Fujita Yukoku

Japanese: 藤田幽谷 - ふじた・ゆうこく

Year of death: 1 December 1826 (29 December 1826)
Year of birth: 18th February 1774 (29th March 1774)
A Confucian scholar from the late Edo period. A samurai of the Mito domain. His given name was Kazumasa, his pen name was Shisada, and he was commonly known by the names Kumanosuke, Yosuke, and Jirozaemon. Yukaku was his pen name. He was born as the second son of Yoemon, who ran a secondhand clothing store in Shitaya, southwest of Mito Castle. At about the age of 10, he studied under Tachihara Suiken, the president of Shokokan. He entered Shokokan in 1788 (Tenmei 8) on Suiken's recommendation, and the following year, 1789 (Kansei 1), he became an official member of the institution. In 1783, he was promoted to the ranks of foot soldiers, and became an editor at Shokokan, participating in the compilation of the Dai Nihonshi. It was an unusual promotion for someone of townsman origin to join the samurai ranks. In 1796, he was punished for a paper he presented to the domain lord, Tokugawa Haruhisa, for its radical criticism of the domain's government, and he was dismissed from his editor position and demoted to the Kobushingumi. Also in this year, he fell out with his teacher Suiken over the direction of the compilation of the Dai Nihonshi, and they were no longer on friendly terms. However, in the eleventh year, he was pardoned and returned to work at Shokokan, and in 1803 he became head of the compilation of the Dai Nihonshi journals. In the same year, Suiken retired, and several members of the Suiken faction also left Shokokan, and in 1806 he was made deputy president, and in the following year he became president, receiving a stipend of 150 koku. In 1822 he became a county magistrate while still serving as president, but in 1826 he returned to full-time president. In 1824, he was ordered to compile the Tohan Bunkenshi together with Aoyama Enyu, but died of illness shortly thereafter. His successor Toko, his disciples Kaizawa Masashisai and Toyoda Tenko (Ryo) became the core of the Mito school. In addition to Seimei-ron, which is said to be the beginning of Mitogaku, he also wrote Kanno Akumon. <References> Kenzaburo Kikuchi (ed.), "Yukoku Zenshu" (Complete Works of Yukoku), "Mito City History" Volume 2

(Eiichi Suzuki)

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

Japanese:

没年：文政9.12.1(1826.12.29)
生年：安永3.2.18(1774.3.29)
江戸後期の儒学者。水戸藩士。名は一正,字は子定,通称は熊之介,与介,次郎左衛門。幽谷はその号。水戸城西南の下谷で古着商を営む与衛門の次男として生まれる。10歳ごろ彰考館総裁立原翠軒の門に学ぶ。天明8(1788)年翠軒の推挙で彰考館に入り,翌寛政1(1789)年正式な館員となった。3年歩行士列に進み,彰考館編修となり『大日本史』の編纂に参画。町人出身者が士籍に列したことは異例の抜擢である。9年に藩主徳川治保に上呈した意見書が藩政を批判する過激な内容として罰を受け,編修の職を免ぜられ,小普請組に左遷された。またこの年から『大日本史』編纂の方針をめぐって師翠軒と不和となり,以後絶交状態となる。しかし11年に許されて彰考館勤務に復し,享和3(1803)年『大日本史』志表編修の刊修頭取となった。同年翠軒が致仕し,続いて翠軒派数人も彰考館を去ると,文化3(1806)年には総裁副職,翌4年総裁に就任,150石を給された。5年総裁兼務のまま郡奉行に転じたが,9年に総裁専任に戻る。文政7(1824)年青山延于と共に『東藩文献志』編修を命ぜられたが,まもなく病没。嗣子東湖,門人会沢正志斎,豊田天功(亮)らは水戸学派の中心となった。水戸学の出発となったといわれる『正名論』のほか,『勧農或問』などの著がある。<参考文献>菊池謙三郎編『幽谷全集』,『水戸市史』中巻2

(鈴木暎一)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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