Hayashi Oen

Who is Hayashi Oen?

Hayashi Ōen was a Japanese doctor, military strategist, scholar, Shinto priest and nationalist.

A samurai by birth, Ōen was born into the family of Hayashi Mataemon Michihide, a retainer of Kumamoto. He studied under Nagase Masaki, and was noted for his scholarly studies of the Japanese classics of Higo,. A deeply religious man, Ōen placed substantial emphasis on the use of the ukehi ritual in divination, calling it, "the most wonderous of all Shinto rites".

Ōen promulgated his highly xenophobic views through his school, the Gendōkan, which he founded in 1837 at Chiba Castle. He advocated resistance to Western influence and trade, and recommended the expulsion of foreigners from Japan. In 1868. he became a teacher at the Jishūkan, and also worked as an advisor to Iwakura Tomomi. He died aged 73 at the home of his student Otaguro Tomoo.

After his death, his students, led by Tomoo, adapted his teachings to form the basis of the Shinpūren movement.