Fukuzawa Yukichi

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Fukuzawa Yukichi, c.1860.

Fukuzawa Yukichi (福澤諭吉 Fukuzawa Yukichi, January 10, 1835 - February 3, 1901) was an author, motivational speaker, and political theorist whose enlightened ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the period known as the Meiji Era.

Contents

Early life

Fukuzawa was born into a low-ranking samurai family in Osaka in 1835. He was not educated during his youth, as his family was poor following the death of his father. At the age of fourteen, Fukuzawa finally had enough money to enter a school of Dutch studies. In 1853, shortly after Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival in Japan, Fukuzawa's brother (the family patriarch) asked Fukuzawa to travel to Nagasaki, where the Dutch colony at Deshima was located. Fukuzawa was instructed to learn Dutch in order to study European cannon designs.

Although Fukuzawa did travel to Nagasaki, his stay there was brief as he quickly discovered that the Dutch scholars there were dealing with outdated information. He planned to travel to Edo and continue his studies there, but upon his return to Osaka, his brother persuaded him to stay and enroll at the Tekijuku school run by physician and Dutch scholar Ogata Koan. Fukuzawa studied at Tekijuku for three years, and became fully proficient in the Dutch language. In 1858, he was appointed official Dutch teacher of his family's domain, Nakatsu, and was sent to Edo to teach the family's vassals there.

The following year, Japan opened up three of its ports to American and European ships, and Fukuzawa, intrigued with Western civilization, traveled to Kanagawa to see them. When he arrived, he discovered that virtually all of the European merchants there were speaking English. He then began to study English, but at that time, English-Japanese interpreters were rare and dictionaries nonexistent, so his studies were slow.

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Fukuzawa Yukichi was a member of the first ever Japanese delegation to the United States, in 1860.

Then, the Edo bakufu decided to send envoys of the shogun to the United States, and Fukuzawa volunteered his services to Admiral Kimura Yoshitake. Kimura's ship, the Kanrin Maru, arrived in San Francisco, California in 1860, and the delegation stayed in the city for a month, during which time Fukuzawa had himself photographed with an American girl (one of the most famous photographs in Japanese history), and also found a Webster's Dictionary, from which he began to seriously study the English language.

Fukuzawa became an official translator for the bakufu upon his return. In 1867, he returned to America, this time visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City as part of a team of negotiators. After that trip, he visited Europe, again as part of a negotiation team, and published the first volume of his famous work Seiyo Jijo ("The West").

Works

Possibly Fukuzawa's writings were his greatest contribution to the Meiji period. Between 1872 and 1876, he published 17 volumes of Gakumon no Susume ("An Encouragement of Learning"). In these texts, Fukuzawa outlines the importance of understanding the principle of equality of opportunity and that study was the key to greatness. He was an avid supporter of education and founded one of Japan's most prestigious universities, Keio-gijuku, now known as Keio University.

In the volumes of Gakumon no Susume, Fukuzawa advocated his most lasting principle, "national independence through personal independence." Through personal independence, an individual does not have to depend on the strength of another. With such a self-determining social morality, Fukuzawa hoped to instill a sense of personal strength among the people of Japan, and through that personal strength, build a nation to rival all others.

Fukuzawa also published many influential essays and critical works, one of most lasting of which is "Bunmeiron no Gairyaku" ("An Outline of a Theory of Civilization") published in 1875, in which he details his own theory of civilization. According to Fukuzawa, civilization is relative to time and circumstance, as well as comparison. For example, China was relatively civilized in comparison to some of the Africa colonies, and European nations were the most civilized of all, at the time.

Fukuzawa was later criticized as a supporter of imperialism because of his essay "Datsu-A Ron" ("Leaving Asia") published in 1885, as well as for his support of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Yet, "Datsu-A Ron" was actually a response to a failed attempt by Koreans to organize an effective reform faction, an attempt he'd supported. He had invited young Korean aristocrats to his school. Yet, they squandered their time and money on getting drunk and buying prostitutes and after Fukuzawa tightened their allowance, they attempted a failed robbery of a school safe. The essay was published as a withdrawal of his support. Neverless the assistance provided to radical Koreans during this era was never intended to lead to complete independence for the peninsula, but on the contrary sought to bring Korea under ever greater Japanese influence. This was amply demonstrated by the cynical power-plays undertaken in Korea by both Koreans supported by Fukuzawa and the Japanese Imperial Army during the Sino-Japanese War.

His enthusiastic support of the Sino-Japanese War had much to do with his opinions about modernization. Like many of his peers in the government, Fukuzawa ultimately believed modernization in Asia could best be achieved at the point of a gun. He believed that China suffered from archaic and unchanging principles. At the time of the war, foot binding was still the practice in China as well as cruel punishments like torture that Japan had already outlawed, opium had been sold on street, and political institutions were failing to fend of foreign incursions and selling interests like railroads and taxation to pay the debt. Japan, similarly, suffered the humiliation of having to endure unequal treaties with the Western powers, and Fukuzawa hoped a display of military prowess would sway opinion in the West towards treaty revision. In his hopes for a strong Japan, Fukuzawa saw the Asian countries around Japan as potential deterrents in need of guidance. The price in non-Japanese lives for such "guidance," however, has yet to be fully acknowledged by Japan.

"In my view, these two countries [China and Korea] cannot survive as independent nations with the onslaught of Western civilization to the East. . . It is not different from the case of the righteous man living in a neighborhood of a town known for foolishness, lawlessness, atrocity, and heartlessness. His action is so rare that it is always buries under the ugliness of his neighbors' activities," Fukuzawa wrote in "Datsu-A Ron."

Fukuzawa's most important contribution to the reformation effort, though, came in the form of a newpaper called Jiji Shimpo, which he started in 1882, after being prompted by Inoue Kaoru, Okuma Shigenobu, and Ito Hirobumi to establish a strong influence among the people through publishing. All agreed the government should take the form of a national assembly, and as reforms began, Fukuzawa, whose fame was already unquestionable, began production of Jiji Shimpo, which received wide circulation, encouraging the people to enlighten themselves and to adopt a moderate political attitude towards the change that was being engineered within the social and political structures of Japan.

Legacy

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Fukuzawa appears on the 10,000 yen banknote engraved by Edoardo Chiossone.

Fukuzawa's ideas about individual strength and his knowledge of western political theory, as presented in his writings, were instrumental in motivating the Japanese people to embrace change. He may well have been one of the most influential personalities in the modernization of Japan.

Today, Fukuzawa appears on the 10,000-yen banknote.

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Early life

Works

Legacy

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