Introduction to Samurai Education: Yamaga Sokō’s Bukyō shōgaku

Abstract

Yamaga Sokō 山鹿素行 (1622–1685) was a military strategist and Confucian philosopher, who became, after an unsuccessful lifetime, mainly known during the Edo 戸 period as founder of his school of military science. Towards the end of that era he was rediscovered as a forerunner of Japanism and Bushidō, becoming a cult
figure in Imperial Japan, honored as one of the greatest Japanese thinkers of all time – which led him to be almost forgotten in postwar Japan. Bukyō shōgaku 武教小学, his short work of military education written in 1656 is a text where many of the basic ideas of his later thought are introduced. By examining these one can explore
his thinking in its original form, free from later interpretations.