Notes from the President's Office No. 10: Nakatsu, Yukichi Fukuzawa, and Tokujirō Obata (1)

2022/07/07

Vice-President

Yukihiro Ikeda

[Portfolio] Human Resources, Labor Relations, etc.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the practical freedom of movement has become difficult, and both public and private travel have been restricted. Amidst this, I took a short trip for the first time in a while.

The purpose of this trip to Nakatsu was to give a lecture on Tokujirō Obata at the Shin-Nakatsu Shigakko (New Nakatsu City School). This was my second visit to Nakatsu, the last time being in February 2007. I was asked to speak in connection with a memorial service for Fukuzawa. I remember it was cold that day, and I was reminded that Nakatsu, like the rest of northern Kyushu, is cold in the winter. Of course, the anniversary of Fukuzawa's death falls during the coldest part of the year, which is likely true everywhere.

Now, let's turn to Obata, the protagonist of this piece. While few Japanese, whether inside or outside Keio, are unfamiliar with Fukuzawa, many people might ask, "Who was Obata again?"

At the Juku, Obata worked primarily as Fukuzawa's right-hand man. Overshadowed by the giant that was Fukuzawa, and with it being difficult to name a representative work, it is hard to say that he has been considered important until now. For this reason, the publication of Obata's collected works as a joint project between the Fukuzawa Yukichi Association and Keio is a matter of great celebration. ⁽³⁾

To put Obata's role in terms easily understood by us today, he was a middle manager. In photographs with graduates that include Fukuzawa, he is almost always present. It is true that looking at group photos can reveal the relationships between the people in them. Obata's expression is not always cheerful, and in the features etched by age, I can discern the many hardships he must have faced.

It would be inappropriate for a layman like myself in the history of Japanese political and economic thought to casually comment on the future direction of research. However, I have long felt that Obata could be a point of discussion as a scholar of Western studies and English studies.

There is some evidence for this. First, there is the anecdote that the line of students waiting for Obata's instruction was long. Perhaps he was like a popular clinical professor. His guidance must have been that appropriate, and his kind instruction was likely well-known among the students. There is also more direct evidence. The time Obata spent on the act of translation throughout his life was by no means small. It was Obata who accomplished the great feat of completely translating Francis Wayland's work, an economics textbook of the time.

With all due respect to this great senior, I once did a screening check of a small part of this translation and was astonished to find that it accomplished two difficult tasks: remaining faithful to the original text by not altering its meaning, and rendering it into Japanese that was coherent and, if possible, eloquent. It is that excellent of a Japanese translation.

This time, I have changed my approach slightly and taken up another book, "Seisan Michiannai" (A Guide to Production), as the subject of my commentary. The original text of this book has been studied in detail today, and I have nothing further to add. For now, I will only mention that Richard Whately's work forms an important part of it.

The lecture itself may be published in print someday, but as that is currently undecided, I would like to share a part of it below to share my interest with the readers.

Whether it was Fukuzawa or Obata, the reason they were interested in various Western books, provided Japanese translations as needed, and sought to teach their contents was none other than to make Western institutions, scholarship, and science understandable to the Japanese people. This is well known.

In doing so, they must have immediately understood that making the institutions of a different, more advanced country understood would be accompanied by significant difficulties. It was akin to putting a vest on a monkey and trying to teach it to wear it on its own in the near future.

Specifically, they had to instill a new conceptual apparatus, which was a difficult task. They had to teach a new conceptual apparatus, but in doing so, they could not use the new conceptual apparatus itself. Therefore, they had to rely on the old conceptual apparatus to teach the new one.

I would like to demonstrate this concretely using the parts on public finance and taxation that Obata translated. How was the word "tax" translated? It was translated as "nengu unjō" (annual tribute and transport tax). Nengu, needless to say, was a pre-modern system that was abolished in the Meiji era and replaced by a modern tax system. However, for the Japanese people who only knew the pre-modern system, there was the difficulty of having to explain it using the conceptual apparatus within that framework.

The essence of public finance and taxation is explained as follows.

"The various miscellaneous expenses of the army and navy, as well as the costs of the various government offices and officials established by the government, are to be paid by the people. Since these things are for the benefit of those below, it is proper to pay for them. The payment of nengu unjō is for this very purpose. Nengu unjō is the salary paid in return for the protection provided by the rulers to the ruled, ensuring they suffer no harm." (Collected Works of Tokujirō Obata, Vol. 1, 187)

People are paying money to buy administrative services.

"The payment of nengu unjō is no different from other transactions. Just as one pays gold and silver to a steamed bun shop or a beef shop for providing food, and to a tailor for providing clothes, so too does one pay gold and silver to the king and the parliament for protecting one from the troubles of being plundered, killed, or deceived. The principle is the same in all cases."

(Ibid., 187)

Thus, it can be considered that this book adopts the so-called benefit principle, or the principle of beneficiary-pays, as its principle of taxation.

I secretly believe that this Whately-Obata line of thinking might find some resonance in "Gakumon no Susume" (An Encouragement of Learning). However, as was pointed out in a question on the day of the lecture, the assumption that the original author Whately and Obata shared the same ideas is just that—an assumption. It is a fact that there are several hurdles to proving this hypothesis.

I would also like to briefly touch upon the relationship between Fukuzawa, the founder of our school, and Nakatsu. Fukuzawa's somewhat harsh assessment of Nakatsu in "Fukuō Jiden" (The Autobiography of Old Man Fukuzawa) is well known. While it could be seen as a confession of his feelings at that time, I am often cautioned that it cannot be taken at face value due to Fukuzawa's strategy as a writer. His subsequent support and warm consideration for Nakatsu are also undeniable historical facts, and I currently believe that Fukuzawa's overall view of Nakatsu was ambivalent. His involvement in the Tenpō Gisha, for example, was likely a measure to support Nakatsu. This organization was both a mutual aid society, an association among samurai, and also had the aspect of being a venture capital firm for the Nakatsu Shigakko, a public interest organization, making it an extremely fascinating subject for research. If I have the chance, I would like to investigate it further.

In the lecture series where I had the honor of speaking, Naoaki Hiraishi and Masaru Kawasaki will take the stage in the autumn. I have great expectations for the lectures of these two, who are undoubtedly the true headliners. If my appearance this time served as a warm-up act for them, I would be greatly honored.

For this visit, I received assistance from many people, including Nakatsu Mayor Masanori Okuduka. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude.

Notes

(1) Please forgive the omission of honorifics for Fukuzawa and Obata. When speaking, I may use "sensei" (teacher/master) depending on the context, but in books and articles, I consistently omit honorifics.

(2) Scene from the lecture. Photo courtesy of Nakatsu City.

(3) The first volume has already been published. The quotations in this essay are also from this book. Fukuzawa Yukichi Association and Keio University, "Collected Works of Tokujirō Obata," vol. 1, 2022.

(4) Graduates with Fukuzawa and Obata. Garrett Droppers is in the center. Photo courtesy of the Mita Media Center.