Abstract

Ogyū Sorai was born in the second month of Kanbun 6 in Niban-chō in Edo as the second son of the physician Ogyū Hōan 方庵. Hōan’s father, Genpo 元甫, was a private doctor who had studied with Manase Genkan 曲直瀬 元鑑, also known as Dōsan III. Sorai’s father, in his turn, may have studied with Manase Gen’en 元淵, also known as Dōsan V. When Sorai was 5 years old, in 1671, his father Hōan became the physician in ordinary of Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 綱吉, who at that time still was daimyō of Tatebayashi; before that, in 1669, he had studied for some time in Kyoto, possibly with Gen’en, possibly with other physicians of his school. No doubt, the network of the Manase helped him to improve his medical skills and knowledge, and to find employment.