ISHIDA BAIGAN (1685–1744) was a Japanese philosopher of the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) who developed the concept of a moral or ethical philosophy known as Shingaku. Ishida was born on September 15, 1685, in the village of Tōge in Tamba province (modern Kameoka City, Kyoto prefecture), the second son of a farmer. At the age of ten (eleven by Japanese count) he was sent to Kyoto as a merchant's apprentice. There he spent his leisure time studying Shintō doctrine and attending lectures by local Confucian scholars, Buddhist monks, and experts on the Japanese classics.

When Ishida reached the age of about thirty-five he began to feel an inner restlessness; he felt that he did not know the nature of human beings. In his search for a guide or a direction, he met a Buddhist monk, Ryōun, who led him to an awakening of the spirit such as that described...