The Thammasat University Library has newly acquired through the generosity of Ajarn Adul Wichiencharoen an inspiring book about education in Japan that may interest students in the Faculties of History, Philosophy, Asian Studies, and Education. The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi is shelved in the Adul Wichiencharoen Room of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835 – 1901) was a Japanese author, teacher, and translator. He founded Keio University as well as a significant daily newspaper and an Institute for the Study of Infectious Diseases. He was also a civil rights activist. Following in the footsteps of his father, a Confucian scholar, Fukuzawa studied such texts as the Tao Te Ching, The Commentary of Zuo, and Zhuangzi. Early on, he was persuaded to learn the Dutch language for commercial purposes, and eventually became a teacher of Dutch language. The school he founded to teach Dutch eventually developed into Keio University.

Located in Tokyo, Japan, Keio University is considered the oldest institute of modern higher education in Japan. Fukuzawa Yukichi discovered that English was more practical for communicating with visiting European tradespeople, so he began to study that language in depth as well. As the editor of his Autobiography explains,

In order to test the practical value of his knowledge of Dutch, Mr. Fukuzawa sought an early opportunity to visit the foreign settlement at Yokohama. In the space of twenty-four hours he walked there and back forty miles in all returning weary and footsore. That, however, was nothing when compared with his depression at finding that the Dutch, which he had so laboriously acquired, was of no practical use to him. At Yokohama he saw many stores kept by foreigners. He called at some of the stores and addressed the shopkeepers in Dutch. But they did not understand him nor could he understand what they said. He could not even read the sign-boards over the stores or the labels on the bottles inside. On inquiring he found that the language spoken there was English a language so extensively spoken in the world that it might almost be called international. On his return to Yedo, he was much discouraged to think that, if he desired to maintain his standing as a scholar who was familiar with Western learning, it would be necessary for him to devote to learning English as much time and energy as he had already expended on Dutch. But his was not a nature that yields to discouragement. On that very day he determined to learn English.

He later discovered that knowing one Western language made it easier to learn another one. In the 1850s, he traveled on a diplomatic mission to the United States, landing in San Francisco, California. He studied Webster’s Dictionary, compiled by Noah Webster in the early 1800s, to improve his vocabulary.

When he returned to Japan, he published an English-Japanese dictionary. He later accompanied other trade negotiation missions throughout Europe, including official trips to France, England, the Netherlands, Prussia, and Russia. He drew on these experiences to write a ten-volume work, Things Western, informing Japanese readers about western culture and institutions, and other new ways of thinking.

Landmark publications

Among his books, All the Countries of the World, For Children Written in Verse instructed young Japanese readers in world geography. His 17-volume work An Encouragement of Learning or On Studying explained the importance of study for success.

He was influenced by The Elements of Moral Science (1835), a textbook written by Francis Wayland, an American educator who taught moral philosophy as President of Brown University in Rhode Island, USA. Professor Wayland felt that students should not only be taught subjects related to future professional employment. They should also learn about ethics and morality. Professor Fukuzawa informed his readers that Japan would achieve national independence through personal independence.

He considered that in the West, people were educated with a sense of individualism and independence, along with a free exchange of ideas, and Japan could learn by following this tradition. As a preface to his autobiography states,

Mr. Fukuzawa aimed at thoroughly Westernizing the [Japanese] people at large, and never for a moment in his life did he swerve from his purpose.

Part of his research involved speaking with people, as the editor of his autobiography explains:

Very sociable and cheerful of disposition, Mr. Fukuzawa was also rather talkative. He could talk pleasantly with anybody man or woman, young or old. His breadth of knowledge and exceptional common sense enabled him to speak on almost every subject and to adapt his conversation to the capacity of the fellow-talker. He maintained the same attitude towards everybody, whether gentleman or laborer, lady or maid-servant. He was not only entertaining with his own speech and skilful in leading the conversation, but he was also a good listener. His sound judgment was in part formed by listening to others talk. Mr. Obata happily remarked, ‘Mr. Fukuzawa used people as books.’ Mr. Fukuzawa had frequent visits from persons representing almost every variety of temperament and occupation: lawyers, doctors, educators, statesmen, journalists, even laborers. In the course of conversation with such visitors, he induced them to speak of their specialities and questioned them minutely on every topic that occurred to him. Thus he was able to acquire a vast knowledge of various subjects. By the application of his clear intellect to the analysis and synthesis of what he had heard, he would form quite original views. Consequently he would later surprise those from whom he had received his information by the superiority of his knowledge.

This wide-ranging information also resulted in An Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1875). Influenced by the historians of civilization François Guizot of France and Henry Thomas Buckle of English, Professor Fukuzawa ranked countries according to their level of civilization. He felt that rather than importing guns and other military material, Japan should sponsor learning by its people. This development of widespread information would eventually have practical results. Knowledge and education were essential for him. As he wrote,

The civilization of the West is of course to be admired. It has been only recently since we [Japanese] have begun to do so. But it would be better not to believe at all than to do so superficially. The West’s wealth and power must truly be envied, but we must not go so far as to imitate the unequal distribution of wealth among her peoples as well.

Tributes

Because of his efforts to open Japan to the outside world, Professor Fukuzawa is honored in his homeland. His portrait is reproduced on the 10,000-yen banknote,  the largest denomination of Japanese currency. His former home in the city of Nakatsu in Ōita Prefecture is a Nationally Designated Cultural Asset.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)