This article discusses the ”contextual turn” and related issues in reinterpretations of the Confucian classics in the East Asian cross-cultural context. It indicates that notions in the classics are deeply baptized in the spirit of a given culture and carry the characteristics of that culture. The notions of ”China” and ”kingly way” in the Confucian classics exhibit cultural traits characteristic of China. In reinterpreting these notions, the Tokugawa Japanese Confucianists had to undertake some sorts of ”contextual turn” so as to make these Chinese notions more congenial to the Japanese intellectual soil. It also discusses the methological issues and the problem of meaning-recreating activities involved in the ”contextual turn” in cross-cultural contexts.