Eisaku Ishikawa

2023/11/13

Image: From Tokyo Keizai Zasshi No. 1834, provided by the Nishiaizu Town Curriculum Advisory Committee

"The merit of 'Adam Smith' lies in his having first discussed the fixed rules of economy and completely changed the laws of commerce." In the fifth volume of Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning), Fukuzawa summarized Adam Smith's achievements in this way. Numerous translations of The Wealth of Nations (An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations), the foundation of modern economics, have been made. While Tokujirō Obata published Japan's first partial translation in Seisan Michiannai (Guide to Production) in 1870, the publication of a complete translation would not occur until 1888.

Eisaku Ishikawa was the individual who contributed significantly to the completion of this full translation. Through hard work and study, Ishikawa honed his outstanding linguistic abilities and worked with economists such as Ukichi Taguchi (pseudonym Teiken) to translate Western economic texts into Japanese.

His greatest achievement was the challenge of producing a complete translation of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published by A. Smith in 1776. However, his existence is not widely known. This is because he died young at the age of 28, with his work only half-finished.

On April 24, 1858, Ishikawa was born as the third son of Ichijuro Ishikawa, the 10th generation head of a sake brewery in Nozawa, Nishiaizu Town, Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture (now Sakaegawa Sake Brewery). Sakaegawa Sake Brewery sells a Daiginjo sake named "Fukokuron" (The Wealth of Nations) in honor of the great achievements of their ancestor, Ishikawa.

In his childhood, Ishikawa studied at "Kenkido," a private Juku run by Taisuke Watanabe (pseudonym Shisai), a Confucian scholar and physician. Since its opening in 1866, the school gathered young people from the region to teach law, politics, economics, literature, and medical sciences. Many individuals who contributed to the formation of modern Japan studied there, including Shisai's son Kanae (who was the same age as Ishikawa), as well as Chiyosaku Yamaguchi and Chuhachi Kojima, who were active in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement.

Kanae Watanabe was a close ally who left Nozawa with Ishikawa to study at Kaemon Takashima's Western studies Juku, Ranshado (hereafter referred to as the Takashima School). After serving as an army physician in 1877 following his time at "Daigaku Nanko," he traveled to the United States to study medical sciences and left achievements in various medical fields; he is also known as the "teacher of Hideyo Noguchi." Together with Ishikawa, he formed the "Fujin Sokuhatsukai" (Women's Hair-Bundling Society) mentioned later, and engaged in activities to improve the status of women.

Ishikawa, who studied at Kenkido, had a reputation for being an "outstanding" student. Not satisfied with this, in 1872, he resolved to leave his hometown of Nozawa for the capital, entering the Takashima School in Yokohama and joining Watanabe and others who had already traveled to the west. This is said to have been influenced by the fact that Kenjiro Yamakawa and Sutematsu, both from Aizu, were selected as exchange students to the United States in 1871.

According to the "History of Keio University: The First Hundred Years," several people associated with Keio University were dispatched as teachers to the Takashima School at that time. Regarding the circumstances, it states: "Takashima wished for Fukuzawa himself to come to the Juku to supervise it, and as a condition, offered to provide travel expenses for Fukuzawa's two sons to go abroad. However, Fukuzawa flatly refused the invitation, saying that while he regretted he could not comply due to certain circumstances, he wished to recommend Tokujirō Obata, the most excellent of his disciples, in his stead." Thus, 14 people including Obata were dispatched. There is no other example of so many Juku affiliates being dispatched to a single private school at that time.

However, the Takashima School was destroyed by fire in January 1874. Consequently, Ishikawa entered Keio University on July 5, 1875. According to the "Hundred-Year History," the "entrance fee" established in 1874 was 3 yen, and the tuition was 2 yen 75 sen per month. Considering that the monthly salary of a 15th-grade official at the time was 12 yen, this was undoubtedly a large sum for a student. Ishikawa would also come to struggle with this tuition.

Nevertheless, the opportunity to study English studies under teachers like Obata, who had been dispatched to the Takashima School, at what was then "a Juku that could be called the sole distributor of English studies in Japan" ("Hundred-Year History"), must have been a great asset for Ishikawa.

In addition, 1875, the year Ishikawa entered, was the year the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) was completed in May and the Mita Public Speaking Event was actively operating. Ishikawa must have been greatly stimulated by Western-style public speaking and debate. Perhaps because of this, his reputation as an orator quickly rose during his public speaking activities at the political association "Omeisha," which he conducted in parallel with his translation work later on.

However, at Keio University, he again found himself in financial difficulty regarding tuition and was forced to withdraw. In November 1876, he was appointed as a "Kundo" (teacher) at an elementary school in Chiba, but since this was not his true intent, he resigned shortly after and entered Shinpachi Seki's "Kyoritsu Gakusha" in 1877.

Seki, the son of a physician from the Takaoka Domain in Shimosa, read the trends of the times and learned English from Manjiro Nakahama and others, eventually serving the Shogunate as an interpreter for the American Legation. He also opened Kyoritsu Gakusha in 1870 to provide English education himself, and served as the Officer of the Translation Bureau at the Ministry of Finance for about three years starting in 1872. Seki and Fukuzawa were companions who traveled to the United States together in 1867 to negotiate the receipt of a Shogunate warship, and they continued their relationship after returning. In 1877, Kyoritsu Gakusha was recruiting a mathematics teacher, and perhaps due to Fukuzawa's recommendation, Ishikawa began teaching mathematics while studying English studies under Seki. Even after graduating from the school, Ishikawa continued to seek Seki's guidance and eventually "resolved to major in economics."

