Fukko-Shinto

   'Return to antiquity' Shinto. A name, more or less synonymous with kokugaku, given to the academic school of Japanese philology which developed during the mid-Tokugawa period into the wider kokugaku movement. The name fukko reflects that of the Confucian fukko-gaku (or ko-gaku, ancient learning) movement of the Sung dynasty in China whose scholars looked back to the golden age of Confucius. Initially it sought an understanding of 'Japanese' origins through the academic study of ancient Japanese texts. 'Fukko' came to mean also restoration of imperial rule. Fukko Shinto drew inspiration from the works of four great scholars, Kada no Azumamaro, Kamo no Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane. Modern Shinto embodies much of the outlook and assumptions of the fukko shinto and kokugaku movements of the 18th-19th centuries.