Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies.
Nagahama is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 November 2021, the city had an estimated population of 116,043 in 46858 households and a population density of 120 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 680.79 square kilometres (262.85 sq mi).
Rangaku, and by extension Yōgaku, is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners from 1641 to 1853 because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).
Kamo no Mabuchi, or Mabuchi of Kamo was a kokugaku scholar, poet and philologist during mid-Edo period Japan. Along with Kada no Azumamaro, Motoori Norinaga, and Hirata Atsutane, he was regarded as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku, and through his research into the spirit of ancient Japan he expounded on the theory of magokoro, which he held to be fundamental to the history of Japan. Independently of and alongside his contemporary Motoori Norinaga, Mabuchi is accredited with the initial discovery of Lyman's Law, governing rendaku in the Japanese language, though which would later be named after Benjamin Smith Lyman.
Keichū (契沖) was a Buddhist priest and a scholar of Kokugaku in the mid Edo period. Keichū's grandfather was a personal retainer of Katō Kiyomasa but his father was a rōnin from the Amagasaki fief. When he was 13, Keichū left home to become an acolyte of the Shingon sect, studying at Kaijō in Myōhōji, Imasato, Osaka. He subsequently attained the post of Ajari at Mount Kōya, and then became chief priest at Mandara-in in Ikutama, Osaka. It was at this time that he became friends with the poet-scholar Shimonokōbe Chōryū.
Ogata Kōan was a Japanese physician and rangaku scholar in late Edo period Japan, noted for establishing an academy which later developed into Osaka University. Many of his students subsequently played important roles in the Meiji Restoration and the westernization of Japan in the Meiji period. His true name was Ogata Koreaki or Ogata Akira; the name of Kōan was his courtesy name.
Before the Dawn is a historical novel by the Japanese writer Tōson Shimazaki. It was originally published in Chūō Kōron in 1929 as a serial work. Shinchosha later published the work in novel form, with the first part being released in January 1932 and the second part being released in November 1935.
Hirata Atsutane was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies, and one of the most significant 19th century theologians of the Shintō religion. His literary name was Ibukinoya (気吹舎), and his primary assumed name was Daigaku. He also used the names Daikaku (大角), Gentaku (玄琢), and Genzui (玄瑞). His personal name was Hanbē (半兵衛).
The Girandoni air rifle is an air gun designed by Italian inventor Bartolomeo Girandoni circa 1779. The weapon was also known as the Windbüchse. One of the rifle's more famous associations is its use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
Kada no Azumamaro was a poet and philologist of the early Edo period. His ideas had a germinal impact on the nativist school of National Learning in Japan.
Timon Screech was professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London from 1991 - 2021, when he left the UK in protest over Brexit. He is now a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto. Screech is a specialist in the art and culture of early modern Japan.
Firearms were introduced to Japan in the 13th century during the first Mongol invasion and were referred to as teppō. Portuguese firearms were introduced in 1543, and intense development followed, with strong local manufacture during the period of conflicts of the late 16th century. Hōjutsu, the art of gunnery, is the Japanese martial art dedicated to firearms usage.
The Kunitomo air gun was an air rifle circa 1820, by the Japanese inventor Kunitomo Ikkansai who developed various manufacturing methods for guns and also created an air gun based on the study of Western knowledge ("rangaku") acquired from the Dutch in Dejima. Kunitomo's invention of a new type of air gun in 1819 is well known in the history of Japanese technology.
Sakura Azumao was a kokugaku scholar and poet during Bakumatsu period Japan. He is also described as a nationalist philosopher. Azumao was a noted proponent of the sonnō jōi movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and to expel foreigners from Japan. He went by many pseudonyms during his career, including the pen-name of Koen, and given names of Yukie, Hiroshi, Shizuma and Takeo in addition to Azumao. His poetry was highly praised in the pre-war period for its patriotic overtones.
Tsunoda Tadayuki was a Japanese scholar of kokugaku and a Shinto priest.
Aoyama Kagemichi was a Japanese samurai, student of Hirata kokugaku, and low-ranking retainer of the Naegi Domain. He also used the name Inakichi (稲吉). His eldest and third sons were Aoyama Naomichi (青山直通) and Aoyama Tanemichi respectively.
Fukko Shintō is a movement within Shinto that was advocated by Japanese scholars during the Edo period. It attempted to reject Buddhist and Confucian influence on Shinto and return to a native Japanese tradition based on Koshinto.
Kameyama Yoshiharu was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. He was a student of the Hirata school of kokugaku.
Hirata Kanetane was a Japanese scholar of kokugaku. He studied under Hirata Atsutane, and later became his adopted son and heir.
Takayama Torakichi was a Japanese street urchin who became known in early 19th century Edo for claiming that he had returned from the other world and received training in the ways of the tengu. He was sometimes called tengu kozō.
