Abstract
To understand the origins of Shibusawa Eiichi’s vision of Confucian capitalism, this chapter focuses on intellectual responses to economic change in the late Tokugawa period. Changing economic realities created new avenues of social mobility, as intellectuals adjusted ideologies to address the ambitions of the upwardly mobile among the peasant and merchant classes. Shibusawa’s experience in his family’s farming and commercial enterprises combined with his samurai-style Confucian education prepared him extraordinarily well to act as a mediator between samurai bureaucrats and commoners. Traveling to Europe in 1867, Shibusawa attributed advancements in European technology to the commercial classes’ high social status. Returning to Japan, he became committed to establishing capitalist joint-stock companies guided by a Confucian ethic of public service.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Appleby, Joyce. 2010. The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Bellah, Robert Neelly. 1985. Tokugawa Religion: The Cultural Roots of Modern Japan. New York/London: Free Press/Collier Macmillan Publishers.
Crawcour, E. Sydney. 1997. Economic Change in the Nineteenth Century. In Economic Emergence of Modern Japan, ed. Kozo Yamamura, 1–49. New York: Cambridge University Press.
De Bary, William Theodore, and Irene Bloom, eds. 1999. Sources of Chinese Tradition. 2nd ed. Vol. 2., 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press.
De Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann. 2005. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Introduction to Asian Civilizations. Vol. 2. New York/Chichester: Columbia University Press.
Fridenson, Patrick. 2017. Public-Private Connections and Boundaries: From Shibusawa Eiichi’s Experience to a Global Historical Perspective. In Ethical Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective, ed. Patrick Fridenson and Kikkawa Takeo, 59–74. Toronto: Toronto.
Hartman, Charles. 1986. Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Inoue, Jun. 2012. Shibusawa Eiichi: Kindai Nihon Shakai No Sozosha. Nihonshi Riburetto Hito. Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppansha.
Jansen, Marius. 1989. The Meiji Restoration. In Cambridge History of Japan, ed. Marius Jansen, vol. 5, 308–366. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keene, Donald. 1995. Modern Japanese Diaries: The Japanese at Home and Abroad as Revealed Through Their Diaries. New York: Henry Holt.
Kimura, Masato. 2017. Shibusawa Eiichi’s View of Business Morality. In Ethical Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective, ed. Patrick Fridenson and Kikkawa Takeo. Toronto: Toronto University of Toronto Press.
Lo, Felicia. 2017. Deep, Rich Japan Blue. Kyoto Visitor’s Guide. http://www.kyotoguide.com/ver2/thismonth/aizome.html
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. 1989. A History of Japanese Economic Thought. London: Routledge.
Najita, Tetsuo. 1987. Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 2009. Ordinary Economies in Japan: A Historical Perspective, 1750–1950. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nishikawa, Junsaku, and Masatosi Amano. 1989. Shohan No Sangyo to Keizai Seisaku. In Kindai Seicho No Taido. Vol. 2. Nihon Keizai Shi. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
Otani, Makoto. 2011. Shibusawa Eiichi No Fukushi Shiso: Eikoku to No Taihi Kara Sono Tokushitsu o Saguru. Shohan. Minerva Jinbun Shakai Kagaku Sosho 165. Kyoto-shi: Mineruva Shobo.
Pratt, Edward E. 1999. Japan’s Protoindustrial Elite: The Economic Foundations of the Gono, Harvard East Asian Monographs. Vol. 179. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center: Distributed by Harvard University Press.
Ryumonsha, ed. 1955. Shibusawa Eiichi Denki Shiryo. 58 vols. 10 supplementary vols. Tokyo: Shibusawa Eiichi Denki Shiryo Kankokai.
Sakamoto, Rumi. 2008. Confucianising Science: Sakuma Shōzan and Wakon Yōsai Ideology. Japanese Studies 28 (2): 213–226.
Sakamoto, Shinichi. 2002. Shibusawa Eiichi No Keisei Saimin Shiso. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha.
Shibusawa, Eiichi. 1994. Autobiography of Shibusawa Eiichi: From Peasant to Entrepreneur. Trans. Teruko Craig. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
Shibusawa Eiichi Kinen Zaidan, ed. 2012. Shibusawa Eiichi Wo Shiru Jiten. Shohan. Tokyo: Tokyodo Shuppan.
Shibusawa, Eiichi, and Atsushi Moriya. 2010a. Gendai Yaku Rongo to Soroban [Contemporary Translation of the Analects and the Abacus]. Chikuma Shobo.
———. 2010b. Shibusawa Eiichi No Rongo Kogi [Shibusawa Eiichi’s Lectures on the Analects]. Tokyo: Heibonsha.
Shimada, Masakazu. 2011. Shibusawa Eiichi: Shakai Kigyoka No Senkusha. Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho.
———. 2017. The Entrepreneur Who Built Modern Japan: Shibusawa Eiichi. Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture.
Shimbo, Hiroshi, and Akira Hasegawa. 2003. The Dynamics of Market Economy and Production. In The Economic History of Japan, 1600–1990, ed. Akira Hayami, Osamu Saito, and Ronald P. Toby, vol. 1, 159–191. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shimbo, Hiroshi, and Osamu Saito. 2003. The Economy on the Eve of Industrialization. In The Economic History of Japan, 1600–1990, ed. Akira Hayami, Osamu Saito, and Ronald P. Toby, vol. 1, 337–368. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Thomas C. 1988. Native Sources of Japanese Industrialization. Berkeley: University of California.
Tsuchiya, Takao. 1989. Shibusawa Eiichi. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan.
Yamamoto, Shichihei. 1992. The Spirit of Japanese Capitalism and Selected Essays. New York: Madison Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sagers, J.H. (2018). Economic Change and Intellectual Innovation in Tokugawa Japan. In: Confucian Capitalism. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76372-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76372-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76371-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76372-9
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)