Hayashi Hōkō

Hayashi Hōkō
Hayashi Hōkō, 1st rector of Yushima Seidō
Born	1644 Edo
Died	1732 Edo
Occupation	Neo-Confucian scholar, academic, administrator, writer
Subject	Japanese history, literature
Children	Hayashi Ryūkō, son
Relatives	Hayashi Gahō, father Hayashi Razan, grandfather

Hayashi Hōkō (林 鳳岡, January 11, 1644 – July 22, 1732), also known as Hayashi Nobutatsu, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and administrator in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa bakufu during the Edo period. He was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.

Hōkō was the tutor of Tokugawa Tsuneyoshi.^[1]

Following in the footsteps of his father, Hayashi Gahō, and his grandfather, Hayashi Razan, Hōkō would be the arbiter of official neo-Confucian doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate. As a result of his urging, the shōgun invested Confucian scholars as samurai.^[1]

Hōkō was the third Hayashi clan Daigaku-no-kami of the Edo period. After 1691, Hōkō is known as the first official rector of the Shōhei-kō (afterwards known as the Yushima Seidō) which was built on land provided by the shōgun.^[1] This institution stood at the apex of the country-wide educational and training system which was created and maintained by the Tokugawa shogunate. Gahō's hereditary title was Daigaku-no-kami, which, in the context of the Tokugawa shogunate hierarchy, effectively translates as "head of the state university".^[2]

The scholars of the Hayashi school were taught to apply what they had learned from a Confucian curriculum. Typically, they applied the Confucian texts conservatively, relying on Soong Confucian anlayis and metaphysical teachings.^[3]

The neo-Confucianist scholar Arai Hakuseki generally expressed scant regard for opinions expressed by Hayashi Hōkō.^[3]

• Kai hentai (Chinese Metamorphosis), reports of Chinese junks arriving in Nagasaki, 1640–1740.^[4]

• Hayashi clan (Confucian scholars)

• Arakai, James T. and Haruo Shirane. (2008). Early Modern Japanese Literature: an Anthology, 1600–1900 (abridged). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10990-1/ISBN 978-0-231-10991-8/ISBN 978-0-231-14414-8/ISBN 978-0-231-144155; OCLC 255022419
• De Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, Arthur E. Tiedemann. (2005). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231129848; OCLC 255020415
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Tarling, Nicholas. (1998). The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77864-0; ISBN 978-0-521-66369-4; ISBN 978-0-521-66370-0; ISBN 978-0-521-66371-7; ISBN 9780521663724; OCLC 43674066

• Tokyo's Shōhei-kō (Yushima Sedō) today