Inazo Nitobe
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese
agricultural economist, author, educator, diplomat, politician, and Christian
during Meiji
and Taishō period
Japan
.
, Mutsu Province
(present-day Iwate Prefecture
). His father was a retainer to the local daimyō
of the Nambu clan. His infant name was Inanosuke. Nitobe left Morioka for Tokyo
in 1871 to become the heir to his uncle, Ota Tokitoshi, and adopted the name Ota Inazō. He later reverted to Nitobe when his brothers died.
(now Hokkaido University
). He was converted to Christianity
under the strong legacy left by Dr. William S. Clark
, the first Vice-Principal of the College, who had taught in Sapporo for eight months before Nitobe's class arrived in the second year after the opening of the college; thus they never personally crossed paths. Nitobe's classmates who converted to Christianity at the same time included Uchimura Kanzō
. Nitobe and his friends were baptized by an American Methodist Episcopal missionary Bishop M.C. Harris
. Nitobe's decision to study agriculture was due to a hope expressed by Emperor Meiji
that the Nitobe family would continue to advance the field of agricultural development (Nitobe's father developed former waste land in the north of the Nambu domain near present-day Towada
, now part of Iwate Prefecture, into productive farmland).
In 1883, Nitobe entered Tokyo Imperial University for further studies in English literature
and in economics
. Disappointed by the level of research in Tokyo, he quit the university and sought study opportunities in the United States
.
In 1884, Nitobe traveled to the United States where he stayed for three years, and studied economics and political science
at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore
, Maryland
. While in Baltimore he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers). It was through a Quaker community in Philadelphia that he met Mary Patterson Elkinton, whom he eventually married. He also influenced the establishment of the Friends School
in Tokyo.
While at Johns Hopkins, he was granted an assistant professorship at his alma mater, the Sapporo Agricultural College, but was ordered to first obtain a doctorate in agricultural economics in Germany
. He completed his degree after three years in Halle University and returned briefly to the United States to marry Mary Elkinton in Philadelphia before he assumed his teaching position in Sapporo in 1891. By the time he returned to Japan, he had published books in English and in German
, and had received the first of his five doctorate degrees.
Nitobe continued his teaching tenure at Sapporo until 1897 as he took leave from the college. He spent three years writing first in Japan and later in California. One of the books he wrote during this period was Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
in Taiwan
, where he headed the Sugar Bureau.
Nitobe was appointed a full professor of law at the Kyoto Imperial University in 1904 and lectured on colonial studies. He became the Headmaster of the First Higher School (then the preparatory division for the Tokyo Imperial University) in 1906 and continued this position until he accepted the full-time professorship at the Law Faculty of Tokyo Imperial University in 1913. He taught agricultural economics and colonial studies and emphasized humanitarian aspect of colonial development, and was cross-appointed the founding president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University
(Tokyo Joshi Dai). His students at Tokyo Imperial University included Tadao Yanaihara
, Shigeru Nanbara, Yasaka Takagi, and Tamon Maeda. (Yanaihara later continued Nitobe's chair in colonial studies at Tokyo University; but Yanaihara's pacifist views and emphasis on indigenous self-determination, which he partly inherited from Nitobe, came into a full conflict with Japan's wartime government during the World War II
, resulted in barring him from teaching until after the war).
Nitobe and Hamilton Wright Mabie
in 1911 were the first exchange professors between Japan and the United States under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
.
After World War I, Nitobe joined other international and reform-minded Japanese in organizing the Japan Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations
.
was established in 1920, Nitobe became one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League, and moved to Geneva
, Switzerland
. He became a founding director of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (which later became UNESCO
under the United Nations
' mandate). His legacy in this period includes the settlement of territorial dispute between Sweden
and Finland
over the Swedish
-speaking Åland Islands
. In its resolution, the Islands remained under the Finnish control, but adopted complete disarmament
(i.e., no military presence on the islands) and granted autonomy, averting a possible armed conflict (See also Åland crisis
).
