안사이학파에 관한 연구현황과 과제

Studies of the Ansai School and Their Present State

This paper aims at suggesting the main characteristics and overall picture of the Ansai School by reviewing the previous studies of the school. The Ansai School consisted of the disciples of Yamazaki Ansai can be classified into the following three groups: Included among them were Neo-Confucian scholars, Shintoist who studied Suika Shinto established by Ansai. and scholars who embraced both Neo-Confucianism and Shinto. This clearly shows the complexity of the Ansai School: Completely different intellectual trends of Neo-Confucianism and Shintoism were included, and foreign thoughts were mixed with indigenous thoughts Previous studies of the Ansai School focused on the adoption of foreign scholarship and its contribution to the transformation of Shinto into Suika Shinto. Scholars used to call this process as the Japanization of Neo-Confucianism and the discovery of Japanese thoughts. They also pointed out the intellectual inclination of the Ansai School toward Japancentrism particularly in the formation of Suika Shinto and a strong religious inclination of its Neo-Confucian followers. This aspect has often been suggested as the evidence of its premodern characteristics and limitations. Taziri Yuziro s study provided a new perspective in the studies of the Ansai School. He discovered elements of Shinto and Neo-Confucianism in the complex development of the Ansai school and the Japanization of Neo-Confucianism in the shift of intellectual axis from Neo-Confucianism to Shintoism. He also contributed to the deconstruction of Shinto ideology regarded as the unique characteristics of the Ansai school by confirming that the ideology of divine country was popular among scholars of the eighteenth century.