ISHIDA BAIGAN / An introduction
Baigan was born on September 15, 1685 in a farm house that was located at nowadays Higashi-Bestuin-cho, Toge in Kameoka-city.
From the age of 11 to 15 he went to Kyoto to work for a merchant.
When he turned 23 he went to Kyoto for the second time, and worked at the mercantilc house Kuroyanagi. By that time he had developed ideas about the concept of himself and man in general.
Baigan, a self-taught man, strongly believed that our hearts are one with universe and nature, and that our hearts are honest and gentle. And he thought that if we would allow it to be that way in our lifes, we would be able to suppress greediness and wickedness. Shingaku Puts this into practrce with concepts as “honesty”, ”dilrgence”, “frugality”, “simpleness” etc Bargan believed that if those were practiced it would contribute to people's peace of mind, happiness within the family and stability in society.
In 1729, when Baigan was 45 years old, he rented a house in Kyoto, Kurumaya-cho, where he started giving lectures for the first time. That is about 20 years after he had left Kyoto to teach about “the way of humanity man has to go”.
At the same time Baigan also positively affirmed the pursuit of profit in commercial businesses and taught about diligence and frugality and recommended honesty. Because of that the self-consciousness of merchants grew, and it can be said that it became a trend of that time.
As the fruits of years of his research, in 1739 he published “Tohimondo” at the age of 55 and later in 1744 “Kenyaku Seikaron” at the age of 59. Shortly thereafter Baigan passed away when he was 60 years old.
(石田梅岩のプロフィール)
