Joseph Hardy Neesima

2021/03/30

Image: Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies

Tokutomi Soho compared Yukichi Fukuzawa and Joseph Hardy Neesima as contrasting Meiji-era educators. While acknowledging Fukuzawa's practical success, Soho consistently supported his mentor, Neesima. What was the charm of Neesima that made people want to support him? Furthermore, are there no commonalities between Fukuzawa and Neesima, despite their lack of direct contact?

Neesima was born on January 14, Tenpo 14 (February 12, 1843), at the Edo residence of the Annaka Domain as the fifth child of samurai Tamiji Neesima and his mother, Tomi. He was named Shimeta after the shimenawa (sacred straw rope) of the New Year. As the first son following four daughters, he was pampered by those around him, and Shimeta grew up taking it for granted that he could have his own way. In terms of environment, this is similar to Yukichi Fukuzawa, who grew up surrounded by his eldest brother Sannosuke and three older sisters, becoming the center of the family after the deaths of his father and brother.

Neesima was selected by the domain lord to begin studying Rangaku (Western studies) around age 13, but he was soon assigned to clerical tasks such as record-keeping. He began expressing his dissatisfaction through actions, such as taking unauthorized absences from work, for which he was severely reprimanded. From 1860, he was able to study mathematics and navigation at the Shogunate's Naval Training Center, but he left two years later due to an eye ailment. Around that time, he had the opportunity to board a Western-style sailing ship and sailed to Tamashima (Okayama Prefecture), where he enjoyed a sense of freedom. After beginning English studies, Neesima went to Hakodate on the same ship in 1864 and stayed there as a Japanese language teacher for Nicolai of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In June of that same year, Neesima boarded a ship anchored in Hakodate Port and attempted to stow away abroad, which was forbidden at the time. This is said to have been influenced by his frustration with his stifling circumstances, a longing for freedom, and the descriptions of the United States he had read in books. He transferred to another ship in Shanghai, where the captain called him "Joe." Arriving in Boston in July of the following year, Neesima had the opportunity to meet the ship's owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy. Moved by the English text he wrote explaining his departure from Japan, the couple invited him to become a member of the Hardy family. Under their patronage, he attended school, was baptized in a church, graduated from Amherst College, and entered Andover Theological Seminary. Hardy held key positions at all these institutions. Neesima continued to receive financial support from the Hardys thereafter, and it can be said that meeting the couple opened the path he would follow. In 1871, through the mediation of Arinori Mori at the Japanese Legation in the U.S., the Japanese government issued him a passport and a study permit, turning Neesima from a stowaway into an official overseas student. The following year, when he was asked to interpret for the Iwakura Mission visiting the U.S., he was favored by Fujimaro Tanaka of the Ministry of Education and had the valuable experience of inspecting education in European countries as a third-class secretary. Afterward, he was scheduled to be employed by the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Commission), but he requested an extension of his studies and received tuition from the government.

Appointed as a corresponding missionary for the American Board, the oldest missionary organization in the U.S., Neesima set foot on his home soil for the first time in ten years in 1874 and began calling himself "Joseph Hardy Neesima." This was both a return home and a missionary dispatch from the United States.

After returning to Japan, he began working toward establishing a new school based on Christian principles and moved to the Kansai region, where senior missionaries were based. He hit it off with Kakuma Yamamoto, an advisor to Kyoto Prefecture, who encouraged him to open a school in Kyoto. He acquired the site of the former Satsuma Domain residence for the school grounds and moved into Yamamoto's residence. In November, he was finally able to open the Doshisha English School. In January 1876, Neesima married Kakuma's younger sister, Yae. In September, about 40 students from the Kumamoto Yogakko, known as the "Kumamoto Band," entered Doshisha, bringing a fresh perspective. Around this time, he established a church in his home, and after holding the first graduation ceremony in 1879, he departed on a missionary tour. Thus, Neesima had multiple roles as an educator (principal) and a religious figure (pastor, missionary).

In the early days of Doshisha, students of the Kumamoto Band, who were often at odds with other students and teachers, went on strike (unauthorized absence) when talk of merging classes arose. This led to a conflict with teachers who tried to suppress them from above. After it was decided to discipline the students, a distraught Neesima stated that the responsibility for Doshisha was the principal's responsibility and struck his own hand with a tree branch he brought from home. This became known as the "Self-Chastisement Cane" incident (the broken branch is still preserved at Doshisha University). However, problems remained after the incident, leading to the withdrawal of Kumamoto Band students, including Tokutomi Soho.

Thereafter, Doshisha got on track as a school, and the number of affiliated schools and students increased. In April 1884, he departed for a trip to Europe and America for rest, but he suffered from breathing difficulties while mountain climbing in Switzerland. After recovering, he received a $50,000 donation from the American Board for the establishment of a university and returned to Japan. In 1887, a merger issue between two church factions arose. Christians from the Kumamoto Band and Doshisha, such as Danjo Ebina and Hiromichi Kozaki, expressed their support, but Neesima emphasized church autonomy and opposed the merger while trying to soothe the conflict.

