Background
Aizawa Seishisai was born at July 5, 1781 in Aizawa Yasushi.
会沢正志蔫
Aizawa Seishisai was born at July 5, 1781 in Aizawa Yasushi.
In 1799 he became involved in the compilation of the Dai Nihon-shi (Great History of Japan) being undertaken by the Mito school. In 1840 Aizawa became the first head of professors of the Mito school's Kōdōkan but was forced to resign in 1844 when Tokugawa Nariaki resigned as domain leader. He later returned to the Kōdōkan.
Aizawa tried to describe conditions in the West and theorize why Western states had become so powerful, in his opinion Westerners used religion to enforce conformity of the masses. He believed that Japan would need to take up its own state religion and discussed the concept of kokutai (national polity), in this context.