Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meiji Japan: The Decline ...

PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPAN 93pupils came to study from further and further afield. Soon Seikeishoin too had to be extended. A new boarding house built in1858 was named Shōgiryō, and in 1863 a new extension namedSeigiryō was built.Occasionally, Sōan took his nephew and a few students onlengthy trips to visit other scholars. In 1845 they went to Shikokuto meet the scholars Hayashi Ryōsai (1807–49) and KondōTokuzan (1766–1846) and others, as well as to Kyoto to meet hisold scholar friends. In 1851 they travelled to Edo to study with SatōIssai (1772–1859). The meeting was somewhat disappointing, butSōan had the chance to meet with other scholars, includingŌhashi Totsuan (1816–62), and to copy rare books from theShōheikō. In early 1858 Sōan took two pupils to Kyoto andOsaka. 53In the last years of his life Sōan was beset by misfortune. Hisnephew and prospective heir had already died in 1852, at only 26years of age. Now he lost his two brothers, his eldest daughterand his eldest son. in 1877 he became ill himself and travelledfirst to Kyoto, then to Tokyo for treatment. In Tokyo he wastreated by the German doctor Erwin Bälz. In May 1878, feelingslightly better, he returned home, but died in September.Ikeda Sōan’s scholarship was derived from yōmeigaku, that isthe scholarship based on the philosophy of Wang Yangming(1472–1528), which emphasized the unity of knowledge andaction and the role of the human heart (kokoro) in understanding.But his ideas developed from a mixture of different schools. Hisfirst teacher in kangaku, Sōma Kyūhō, was a disciple of ŌgyūSorai, one of the foremost representatives of the kogaku schoolthat aimed to return to the original texts of Confucius andMencius and to define fundamental Confucian terms. Besidesyōmeigaku, Sōan studied shushigaku, the school based on thephilosophy of Zhu Xi, during his studies in Kyoto. During hislifetime Sōan published a commentary on the Greater Learning.His commentaries on the Doctrine of the Mean and the Book ofChanges were published posthumously.One strand of yōmeigaku emphasized political action andseveral of its adherents became well known, such as YoshidaShōin and Saigō Takamori. Sōan’s friend Kasuga Sen’an wasanother representative of this branch of yōmeigaku. He becameinvolved with the sonnō jōi movement in Kyoto and was arrestedduring the Ansei purges. Sōan, however, represented thecontemplative strand. One reason may have been his birth;