Tokutomi Soho

2020/01/29

Image: Tokutomi Soho (from the National Diet Library website)

Tokutomi Soho was a leading journalist of modern Japan. Over his 94-year life, he left behind a vast body of work including 350 books and countless newspaper and magazine articles, and his thought influenced various fields. What kind of relationship existed between Soho and Fukuzawa, who met only twice in their lives?

Soho was born on January 25, Bunkyu 3 (March 14, 1863), in Sugido, Tsumori Village, Kamimashiki District, Higo Province (now Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture), as the fifth child and eldest son of his father, Kazutaka Tokutomi, and mother, Hisako. His real name was Iichiro. His younger brother, Kenjiro, is known as the writer Tokutomi Roka. Soho studied at Doshisha and went to Tokyo aiming to find employment at the "Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun," but failed and returned to his hometown to study at Kyoritsu Gakusha, though only for a short period. In Meiji 15 (1882), he founded a school he named Oe Gijuku and began teaching. That same year, he traveled to Tokyo twice, visiting many people involved in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, including Itagaki Taisuke, as well as newspaper reporters. During his second visit to Tokyo, he met with Fukuzawa Yukichi.

In Meiji 19 (1886), he published "The Japan of the Future" (Shorai no Nihon), making his debut in the world of discourse, and moved to Tokyo with his family. The following year, he established Min'yusha and published "The Nation's Friend" (Kokumin no Tomo), and in Meiji 23, he began publishing the "Kokumin Shimbun." The young Soho advocated "Heimin-shugi" (populism/democracy) and brought a fresh perspective to the intellectual world. In Meiji 29 (1896), he departed for a trip to Europe and the United States with Fukai Eigo, visiting major newspaper companies and meeting Tolstoy in Russia. Tolstoy described Soho as appearing to be "a very wealthy man" or "a nobleman from over there." Incidentally, the Tokutomi Soho Memorial Museum preserves and displays fallen leaves that he picked up in Russia and brought back.

In Meiji 30 (1897), Soho was appointed as a counselor in the Ministry of Home Affairs under the second Matsukata Masayoshi cabinet, in which Itagaki and Okuma Shigenobu served as ministers. In Meiji 38 (1905), because the Kokumin Shimbun supported the signing of the peace treaty for the Russo-Japanese War, the company building was burned down by a mob opposing the treaty. In Meiji 44 (1911), he became a member of the House of Peers by imperial nomination. In Taisho 2 (1913), because the Kokumin Shimbun supported Katsura Taro's new party, the building was burned down a second time by a mob that had risen up in the Movement to Protect Constitutional Government. From Taisho 7 (1918), he began writing "A History of the Japanese People in Modern Times" (Kinsei Nihon Kokumin Shi), which became a monumental work completed in 100 volumes in Showa 27 (1952).

In Showa 4 (1929), due to a deteriorating relationship with Nezu Kaichiro, who had provided funding, Soho left the Kokumin Shimbun and became a guest writer for the "Osaka Mainichi Shimbun" and the "Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun." In Showa 17 (1942), he became the president of the Greater Japan Press Association for Public Service (Dai Nippon Genron Hokokukai), contributing to the creation of the Imperial Rule Assistance system, and received the Order of Culture the following year. Upon the defeat in Showa 20 (1945), he was named as a Class-A war criminal suspect. Following his purge from public office the next year, he resigned from the House of Peers and returned the Order of Culture, entering retirement. In Showa 22, the suspicion of being a Class-A war criminal was cleared, and his house arrest was lifted. He passed away in Atami on November 2, Showa 32 (1957), at the age of 94.

Soho supported the "Minto" (popular parties) following the lineage of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement in the "Kokumin Shimbun," where he served as editor-in-chief. His activities were such that it was said, "Soho was famous as the bugler for the destruction of the domain cliques" (Shuntei Toriyabe). However, Soho's goal was for progressive forces, whether in government or the private sector, to unite against conservative forces, and he placed his hopes in politicians who would promote the "Heimin-shugi" he advocated. Initially, he hoped that Ito Hirobumi would rally forces outside the government, but as the opening of the Diet approached, he placed his expectations on Okuma Shigenobu, who had been appointed Foreign Minister in the Kuroda Kiyotaka cabinet. He was involved in the merger concept of the Kaishinto (Constitutional Reform Party), and after the opening of the Diet, he not only supported the union between popular parties through his writing but also tried to nurture the seeds of a progressive coalition by utilizing his personal connections with Mutsu Munemitsu and the Jiyuto (Liberal Party) in Kyushu.

Furthermore, he believed that if a conflict between progressives and conservatives could be created within the domain-clique government, a progressive administration would be established by the united popular parties linking up with the progressives inside the government. He aimed to realize a responsible cabinet system in the form of conducting politics with the popular parties as a base in the Diet. However, Soho's plan was frustrated when the Jiyuto approached the second Ito cabinet. Around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, Soho turned to attacking the Ito cabinet. By gaining wide sympathy, a cooperative relationship was born with people he had previously regarded as conservatives, and he began to harbor a vision for an administration based on an alliance between Okuma and Matsukata Masayoshi. That vision was realized in the second Matsukata cabinet (the Matsu-Kuma cabinet) formed in Meiji 30, in which Okuma joined as Foreign Minister. Soho, who entered the Ministry of Home Affairs under this cabinet, was criticized by those around him for having changed his principles.

