Japanese thought and culture, became popular against foreign ideas such as Buddhism or Confucianism. By the Sakoku policy of the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo intellectuals could not have any positive contact with Western civilization, and so Rangaku, Dutch learning, was the only window to the West. In the middle days of the Edo period, Kokugaku became popular while being influenced by positivist Confucianism with nationalism as a background. Kokugaku positively studied ancient Japanese thought and culture, including "Kojiki", "Nihon Shoki" and "Man'yōshū", and they aimed at excavating original moral culture of Japan which was different from Confucianism and Buddhism. Kamo no Mabuchi wrestled with the study of "Manyoshu" and called "masurao-buri" for masculine and tolerant style, and he evaluated the collection as pure and simple. Through his study of the Kojiki, Motoori Norinaga argued that the essence of the Japanese literature came from "mono no aware" which were natural feelings to occur when you contacted an object. He respected Japanese "Yamato spirit" instead of Chinese (Confucianism / Buddhism) "Kara spirit". According to him, Kokugaku should pursue the Japanese old way of "Shinto". Through his study of Kokugaku, Hirata Atsutane advocated nationalistic State Shinto, the obedience to the Emperor and abolition of Confucianism and Buddhism. It was a driving force to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. In the Sakoku period of the Edo period, there was no direct contact with the West, but Rangaku became popular by encouraging importation of Western books translated in Chinese from China during the Kyōhō Reforms. Maeno Ryotaku and Sugita Genpaku translated the Dutch "Tafel Anatomie" into Japanese. Dutch learning unfolded to other Western studies such as British, French and American studies by the late Tokugawa era. The manner of "Japanese spirit, Western civilisation" was completed by Sakuma Shōzan’s straightforward expression, "Eastern ethics and Western technology". Because Takano Chōei and Watanabe Kazan criticized Sakoku strictly, they were oppressed by the Tokugawa shogunate. Popular thought In the Edo period, private schools were opened by samurais, merchants and scholars who played an active part. Their thoughts were criticisms for the dominant feudal order. Ishida Baigan synthesized Confucianism, Buddhism and Shinto, and established practical philosophy for the masses. He recommended working hard at commerce as the effect of honesty and thrift. Ando Shoeki called nature's world the ideal society where all human beings engaged in farming and they lived self-sufficiently without artificiality. He criticized a