James Summers

By Ryuichi Shitara

Summary

James Summers was a British Sinologue and Japanologist in early Meiji era. There are three foundations for understanding him, which are the following: his effort, great interest in Asia and education in Japan.

His effort will be introduced first. He was born in a poor family, which prevented him from receiving higher education. Therefore he determined to cultivate his education on his own and he went to Hong Kong with the will of becoming a diplomat when he was only 20 years old. Soon he went back to England and received a job relating to Chinese language of Kings College of London University. While he was at London University, he received two different jobs which are at the British Museum and as an assistant at a Library of department of India. Besides that, he was an enthusiastic writer. He published books called “the Repository”, an academic magazine on Asian community, and “Taisei Shinbun”, translated version from Japanese original.

Secondly, the paper will mention his great interest in Asia. As we discussed above, he was seriously eager to work on Asia. In addition to the above, the article will introduce his several works. He dedicated himself to translating the Bible into Chinese language, publishing collective grammar books on Chinese and Japanese language.

Thirdly, this post will mention his education for Japanese people. In 1873, he arrived in Japan and began to teach English language to Japanese starting with Tokyo-Kaisei School followed by Niigata English School, Osaka English School and Sapporo agricultural School. His influence was enormous, because among those who listened his lectures there are many famous people such as Okakura Tenshin, Nitobe Inazou, Kanou Jigoro and so forth. He taught English using sophisticated scripts and novels, such as Shakespeare etc.

Summary of discussion

There were two discussion questions, one of them was what do you think of his contribution as a pioneer of English education in Japan, and the other was what do you think of the English education shift from translating, reading and writing-focused to talking-focused.

In terms of the first question, two members of our group answered. They said that since a pioneer always has difficulty, there must have been difficulty on the way he tried to go. Also they said they were able to have chance to receive English education in KUIS [our university - Ed] indirectly thanks to him.

As for the other question, some members of the group seemed to agree that contemporary English education which concentrates on discussion is practical.


Reflection

It was great opportunity to learn about foreign people in Meiji era because there seems to be no exaggeration when I say that modern Japan started from that period. There have been prodigious changes from that time, and without those changes, we wouldn’t live in such a cutting-edge society. As the paper wrote above, it is a part of Summers’s contribution that we can study English at KUIS. We all should appreciate him.


Bibliography

Fujitani, S. (2009). [Washington Irving and Japan]. Kyoto: Ryukoku University.

Miyata, K. (2012). [About references on Eclectic Chinese-Japanese-English Dictionary (1884), compiled by Gring, A.D.]. Fukita: Chinese literature course, faculty of literature, Kansai University.

Nakayama, K. (2008). [James Summers : Reevaluation as a Japanologist and teacher]. Hokkaido: Hokkai-Gakuen University.

Unknown. (Unknown). James Summers (1829-91). Unknown: Unknown.