HISTORICAL PATRON OF ASTRONOMY, SHOGUN YOSHIMUNE TOKUGAWA, WHO LED FEUDAL JAPAN TO A MODERNIZED SOCIETY

Because astronomy as science has been furthermost from monetary business and profit, the existence of its patrons and patronage has played important roles for the development of astronomy. From such a viewpoint, this paper introduces the eighth Shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa as the most prominent patron of astronomy throughout the history of Japan. In the background of his activities in astronomy there was a firm self-consciousness that the top leader of a country was responsible for giving people the correct calendar, similar to the ancient traditional ideology of Chinese emperors. Thus, Yoshimune continued to embrace an ambition for calendar reform but this did not come true during his lifetime. For this purpose, Yoshimue founded a new astronomical observatory, observed various celestial objects from it, and made opticians produce a large astronomical telescope. Hence he should be recognised as an astronomer or scientist. Another one of Yoshimune’s historic contributions was that he relaxed the century-long import ban on Chinese books unrelated to Christianity. Thanks to this epoch-making decision, the Japanese people were given chances to learn about Western science and culture through foreign books. As a result, Japan was ready to accept the flood of knowledge and information from the Western world when Japan removed the Sakoku (national seclusion) policy in 1868. Therefore, we may safely say that today we Japanese owe much to Yoshimune’s farsighted policy.