Eastern Morality and Western Art

Japanese: 東洋道徳･西洋芸術 - とうようどうとくせいようげいじゅつ

An idea advocated by the late Edo thinker Sakuma Shozan. It refers to the idea of adhering to tradition in terms of morality and socio-political systems while actively adopting Western ideas in terms of science and technology. Similar ideas were already seen in Arai Hakuseki and Dutch scholars from the mid-Edo period onwards, but at one point in the late Edo period, similar ideas appeared widely, especially in connection with the introduction of Western military technology. This ideological trend is considered to be the product of a transitional period from the initial anti-foreigner ideology, which viewed Western cultural ideas as an enemy, to the Meiji Enlightenment, which sought to bring about a complete transformation of society by fundamentally introducing modern Western civilization, and Shozan's theory of "Eastern morality and Western art" is representative of this trend.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

幕末の思想家佐久間象山が唱えた観念。道徳や社会政治体制の面では伝統を固持しつつ，科学技術の面では西洋のものを積極的に摂取しようとする思想をいう。類似の思想はすでに新井白石や江戸中期以後の蘭学者に認められるが，幕末の一時期には，とくに西洋軍事技術の導入と関連して，同様の思想が広く現れる。この思想動向は，西洋の文物思想を敵視した攘夷論当初の思想から，近代西洋文明を根底より導入して社会の全面的変革を実現しようとした明治啓蒙思想へいたる，過渡期の産物と考えられるが，象山の〈東洋道徳･西洋芸術〉論はこの動向を代表するものである。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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