 Although overtly nationalistic and so not always cited in contemporary scholarship on the history of philosophy in Japan, Inoue’s trilogy remains the first extended statement of what Japanese philosophical thought consisted of. Its descriptions of Confucian thinking as philosophical in nature decisively impacted later East Asian estimations of Confucianism. Even as Inoue elevated Japanese Confucian thinking as philosophical, late-Qing China abandoned its civil service examination system which for over five centuries had tested one’s mastery of Confucian texts. That Chinese thinkers did later recognize value in Confucianism as the most compelling statement of traditional Chinese philosophy owed much, ironically enough, to Inoue’s earlier vision of the role of Japanese Confucianism in the philosophical development, prior to western contact, of Japan. It is no exaggeration to say that the study of Japanese Confucianism as philosophy began with Inoue’s trilogy.