Arai, Hakuseki

(1657-1735)

   Confucian scholar, statesman and adviser of the sixth Tokugawa shogun Ienobu. He experienced considerable hardship in his attempts to gain some kind of official position through study. At the age of about thirty he became a pupil of the Neo-Confucian Kinoshita, Jun'an and in 1693 became lecturer on Confucianism to Ienobu, then a daimyo, who became shogun sixteen years later. Arai played a key role in the shogunate for seven years, abolishing the severe laws against cruelty to dogs and other animals promulgated by the eccentric Tokugawa, Tsunayoshi and reprieving offenders. He recommended that the shogun should be referred to as o, 'King'. In relation to 'Shinto' his rationalistic view that kami were essentially human reflected a typically Confucian indifference to other-worldly 'religious' concepts and a desire to see ancient Japanese myths as well as Western science bent to the requirements of practical moral leadership. His influence was greater after Ienobu's death because the successor was a child. Arai's time is traditionally known as shotoku no chi 'the rule of upright virtue'. He retired to devote his time to research and writing when Tokugawa, Yoshimune acceded to the shogunate in 1716.