In August 1921, Nitobe took part in the 13th World Congress of Esperanto
in Prague
, as the official delegate of the League of Nations. His report to the General Assembly of the League was the first objective report on Esperanto
by a high-ranking official representative of an intergovernmental organization. Although the proposal for the League to accept Esperanto as their working language was accepted by ten delegates, the French delegate used his veto power to block the issue.
After his retirement from the League of Nations, Nitobe briefly served in the House of Peers
in the Japanese Imperial Parliament
; and he delivered a speech against militaristic prime minister Giichi Tanaka in the aftermath of the Huanggutun Incident
(1928). He held critical views on increasing militarism
in Japan in the early 1930s, and was devastated by Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933 over the Manchurian Crisis and the Lytton Report
.
In October 1933, Nitobe attended a conference in Banff, Alberta
of the Institute of Pacific Relations
, where the background and research papers from the Japanese delegation largely defended Japanese expansionist policies.
On his way home from the conference, Nitobe's pneumonia
took a turn for the worst and was rushed to the Royal Jubilee Hospital
in Victoria, British Columbia
, Canada. Following an operation he died on 15 October 1933. Morioka, Nitobe's birth place, and Victoria have been sister cities since 1985. Mary Elkinton Nitobe lived in Japan until her death in 1938. Mary compiled and edited many of Nitobe's unpublished manuscripts, including his memoirs of early childhood, and contributed greatly to the preservation of his writings.
(1900), which was one of the first major works on samurai
ethics and Japanese culture written originally in English for Western readers (The book was subsequently translated into Japanese and many other languages). Although sometimes criticized as portraying the samurai in terms so Western as to take away some of their actual meaning, this book nonetheless was a pioneering work of its kind.
The reception and impact of Bushido: The Soul of Japan were quite different in Japan and the West, however, with Japanese scholars such as Inoue Tetsujiro
and Tsuda Sokichi criticizing or dismissing the book. It was not until the 1980s that Bushido: The Soul of Japan reached the height of its popularity in Japan, and is now the most widely-available work on the subject of bushido
. In the West, Bushido: The Soul of Japan has been a best-seller since the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
of 1904-05, and has been translated into dozens of languages.
Nitobe's writings are now available in Nitobe Inazo Zenshu (the Complete Works of Inazo Nitobe), a 25 volume set from Kyobunkan, 1969-2001. His English and other western language work are collected in the 5 volume Works of Inazo Nitobe, The University of Tokyo Press, 1972.
Major critical essays on Nitobe's life and thought were collected in John F. Howes, ed. Nitobe Inazo: Japan's Bridge Across the Pacific (Westview, 1995). Full biography in English is: George M. Oshiro, Internationalist in Pre-War Japan: Nitobe Inazo, 1862-1933 (UBC PhD. Thesis, 1986); and in Japanese by the same author: Nitobe Inazo, Kokusai-shugi no Kaitakusha (Chūō Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1992). The most detailed account of Nitobe's life after his tenure in the League of Nations, available in English, is: Nitobe Inazo, The Twilight Years, by Uchikawa Eiichiro (Kyobunkwan, 1985). Six (6) critical essays on Nitobe's legacy are included in Why Japan Matters!, vol.2, edited by Joseph F. Kess and Helen Lansdowne (University of Victoria, 2005), pp. 519-573, 655-663.
His portrait was featured on the Series D of ¥
5000 banknote, printed from 1984 to 2004.
The Nitobe Memorial Garden
at the University of British Columbia
in Vancouver
, Canada is named in his honour.
A Second Memorial Garden has been built at the Royal Jubilee Hospital
in Victoria, British Columbia
, Canada
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
agricultural economist, author, educator, diplomat, politician, and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
during Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
and Taishō period
Taisho period
The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Early Life
Nitobe was born in MoriokaMorioka, Iwate
is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture, Japan.As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 300,740 and a population density of 588.11 persons per km². The total area is 489.15 km²....
, Mutsu Province
Mutsu Province
was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori prefecture and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture...
(present-day Iwate Prefecture
Iwate Prefecture
is the second largest prefecture of Japan after Hokkaido. It is located in the Tōhoku region of Honshū island and contains the island's easternmost point. The capital is Morioka. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido...
