Kokugaku (Kyūjitai: 國學/Shinjitai: 国学; lit. National study or Japanology) was an ethnocentric school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. The word 'Kokugaku' has been translated as 'Native Studies' or 'Nativism' and was a response to Sinocentric Neo-Confucian theories, dominating in the Tokugawa shogunate as the state philosophy, that many Japanese nationalists saw as unpatriotic.

Drawing heavily from Shinto and Japan's ancient literature, the kokugaku advocates sought a return to a perceived golden age of Japanese culture and society. They drew upon ancient Japanese poetry, predating the rise of the feudal orders (in the mid 12th century) and other cultural achievements to show the 'glory' of Japan. Kokugaku thinkers were to some degree subversive of Tokugawa authority as they supported a restoration of direct imperial rule which had been absent since the rise of the Minamoto clan and the foundation of the Kamakura shogunate. These philosophers were mostly anti-Sinocentric and many saw Japan as a divine nation superior to other nations. Many referred to Japan as Chūgoku, or the Middle Country - the traditional name given to China. Interestingly, the anti-Sinocentric kokugaku theory itself, however, is implicitly based upon logics of the Sinocentric one: Neo-Confucianism.

Eventually kokugaku thinkers succeeded in gaining power and influence in terms of the Sonnō jōi philosophy and movement. It was this philosophy, amongst other things that led to the eventual collapse of the Tokugawa in 1868 and the subsequent Meiji Restoration. In addition state Shinto and state socialism (which contrary to its name was actually much more akin to fascism than Marxism) developed from kokugaku thought and thus indirectly led to Japan's imperialist expansion throughout the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries.

See also

• Japanese nationalism
• Keichu
• Kamo no Mabuchi
• Motoori Norinaga

Science and technology in Japan | Japanese philosophy

Kokugaku | 国学 | Кокугаку