Takegawa Chikusai

• Born: 1809
• Japanese: 竹川竹斎 (Takegawa Chikusai)

Takegawa Chikusai was an Ise-based merchant known for his Bakumatsu era writings on the subject of relations with the Western powers.

He was born in 1809 into the Higashi-Takegawa family; his father did financial work for the shogunate and was a student of Motoori Norinaga, while his mother's father was Arakida Hisaoyu, a prominent Man'yôshû scholar. He was thus raised within a strongly Kokugaku ("nativist") oriented environment. Takegawa later became head of the Higashi-Takegawa family, following his father's death; he took on the name Chikusai after himself entering into retirement.

References

• Shimazaki Sayaka 島崎さや香, 「幕末から明治初期における新聞受容～竹川竹斎と射和村」 ("Bakumatsu kara Meiji shoki ni okeru shinbun juyô - Takegawa Chikusai to Shawa-mura"), Journal of Literacy History リテラシー史研究 1 (2008), 1-13.