Eisaku Ishikawa

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

"It was the achievement of 'Adam Smith' that first discussed the fixed laws of economy and completely changed the methods of commerce." In Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning), Volume 5, Fukuzawa summarizes Adam Smith's achievements in this way. Many 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. Tokujirō Obata published Japan's first partial translation in Seisan Michiannai (Guide to Production) in 1870 (Meiji 3), but the publication of a complete translation would have to wait until 1888 (Meiji 21).

The person who contributed greatly to the completion of this full translation was Eisaku Ishikawa. After a period of hard study, Ishikawa honed his outstanding language skills and worked on Japanese translations of Western economic books with economists such as Ukichi Taguchi (pseudonym Teiken).

His greatest achievement was the challenge of 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 well known. This is because he died young at the age of 28, halfway through his journey.

On April 24, 1858 (Ansei 5), Ishikawa was born as the third son of Ichijuro Ishikawa, the 10th generation of a sake brewery in Nozawa, Nishiaizu Town, Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture (now Sakaegawa Shuzo). Sakaegawa Shuzo sells a Daiginjo sake called "Fukoku-ron" (The Wealth of Nations) named after the great achievements of their ancestor, Ishikawa.

In his childhood, Ishikawa studied at "Kenkido," a private school run by Taisuke Watanabe (pseudonym Shisai), who was both a Confucian scholar and a doctor. Since its opening in 1866 (Keio 2), 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 friend who left Nozawa with Ishikawa to study at Kaemon Takashima's Western studies school, Ranshado (hereafter referred to as Takashima School). After serving as an army doctor in 1877 (Meiji 10) via the "Daigaku Nanko" (predecessor of the University of Tokyo), he went to the United States to study medicine and left achievements in various medical fields; he is also known as the "teacher of Hideyo Noguchi." Together with Ishikawa, he formed the "Fujin Sokuhatsu-kai" (Women's Hair-Binding Association) mentioned later, and engaged in activities to improve the status of women.

Ishikawa, who studied at Kenkido, had a reputation for being an "outstanding" hard worker. Not satisfied with that, in 1872 (Meiji 5), he made the decision to "go to the capital" from his hometown of Nozawa, entered the Takashima School in Yokohama, and joined Watanabe and others who had already "traveled 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 go to the United States in 1871 (Meiji 4).

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 is recorded that "Takashima wanted Fukuzawa to personally visit and supervise this school, and as a condition, offered to provide travel expenses for Fukuzawa's two sons to go abroad. However, Fukuzawa flatly refused the invitation, stating that he had some personal matters and unfortunately could not comply with the request, but instead recommended Tokujirō Obata, the most excellent among his disciples." He then dispatched 14 people, including Obata. There is no other example of so many people associated with one Juku being dispatched to a single private school at that time.

However, this Takashima School was destroyed by fire in January 1874 (Meiji 7). Consequently, Ishikawa entered Keio University on July 5, 1875 (Meiji 8). 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, it was undoubtedly a large sum for a student. Ishikawa would also come to be troubled by this tuition fee.

Nevertheless, being able to learn English studies under teachers like Obata, who had been dispatched to the Takashima School, at what was then "a school 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, in his public speaking activities at the political association "Omei-sha," which he conducted in parallel with his translation work later on, Ishikawa's "reputation as an orator quickly rose."

However, at Keio University, he again ran out of funds for tuition and was forced to withdraw. In November 1876 (Meiji 9), he was appointed as a "Kundo" (teacher) at an elementary school in Chiba, but since it was not his true intent, he resigned immediately and entered Shinpachi Seki's "Kyoritsu Gakusha" in 1877 (Meiji 10).

Seki was the son of a doctor from the Takaoka Domain in Shimosa. Reading the trends of the times, he learned English from Manjiro Nakahama and others, served the Shogunate, and worked as an interpreter for the American Legation. He also opened Kyoritsu Gakusha in 1870 to provide English education himself, and served as the Translation Officer at the Ministry of Finance for about three years starting in 1872. Seki and Fukuzawa were friends who had traveled to the United States together in 1867 (Keio 3) to negotiate the receipt of Shogunate warships, and they continued their interaction after returning. In 1877, Kyoritsu Gakusha was recruiting mathematics teachers, 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 "decided to major in economics."

