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Outline

A pupil of Motoori Norinaga, Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) was a kokugaku ("National Learning") scholar who employed a broad network for collecting information at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The National Museum of Japanese History has recently obtained materials from the Ibukinoya academy established by Atsutane and continued by his adopted son Kanetane, and then by his son Nobutane. Research undertaken on these materials has revealed new facts that are significant within the context of Japanese historical research. Featuring valuable materials that have been more or less hidden from public view over the years, including supposedly confidential Russian diplomatic documents, the exhibition focuses on the political activities of Atsutane and his four thousand followers throughout Japan around the time of the restoration of Emperor Meiji (1868), as well as the role played by Atsutane in influencing the new Meiji government.