Matsudaira Sadanobu
The life of his near contemporary Matsudaira Sadanobu presents a plausible context for more fully understanding and appreciating Yamaga's life. Both believed entirely in the civic and personal values of Confucianism, but both construed those precepts a little differently because of their places in Edo period society. In his own time, this conception of Confucian values was among the factors that led him to draw attention to the need to study and adopt Western weapons and tactics, as introduced by the Dutch.