Kaibara Ekiken

Bronze statue of Kaibara Ekiken at his tomb in Kinryū Temple (Fukuoka)

Kaibara Ekiken also Ekken ( Japanese 貝 原 益 軒 ; * December 17, 1630 in Fukuoka Province Hizen (today Fukuoka Prefecture ); † October 5, 1714 there ; Japanese calendar : Kan'ei 7/11/14 - Shōtoku 4/8 / 27) was a Japanese Neo-Confucian and naturalist who made a decisive contribution to the development of an independent Japanese botany as well as to anchoring Japanese Neo-Confucianism in society. His nickname was Atsunobu ( 篤信 ), the nickname ( azana ) Shisei ( 子 誠 ), the author names Jūsai ( 柔 斎 ), Sonken ( 損 軒 ) and in old age Ekiken.

Life

Kaibara was born in 1630 as the fifth son of the samurai Kaibara Kansai ( 貝 原 寛 斎 , 1597–1666) in the Fukuoka fiefdom ( Chikuzen Province , now Fukuoka Prefecture ). The father served the Kuroda house as "secretary on the right" ( yūhitsu ). In 1648 the son was also hired, but in 1650 he aroused the anger of the sovereign ( daimyō ) Kuroda Tadayuki ( 黒 田忠 之 ) and spent seven years as an abandoned samurai ( rōnin ) until Tadayuki's son and successor Kuroda Mitsuyuki ( 黒 田光 之 ) hired him and assigned the elder samurai Tachibana Kanzaemon. He quickly recognized the young man's potential and campaigned for his further training.

Kaibara was sent to Kyoto at the expense of the domain to deepen his studies in medicine and Confucianism in the form coined by the song-time philosopher Zhu Xi . During this time there were contacts and exchanges with Confucian scholars such as Kinoshita Jun'an ( 木 下 順 庵 , 1621–1699), Yamazaki Ansai ( 山崎 闇 斎 , 1619–1682) and Mukai Genshō ( 向 井 元 升 , 1609–1677) . Nakamura Tekisai ( 中 村 惕 斎 , 1629–1702), who published an image lexicon ( Kinmōzu'i , 訓 蒙 図 彙 ) in 1666 , and the historically ambitious doctors Kuroda Dōyū ( 黒 川 道 祐 , 1623–1691 ) also had a great influence on his later work ) and Matsushita Kenrin ( 松下 見 林 , 1637–1704). Shortly before the death of his father in 1666, this study visit ended.

As a scholar appointed by the fief, Kaibara gave lessons in Confucianism, was available to the feudal lord as an advisor, occasionally as a travel companion and was entrusted with all kinds of special tasks if necessary. In Kaibara's case, the hearing of Koreans who had been thrown to the coast of the fiefdom (1677), the writing of a chronology of the house of Kuroda ( Kuroda kafu , 黒 田 家譜 , 1678) and the resolution of the border disputes with the Saga domain (1688) should be mentioned here.

From a young age, Kaibara was thirsty for knowledge, who read a lot, but at the same time attached great importance to personal observation and experience. After receiving permission from the sovereign in 1688, he carried out field studies for more than two decades before he published the monumental "Notes on the nature and history of the country Chikuzen" ( 筑 前 国 続 風土 記 , Chikuzen no kuni zoku fudoki ) in 1709 . His botanical studies, which he carried out at the same time, produced gardening books such as the "flower table" ( 花 譜 , Kafu ) and the "vegetable table" ( 菜譜 , Saifu ). The "Medicines of Japan" ( Heil 和 本草 , Yamato honzō ) published in 1798 are now considered the second major work with which the emancipation of Japanese herbalism from Chinese dominance made great progress.

Another focus of his writing activities was the writing of easily understandable works, through which he sought to anchor Confucian principles in everyday Japanese life. Especially the “High School of Women” ( 女 大学 , Onna daigaku ), in which he detailed the position, duties and rights of women, exerted a strong influence on later literature. In the "Instructions for the Japanese Art for Children" ( 和 俗 童子 訓 , Wazoku dōji kun ) he demanded that one accept the play instinct of the children and emphasized u. a. the importance of mathematical studies.

