was a
Confucianist
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
,
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 , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, who advised the ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''
Tokugawa Ienobu
(11 June 1662 – 12 November 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 Iem ...
.
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 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 the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...
. According to one story, at the age of three Hakuseki managed to copy a Confucian book written in
Kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
, 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 t ...
, but after Masatoshi was assassinated by
Inaba Masayasu, the
Hotta clan was forced to move from
Sakura
The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...
to
Yamagata then to
Fukushima and the domain's income declined. Hakuseki offered to leave, becoming a ''
rōnin
In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a ''rōnin'' ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a ''rō ...
'' and studied under Confucianist
Kinoshita Jun'an. He was offered a post by the largest ''han'', that of
Kaga Domain, but he offered the position to a fellow samurai.
In 1693, Hakuseki was called up to serve by the side of
Manabe Akifusa as a "brain" for the
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
and shogun
Tokugawa Ienobu
(11 June 1662 – 12 November 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 Iem ...
. He went on to displace the official
Hayashi 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'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 for Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as .
History
The development of Asaku ...
(current day
Taitō, Tokyo), Hoonji temple but was later moved to
Nakano, Tokyo
Nakano (, Latn, ja, Nakano-ku) is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Nakano City (, Latn, ja, Nakano-ku). , Kotokuji temple.
Economic policy

Under the top
Rōjū
The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a wh ...
,
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 rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''.
He also simplified rituals for welcoming the
Joseon
Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...
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 ( zh, t=天命, p=Tiānmìng, w=, l=Heaven's command) is a Chinese ideology#Political ideologies, political ideology that was used in History of China#Ancient China, Ancient China and Chinese Empire, Imperial China to legit ...
to both the emperor and the ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''. 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 a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...
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 is a mid-sized scholarly publisher, and the largest in Western Canada.
The press is based in Vancouver, British Col ...
. Tokyo:
University of Tokyo Press.
*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.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arai, Hakuseki
Hatamoto
Advisors to Tokugawa shoguns
Writers of the Edo period
17th-century Japanese philosophers
Japanese Confucianists
1657 births
1725 deaths
People from Chiba Prefecture
People of the Edo period
18th-century Japanese historians
18th-century Japanese philosophers
18th-century Confucianists