page_title: Hayashi Razan
hierarchical_section_title: Hayashi Razan
caption_attribution_description: This photograph shows the gate (with the inscription 杏壇) and beyond it the Taisei-den (with the inscription 大成殿) at the Yushima Seido in Tokyo, Japan. I took the photo and contribute my rights in the file to the public domain; individuals and organizations retain rights to images in it.
context_page_description: Hayashi Razan, also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher and writer, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shōguns of the Tokugawa bakufu. He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.
  Razan was an influential scholar, teacher and administrator. Together with his sons and grandsons, he is credited with establishing the official neo-Confucian doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate. Razan's emphasis on the values inherent in a static conservative perspective provided the intellectual underpinnings for the Edo bakufu. Razan also reinterpreted Shinto, and thus created a foundation for the eventual development of Confucianised Shinto in the 20th century.
  The intellectual foundation of Razan's life's work was based on early studies with Fujiwara Seika, the first Japanese scholar who is known for a close study of Confucius and the Confucian commentators. This kuge noble had become a Buddhist priest; but Seika's dissatisfaction with the philosophy and doctrines of Buddhism led him to a study of Confucianism.
context_section_description: Hayashi Razan (林 羅山, 1583 – March 7, 1657), also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher and writer, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shōguns of the Tokugawa bakufu.  He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.
  Razan was an influential scholar, teacher and administrator.  Together with his sons and grandsons, he is credited with establishing the official neo-Confucian doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate.  Razan's emphasis on the values inherent in a static conservative perspective provided the intellectual underpinnings for the Edo bakufu. Razan also reinterpreted Shinto, and thus created a foundation for the eventual development of Confucianised Shinto in the 20th century.
  The intellectual foundation of Razan's life's work was based on early studies with Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), the first Japanese scholar who is known for a close study of Confucius and the Confucian commentators. This kuge noble had become a Buddhist priest; but Seika's dissatisfaction with the philosophy and doctrines of Buddhism led him to a study of Confucianism.  In due course, Seika drew other similarly motivated scholars to join him in studies which were greatly influenced by the work of Chinese Neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi, a Sung-dynasty savant.  Zhu Xi and Seika emphasized the role of the individual as a functionary of a society which naturally settles into a certain hierarchical form. He separated people into four distinct classes: samurai (ruling class), farmers, artisans and merchants.
caption: Hayashi Razan was head of the early seidō
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