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was a Japanese scientist and early advocate of Japanese Westernization. He is considered the founder of the "Greater East Asia" concept.
Thought
Science and Shinto
Satō attempted to synthesize Western science (especially astronomy) with Japanese political and philosophical thought. His ideas contributed to the early modern consolidation of the religion of Shinto, especially in the form of State Shinto. In his 1825 treatise Tenchūku, Satō argued that the cosmology in the Kojiki was both indigenous to Japan and the most compatible of all world religions with astronomy. He extended the Western model, however, by arguing that Shinto provided additional explanations for astronomical phenomenon that had not yet been explained by Western astronomy.