). His father was a retainer to the local daimyō
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of the Nambu clan. His infant name was Inanosuke. Nitobe left Morioka for Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
in 1871 to become the heir to his uncle, Ota Tokitoshi, and adopted the name Ota Inazō. He later reverted to Nitobe when his brothers died.
Educational Career
Nitobe was in the second class of the Sapporo Agricultural CollegeSapporo Agricultural College
was a school in Sapporo established in the purpose of education of student who would pioneer Hokkaidō by Kaitakushi, the local government of Hokkaidō in those days...
(now Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:...
). He was converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
under the strong legacy left by Dr. William S. Clark
William S. Clark
William Smith Clark was a professor of chemistry, botany and zoology, a colonel during the American Civil War, and a leader in agricultural education. Raised and schooled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Clark spent most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts...
, the first Vice-Principal of the College, who had taught in Sapporo for eight months before Nitobe's class arrived in the second year after the opening of the college; thus they never personally crossed paths. Nitobe's classmates who converted to Christianity at the same time included Uchimura Kanzō
Uchimura Kanzo
was a Japanese author, Christian evangelist, and the founder of the Nonchurch Movement of Christianity in the Meiji and Taishō period Japan.-Early life:...
. Nitobe and his friends were baptized by an American Methodist Episcopal missionary Bishop M.C. Harris
Merriman Colbert Harris
Merriman Colbert Harris was a Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1904.-Birth and family:...
. Nitobe's decision to study agriculture was due to a hope expressed by Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
that the Nitobe family would continue to advance the field of agricultural development (Nitobe's father developed former waste land in the north of the Nambu domain near present-day Towada
Towada, Aomori
is a city located in central Aomori in Tōhoku region of Japan. As of 2009, the city had an estimated population of 65,818 and a density of 90.7 persons per km². Its total area was 725.67 km², making it the largest municipality in Aomori Prefecture in terms of area.-Geography:Towada is located in...
, now part of Iwate Prefecture, into productive farmland).
In 1883, Nitobe entered Tokyo Imperial University for further studies in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
and in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. Disappointed by the level of research in Tokyo, he quit the university and sought study opportunities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In 1884, Nitobe traveled to the United States where he stayed for three years, and studied economics and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. While in Baltimore he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers). It was through a Quaker community in Philadelphia that he met Mary Patterson Elkinton, whom he eventually married. He also influenced the establishment of the Friends School
Friends School (Japan)
is a women's junior and senior high school , authorised by the Japanese Education Law, of Religious Society of Friends in Minato, Tokyo, Japan....
in Tokyo.
While at Johns Hopkins, he was granted an assistant professorship at his alma mater, the Sapporo Agricultural College, but was ordered to first obtain a doctorate in agricultural economics in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He completed his degree after three years in Halle University and returned briefly to the United States to marry Mary Elkinton in Philadelphia before he assumed his teaching position in Sapporo in 1891. By the time he returned to Japan, he had published books in English and in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and had received the first of his five doctorate degrees.
Nitobe continued his teaching tenure at Sapporo until 1897 as he took leave from the college. He spent three years writing first in Japan and later in California. One of the books he wrote during this period was Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
Meiji Bureaucrat & Educator
In 1901, Nitobe was appointed technical advisor to the Japanese colonial governmentTaiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, where he headed the Sugar Bureau.
Nitobe was appointed a full professor of law at the Kyoto Imperial University in 1904 and lectured on colonial studies. He became the Headmaster of the First Higher School (then the preparatory division for the Tokyo Imperial University) in 1906 and continued this position until he accepted the full-time professorship at the Law Faculty of Tokyo Imperial University in 1913. He taught agricultural economics and colonial studies and emphasized humanitarian aspect of colonial development, and was cross-appointed the founding president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University
Tokyo Woman's Christian University
, often abbreviated to or TWCU, is a university in Tokyo Japan.-Founding:TWCU was established by Nitobe Inazō , a Japanese agricultural economist and educator, who was appointed as the first president in 1918. The first classes were held in Tsunohazu...
