Background
Jun'an Kinoshita was born in 1621 in Kyoto. His personal name was Sadatomo, and after his death his disciples referred to him as Kyosci-sensei.
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Jun'an Kinoshita
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Education
He manifested a talent for literature and learning at a very early age, and when he was only twelve composed a piece called Tailieisho, or “Hymn to Perfect Peace.” He studied under the Confucian scholar Matsunaga Shakugo and later accompanied the lord of Tajima to Edo, but returned to Kyoto and opened a school in the Higashiyama section of Kyoto.
Career
He was invited by Maeda Tsunanori, the lord of Kaga, to come to his domain, but he recommended that the orphaned son of his teacher, Matsunaga Shakugo, be invited instead, whereupon Maeda Tsunanori generously provided a stipend for both men.
In 1682 Jun'an was invited by the shogunate to come to Edo and lecture to Shogun Tsunayoshi and, along with the Confucian scholar Hayashi Nobuatsu and others, was put in charge of compiling the Butolcu taiseiki, a biography of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though he himself was a staunch follower of the Chi Hsi school of Neo-Confucianism, he took a liberal stand in matters of philosophical belief.
He was particularly outstanding as a teacher, and numbered among his disciples such famous scholars and statesmen as Arai Hakuseki, Muro Kyuso, Amenomori Hoshu, Gion Nankai, Sakakibara Koshu, Nambu Nanzan, Miyake Kanran, and others.
