Kumazawa Banzan (1619 - September 9, 1691) was an adherent of a branch of Neo-Confucianism called Wang Yangming Studies (Japanese: Y?meigaku), who lived during the early Edo period.

Y?meigaku is the Japanese term for a school of Neo-Confucianism associated with its founder, the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming, characterised by introspection and activism, and which exercised a profound influence on Japanese revisions of Confucian political and moral theory in Japan during the Edo Period. Banzan's goal was to reform the Japanese government by advocating the adoption of a political system based on merit rather than heredity and the employment of political principles to reinforce the merit system.