1. Hirata Atsutane was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku studies, and one of the most significant 19th century theologians of the Shinto religion.
12 Facts About Hirata Atsutane
1. 2.
Hirata Atsutane left home in 1795, renouncing his ties to his family and to the Domain and traveled to Edo and worked as a laborer and as a servant, while pushing opportunities to study rangaku, geography, and astronomy.
3.
Evidently the two became romantically involved while Hirata Atsutane was working as a menial servant in the Ishibashi household.
4.
Hirata Atsutane claimed to be a descendant of Taira no Masakado.
5.
Hirata Atsutane later turned towards Daoism as found in the works of the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi.
6.
Hirata Atsutane learned about the works of Motoori Norinaga, the founder of the kokugaku movement, in 1803, two years after Motoori's death.
7.
Hirata Atsutane claimed later to have received the mantle of kokugaku teacher in a dream directly from Motoori Norinaga, but the story is apocryphal.
8.
Hirata Atsutane became a student of Motoori Haruniwa, and read voraciously the ancient and Chinese classics, foreign works by Nicolaus Copernicus and Isaac Newton and treatises on Buddhism and Shinto.
9.
Hirata Atsutane is noted for his studies of ancient Indian and Chinese tradition, and texts dealing with the spirit world, including Senkyo ibun and Katsugoro saisei kibun.
10.
Hirata Atsutane laid particular emphasis on reaching the average man, and adapted his own style to them by employing at times the vernacular idiom.
11.
Hirata Atsutane's first published work, Kamosho was a scathing attack on the works of Confucian philosopher Dazai Shundai on Buddhism, and resulted in an invitation to teach from the Yoshida family, the hereditary clan leading Yoshida Shinto.
12.
Hirata Atsutane died at his home in Nakakame-cho, Akita in 1843, and as per the provisions of his will, was buried on a hillside in the city.