(Tokyo Joshi Dai). His students at Tokyo Imperial University included Tadao Yanaihara
Tadao Yanaihara
was a Japanese economist, educator and Christian pacifist. The first director of Shakai Kagaku Kenkyűjo at the University of Tokyo., studied at Toynbee Hall and School of Economics and Political Science .Born in Ehime Prefecture, Yanaihara became a Christian under the influence of Uchimura Kanzō's...
, Shigeru Nanbara, Yasaka Takagi, and Tamon Maeda. (Yanaihara later continued Nitobe's chair in colonial studies at Tokyo University; but Yanaihara's pacifist views and emphasis on indigenous self-determination, which he partly inherited from Nitobe, came into a full conflict with Japan's wartime government during the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, resulted in barring him from teaching until after the war).
Nitobe and Hamilton Wright Mabie
Hamilton Wright Mabie
Hamilton Wright Mabie, A.M., L.H.D., LL.D. was an American essayist, editor, critic, and lecturer.-Biography:He was born at Cold Spring, N. Y. in 1846. Mabie was the youngest child of Sarah Colwell Mabie who was from a wealthy Scottish-English family and Levi Jeremiah Mabie, whose ancestors were...
in 1911 were the first exchange professors between Japan and the United States under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
.
After World War I, Nitobe joined other international and reform-minded Japanese in organizing the Japan Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations
Institute of Pacific Relations
The Institute of Pacific Relations was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity over the years, consisted of professional staff members who...
.
Diplomat & Statesman
When the League of NationsLeague of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
was established in 1920, Nitobe became one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League, and moved to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He became a founding director of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (which later became UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
under the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' mandate). His legacy in this period includes the settlement of territorial dispute between Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
over the Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
-speaking Åland Islands
Åland Islands
The Åland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland...
. In its resolution, the Islands remained under the Finnish control, but adopted complete disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
(i.e., no military presence on the islands) and granted autonomy, averting a possible armed conflict (See also Åland crisis
Åland crisis
The Åland crisis was one of the first issues put up for arbitration by the League of Nations on its formation. The Åland Islands' population's demand for self-determination was not met and sovereignty over the islands was retained by Finland, but international guarantees were given to allow the...
).
In August 1921, Nitobe took part in the 13th World Congress of Esperanto
World Congress of Esperanto
The World Congress of Esperanto has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run of more than a hundred years. The congresses have been held since 1905 every year, except during World Wars I and II...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, as the official delegate of the League of Nations. His report to the General Assembly of the League was the first objective report on Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
by a high-ranking official representative of an intergovernmental organization. Although the proposal for the League to accept Esperanto as their working language was accepted by ten delegates, the French delegate used his veto power to block the issue.
After his retirement from the League of Nations, Nitobe briefly served in the House of Peers
House of Peers (Japan)
The ' was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ....
in the Japanese Imperial Parliament
Diet of Japan
The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...
; and he delivered a speech against militaristic prime minister Giichi Tanaka in the aftermath of the Huanggutun Incident
Huanggutun Incident
Huanggutun Incident was an assassination plotted by the Japanese Kwantung Army that targeted Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin. It took place on June 4, 1928 at Huanggutun rail station near Shenyang in which Zhang's train was destroyed by an explosion...
(1928). He held critical views on increasing militarism
Japanese militarism
refers to the ideology in the Empire of Japan that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation.-Rise of militarism :...
in Japan in the early 1930s, and was devastated by Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933 over the Manchurian Crisis and the Lytton Report
Lytton Report
was a report generated by a League of Nations commission in December 1931 to try to determine the causes of the Mukden Incident which led to the Empire of Japan’s seizure of Manchuria.- The Commission :The Lytton Commission was headed by V. A. G. R...
.
In October 1933, Nitobe attended a conference in Banff, Alberta
Banff, Alberta
Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....
of the Institute of Pacific Relations
Institute of Pacific Relations
The Institute of Pacific Relations was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity over the years, consisted of professional staff members who...
, where the background and research papers from the Japanese delegation largely defended Japanese expansionist policies.
