Rai San'yo

Rai San'yō (Japanese: ; 21 January 1780, Aki Province – 16 October 1832, Kyoto) was a Japanese Confucianist philosopher, historian, artist and poet of the later Edo period. His true name was Rai Noboru. His mother, Baisi, was a poet of some note. He first studied humanities with his uncles, who were notable Neo-Confucian scholars. Then, in 1797, he went to the Shōheikō, a training school for government bureaucrats in Edo.

Wishing to devote himself to writing instead, at the age of nineteen he detached himself from his domain and became a wandering scholar. This was a serious crime without receiving special permission so, to save him from greater punishment, his father disinherited him and locked him in his room for three years.

In 1827, he completed the Nihon Gaishi, his life work,