Adaptation of Confucian ritual practice in the late Tokugawa Japan: Thought and behavior of Rinke and the Shoheizaka Confucian scholars

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02197
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of thought
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: MAKABE JIN 北海道大学, 法学研究科, 教授 (30311898)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 儒礼受容 / 孔子崇拝 / 祖先崇拝 / 昌平黌 / 神像 / 神位 / 憑依

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project examines the attitudes of Rinke and the Shoheizaka scholars in the late Tokugawa Japan to the Confucian practice of sacrifice to ancestors and sacrifices to Confucius. In the Kansei-era Tokugawa government directed Rinke to return to the Neo-Confucianism in the academic learning and to revive the Engishiki in the worship of Confucius. However, there were some inapplicable aspects in the actual ritual practices to both Song China and ancient Japan. This project provides a framework of adoption and modification in Tokugawa Confucian rituals, with an emphasis on the objects of spiritual possession and the worship human beings as gods in the warriors’ shrine rather than on the scholars’ contemporary academic learning.

Free Research Field

思想史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

徳川儒学における儒礼受容をめぐっては、思想史研究の観点から、儒教に由来する各種の儀礼を、どのように相互に関連づけて捉えるのかという問題がある。とりわけ寛政期前後の幕府釈奠は、儀礼の思想と実践の関連をめぐって、先行研究で最も実証的な検討が立ち後れていた。本研究をとおして、日本の儒礼を同時代の広い文脈で捉え、「程朱学」を標榜しつつも仏教やヒトガミ信仰の影響のもとで独自な展開を遂げた徳川儒学の祭祀の在りようの一端を明らかにした。