Tokugawa Mitsukuni
The school had its genesis in 1657 when Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), second head of the Mito Domain, commissioned the compilation of the "Dai Nihonshi". Among scholars gathered for the project were Asaka Tanpaku (1656–1737), Sassa Munekiyo (1640–1698), Kuriyama Senpō (1671–1706), and Miyake Kanran (1673–1718). The fundamental approach of the project was Neo-Confucianist, based on the view that historical development followed moral laws. Tokugawa Mitsukuni believed that Japan, as a nation that had long been under the unified rule of the emperor, was a perfect exemplar of a "nation" as understood in Sinocentric thought. The "Dai Nihon-shi" thus became a history of Japan as ruled by the emperors and emphasised respect for the imperial court and Shinto deities. In order to record historical facts, the school's historians gathered local historical sources, often compiling their own historical works in the process. Early Mitogaku scholarship was focused on historiography and scholarly work.