Japanese Confucianist Philosopher, Pre-Linnaean botanist
Bronze Statue of Kaibara Ekken at his gravesite (Kinryū-Temple, Fukuoka-City, Japan)
In this Japanese name, the surname is Kaibara.
Kaibara Ekken (貝原 益軒, December 17, 1630 – October 5, 1714) or Ekiken, also known as Atsunobu (篤信), was a Japanese Neo-Confucianist philosopher and botanist.
Kaibara was born into a family of advisors to the daimyō of Fukuoka Domain in Chikuzen Province (modern-day Fukuoka Prefecture). He accompanied his father to Edo in 1648, and was sent in 1649 to Nagasaki to study Western science. At his father's urging, he continued his studies in Nagasaki as a rōnin from 1650 through 1656. He then re-entered service to Kuroda, which led to his continuing studies in Kyoto. After his father's death in 1665, he returned to Fukuoka.[1]
Kaibara's two most significant contributions to Japanese culture were the study of nature based on a blend of Western natural science and Neo-Confucianism, and the translation of the complex writings of Neo-Confucianism into vernacular Japanese. His synthesis of Confucian ideas and Western science influence the formation of Shinto, especially State Shinto, and reflect similar concerns to the Kokugaku movement.[2]
Yamato honzō. Book of botany written by Kaibara Ekken in 1709. Exhibit in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan.Yōjōkun. Book of healthy way written by Kaibara Ekken in 1713.
Kaibara's science was confined to Botany and Materia medica and focused on the "natural law". Kaibara became as famous in Japan as people such as Charles Darwin when it came to science. He advanced the study of botany in Japan when he wrote Yamato honzō (Medicinal herbs of Japan), which was a seminal study of Japanese plants. The 19th-century German Japanologist Philipp Franz von Siebold called him the "Aristotle of Japan".[1]
Kaibara was known for his manuals of behavior, such as changing his Confucian ethical system based on the teachings of Zhu Xi (also known as Chu Hsi) into an easy "self-help" manuals. As an educator and philosopher, it appears that Kaibara's main goal in life was to further the process of weaving Neo-Confucianism into Japanese culture. In this context, he is best known for such books as Precepts for Children and Greater Learning for Women (Onna daigaku); but modern scholarship argues that it was actually prepared by other hands. Although the genesis of the work remains unchallenged, the oldest extant copy (1733) ends with the lines "as related by our teacher Ekiken Kaibara" and the publisher's colophon states that the text was written from lectures of our teacher Kaibara."[3]
^ abYonemoto, Marcia. (2003). Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603–1868). p. 49.
^Josephson, Jason Ā. (2012). The Invention of Religion in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 115–6. ISBN 9780226412351.
^Ko, Dorothy et al. (2003). Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan. p. 199.
KaibaraEkken (貝原 益軒, December 17, 1630 – October 5, 1714) or Ekiken, also known as Atsunobu (篤信), was a Japanese Neo-Confucianist philosopher and botanist...
Kaibara may refer to: KaibaraEkken (1630-1714), a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher and botanist Kaibara, Hyōgo, a former town located in Hikami District...
also recurred in Japanese sources dating to the Edo Period, such as KaibaraEkken's Yamato honzō, which describe the creature as having skin that hangs...
disciple, KaibaraEkken (1630-1714), who wrote a number of influential works on Confucian Shinto, including the "Greater Learning for Women." Ekken's writings...
effectively used in the external treatment of smallpox, which prompted KaibaraEkken to describe the herb in his Yamato honzō (大和本草), under the name of ashitagusa...
frequently attributed to Japanese botanist and educator KaibaraEkken. The Onna Daigaku is cited as Ekken's most popular book, which was often gifted to new...
Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism: The Life and Thought of KaibaraEkken (1630–1714), Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1989. "About Us". Forum on Religion...
the "Onna Daigaku", or "Learning for Women", by Confucianist author KaibaraEkken, spelled out expectations for Japanese women, stating that "such is...
Chiba, actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist KaibaraEkken, Neo-Confucianist philosopher Chiya Fujino, writer Noriko Fukuda, TV...
traveler could pay for a tour guide or consult guide books such as KaibaraEkken's Keijō Shōran (The Excellent Views of Kyoto). The CEN (European Committee...
changed his opinion from negative to positive. Other scholars, such as KaibaraEkken, Dazai Shundai (太宰春台), Kamo no Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga and Tō Teikan...
Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism: The Life and Thought of KaibaraEkken (1630–1714). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. von Ragué...
Judith Butler Julien Offray de La Mettrie Julius Evola Jürgen Habermas KaibaraEkken Karl Marx Karl Popper Karl-Otto Apel Leo Strauss Leonard Read Lewis...
November 24 – Étienne Baluze, French scholar (died 1718) December 17 – KaibaraEkken (貝原 益軒), Japanese philosopher and botanist (died 1714) Unknown date...
a reputation for being "single minded, doctrinate, and intolerant." KaibaraEkken, a contemporary of Ansai's, had attended several of his lectures, and...
in a work entitled Greater Learning For Women, which was written by KaibaraEkken, a famous Confucianist of the Zhu Xi school. According to Hosoi's view...
fishing stone") by Zen priest Takuan in his travelogue Kisoji kikō ki. KaibaraEkken also says in his Kisoji no ki (1685) that he witnessed the "Nezame no...
The Narrow Road of Oku The Saga Diary Journey to the Northwest, by KaibaraEkken Travels of Gentlemen Emissaries, by Ogyū Sorai The Frolic of the Butterfly...
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