Some of his ancestors were priests in the Kibitsu Shrine ( 吉 備 津 神社 , Kibitsu jinja , Bitchū Province , now Okayama Prefecture ), and Kaibara also carried out intensive Shinto studies. He wrote works on the history of various shrines, among which the one about the Dazaifu Shrine ( 太宰府 神社 縁 起 , Dazaifu jinja engi ) is particularly appreciated. In the "treatise on the non- falling apart of Confucianism and Shinto" ( 神 儒 並行 不 相 悖論 , Shinju heikō aimotorazaru ron ) he explains that the basic "way" ( michi ) of heaven and earth in both Confucianism and Shinto can be found and both support each other, while Buddhism pays no attention to the relationships of people in this world.

As a Confucian, Kaibara represented a holistic conception of mental and physical health, which he expanded in 1713 in the "Instructions for Caring for Life" ( 養生 訓 , Yōjōkun ), which is still valued today .

Kaibara died at the age of 85. His grave is in the Kinryū Temple ( 金 竜 寺 , Kinryū-ji ), a Zen temple in the western part of the city center of Fukuoka .

Works in translation

• Ekken Kaibara: Yōjōkun. Japanese secret of good health . (translated by Tsuneyoshi Matsuno). Tokuma Shoten, Tokyo 1974.
• Kaibara Ekiken: Rules for life care (Yōjōkun). Translated from Japanese and provided with an introduction by Andreas Niehaus and Julian Braun Iudicium, 2010 ( ISBN 978-3-86205-010-9 )
• Kaibara Ekken: Yôjôkun. Words of a samurai. Frankfurt: Angkor Verlag 2002. ISBN 978-3-936018-96-7
• Roland A. Lange: The Onna daigaku . In: Communications from the Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​in Berlin, Volume 1 (1898), pp. 127-139.
• Kaibara Ekken: The Philosophy of Qi - The Record of Great Doubts . Translated by Mary Evelyn Tucker. Columbia University Press, New York 2007.
• Julian Braun (ed.): Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714). Treatise on the combative (Bukun). A contribution to the common path of sword and brush . Grin Verlag, Munich 2010 ( digitized version )
• Kaibara Ekiken. Rules for the care of life (Yōjōkun) . Iudicum, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86205-010-9 .

literature

• Mary Evelyn Tucker: Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism - The Life and Thought of Kaibara Ekken 1630-1714 . State University of New York Press, Albany 1989.
• Inoue Tadashi: Kaibara Ekiken . Yoshikawa kōbunkan, Tokyo 1963. ( 井上 忠 『貝 原 益 軒』 吉川弘 文 館, 1963. 人物 叢書 103 )
• Kokushi daijiten [Great Lexicon of Japanese History]. Yoshikawa kōbunkan, Tokyo 1979. ( 『国史 大 辞典』 吉川弘 文 館 )
• Olaf Graf: Kaibara Ekiken: A contribution to the Japanese intellectual history of the 17th century and to the Chinese Sung philosophy , Verlag EJ Brill, Leiden 1942

Web links

• Writings by Kaibara Ekiken in the "Database of Pre-Modern Japanese Works" (National Institute of Japanese Literature)

Remarks

1. ↑ According to the Kokushi-daijite , he may even have been exiled to a small island for several months.
2. ↑ The father's year of death is often given as 1665, but the 3rd day of the 12th month of the 5th year of the Kanbun currency falls on January 8, 1666 of the western calendar.
3. ↑ The term Yamato is used here to emphasize the difference to the medicinal products adopted from China.
4. ↑ Japanese mathematics ( wasan ) had reached a remarkable level. In cities and in the country there were study groups that received the relevant books published in large numbers. As a child, Kaibara himself worked through the famous work Jinkōki ( 塵 劫 記 ) written by Yoshida Mitsuyoshi .

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kaibara is the family name, Ekiken the first name.