"The Pen is Mightier than the Sword": Popular Ethics in Edo Period Japan
Keywords:
edo, tokugawa, ancient learning, national learning, hirata shinto, kyoto, meiji
Abstract
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword": Popular Ethics in Edo Period Japan. In this essay I trace the rise of, and motivation behind, the popular ethics movement in Edo Period Japan, specifically within the context of the religio-political agenda of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). The subversive philosophical root of "ancient learning" (Confucian and non-Confucian) led in many respects to the ideological fruit of National Learning, and Hirata Shinto, and to a cultural "revolution," especially among the merchants. In an ironic twist of fate, the merchant city of Kyoto, which was "defrocked" of its political preeminence, gained its "revenge," so to speak, by becoming the philosophical centre for the popular ethics movement that eventually would undermine the ideological foundations of Tokugawan power in the Edo era. This ideologically driven social movement would ultimately give birth to the Meiji era when Japan re-emerged onto the world stage, but this time as a lasting political force.
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2023-05-02
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