Terakado Seiken

Japanese: 寺門静軒 - てらかど・せいけん

Year of death: 24th March 1868 (16th April 1868)
Year of birth: 1796
A Confucian scholar and poet of the late Edo period. His given name was Ryo, his literary name was Shion, and he was called Yagozaemon. He was the second son of Mito Domain Daiginmikata Kinjimon Yahachiro Katsuharu. His mother was Katsuharu's concubine in Edo. In Bunka 4 (1807), at the age of 12, he lost his mother who lived with him, and the following year his biological father in Mito died, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents. He studied Confucianism under Yamamoto Kitayama's son Ryokage, and entered the Kangakuryo school at Kan'ei-ji Temple in Ueno, where he studied Buddhist scriptures and Chinese poetry in the style of the Seirei school under the guidance of the head scholar Reiyo Butsuryo. He later opened a private school in Kichijoji Monzencho, Komagome, and earned a living, which is similar to Ota Kinjo's youth and can be said to be the standard pattern for Edo ronin Confucian scholars. In 1830, when Tokugawa Nariaki became the lord of the Mito domain, he started to apply for government office, but was unsuccessful. He gave up his government career and began to call himself a "useless man" in poetry and prose. Although it cannot be said that he established his own theory on the study of economics, he gained fame as a man of letters in Edo. Although he pretended to be a solitary man, he had many contacts with the Edo literary world, and there was a time when he interacted day and night with the vulgar Confucians whom he mocked in his masterpiece, "Edo Hanjō-ki" (1832-36). The book was reprinted many times, and it created a great fad for "Hanjō-ki" works in Chinese that continued until the Meiji era, but he caused a literary scandal during the Tenpō Reforms and was punished by the samurai servants' court. After that, he moved around the Kanto and Echigo regions, and died at the residence of Negishi Yuzan, a disciple of Tsuyoshi. His other works include "Taihei-shi" (1834), "Seiken Shisho" (1838), and "Egashira Hyakuei" (1850). <Works> "Edo Hanjo-ki" (edited by Hino Tatsuo, 100 volumes of the New Japanese Classical Literature Series) <References> Nagai Yoshio, "Teramon Seiken", Maeda Ai, "Literature in the Bakumatsu and Meiji Restoration Periods"

(Robert Campbell)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治1.3.24(1868.4.16)
生年：寛政8(1796)
江戸後期の儒者,詩人。名は良,字子温,弥五左衛門と称した。水戸藩大吟味方勤寺門弥八郎勝春の次男。母は江戸における勝春の妾。文化4(1807)年,12歳で同居の母を失い,翌年水戸の実父に死なれ,母方の祖父母に育てられた。山本北山の子緑陰に儒学を学び,上野寛永寺の勧学寮に入って,学頭霊如仏隴について仏典と性霊派風の漢詩に接した。その後,駒込吉祥寺門前町で私塾を開き口を糊したのは,大田錦城の青年期にも似て,江戸浪人儒者の定跡といえよう。天保1(1830)年,徳川斉昭が水戸藩主になるや仕官活動を始めるが成功せず,以後,官途を断念し,詩文においては「無用之人」を標榜するようになった。経世の学について独自の説を確立しえたとはいいがたいが,江戸市中では文人として名声を獲得した。孤高を装ったが,江戸の文壇と多くの接点を持ち,代表作『江戸繁昌記』(1832～36)で揶揄している俗儒たちとは昼夜相交わる時期もあった。同書は繰り返し刷られ,明治まで続く漢文体「繁昌記」ものの大流行を生み出したが,天保改革の際筆禍を起こし,武家奉公御構の処分となった。以後,関東・越後地方を転々とし,胄山の門人根岸友山の邸宅で死去。著作はほかに『太平志』(1834),『静軒詩鈔』(1838),『江頭百詠』(1850)など多種。<著作>『江戸繁昌記』(日野竜夫校注,新日本古典文学大系100巻)<参考文献>永井啓夫『寺門静軒』,前田愛『幕末・維新期の文学』

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