On his way home from the conference, Nitobe's pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
took a turn for the worst and was rushed to the Royal Jubilee Hospital
Royal Jubilee Hospital
The Royal Jubilee Hospital is a 400-bed general hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada located about east of the city centre, in the Jubilee neighbourhood . Its name commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887...
in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, Canada. Following an operation he died on 15 October 1933. Morioka, Nitobe's birth place, and Victoria have been sister cities since 1985. Mary Elkinton Nitobe lived in Japan until her death in 1938. Mary compiled and edited many of Nitobe's unpublished manuscripts, including his memoirs of early childhood, and contributed greatly to the preservation of his writings.
Legacy
Nitobe was a prolific writer. He published many scholarly books as well as books for general readers (see below). He also contributed hundreds of articles to popular magazines and newspapers. Nitobe, however, is perhaps most famous in the west for his work Bushido: The Soul of JapanBushido: The Soul of Japan
Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe is, along with the classic text Hagakure by Tsunetomo Yamamoto , a study of the way of the samurai. A best-seller in its day, it was read by many influential foreigners, among them President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy and Robert...
(1900), which was one of the first major works on samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
ethics and Japanese culture written originally in English for Western readers (The book was subsequently translated into Japanese and many other languages). Although sometimes criticized as portraying the samurai in terms so Western as to take away some of their actual meaning, this book nonetheless was a pioneering work of its kind.
The reception and impact of Bushido: The Soul of Japan were quite different in Japan and the West, however, with Japanese scholars such as Inoue Tetsujiro
Inoue Tetsujiro
was a Japanese philosopher who condemned Christianity as incompatible with Japanese culture and considered its followers "inherently disloyal" to Japan. He compiled A Dictionary of Philosophy , which was first published in 1881, again in 1884, and finally in 1912.He was also a member of the...
and Tsuda Sokichi criticizing or dismissing the book. It was not until the 1980s that Bushido: The Soul of Japan reached the height of its popularity in Japan, and is now the most widely-available work on the subject of bushido
Bushido
, meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...
. In the West, Bushido: The Soul of Japan has been a best-seller since the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904-05, and has been translated into dozens of languages.
Nitobe's writings are now available in Nitobe Inazo Zenshu (the Complete Works of Inazo Nitobe), a 25 volume set from Kyobunkan, 1969-2001. His English and other western language work are collected in the 5 volume Works of Inazo Nitobe, The University of Tokyo Press, 1972.
Major critical essays on Nitobe's life and thought were collected in John F. Howes, ed. Nitobe Inazo: Japan's Bridge Across the Pacific (Westview, 1995). Full biography in English is: George M. Oshiro, Internationalist in Pre-War Japan: Nitobe Inazo, 1862-1933 (UBC PhD. Thesis, 1986); and in Japanese by the same author: Nitobe Inazo, Kokusai-shugi no Kaitakusha (Chūō Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1992). The most detailed account of Nitobe's life after his tenure in the League of Nations, available in English, is: Nitobe Inazo, The Twilight Years, by Uchikawa Eiichiro (Kyobunkwan, 1985). Six (6) critical essays on Nitobe's legacy are included in Why Japan Matters!, vol.2, edited by Joseph F. Kess and Helen Lansdowne (University of Victoria, 2005), pp. 519-573, 655-663.
His portrait was featured on the Series D of ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
5000 banknote, printed from 1984 to 2004.
The Nitobe Memorial Garden
Nitobe Memorial Garden
The Nitobe Memorial Garden is a 2½ acre traditional Japanese garden located at the University of British Columbia, just outside the city limits of Vancouver, Canada...
at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Canada is named in his honour.
A Second Memorial Garden has been built at the Royal Jubilee Hospital
Royal Jubilee Hospital
The Royal Jubilee Hospital is a 400-bed general hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada located about east of the city centre, in the Jubilee neighbourhood . Its name commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887...
in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Quotations
- "What is important is to try to develop insights and wisdomWisdomWisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
rather than mere knowledge, respect someone's character rather than his learning, and nurture men of character rather than mere talents." - "If there is anything to do, there is certainly a best way to do it, and the best way is both the most economical and the most graceful."
External Links
- Nitobe Memorial Garden biography of Inazo Nitobe
- Nitobe Memorial Museum, Towada city, Aomori
- Nitobe, Inazo | Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures (National Diet LibraryNational Diet LibraryThe is the only national library in Japan. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to the U.S...
)