Kaibara Sonken

...A Confucian scholar, naturalist, and educator of the common people in the early Edo period. His given name was Atsushin, his pen name was Kosei, and his nickname was Kyubei. His pen name was Sonken, which he changed to Masuken in later life. His ancestors were priests at Kibitsu Shrine in Okayama Prefecture, and served the Kuroda clan from his grandfather's generation. His father was a scribe, and he was born as the fourth son in the east residence of Fukuoka Castle. His father's job change caused him to move to the countryside during his childhood, and he spent a long time as a ronin (masterless samurai) during his youth, which led him to aspire to study the everyday life of the people in later years. In his prime, he re-employed the Kuroda clan and studied in Kyoto for several years at the clan's expense, where he became acquainted with such tolerant Confucian scholars as Matsunaga Shakugo and Kinoshita Junan, as well as such naturalists as Nakamura Tekisai and Mukai Motomasu. He also came to understand the empiricism and positivism that was emerging in Kamigata (the Kyoto-Osaka region) against the backdrop of the development of the commercial monetary economy just before the Genroku era, and in later years he made full use of this in all areas, leaving behind a vast collection of edited and published works.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Kaihara Sonken" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…江戸前期の儒者，博物学者，庶民教育家。名は篤信，字は子誠，通称は久兵衛。号は損軒，晩年に益軒と改めた。先祖は岡山県吉備津神社の神官で祖父の代より黒田氏に仕え，父は祐筆役らしく，その四男として福岡城内東邸に生まれた。幼少年期に父の転職で地方に移住したことや青年期の永い浪人生活が，後年〈民生日用の学〉を志す結果となった。壮年期に黒田藩に再就職し，京都に数年間藩費留学して松永尺五，木下順庵らの包容力に富んだ学風の朱子学者や，中村惕斎，向井元升らの博物学者と交際し，また元禄直前の商業貨幣経済の進展を背景として上方(京坂地方)を中心に起こりつつある経験･実証主義思潮を体認し，後年それをあらゆる方面に最大限に発揮させ，膨大な編著を残した。…

※「貝原損軒」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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