Arthur May Knapp

2025/01/14

Image: Keio Institute of Fukuzawa Studies

The role played by Arthur May Knapp (1841–1921), an American Unitarian missionary, in establishing the foundation of Keio University (particularly the college) could be emphasized more in the history of the Juku. He is a figure who deserves attention as someone who lived in the same era as Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835–1901) and had deep interactions not only with Fukuzawa himself but also with his sons. Knapp was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1841. After graduating from Harvard University in 1860, he served as a private in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1867.

Originally, Fukuzawa was an opponent of Christianity. However, in a June 1884 editorial of the Jiji Shinpo, he commented that "religion must also follow Western ways," showing an attitude of tolerance toward Christianity. At the same time, however, he felt a repulsion toward the intolerance of orthodox Christianity. The background to Fukuzawa's favorable attitude toward Knapp and other Unitarians was that they possessed a spirit and posture of tolerance toward Japanese religion and culture.

Now, a person who played a major role in Knapp's arrival in Japan was Fumio Yano (Ryukei), a disciple of Fukuzawa. Yano proposed making Unitarianism the state religion of Japan and first requested the British Unitarian Association to send missionaries to Japan. However, the association declined for financial reasons and sought cooperation from the American Unitarian Association. As a result, in 1887, the American Unitarian Association dispatched Knapp to inspect the religious situation in Japan. Without Yano's actions, the encounter between Knapp, Japan, and Fukuzawa would likely never have happened.

The timing before Knapp's dispatch to Japan coincided exactly with the period when Fukuzawa's two sons were studying in the United States, and these two played an important role in assisting Knapp before his departure. Fukuzawa's eldest son, Ichitaro (age 23), happened to meet Knapp while walking in Boston. He stayed at Knapp's house for about two months, teaching him about Japanese affairs and the language, and even asked his father, Yukichi, to arrange a Japanese language teacher for Knapp. The second son, Sutejiro (age 21), gave a support speech at Knapp's farewell party held in Boston in November 1887. In it, Sutejiro criticized the intolerant attitude of previous orthodox Christian missionaries and supported Knapp's travel to Japan. Let's look at the translation of Sutejiro's English speech published in the Jiji Shinpo on December 16 of the same year.

"We, the Japanese of our home country, have here for the first time encountered the opportunity to see what kind of person a truly sincere and free Christian is, and we shall see that you are greatly different from the conventional, narrow-minded missionaries." (From Eiichi Kiyooka (Ed./Trans.) and Kazuyoshi Nakayama (Sup.), "The Birth of the Keio University College: New Materials from Harvard University." Note: "You" refers to Knapp.)

In this way, Unitarians were understanding of non-Christian cultures, and Knapp was welcomed to Japan as someone who stood apart from previous missionaries.

Departing San Francisco on the Belgic on November 30, 1887, Knapp arrived at Yokohama Port with his wife and child on December 21. A letter from Knapp to George Fox (Assistant Secretary of the American Unitarian Association) dated January 7, 1888, describes the events immediately following his arrival in detail. A few days after his arrival, Fukuzawa himself came to meet him in a carriage, guided Knapp to his home, and welcomed him. Furthermore, the letter records his impression of meeting Fukuzawa as follows:

"Mr. F. is a large man with strong homely features, the pleasantest voice you ever heard, and expression of simplicity and genuineness which reminds me very much of Emerson. Everyone here speaks of him as the leader of the Japanese people in thought and in life."

[(Translation of the above quote). Note: Emerson refers to the transcendentalist thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson.]

Reading this, one can see that Knapp's first impression of Fukuzawa was quite positive. He already recognized him as a leader of Japan. Meanwhile, Fukuzawa provided generous assistance to Knapp, offering him opportunities to give lectures at Keio University and contribute to the Jiji Shinpo during his stay. By November 1888, about a year after Knapp took up his post, Ichitaro and Sutejiro had returned from their studies in the United States and supported Knapp within Japan as well.

By February 1889, Fukuzawa had entrusted Knapp with the selection of three teachers to teach law, economics/sociology, and English literature for the establishment of the Keio University college, requesting that they be chosen from Harvard graduates if possible. In response, Knapp sent successive letters in February 1889 to the American Unitarian Association and to Harvard University President Charles Eliot (1834–1926).

