KOGAKU

One of three schools of Neo-Confucian studies that developed in Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867).

This school attempted to revive the original thought of the Chinese sages Confucius and Mencius which it felt had been distorted by the other Japanese Neo-Confucian schoools Shushi (Chinese Chu Hsi) and Oyomei (Chinese Wang Yang-ming).

The leader of Kogaku was Ito Jinsai. Another prominent thinker of the school Yamaga Soko is regarded as one of the founders of Bushido (Code of Warriors); his most famous disciple was Oishi Yoshio, leader ofthe famed 47 rönin (warriors deprived oftheir feudal estates) who revenged their lost master through an act of assassination and therefore were forced to commit suicide.