日本 實學 硏究와 近代化論

A Study on Japan’S Practical School and the Modernization Theory : A Critique of Minamoto Ryoen’s Views

Japan’s Practical School has not attracted much attention. The Practical School is one of the most important subjects in East Asian history because it was shared by all three nations in the region at the approximately same time. However, the place of Japan’s Practical School in intellectual history has not been explicated sufficiently. I believe that a study on Japan’s Practical Studies would yield a direct and substantial knowledge on Japanese intellectual history. In this study, I reviewed recent studies on the subject and, especially, focused on one scholar, Ryoen Minamoto. because he is the most active in the field. Minamoto argued that Japan’s Practical School had the following characteristics. First, its maturity as a thought came relatively quickly. Second, its ideas were put to practice to a great extent. Third, its practitioners came from diverse social backgrounds. In a word, he argued that Japan’s Practical School was the most advanced in East Asia, applying the modernization theory to the study of the Practical School directly. In this study, I refuted Minamoto’s views by examining the ideas of Seiryo Kaiho. Although his ideas are considered to have modem elements, they had obvious problems. The most crucial flaw was that he allowed expansionist acts without much hesitation. Consequently, it is clear that Minamoto applied the modernization theory to the Practical School too mechanically.