Background
Following in the footsteps of his father, Hayashi Gahō, and his grandfather, Hayashi Razan, Hōkō would be the arbiter of official neo-Confucian doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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Hayashi Hoko
Edit Profile林 鳳岡
Career
Hōkō was the tutor of Tokugawa Tsuneyoshi. As a result of his urging, the shogun invested Confucian scholars as samurai. Hōkō was the third Hayashi clan Daigaku-no-kami of the Edo period.
After 1691, Hōkō is known as the first official rector of the Shōhei-kō (afterwards known as the Yushima Seidō) which was built on land provided by the shogun.
This institution stood at the apex of the country-wide educational and training system which was created and maintained by the Tokugawa shogunate. Gahō"s hereditary title was Daigaku-no-kami, which, in the context of the Tokugawa shogunate hierarchy, effectively translates as "head of the state university.
The scholars of the Hayashi school were taught to apply what they had learned from a Confucian curriculum. Typically, they applied the Confucian texts conservatively, relying on Soong Confucian anlayis and metaphysical teachings.
The neo-Confucianist scholar Arai Hakuseki generally expressed scant regard for opinions expressed by Hayashi Hōkō.
Membership
He was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.