The young Soho took up Fukuzawa's theory of civilization and loudly declared that the path a modernizing Japan should take lay in "Heimin-shugi." His debut in the intellectual world positioned him as a successor to Fukuzawa. Originally, there were many people associated with Keio University around Soho, and it was an environment where he could have studied under Fukuzawa if he wished. However, Soho was "contrary" and avoided Fukuzawa and Keio University, saying he "somehow didn't like them." However, according to his younger brother Roka, during his Doshisha days, Soho was a closet Fukuzawa fan who read Fukuzawa's "Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning)" until it was black with notes and wrote "You are indeed my respected friend" on the back of a photograph of Fukuzawa. Soho's eulogy for Fukuzawa also mentions that he was influenced by Fukuzawa as a youth of the Meiji era. These episodes convey Soho's image of Fukuzawa, wavering between Fukuzawa as a subject to learn from and Fukuzawa as a subject to overcome when establishing himself. In Soho's heart, an indelible admiration and a spirit of rebellion likely coexisted toward a figure who was so famous and admired by everyone.

When Soho went to Tokyo in Meiji 15, he was able to meet Fukuzawa through an introduction from his cousin Takakuni Eguchi, who had studied at Keio. The 19-year-old Soho, feeling dissatisfied with the theory of harmony between the government and the people advocated by Fukuzawa, pressed the 47-year-old Fukuzawa, asking, "Do you intend to stand in the world as a scholar or as a politician?" Fukuzawa then asked, "Do you read books?" to which Soho replied, "Of course I do." Fukuzawa brushed him off, saying, "In time, as you read books, you will come to understand." His attitude was such that his cousin rebuked him on the way home, saying he was "far too bold." In response to the challenging attitude of the ambitious young Soho, the mature Fukuzawa likely wanted to implicitly convey that it would be self-evident that he was a scholar if one read his books. This was the only time Soho exchanged words with Fukuzawa; after that, he only bowed to him once when Soho was meeting with the Korean reformer Kim Ok-gyun and Fukuzawa, who was supporting Kim, spoke to him familiarly. The final point of contact was when Soho attended Fukuzawa's funeral.

Soho, who criticized Fukuzawa at every opportunity, highly evaluated Niijima Jo of Doshisha, which he himself attended, as an educator. He claimed this was because Fukuzawa was biased toward education in material knowledge and did not engage in education for spiritual morality like Niijima. However, Soho was, of course, aware that this differed from the trends of the world. Soho compared them by saying that while Fukuzawa's business succeeded and he held the "power of private education in the nation" in his hands, Niijima "lacked the scholarship of Nakamura [Keiu] and the eloquence of Fukuzawa. What he relies on is nothing but a piece of sincere devotion. In religious terms, nothing but a piece of faith," and Soho preferred that sincere devotion and faith.

Furthermore, their evaluations of Katsu Kaishu were also in contrast. While Fukuzawa criticized Katsu in "Yasegaman no Setsu" (The Theory of Patient Endurance) for serving the new government despite being a former shogunal retainer, Soho criticized "Yasegaman no Setsu" in the "Kokumin Shimbun" and defended Katsu, whom Niijima looked up to as a mentor.

On the other hand, there are two individuals whom both Fukuzawa and Soho evaluated consistently. One is Okuma Shigenobu. It is well known that Fukuzawa placed his expectations on Okuma as a lifelong ally, and as already mentioned, Soho also viewed him, along with Itagaki, as the progressive politician he expected the most from. The other is Baba Tatsui. Fukuzawa considered him such a genius that he directly told Baba he should shoulder Japan's "destiny" upon his return from studying in the UK. Fukuzawa deeply regretted his early death and praised him as a "source of honorable character," "a paragon of intellect and morals for the entire nation," and a "model for younger students." Soho also stated that among the various civil rights activists he met when he went to Tokyo as a young man, he was "most enlightened" by Baba. His impression of Baba when they met was that of a "handsome man" with the "appearance of a gentleman" yet a "man of hot blood." Baba told Soho, "To truly know the operation of politics, one must read the biographies of politicians," and gave him the biographies of Cobden and Beaconsfield from the UK. Soho described these two books as "divine revelation" and expressed his emotion frankly.

In his youth, Soho criticized Fukuzawa's theory of harmony between the government and the people. However, Soho's political movements were also based on a vision for an administration by progressives within the domain-clique government and the popular parties, and they did not differ significantly from Fukuzawa's harmony between government and people, which placed expectations on the activities of Okuma and Goto Shojiro, who had connections with the popular parties.

Soho's thought and discourse transitioned from the "Heimin-shugi" of his youth to nationalism, and then to the ultranationalism that cooperated with the Imperial Rule Assistance system. This was the very path followed by Japan as it rapidly modernized from the Meiji to the Showa eras. Soho remained conscious of Fukuzawa from a young age and continued to harbor a sense of rivalry. When he was awarded the Order of Culture in his later years, he was reportedly dissatisfied that he was not chosen in the first round, despite his pride in having contributed the most to Japanese culture since Fukuzawa.

Kunikida Doppo, who knew Soho, saw through to his essence, saying, "He is a second Fukuzawa, not a second Niijima." It can be said that Tokutomi Soho, as a giant of the world of discourse, was the successor to Fukuzawa.