Background
HEIHACHIRO Osmo was born in 1793. He was the son of a police officer named Oshio Yukitaka of the Temma section of Osaka and in time succeeded to his father’s post.
HEIHACHIRO Osmo was born in 1793. He was the son of a police officer named Oshio Yukitaka of the Temma section of Osaka and in time succeeded to his father’s post.
He studied the Chu Hsi school of Neo-Confucianism under the Confucian scholar Hayashi (Matsudaira) Jussai in Edo, but later became an advocate of the doctrines of the Ming Neo-Confucian scholar Wang Yang-ming, who emphasized the importance of translating one’s moral convictions into positive action.
At the age of twenty-six he was promoted to the post of police examiner and gained considerable reputation for the diligence with which he pursued his duties, but ten years later he turned over his post to his son Kakunosuke and devoted all his time to teaching the doctrines of Wang Yang-ming, or as he is known in Japanese pronunciation, O Yomei.