Abstract

Hirose Tanso was a talented poet, scholar, philosopher, and educator. He is most renowned for establishing and heading Kangien, a regional private academy in the Neo-Confucian tradition, located in Hita city of present-day oita prefecture. Tanso's goal at Kangien was to establish an educational program which would, by its very nature, accomplish social reform. ;The proliferation of schools and tolerant intellectual climate of the late Tokugawa period led to a diminution in the distinction between orthodox and heterodox Neo-Confucian teaching. Each domain was left with a great degree of independence to develop its own educational endeavor. Therefore, it is only through studying the educational system of each area that one can come to an understanding of the late Tokugawa period philosophical and educational arena. ;This dissertation has two aims. The first is to describe the philosophical underpinnings of Tanso's theory on education, and place it within the spectrum of the intellectual trends of his time. Tanso's philosophy, however, is incomplete left in theory form. It comes to full fruition only when actually put into practice. The second aim of this dissertation is to describe the educational activities which took place at Kangien, and place Kangien within the spectrum of institutional alternatives found in the late Tokugawa period