Ando Shoeki

Social and Ecological Philosopher of Eighteenth-Century Japan

by Toshinobu Yasunaga

Weatherhill Inc., 1992, [First Edition], ISBN 0834802325, b/w illustrative decorations, hardcover, dustjacket

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear (see photographs)

'When the writings of Ando Shoeki (1703-62) were accidentally discovered nearly a century ago, they were so unique and surprising that some took them for contemporary forgeries.  But Shoeki's sharp and thoroughgoing criticism of the Japanese feudal order proved to be as genuine as it was revolutionary.  His philosophy combines and criticises Buddhism, Confucianism, and traditional Oriental medical theories, offering a unique view of human society and the natural world.
Some twenty-four ears after their discovery, the only known extant texts of Shoeki were purchased by the University of Tokyo library and removed there for further study; six months later the fires following the Great Kanto Earthquake reduced to ashes all but a dozen volumes that had been borrowed by a professor.  Fortunately, two more important Shoeki works were subsequently discovered, allowing at long last an adequate portrait of Shoeki, both the man and his thinking, to emerge. 
For the benefit of students and researchers, this volume includes a complete listing of all known Shoeki texts, both extant and lost, as well as a glossary of important terms.'