Changes

Hakuseki entered the service of the [[Hotta clan]] in [[1682]], at the age of 26, and later married a daughter of [[Asakura Nagaharu]], another Hotta retainer. His first daughter, Shizu, was born in [[1687]], but died in infancy, possibly at birth. His second daughter, Kiyo, was born in [[1689]]. Hakuseki's first son, [[Arai Akinori]], was born in [[1691]]; Hakuseki resigned from his service to the Hotta earlier that year,<ref>Ackroyd, 283n82.</ref> and moved to a farm at Honjô, in [[Edo]], near the banks of the [[Sumidagawa]].<ref>Ackroyd, 284n86.</ref> Meanwhile, around this same time, he studied under noted Confucian scholar [[Kinoshita Jun'an]]. Beginning in [[1693]], he then served as an advisor to Tokugawa Tsunatoyo, lord of [[Kofu han|Kôfu han]], remaining his advisor as Tsunatoyo became Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu in [[1709]].

Hakuseki entered the service of the [[Hotta clan]] in [[1682]], at the age of 26, and later married a daughter of [[Asakura Nagaharu]], another Hotta retainer. His first daughter, Shizu, was born in [[1687]], but died in infancy, possibly at birth. His second daughter, Kiyo, was born in [[1689]]. Hakuseki's first son, [[Arai Akinori]], was born in [[1691]]; Hakuseki resigned from his service to the Hotta earlier that year,<ref>Ackroyd, 283n82.</ref> and moved to a farm at Honjô, in [[Edo]], near the banks of the [[Sumidagawa]].<ref>Ackroyd, 284n86.</ref> Meanwhile, around this same time, he studied under noted Confucian scholar [[Kinoshita Jun'an]]. Beginning in [[1693]], he then served as an advisor to Tokugawa Tsunatoyo, lord of [[Kofu han|Kôfu han]], remaining his advisor as Tsunatoyo became Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu in [[1709]].

Hakuseki was granted ''[[hatamoto]]'' status, a [[stipend]] of one thousand ''[[koku]]''', and the [[court rank]] of Lower Junior Fifth Rank in 1709,<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule'', Harvard East Asian Monographs (1988), 200.</ref> and was named ''Chikugo-no-kami'' in 1711.

Hakuseki was granted ''[[hatamoto]]'' status, a [[stipend]] of one thousand ''[[koku]]''', and the [[court rank]] of Lower Junior Fifth Rank in 1709,<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule'', Harvard East Asian Monographs (1988), 200.</ref> and was named ''Chikugo-no-kami'' in 1711. After Tokugawa Yoshimune became shogun in [[1716]], however, bringing his own circle of advisors and confidants, Hakuseki fell out of influence and prominence. He died in [[1725]] at the age of 69.

==Policies==

==Policies==

Hakuseki espoused a philosophical approach he called ''kakubutsu'', which advocated taking nothing for granted (e.g. practices performed simply according to precedent), but instead carefully examining and considering the origins or reasons for everything. As a result, he was to oversee or at least push for numerous policy reforms.

Hakuseki espoused a philosophical approach he called ''kakubutsu'', which advocated taking nothing for granted (e.g. practices performed simply according to precedent), but instead carefully examining and considering the origins or reasons for everything. As a result, he was to oversee or at least push for numerous policy reforms.

Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>

Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>