In the letter Knapp sent to Eliot, it is clear that he asked Eliot to select candidates by the time Knapp himself temporarily returned to America. Also, looking at the letter Knapp sent to Fox, Assistant Secretary of the American Unitarian Association, dated February 6, he describes Keio University as follows:

"… the Keiogijiku or Fukuzawa College with its 1300 students is second only to the Imperial University, and possesses many elements of strength not enjoyed by the latter. Its friends have recently contributed a large sum to endow three new professorships of the highest rank."

[(Translation of the above quote).]

It is clear that through his meetings with Fukuzawa, Knapp fully understood the strengths of Keio University.

In a letter to Eliot in April 1889, before Knapp's return, Fukuzawa expressed his desire to build a close relationship between Harvard, the highest institution of learning in America, and Keio University, and asked Knapp and Eliot to discuss this. Reading this letter, it seems Fukuzawa even considered whether the faculty of Keio University could be filled with Harvard graduates, and whether the subjects, teaching methods, and examination methods could be brought closer to Harvard, making the Juku something like "a Japanese branch of Harvard University." Furthermore, he mentioned his desire for cooperation in creating a scholarship fund for Keio students who wished to study at Harvard.

Having completed his inspection of approximately one and a half years, Knapp left Japan on May 3 of the same year to attend the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Unitarian Association and report on his inspection of Japan, returning home temporarily.

On October 22 (or 23), 1889, Knapp returned to Japan accompanied by Clay MacCauley, a missionary dispatched by the American Unitarian Association. This marked the beginning of full-scale missionary work by the American Unitarian Association. At the same time, the three teachers whom Fukuzawa had requested for the opening of the college and who had received Eliot's recommendation also arrived in Japan. Garrett Droppers for the department of political economy, John Henry Wigmore for the department of law, and William Shield Liscomb for the department of literature each took up their posts and became lead instructors. Droppers and Wigmore were from Harvard, but because one person had declined just before, Liscomb was from Brown University.

With the cooperation of these lead instructors, the Keio University college was opened on January 27, 1890. As mentioned earlier, Fukuzawa wanted to base the educational system on the Harvard system for the opening of the college, so the arrival of teachers from Harvard was significant. Furthermore, the dispatch of students from Keio University to Harvard was realized, and Seihin Ikeda, a member of the first graduating class of the college's department of political economy, was dispatched for five years starting in 1890.

In November 1890, Knapp returned home due to illness. Knapp's farewell party was held at the Imperial Hotel, chaired by Kentaro Kaneko, a Harvard graduate who is said to have had a major influence on the start of full-scale Japanese missionary work by the American Unitarian Association.

In the spring of 1897, he arrived in Japan with the hope of permanent residence, and his third long-term stay began. However, in the fall of the same year, a situation occurred that resulted in an unintended "betrayal" of Fukuzawa by Knapp (for details, see Hiromasa Tsuchiya's "The Unitarians and Yukichi Fukuzawa"). Knapp proposed a plan to Fukuzawa for an alliance between a university like Harvard and Keio University. However, in reality, it was a plan that could not be realized without the cooperation of MacCauley, with whom Knapp was on bad terms at the time, and this proposal was not accepted by the American Unitarian Association. As a result, Knapp ended up disappointing Fukuzawa's expectations, the distance between the two grew, and he did not attend Fukuzawa's funeral in 1901.

During this long-term stay, from 1900 to 1910, Knapp served as the owner and editor-in-chief of an English-language newspaper in Yokohama called The Japan Advertiser (which later merged with The Japan Times), while distancing himself from Keio University. He returned to America in 1910, but his final years were difficult. Predeceased by his wife and son, he died on January 29, 1921, after a long illness. He was 79 years old.

Through Knapp, Fukuzawa was able to build connections with the Unitarian Association and Harvard University. Although it is difficult to say that a good relationship between Fukuzawa and Knapp lasted until the end, it can be said that without this relationship, the recruitment of the three lead instructors and the establishment of the college would not have happened. Eiichi Kiyooka, Fukuzawa's grandson and Professor Emeritus of this Juku, stated, "Why is such a great contributor as Knapp not featured more in the history of Keio University?" (Kiyooka, Ed., ibid.), which is a profound truth.

Takako Shirai, "Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Missionaries: The Unknown Anglo-Japanese Relationship of the Meiji Period" (Miraisa, 1999)