Introduction

This essay explores the relationship between Yangming Learning (陽明学 Yōmeigaku) and national morality (国民道徳 kokumin dōtoku) in Meiji-era modern Japan. The focus of the investigation is Inoue Tetsujirō, who is typically depicted as an individual who interpreted Yangming Learning through the lens of national morality. This essay demonstrates, however, that his thinking was similar to that of late-Edo Mito Learning (水戸学 Mitogaku) and then goes on to discuss what Yangming Learning meant to Inoue—how Inoue Tetsujirō understood Yangming Learning

Research on Yangming Learning in late-Edo and Meiji-era Japan

Let us begin by examining how Inoue invoked Yangming Learning to defend and preserve social order. For this purpose, let us turn to Yamashita Ryūji, the postwar pioneer of research on Yangming Learning in modern Japan.

Yamashita Ryūji, while conducting research on Ming Dynasty intellectual history, drew attention to the influence of Yangming Learning in modern Japan. To Yamashita, the fundamental character of Yangming Learning was “opposed to official orthodoxy, democratic and politically in opposition,” but during the Meiji period, it split into two separate streams. According to Yamashita, one became the Yangming Learning that, following Inoue Tetsujirō, discarded its anti-authoritarian, unorthodox tendencies and embraced a nationalistic perspective. The other, epitomized by Uchimura Kanzō, one of the Meiji era’s most prominent Christians, saw Yangming Learning as embodying individualism. While the former was “ethical, nationalistic, and Japanocentric,” the latter was “religious, individualistic, and cosmopolitan.” Ogyū Shigehiro, who made these distinctions his premise, noticed the significance of the former given the situation in which modern Japan found itself. Ogyū argues that Uchimura, like Inoue, spoke about the “two Js,” indicating that he respected both Jesus and Japan—though, as we shall see, Inoue also strongly objected to the spread of Christianity in Japan. Okada Takehiko also pointed out that Yangming Learning was used during the modern period in Japan to defend and sustain the national polity (国体 kokutai).

I think it is undeniable—from the way that Inoue discussed the relation between the Confucian virtues and national morality—that there was this aspect to his thought. The following are Inoue’s words.