Kamo Mabuchi (1697-1769) was a Japanese writer, poet, and scholar and one of the major figures in the school of National Learning.

Kamo Mabuchi was born Masanobu, or Masafuji, the son of the superior (Kannushi) of the Kamo shrine in Totomi, and later took the name Mabuchi. He was chosen by a hosteler in Hamamatsu as son-in-law (the custom was not unusual). His father-in-law was disappointed though, if he expected help in the family business, for Mabuchi spent the greater part of his time with his books. Finally he obtained permission to go to Kyoto and study with Kada Azumamaro, a lay priest at the Inari shrine in Kyoto who had underwritten the Shinto revival.

Later Mabuchi went to Edo and became a teacher of considerable fame in his own right. The middle counselor (chunagon) Tayasu Munekata, a son of the Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune, was his patron. In...