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

Ukichi Taguchi became a disciple of Seki, who was the Translation Officer at the Ministry of Finance, and while learning economics through translation, he joined the activities of the "Omei-sha" in 1877, which included Saburo Shimada and others who advocated for civil rights and the establishment of a national diet. Later, in 1878 (Meiji 11), he resigned from his official post and, with the support of Eiichi Shibusawa and others, established the "Keizai Zasshi-sha" (Economic Magazine 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 at Omei-sha 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.

Ishikawa joined "Omei-sha" in 1879 (Meiji 12) while studying under Seki and 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 Event: 'The Global Commercial Depression' by Eisaku Ishikawa and others."

Furthermore, in the same year, immediately after Kyoritsu Gakusha closed, perhaps with Seki's help, he entered the Ministry of Finance and was appointed as a clerk in the Banking Bureau in 1880 (Meiji 13). However, shortly after, he "suffered from brain and stomach diseases" and was hospitalized for several months. At this time, he was only 22 years old. After recuperating in his hometown, in 1882 (Meiji 15), he "decidedly resigned from office, entered Keizai Zasshi-sha, and began the work of translating political classics." This translation of Taisei Seiji Ruiten (Western Political Classics), which he started while working at the Ministry of Finance, was serialized as a complete translation over two years in the Tokyo Keizai-gaku Koshu-kai Kogi-roku (Lecture Records of the Tokyo Economics Training Course). While working on the translation of a large number of Western books and public speaking activities at Omei-sha, Ishikawa was also entrusted by Taguchi with the administration and accounting of the training course as a manager, showing a work ethic "as if he had the bodies of five or six people." This superhuman way of working undoubtedly shortened Ishikawa's life.

In the first volume of the lecture records published in 1882, along with "Political Classics," "Fukoku-ron, Original Title 'Wealth of Nations' by Mr. Adam Smith of England, Reviewed by Shinpachi Seki of Japan, Translated by Eisaku Ishikawa" was published. This was the start of a major translation project. The version Ishikawa translated seems to have been one of the "A careful reprint of edition, 3 vols. 1812" of the original. Fukoku-ron changed forms, and the final volume was published in April 1888, completing the great project that spanned about six years.

However, before its completion, Ishikawa himself fell ill halfway through. After publishing the 8th volume of the separate edition in May 1885 (Meiji 18), symptoms of "lung disease" became prominent in August and he was hospitalized. He passed away on April 27, 1886 (Meiji 19). The translation project was taken over by Shosaku Saga of Keizai Zasshi-sha, and the complete translation was eventually finished.

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 Toko, was a friend of Taguchi's from the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, and Ishikawa reportedly spared no effort in cooperating when Kimura founded the Meiji Girls' School in 1885. In his will, Ishikawa entrusted the arrangements for his own funeral to Kimura. Furthermore, through interactions with many intellectuals such as Zenji Iwamoto, the editor of Jogaku Zasshi (Women's Magazine) who was from the same hometown as Kimura and enlightened people on the status and rights of women, and Shimada of Omei-sha, who was also a friend of Taguchi's from the Numazu Military Academy, there is no doubt that the concept of the Fujin Sokuhatsu-kai was born.

The Fujin Sokuhatsu-kai appointed Taguchi, Shimada, and others as councilors, with Ishikawa, Kanae Watanabe, Iwamoto, and Toko Kimura listed as managers. In the "Purpose of Starting the Women's Hair-Binding Association" in July 1885, Watanabe criticized the mainstream Japanese hairstyle of the time—tying and hardening the mage (topknot) with hair oil—as unhygienic from a medical standpoint, while Ishikawa harshly criticized it as restrictive and uneconomical from the standpoint of improving women's status. They then recommended the simple and free Western-style "sokuhatsu" (bound hair), which involved just tying the hair, as a new hairstyle for women.

The association's activities were widely announced through newspapers and publications. Immediately after its formation, articles about the Sokuhatsu-kai and public speaking events were published almost every week in the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun. At the public speaking events, it seems that speeches by members centered on Watanabe and "instruction" on hair-binding were conducted. 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. This association continued after Ishikawa's death, but the activities seem to have ended in about two years, partly because Watanabe went to the United States. Nevertheless, it was clear that this movement spread nationwide at once, centered on urban areas, and that bound hair 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 last 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.