was an educator and leader of the Meiji Enlightenment in Meiji period

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 :...

 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...

. He also went by his pen-name of Nishimura Hakuo. He wrote more than 130 books and over 200 articles in his long literary career.

Born to the family of the 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...

chief administer to the daimyo

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 Sakura

Sakura, Chiba

is a city located in northern Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2011, the city had an estimated population of 172,176 and a population density of 1660 persons per km². The total area was 103.59 km².-Geography:...

 domain, Shimōsa Province (present day Chiba Prefecture)], Nishimura was originally a Confucian

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

 scholar, but he studied rangaku

Rangaku

Rangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...

 as well. He supported the Tokugawa bakufu against the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, but was so highly regarded that the new Meiji government recruited him to assist in the movement to educate the Japanese public on the western world

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

.

He was a founding member of the Meirokusha

Meirokusha

The ' was an intellectual society in Meiji period Japan that published social-criticism journal Meiroku Zasshi .Proposed by statesman Mori Arinori in 1873 and officially formed on 1 February 1874, the Meirokusha was intended to “promote civilization and enlightenment”, and to introduce western...

 with Mori Arinori

Mori Arinori

Viscount was a Meiji period Japanese statesman, diplomat and founder of Japan's modern educational system.-Early life:Mori was born in the Satsuma domain from a samurai family, and educated in the Kaisenjo School for Western Learning run by the Satsuma domain...

, and contributed numerous articles to the Meiroku Zasshi journal, on a wide range of topics, including on the relevance of ethics to government, a comparison of world government systems and world economic systems.

Nishimura established his own intellectual society in 1876 to stress moral values. This became the Nihon Kodoka (Japan Society for Expansion of the Way), which proved to be a great success. The society promoted the belief that a reassertion of Japan's traditional moral values was necessary to strength Japan in the modern world.

Nishimura believed that the Meiji government should serve a purpose to the people of Japan. He thought the government was superficial and should be rigid and clear in its laws. (In comparrision to the Meiji government constantly changing their policies.)

He was appointed to 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 1890.