Yamaga Sokō

Who was Yamaga Sokō?

Yamaga Sokō was a Japanese philosopher and strategist during the Tokugawa shogunate. He was a Confucian, and applied Confucius's idea of the "superior man" to the samurai class of Japan. This became an important part of the samurai way of life and code of conduct known as bushido.

Yamaga Sokō had been studying the Chinese classics since the age of six and at nine years old became a student of Hayashi Razan, a follower of Neo-Confucianism who was responsible for its development as the official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate. At the age of forty, he broke away from the official doctrine and decided to change his conception of Confucianism, burning all of the books he had written while still under its influence. This, along with the publishing of a philosophical work entitled Seikyo Yoroku, caused him to be removed from the bureaucracy and exiled outside of Yedo. Soon after being exiled, he moved to the Ako Domain, befriending Asano Nagatomo and becoming an important teacher of Confucianism & military science in the region. Yamaga's influence would later be expressed in the Genroku Akō incident, since the leader, Ōishi Yoshio, had been a devoted pupil under him.