu alone., which caused each to more zealously guard against anything which might be seen to minimize intertwined power and prestige; and the varying characters of the shoguns further exacerbated this development. The Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
power structure itself discouraged of dissent from what became the accepted Hayashi othodoxy.
In the spectrum of the Tokugawa retainer band, the Hayashi family head himself was a high-ranking hatamoto
Hatamoto
A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...
(thus coming under the jurisdiction of the wakadoshiyori
Wakadoshiyori
The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in 17th century Tokugawa Japan. The position was established around 1631, but appointments were irregular until 1662....
), and possessed an income of 3,500 koku
Koku
The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...
.
Notable clan members
- Founder: Hayashi RazanHayashi Razan, also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shoguns of the Tokugawa bakufu. He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.Razan was...
(1583-1657), formerly Hayashi Nobukatsu, also known as Dōshun (1st son of Nobutoki). - Son of founder: Hayashi GahōHayashi Gaho, also known as Hayashi Shunsai, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period...
(1618-1688), formerly Hayashi Harukatsu (3rd son of Razan). - 1st rector: Hayashi HōkōHayashi Hōkō, also known as Hayashi Nobutatsu, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period...
(1644-1732), formerly Hayashi Nobuhatsu (son of Gahō).. - 2nd rector: Hayashi RyūkōHayashi Ryūkōwas a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period. He was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.-Academician:...
(1681-1758). - 3rd rector: Hayashi Hōkoku (1721-1773).
- 4th rector: Hayashi Hōtan (1761-1787).
- 5th rector: Hayashi Kimpō (1767-1793), also known as Hayashi Kanjun or Hayashi Nobutaka
- 6th rector: Hayashi JussaiHayashi Jussaiwas a Japanese neo-Confucian scholar of the Edo period. He was an hereditary rector of Edo’s Confucian Academy, the Shōhei-kō, also known at the Yushima Seidō, which was built on land provided by the shogun...
(1768-1841), formerly Matsudaira Norihira, 3rd son of Iwamura daimyo Matsudaira Norimori -- Norihira was adopted into Hayashi family when Kimpō/Kanjun died childless; explained shogunate foreign policy to Emperor KōkakuEmperor Kokakuwas the 119th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Kōkaku's reign spanned the years from 1780 through 1817.-Genealogy:...
in 1804., also known as Hayashi Jitsusai and Hayashi Kō. - 7th rector: Hayashi Teiu (1791-1844).
- 8th rector: Hayashi Sōkan (1828-1853).
- 9th rector: Hayashi Fukusai (1800-1859), also known as Hayashi AkiraHayashi Akirawas a Edo period scholar-diplomat serving the Tokugawa Shogunate in a variety of roles similar to those performed by serial Hayashi clan neo-Confucianists since the time of Tokugawa Ieyasu...
, chief Japanese negotiator for the Treaty of Kanagawa - 10th rector: Hayashi GakusaiHayashi Gakusai, formerly Hayashi Noboru, was a neo-Confucian scholar and a bakufu official in the late Tokugawa shogunate.-Academician:Hayashi Daigaku-no-kami Gakusai was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars, each of whom were ad hoc personal advisers to the shoguns prominent figures in the...
(1833-1906), formerly Hayashi Noboru, head of Yushima SeidōYushima Seido, located in the Yushima neighbourhood of Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan, was constructed as a Confucian temple in the Genroku era of the Edo period .-Tokugawa bureaucrat training center:...
in 1867.
-
- Hayashi Nobutoki (1583-1657), father of Hayashi Razan.
- Hayashi Nobozumi (1585-1683), brother of Hayashi Razan.
- Hayashi Yoshikatsu, brother of Hayashi Nobutoki and adoptive father of Hayashi Razan.
- Hayashi Dokkōsai, formerly Hayashi Morikatsu (1624- ), 4th son of Hayashi Razan
- Hayashi Shunzai or Hayashi Shunsai (1618-1680), alternate spellings for early name of Hayashi Gahō.
- Hayashi Jo, son of Hayashi Razan, brother of Gahō and Morikatsu.
-
- Hayashi Shuntoku (1624-1661).
- Hayashi Baisai.
- Hayashi Kansai.
- Torii Yōzō, 2nd son of Jussai -- adopted into Torii family
- Satō Issai (1772-1859), adopted into Hayashi family from Iwamura, becomes professorial head of academy in 1805.
- Hayashi Kakuryō (1806-1878), Confucian scholar who never gave up his top-knot.
- Hayashi Ryōsai (1807-1849).
Further reading
- Dore, Ronald PhillipRonald P. DoreProfessor Ronald P. Dore is a British sociologist specialising in Japanese economy and society and the comparative study of types of capitalism. He is an associate of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and is a fellow of the British Academy, the Japan Academy,...
. (1965). Education in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley: University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
. [reprinted University of Michigan PressUniversity of Michigan PressThe University of Michigan Press is part of the University of Michigan Library and serves as a primary publishing unit of the University of Michigan, with special responsibility for the creation and promotion of scholarly, educational, and regional books and other materials in digital and print...
, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1984. 10-ISBN 0-939-51215-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-939-51215-7 (cloth) -- 10-ISBN 0-939-51259-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-939-51259-1 (paper)]. (1964). . Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan. 10-ISBN 4-642-05185-6. - Totman, Conrad. (1983). Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun. San Francisco: Heian International. 10-ISBN 0-893-46210-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-893-46210-9 (paper)