Fukuzawa Yukichi

Fukuzawa Yukichi

By Kana Suzuki

I will talk about Fukuzawa Yukichi by presenting a brief introduction of his background, what he wanted to do for Japan, and the mediation he used to spread his thought.

Nowadays, Fukuzawa is famous for his portrait on the ten-thousand-yen-note. He was born in January 10, 1835 in Nakatsu, which is in present-day Oita. His father was a low-ranking samurai, therefore he had strong feelings about the class system in Japan from an early age. His father died when he was 2 years old, so his mother brought him up. When he was a child, he was an urchin and disliked reading books. However, when he was 14 years old, he began to fret about that everyone studied hard except him, so he started studying. Soon after he started studying, he distinguished himself in the study.

When he was 19 years old, he went to Nagasaki, and learned Dutch studies there. One year after, he visited Osaka, and decided to learn at Tekijuku, under Ogata Koan. While he was suffering from sickness, he finally reached the top of that school when he was 22 years old. After that, he went to Edo, and opened a school. When he visited Yokohama in the next year, he felt the strong necessary of English, and started studying it. In 1859, he went to America as an attendant of the captain of “Kanrinmaru” (咸臨丸). And in 1862, he went to Europe with a mission, and learned about European circumstances, history, and thoughts. After coming back to Japan he published “Seiyou Jijou” (“Conditions in the West”, 西洋事情). In 1867, he went to America as a member of the shogunate, and wrote “Seiyou Jijou Gaihen” (“Conditions in the West, vol. 2”, 西洋事情 外編) and “Sekai kunizukushi”(“Countries of the World”, 世界国尽). In 1868, he moved his school to Shiba, which is present Mita, and named the school Keioh gijuku [Editor's note: this was the forerunner of Keio University]. He wrote “Gakumon no susume” (“An Encouragement of Learning”, 学問の進すゝめ) in 1872, and “Bunmeiron no gairyaku” (“Outline of a Theory of Civilisation”, 文明論之概略) in 1875.

He is said to be an Enlightenment thinker. Firstly, he tried to introduce Western civilization to Japan, and make Japan modernized. In addition to this, he came to develop his own ideas. He insisted that the Japanese needed to be independent. He believed that national independence leads people to be independent, so he promoted business because financial independence of each person was connected to Japan’s development. At that time, he focused on tradition of Japan, spirits of samurai, which is diligence and loyalty. On the other hand, he criticized the traditional disproportion of power in Japan, and he thought new spirits could change this situation. When he proceeded to reform Japanese traditional idea, he noticed the importance of samurai. He thought that samurai could improve Japan’s industry with their animation, responsibility, and wide view. To conclude, his idea was based on asking a spirit of independence and self-respect for everyone.

Mainly he showed his thought in his books. For example in “Gakumon no susume” (学問のすゝめ), he said that whether rich and high-class or not, all people needed education, and that this connected to independence of themselves and nation. In “Bunmeiron no gairyaku”(文明論の概略), he was comparing Japan and another country, and explained that improvement of public sentiment by interchanging and competing freely could make Japan independent as a civilized country. In addition to this he made a school, “Keio gijuku”(慶応義塾), which declares his policy of education for everyone. As he focused on this school as a core, through aspects of politics, economy, society, and speech, he spread the movement of involving ideas. In 1874 he made a meeting hall in his school to show the importance of speech for public. In another way, food like milk and eating meat was introduced. He was said to be the first person who brought the word “curry” to Japan. And he did not like to be seen as domineering, so he did not dress up formally.

What he tried to do was modernize Japan. He was really familiar with western culture and social conditions, and understood them well. Then, he thought that to take some good points from them would help Japan modernize. The one of the most important focuses of his opinion was independence and self-respect. To spread this idea, he built a school, and wrote many books. It is said that we Japanese can learn a lot from Fukuzawa even now.

References

[Yukichi Fukuzawa-NAVER conclusion] <http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2137791402934501401?page=2>

[About Yukichi Fukuzawa-words] <http://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A6%8F%E6%B2%A2%E8%AB%AD%E5%90%89>

[Wikipedia] <http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A6%8F%E6%BE%A4%E8%AB%AD%E5%90%89>

Hutchinson.C. Personal communication (course materials)