Kaibara Ekiken
Kaibara Ekiken was an Edo period writer, Confucian scholar, educator, herbalist and physician, attributed with revitalizing or reinventing the genre of travel writing.[1]
He was the fifth son of Kaibara Kansai, a samurai in the service of Kuroda Mitsuyuki, lord of Fukuoka han. Ekiken traveled to Kyoto to study, and returned to Fukuoka in 1664.
In 1709, he compiled Yamato Honzô, a sixteen-volume text listing and describing Japanese medical herbs and other plants.[2]
Ekiken was originally a student of Wang Yangming's brand of neo-Confucianism, but turned to following the teachings of Zhu Xi years later; late in his life, he had questions and doubts about Zhu Xi's teachings, and compiled these into a text titled Taigiroku (大疑録, lit. "Great Doubts Record"). He is often also credited with writing the Onna daigaku (女大学, "Greater Learning for Women"), a volume on morals and proper behavior for women.[3]
References
- "Kaibara Ekiken." Digital-ban Nihon jinmei daijiten デジタル版 日本人名大辞典. Kodansha, 2009.
- ↑ Yonemoto, Marcia. Mapping Early Modern Japan. University of California Press, 2003. p69.
- ↑ Plutschow, Herbert. A Reader in Edo Period Travel. Kent: Global Oriental, 2006. p12.
- ↑ Albert M. Craig, The Heritage of Japanese Civilization, Second Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 74-75.
