Yokoi Shonan

Japanese: 横井小楠 - よこい・しょうなん

Year of death: 5th February 1869 (Meiji 2)
Year of birth: Bunka 6.8.13 (1809.9.22)
A Confucian scholar from the end of the Edo period. His given name was Tokizon, his pen name was Shiso, and he was commonly known as Heishiro. Konan was his pen name. He was also known by the names Kisai and Numayama. He was the second son of Yokoi Tokinao and Tokazu, samurai of the Higo (Kumamoto) domain. He studied at the domain school Jishukan, and traveled to Edo to study in 1839. Around 1841, he began reading the Kinsiroku together with Nagaoka Kanbutsu, Shimozu Kyuya, Ogi Masakuni, and Motoda Eifu, aiming to achieve true Neo-Confucianism, or practical learning. He also taught students at the private school Konan-do. His students included the children of domain samurai such as Kaetsu Ujifusa, as well as the children of wealthy farmers such as Tokutomi Kazutaka (father of Soho and others). In 1851, he traveled from Kamigata to Hokuriku, and developed close ties with the Echizen domain. In the following year, he was asked by the domain to write the Gakko Mondosho, in which he asked the domain lord to be the bearer of a moral government that united education and politics. Furthermore, in "Ishoku Ojou Taii," written after Perry's arrival, he argued that Japan should interact with "virtuous" countries based on "the great path of heaven, earth, humanity and righteousness." In 1854, he inherited the family headship upon the death of his older brother. In 1856, he was invited by Matsudaira Yoshinaga (Shungaku), the lord of Echizen domain, to be his mentor, where he instructed the domain's administration and implemented policies to enrich the country, writing about the process in "Kokusei Sanron." In 1862, he became a political advisor to Shungaku, who became the shogunate's chief political officer, and promoted reforms to the shogunate government, including the abolition of the sankin-kotai system. At the end of the same year, he was attacked by an assassin during a drinking party at the home of Yoshida Heinosuke, the Edo residence manager of the Higo domain, and returned to Fukui. The following year, in order to lead a great conference that brought together representatives from the Imperial Court, the Shogunate, various domains, and even foreigners, he led a plan for the entire Echizen domain to travel to Kyoto, but failed. He returned to Kumamoto, was stripped of his samurai status, and was forced to live in seclusion in Numayamazu, but his intellectual activities did not decline. His ideas were noteworthy, including his vision of political reform based on Confucian idealism and the integration of Eastern and Western cultures under a Confucian subject. In April 1868 (Meiji 1), he was invited to travel to Tokyo by the new government and appointed as a councilor, but was assassinated by a Sonnō-jōi patriot. <References>Yokoi Shōnan, by Yamazaki Masakazu; Yokoi Shōnan, by Matsuura Rei

(Numata Satoshi)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治2.1.5(1869.2.15)
生年：文化6.8.13(1809.9.22)
幕末の儒学者。名は時存,字は子操,通称平四郎。小楠は号。他に畏斎,沼山などと号す。肥後(熊本)藩士横井時直とかずの次男に生まれる。藩校時習館に学び天保10(1839)年江戸に遊学。14年ごろから長岡監物,下津休也,荻昌国,元田永孚らと『近思録』会読を始め,真の朱子学即ち実学を目指した。また私塾小楠堂で弟子を教えた。門人には嘉悦氏房ら藩士子弟と共に徳富一敬(蘇峰らの父)のような豪農の子弟がいた。嘉永4(1851)年上方から北陸を遊歴,越前藩との接触が深まり,翌5年同藩から求められ『学校問答書』を書き,学政一致の道徳政治の担い手たることを藩主に求めた。またペリー来航後書かれた『夷虜応接大意』では,日本は「天地仁義の大道」に基づき「有道」の国と交際すべしと説く。安政1(1854)年兄の死により家督を相続。5年越前藩主松平慶永(春岳)から師として招かれ,藩政を指導し富国策を実施し,その経緯を『国是三論』に著す。文久2(1862)年幕府の政事総裁職に就いた春岳の政治顧問となり,参勤交代制の廃止など幕政改革を推進した。同年末,肥後藩江戸留守居役吉田平之助宅で酒宴中刺客に襲われ福井に戻る。翌3年朝廷,幕府,諸藩さらに外国人代表をも集めた大会議を領導すべく,越前藩挙藩上洛策を指導するも失敗,熊本へ帰り士籍を剥奪され,沼山津に逼塞したが思想的活動は衰えなかった。その思想は儒教的理想主義による政治革新と儒教的主体による東西文化の統合の構想など注目すべきものである。明治1(1868)年4月新政府に招かれ上京,徴士参与に任ぜられたが,尊攘派志士に暗殺された。<参考文献>山崎正薫『横井小楠』,松浦玲『横井小楠』

(沼田哲)

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