born Aug. 30, 1627, Kyōto, Japan
died April 4, 1795, Kyōto
Japanese
The son of a lumberman, he devoted himself to scholarship. He opposed the authoritarian {{link=Neo-Confucianism">Neo-Confucianism of the Tokugawa shogunate (see Tokugawa period ) and advocated a return to the authentic teachings of Confucius and Mencius . He helped establish the Kogaku school of Neo-Confucianism and, with his son, founded the Kogi-dō academy in Kyōto, which was run by his descendants until 1904. His writings include Gōmōjigi (1683), a commentary on Confucianism that tried to develop a rational basis for morality and the pursuit of happiness.