Kumazawa Banzan


Kumazawa Banzan was an adherent of a branch of Neo-Confucianism called Yangmingism, who lived during the early Edo period. His childhood name was Sashichirō, his imina was Hakukei, also read Shigetsugu. His common name was Ryōkai, and he was commonly known by the personal names as Jirōhachi or Suke'emon. His most common courtesy name was Sokuyūken. His surname "Kumazawa" was changed to that of "Shigeyama" in 1660 and the latter, read in Sino-Japanese as "Banzan", became his posthumous courtesy title, by which even now he is commonly known.

Yōmeigaku

Yōmeigaku is the Japanese term for a school of Neo-Confucianism associated with its founder, the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming, characterised by introspection and activism, and which exercised a profound influence on Japanese revisions of Confucian political and moral theory in Japan during the Edo period.

Life

Early life

He was born in Kyoto Inari, the eldest son of six children. His father, a rōnin, was called Nojiri Tōbei Kazutoshi and his mother was called Kamejo. At the age of eight, he was adopted by his maternal grandfather, Kumazawa Morihisa, a samurai serving under Tokugawa Yorifusa, the daimyō of Mito, and took from him the surname of Kumazawa.

Leaving to study under Nakae Tōju

In 1634, through the introduction of Itakura Shigemasa, a fudai vassal of the Tokugawa, he went to serve as a page under Ikeda Mitsumasa, the daimyo of the Okayama Domain in Bizen Province. He left the Ikeda household for a time, returning to his grandfather's home in Kirihara, Ōmi Province.

Time in the Okayama Domain

In 1645, again with the recommendation of the Kyōgoku family, he went to work in the Okayama Domain. As Mitsumasa's thinking leaned towards Yōmeigaku, he made much use of Banzan, valuing him for having studied under Tōju. Banzan worked mainly in the Han school called Hanabatake Kyōjō, whose name means "Flowerfield Teaching Place". This school opened in 1641, making it one of the first in Japan. In 1647 Banzan became an aide, with an entitlement of 300 koku. In 1649 he went with Mitsumasa to Edo.
In 1650, he was promoted to be the head of a group of artillery men. In 1651, he drafted the regulations for a Hanazonokai?, literally "flower garden club", a place for the education of common people. This was the initial incarnation of the first school in Japan for educating commoners, Shizutani Gakkō which opened in 1670, after Banzan's had left the service of his domain. In 1654, when the Bizen plains were assailed by floods and large-scale famine, he put all his energies into assisting Mitsumasa with relief efforts. Together with Tsuda Nagatada, he worked as an aide to Mitsumasa, helping to establish the start of a domain government in Okayama Domain. He worked to produce fully developed strategies on agriculture, including ways of providing relief to small-scale farmers and land engineering projects to manage mountains and rivers. However, his daring reforms of domain government brought him into opposition with the traditionalist elders. In addition, while Banzan was a follower of Yōmeigaku, the official philosophy of the Edo shogunate was a different form of Neo-Confucianism, Shushigaku. Banzan was criticised by figures such as Hoshina Masayuki and Hayashi Razan. In fact, Banzan was the first in a series of notable neo-Confucianists who would find themselves confronting the evolving critical powers of the Hayashi clan of scholars.
For this reason, Banzan was left with no choice but to leave the service of Okayama Castle and live in hiding in Shigeyama-mura, Wake District. The name "Banzan" derives from the word "Shigeyama". The location where his home was is Banzan-chō, Okayama-shi.

Time out of power and later life

Eventually, in 1657, unable to withstand the pressure from the shogunate and the domain leaders, he left Okayama Domain.
In 1658, he moved to Kyoto and opened a private juku. In 1660, at the request of Nakagawa Hisakiyo, he travelled to Tateda, Oita, and gave directions on land management. In 1661, his fame grew, and he again came to be under the surveillance of the shogunate, and was eventually driven out of Kyoto by Makino Chikashige, aide to the head of the Kyoto Shoshidai.
In 1667, he escaped to Yoshinoyama, Yamato Province. He then moved to live in hiding in Kaseyama, Yamashiro Province. In 1669, on orders from the shogunate, he was put under the control of Matsudaira Nobuyuki, the head of the Akashi Domain, Harima Province. In 1683, as Nobuyuki was transferred to Kōriyama Province, he moved to Yatayama, Yamato Province. In 1683, he received the invitation of the tairō Hotta Masatoshi, but refused it. After serving the Okayama District, in his days outside public service, he often wrote, and criticised the policies of the shogunate, particularly sankin-kōtai, Heinō Bunri, and the hereditary system. He was also critical of the government of Okayama Domain.
Banzan's goal was to reform the Japanese government by advocating the adoption of a political system based on merit rather than heredity and the employment of political principles to reinforce the merit system.
In 1687, he was put under the control of Matsudaira Tadayuki, head of Koga Domain, Shimousa Province, and heir to Matsudaira Nobuyuki, and ordered to remain inside Koga Castle. In 1691 the rebellious Confucian became ill and died within Koga Castle at the age of 74.

After his death

Banzan's remains were buried by Tadayuki with much ceremony at Keienji, in Ōtsutsumi, Koga, Ibaraki. The initial inscription on the tombstone was "grave of Sokuyūken", using his posthumous name, but this was later changed to "grave of Kumazawa Sokuyūken Hatsukei".
In the Bakumatsu period, Banzan's philosophy came back into the spotlight, greatly influencing the structure of government. It was favoured by, among others, Fujita Tōko and Yoshida Shōin, becoming a motivating force in the toppling of the shogunate government. Katsu Kaishū praised Banzan as "a hero in Confucian robes".
Outside the realm of politics, Banzan would in time become something of a cultural hero because, while attending to actions and words which demonstrated an enduring concern for commoners and the poor. He was praised for resistance to the imposition of corrupt politics and bureaucratic burdens on ordinary people.
In 1910, the Edo government honoured Banzan with the title of Upper Fourth Rank, in recognition of his contribution to the development of learning in the Edo period.

Writings

Shōgen — Kyūbē Shigemasa — Tōbei Kazutoshi — Banzan
Shinsaemon Hiroyuki — Yasaemon Hirotsugu — Heisaburō Moritsugu — Hansaemon Morihisa — Kamejo — Banzan