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Concept
Yokoi Shōnan
Summary
(born Yokoi Tokiari; September 22, 1809 – February 15, 1869) was a Bakumatsu and early Meiji period scholar and political reformer in Japan, influential around the fall of the Tokugawa bakufu.
Yokoi was a samurai born in Kumamoto, Higo Province (present-day Kumamoto Prefecture), and a distant descendant of Hōjō Takatoki. Yokoi married Yajima Tsuseko and had two children with her, Miyako and Tokio. He was sent by the domain to Edo in 1839 for studies, and developed contacts with pro-reform members of the Mito domain. After his return to Kumamoto, he started a group to promote the reform of domain administration along Neo-Confucianism lines, opening a domain school called Shōnan-do.
In 1857, he was invited by the daimyō of Echizen, Matsudaira Yoshinaga to become his political advisor. While in Fukui, Yokoi wrote "Kokuze Sanron" (the Three Major Discussion of State Policy). One of the topics covered in Yokoi’s treatise was on state religion, in which Yokoi commented that although Japan had Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism, it lacked a true national religion in the manner of western nations, and that this lack was a weakness in the Japanese kokutai, which placed Japan at a disadvantage to the western powers. This concept provided one rationale underpinning the formation of State Shinto in the later Meiji period Empire of Japan. In the same treatise, he also stressed the importance of a strong navy for the defense of Japan. He has been labelled "pro-Western" by contemporary historians, but was nevertheless harshly critical of Christianity as both false and heretical compared to Japanese Buddhism.
In 1862, Matsudaira was unexpectedly made acting prime minister of the Tokugawa administration (seiji sōsai) in a move calculated to obtain imperial approval for the Shōgun's actions in signing unequal treaties (similar to those signed by Qing dynasty China) with the western powers in 1858, ending the national seclusion policy which was supported by the Imperial Court, and Yokoi accompanied him to Edo.
Official source
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