Keisai Asami

Background

Keisai Asami was born in 1652. A native of Takashima in Omi Province (Shiga Prefecture), his first name was Yasumasa. A disciple of Ansai Yamazaki, he resided in Kyoto.

Education

Asami joined Yamazaki Ansai, and became one of the top three figures in Yamazaki's Kimon school. He was later expelled from the group, however.

Career

Secretly advocating loyalty to the Imperial Family, he managed to evade punishment by the Shogunate by living in seclusion. He was one of the earliest advocates of loyalty to the Imperial Family in the Yedo Period. After a life of poverty, he killed himself, leaving a number of books including “Seiken-igen” which influenced many people.

Works

• book

  • On Defining Middle Kingdom Civilization

    1701

References

• Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early Modern Japan
  1992