Until recently, Western historians generally disregarded Tokugawa intellectual history, judging it to be “derivative” in contrasts to institutional configurations and processes that were demonstrably unique. Often they offered by way of explanation the gratuitous comment that the Japanese prefer to “perform” rather than “conceptualize.” Such views, of course, are not tenable. Tokugawa intellectual history unfolds a dramatic story of conceptualization and “mindfulness” at all levels of society, in scholarly academics, merchant houses, villages. Outstanding in the development of thought in Far Eastern civilization, this history is also decisive to modern Japanese culture.

While few historians today continue to doubt the importance of the subject. There is universal agreement as to its extraordinary difficulty. The language of the times mixes Chinese and Japanese vocabulary and grammar in a way that is bafflingly complex to the modern eye. And the body of written materials is truly vast, a result of the writing and printing revolution of eighteen-century Tokugawa society. Now that intellectual historians in the West need no longer convince themselves that Tokugawa thinking ought to be studied, they face an enormous field that must somehow be shaped into manageable proportions. The real question to be faced, in short, is one of method, of shaping approaches, defining focuses, and formulating problems. This volume of essays is dedicated to that task.