That year, Neesima suffered the misfortune of losing his benefactor Hardy and his father in succession, which added to his mental strain. The following year, Soho's "Kokumin no Tomo" began promoting the establishment of the university and Neesima himself, using the networks of Soho and others to gather prominent figures from various fields and seek their cooperation. However, Neesima collapsed again due to cerebral anemia and was told by a doctor that he did not have long to live due to an enlarged heart. Nevertheless, Neesima went to the Kanto region for fundraising activities, but he was struck by severe gastroenteritis in Gunma and returned to Tokyo, later recuperating in Oiso. In January 1890, his condition worsened and he fell into critical condition. He conveyed his will regarding the future of Doshisha to his wife Yae, Soho, and Kozaki. On the 23rd, Neesima passed away at the young age of 46 due to acute peritonitis, without seeing the opening of the Diet or Doshisha University. Yukichi Fukuzawa's "Jiji Shinpo" published a memorial essay for Neesima, mourning his death.

Because the Kumamoto Band students had experience in public speaking, speech meetings were frequently held at Doshisha as well. In 1881, a speech meeting held by Doshisha took the form of an academic lecture, but the people of Kyoto perceived it as a Christian missionary activity. Nevertheless, the first speech meeting attracted an audience of about 5,000 people. Honganji Temple, growing increasingly wary, requested Keio University to deliver speeches rejecting Christianity via the Kyoto Kojunsha. In Kyoto, both sides held speech meetings to attack each other, and the conflict intensified. During this period, Yukichi Fukuzawa was also wary of the spread of Christianity, viewing it as a threat to Japan's independence. In "Jiji Shogen," he argued that "the spread of the Jesus religion is a great obstacle to the maintenance of national sovereignty for future generations," and in his own speeches, he repeatedly advocated for the protection of Buddhism to counter Christianity, saying, "Buddhism should be used to prevent the Jesus religion." However, he later softened his stance, acknowledging that Christianity also had utility, which surprised Neesima.

Furthermore, the establishment of a comprehensive university based on Christian principles was Neesima's lifelong ambition. He was always conscious of 1890, the year the Diet was to open, as his deadline. This was because it was the year that Japan, having cast off old abuses and opened its doors, would become a constitutional state, and he felt that raising independent citizens with the knowledge and conduct appropriate for a constitutional state was a hundred-year plan for the nation. To Neesima, the movement to establish the college at Keio Gijuku during the same period appeared as a competitor, and he requested Soho in Tokyo to quickly grasp Keio's trends. In the end, Doshisha, which had been ahead, fell behind Keio. Nevertheless, Neesima succeeded in gaining the cooperation of famous people by utilizing his personal connections, and politicians and businessmen such as Shigenobu Okuma and Kaoru Inoue were listed as supporters. After Neesima's death, Christians such as Kanzo Uchimura and Masahisa Uemura criticized the method of requesting donations even from such politicians, with Uemura in particular calling him a "baptized entrepreneurial hero."

As principal, Neesima was constantly caught in the middle of conflicts between teachers and students, and between foreign and Japanese teachers. In the church merger issue, he mediated between the supporting and opposing factions while inwardly opposing it. Even in the university establishment movement, while he emphasized the training of missionaries in the U.S., he was forced to call for cooperation in Japan—where there was a headwind—by emphasizing the cultivation of human resources useful to the state rather than a religious school. Overall, he was a man of dilemmas.

Considering that after Neesima's death, Doshisha severed its relationship with the American church and Kozaki, a member of the church merger faction, criticized Neesima's behind-the-scenes opposition, it can be said that Neesima's presence acted as a balancing weight for various conflicts, preventing a breakdown. While struggling and wearing himself out within these dilemmas, he remained sincere and maintained his faith without making enemies. Although it was an era of Westernization policy, it is thought that if Neesima had been a more radical figure, Christianity would have been rejected early on.

Looking for commonalities between the two, besides their family environments and early overseas experiences, both clearly stated that they were not "teachers" despite being school founders, and both valued dignity. Yukichi Fukuzawa denied hierarchical relationships, saying, "I am not a school teacher, and the students are not my disciples," emphasizing a school composed of the Keio Gijuku Shachu—a group of equal individuals—and seeking to be a "source of honorable character." Neesima also stated, "It saddens me to be called 'Teacher, Teacher' by you all," preferring to face each student as a comrade and aiming for the cultivation of conduct based on Christianity. For such a Neesima, it may have been a natural act to cancel out the punishment of students with the "Self-Chastisement Cane." Incidentally, Neesima always referred to Fukuzawa as "Yukichi Fukuzawa," using the honorific "Sensei."

The logic of contrasting Fukuzawa and Neesima to emphasize their differences seems to have taken root after Soho, the great producer who sought to market Neesima and Doshisha to the world, began using it. However, it is also a fact that Neesima himself, as a presenter, charmed many people with his passionate public speaking. It is said that audiences were moved most by Neesima's tearful talks more than by other renowned orators. As Soho admitted, the content of Neesima's speeches did not feel as deeply scholarly as Fukuzawa's, nor was it rich in wit. However, in reality, he captured the hearts of many people in both Japan and the U.S. and raised funds for the establishment of the university. It could be said that "high presentation skills" and a sincere personality were Neesima's weapons.

Past critiques have sought Neesima-like elements in Fukuzawa and Fukuzawa-like elements in Neesima, and as a result, have criticized them for those deficiencies or absences. However, Fukuzawa was Fukuzawa, and Neesima was Neesima, and each influenced many people.