The personal relationships formed through Seki greatly influenced Ishikawa's subsequent life. These were his encounters with Ukichi Taguchi and Kotaro Noritake.

Ukichi Taguchi became a disciple of Seki, who was the Officer of the Translation Bureau at the Ministry of Finance. While studying economics through translation, he joined the activities of "Omeisha," led by Saburo Shimada and others who advocated for civil rights and the establishment of a national diet in 1877. Later, in 1878, he resigned from his official post and, with the support of Eiichi Shibusawa and others, established the "Keizai Zasshi-sha" (Economic Journal Company) and launched the Tokyo Keizai Zasshi. He is a figure also described as the "Adam Smith of Japan" for spreading economic thinking such as liberal economics and free trade to the world.

Kotaro Noritake was a Keio University alumni who entered Keio University in the same year as Ishikawa. While still a student, he also served as a teacher at Kyoritsu Gakusha. After graduation, he worked with Taguchi and Ishikawa in the activities of Omeisha and Keizai Zasshi-sha. Furthermore, after Ishikawa's death, at the recommendation of those around him, he became the second husband of Ishikawa's wife, Rokuko.

Upon joining "Omeisha" in 1879 while studying under Seki, Ishikawa immediately distinguished himself as an orator. In the Yomiuri Shimbun of the time, the name of the "speaker" Ishikawa can be confirmed in several entries, such as "Topic of the Commercial Public Speaking Meeting: 'The Global Commercial Depression' by Eisaku Ishikawa and others."

Furthermore, in the same year, immediately after Kyoritsu Gakusha closed, perhaps with Seki's assistance, he entered the service of the Ministry of Finance and was appointed to the Banking Bureau in 1880. However, shortly after, he was hospitalized for several months suffering from "brain and stomach ailments." At this time, he was only 22 years old. After recuperating in his hometown, in 1882, he "resolutely resigned from his official post, entered Keizai Zasshi-sha, and began the work of translating political classics." This translation of Taisei Seiji Ruiten, which he began while working at the Ministry of Finance, was serialized in its entirety over two years in the Tokyo Keizai Gakushukai Kogi-roku (Lecture Records of the Tokyo Economics Study Group). Alongside his massive translation work and public speaking activities at Omeisha, Ishikawa was also entrusted by Taguchi with the administration and accounting of the study group as its manager, working as if he "possessed the bodies of five or six people." This superhuman way of working undoubtedly shortened Ishikawa's life.

The first volume of the lecture records published in 1882 included, along with the "Political Classics," "Fukokuron, Original Title 'Wealth of Nations,' written by Mr. Adam Smith of England, reviewed by Shinpachi Seki, translated by Eisaku Ishikawa." This marked the beginning of a major translation project. The version Ishikawa translated appears to have been one of the "A careful reprint of edition, 3 vols. 1812." The final volume of Fukokuron was published in April 1888, completing the great undertaking that spanned approximately six years.

However, before its completion, Ishikawa himself fell ill. After publishing the 8th volume of the installment edition in May 1885, symptoms of "lung disease" became prominent in August, leading to his hospitalization. He passed away on April 27, 1886. The translation project was taken over by Shosaku Saga of Keizai Zasshi-sha, and the full translation was eventually completed.

While Ishikawa handled an intense workload, it is noteworthy that he also addressed women's issues. His interest in women's issues is thought to have been cultivated through his marriage to his wife Rokuko and his interactions centered around Taguchi. For example, the pastor Kumaji Kimura, who married Taguchi's older sister Abiko, was a friend of Taguchi's from the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo; when Kimura founded Meiji Jogakko (Meiji Girls' School) in 1885, Ishikawa reportedly spared no effort in his cooperation. In his will, Ishikawa entrusted the arrangements for his funeral to Kimura. Furthermore, through interactions with many intellectuals such as Zenji Iwamoto, the editor of Jogaku Zasshi who was from the same hometown as Kimura and enlightened others on the status and rights of women, and Shimada of Omeisha, who was also a friend of Taguchi's from his days at the Numazu Military Academy, there is no doubt that the concept for the Fujin Sokuhatsukai was born.

The Fujin Sokuhatsukai appointed Taguchi, Shimada, and others as councilors, with Ishikawa, Kanae Watanabe, Iwamoto, and Abiko Kimura serving as managers. In the "Purpose for Establishing the Women's Hair-Bundling Society" in July 1885, Watanabe criticized the mainstream Japanese hairstyles of the time—which involved styling and hardening the hair into a bun (mage) with pomade—as unhygienic from a medical standpoint, while Ishikawa harshly criticized them as restrictive and uneconomical from the standpoint of improving women's status. They recommended the "Sokuhatsu" (bundled hair), a simple and free Western-style hairstyle that merely involved tying the hair, as a new hairstyle for women.

The society's activities were widely announced through newspapers and publications. Immediately after its formation, articles about the Sokuhatsukai and its public speaking meetings appeared almost every week in the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun. At the public speaking meetings, members led by Watanabe gave speeches and provided "instruction" on hair-bundling. Perhaps as a result of such active efforts, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the number of members exceeded 2,000 in less than four months after its formation. Although the society continued after Ishikawa's death, its activities seemingly ended after about two years, partly due to Watanabe's departure for the United States. Nevertheless, it was clear that this movement spread rapidly nationwide, centered in urban areas, and that the Sokuhatsu came to be accepted as a new hairstyle for Japanese women.

Ishikawa passed away at the young age of 28. At his memorial service, his final work, Bei-I Shihei Kokan Shimatsu (The Circumstances of the Exchange of American and Italian Paper Money), published after he fell ill, was distributed. It was a short but intense life that challenged his mission of translation until the very end.