Japan: Kumazawa Banzan, Edo period philosopher and Neo-Confucian (1619-1691)

Kumazawa Banzan (1619 - September 9, 1691) was an adherent of a branch of Neo-Confucianism called Wang Yangming Studies (Japanese: Yōmeigaku), who lived during the early Edo period.

Yōmeigaku is the Japanese term for a school of Neo-Confucianism associated with its founder, the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming, characterised by introspection and activism, and which exercised a profound influence on Japanese revisions of Confucian political and moral theory in Japan during the Edo Period. Banzan's goal was to reform the Japanese government by advocating the adoption of a political system based on merit rather than heredity and the employment of political principles to reinforce the merit system.

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