James Murdoch

James Murdoch

By Saki Kurihara

Presentation

James Murdoch was born in Scotland, Aberdeen city in 1856. He grew up in a poor general store’s family. He studied a lot and he entered Aberdeen University. After graduation, he went to Oxford University, University of Göttingen, University of Paris and the college of Wooster. When he was 24 years old, he took a post as Greek professor at Aberdeen University at this young age. In 1882 he got offer from Grammar school in Australia and then he seized the chance and went to Australia.

He became aware of the concept of socialism while staying in Australia. Eventually, he quit his job and he threw himself into the world of journalism.

At that time in Australia, left-wing workers insisted to wash out the Chinese immigrants. He tried to find out what is happening to the Chinese immigrants so he got on a ship as a low-grade passenger with the immigrants.

“From Australia and Japan” is his book which was written based on his experience in the ship. In the book, he found out that left-wing Australian workers treated Chinese immigrants badly. He wrote about their evildoing and grief of the Chinese.

After finishing investigative action, he made a brief visit to Japan to meet his friend. However during his trip to Japan he was absolutely charmed by Japanese people, culture and atmosphere so he decided to be an English teacher in Japan.

In 1889 he taught at Tokyo Daiichi Koutou Chugakou (now Tokyo University) and he met Soseki Natsume there. Soseki was struck by James Murdoch and he wrote book about him. In this book, Soseki said he sometimes visited Murdoch’s home so it seems that they were in a good relationship.

One day, Murdoch suddenly handed his resignation because he heard that his friend planned to create new ideal communism country in Paraguay. He got there immediately and helped his friend to realize the new country but it failed. He came back to England with a sore heart.

At that time, Japanese people were engaged in creating modernized country with Westerners’ cynical smile but they endured Westerners and made efforts. Murdoch heard that and he started studying about Japan to find a new way how to make a country.

In 1894 he visited Japan and worked as a teacher again. In 1904 he got married to Japanese woman, Takeko, and moved to Kagoshima prefecture.

He concentrated on studying about Japan and finally, he completed writing three books, “A History of Japan”. These books are on the subject of Japanese history from 1543 (When the Lusitanian came to Japan with guns) to 1868 (End of the Tokugawa Shogunate).

Moreover, he wrote many books about Japan in his life and he introduced Japan abroad. For instance, “47 Ronin” is one of the famous books introducing Japanese Bushi [warriors, or samurai - Ed]. The book’s sources were provided by Shigeno Yasutsugu. He is the first Japanese historian who analyzed the incident. In the book, James Murdoch analyzes the Tokugawa society.

His books are read by many foreign people even now. Probably, there are academic theses analyzing Tokugawa society using his books.

In 1917 he moved to Sydney and promoted exchanges between Japan and Australia. He died in Australia in 1921, planning a trip to Kagoshima..


Discussion

①If you were James Murdoch, how would you promote exchanges between Japan and Australia or other countries?

One student said that they would try to spread European information in Japan or take pictures about Japan. Another student said “When I go back to my country, I would bring something Japanese and introduce Japanese culture or become Japanese teacher”.

②If you were Murdoch, what subject could you teach for foreign students in other country?

Many students said they could teach English.


Reflection

Throughout Caroline’s class, I realized that I don’t know foreign people who contributed to Japan a lot.

In this presentation, I picked James Murdoch and researched about his life and achievement. He devoted most of his life to introducing Japan and promoting exchanges between Japan and overseas. Thanks to him and his books, Japan was known by many foreign people and they thought positively about Japan at that time. Even now, his books are read by many people so I think he is still an influence on many people all over the world.

He played a significant role and I think we should study about foreign people who contributed to Japan a lot like James Murdoch.


References

Blog “Seisouan”
http://sea.ap.teacup.com/seiasouan/31.html

James Murdoch
http://www.dhs.kyutech.ac.jp/~ruxton/James_Murdoch.htm

The 47 Rônin are Introduced to the World
http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/chushinguranew/retelling/Murdoch.htm

Soseki Natsume “Murdoch’s Japanese History”
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/2375_13562.html