Kokugaku (: 國學/: 国学; lit. National study) was a National revival, or, school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of research into the early Japanese classics. History What later became known as the kokugaku tradition began in the 17th and 18th centuries as kogaku ("ancient studies"), waga… (More on Kokugaku)