Tokujirō Obata: A Man of Wisdom, Virtue, and Enterprise

Thank you very much for coming to this lecture today despite your busy schedules. It is a great honor to stand in this historic venue and speak to you about Tokujirō Obata. Although Mr. Obata was a figure who remained by Yukichi Fukuzawa's side and continuously supported his activities, no biography or collected works had been compiled until recently. However, thanks to the legacy of Ms. Miwa Fukuzawa, the great-granddaughter of Yukichi Fukuzawa who passed away in 2015, the editing of the "Collected Works of Tokujirō Obata" began in 2020 as a joint project between Keio University and the Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Association. It is deeply saddening that Professor Masaru Kawasaki, a member of the publication committee, and Mr. Sokichi Toba, the great-grandson of Mr. Obata who provided support, passed away before its completion. As the person responsible for editing, I feel humbled by my own inadequacies.

Finally, in July 2025, the collection was completed in six volumes. Today, while reporting on this, I would like to consider the role Obata played as a modern intellectual. From here on, I will take the liberty of omitting titles when referring to him.

Tokujirō Obata was born as the son of a samurai of the Nakatsu Domain in what is now Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture. While the Fukuzawa family were lower-ranking samurai with a stipend of thirteen koku and rations for two people, the Obata family were upper-ranking samurai with two hundred koku. However, as the name Tokujirō suggests, his father had already retired and an adopted son had succeeded the family by the time he was born. Although he was the eldest biological son, his status meant he could not inherit the Obata family headship. From childhood, he studied Confucianism under his father and Hakugan Nomoto, later entering the domain school Shinshukan. By 1864, he had reached the level of teaching at the same school.

Meanwhile, Yukichi Fukuzawa began teaching at a Dutch studies Juku in the Nakatsu Domain's middle residence in Edo from 1858 by order of the domain. Judging from letters to friends in Osaka, he initially thought he would teach for three or four years until other orders were issued. However, after traveling to America aboard the Kanrin Maru and later concurrently working in translation for the Shogunate, he had the opportunity in 1862 to spend about a year observing colonized countries and the developed countries of Europe. Seeing Western civilization with his own eyes, Fukuzawa reached the conclusion that Japan's urgent task was the cultivation of human resources through Western studies. To that end, he resolved to enhance the Juku where he taught. However, there are limits to what one person can do. Therefore, when he returned to Nakatsu, he asked those around him about promising individuals who could help him in his work in the future. At that time, Tokujirō Obata was recommended with one voice.

Fukuzawa earnestly persuaded Obata, who initially had no intention of going to Edo. In June 1864, Obata entered Fukuzawa's Juku along with his younger brother and five companions. It is said that when he first arrived in Edo, he did not even know the alphabet. He could not distinguish between the lowercase letters b, d, p, and q; because their shapes resembled pregnant women, he was at a level where he called 'b' a "right-side bottom-pregnancy." However, he mastered English in just about two years. He eventually reached the point of teaching English studies at the Shogunate's Kaiseijo, a school for Western learning. There seems to have been opposition within the Shogunate to hiring a rear vassal who was not a direct retainer of the Tokugawa family, but his academic excellence and ability to translate were the deciding factors.

Thereafter, as Fukuzawa expected, he continued to support Fukuzawa's enterprises throughout his life, including Keio University, Kojunsha, and the Jiji Shimpo. For this reason, he was long called Fukuzawa's right-hand man, or—though it is not a preferred expression today—"Fukuzawa's wife." For example, in the second volume of "A Study of Figures in the Liberal and Official Parties" published in 1882, Fukuzawa is described as a founder excellent at planning, while Obata is the "minister of preservation" who leads those plans to success and maintains them. Also, the March 5, 1890 issue of the "Asano Shimbun" states that anyone who knows of the existence of Keio University or the name of Yukichi Fukuzawa must surely know of Obata's existence.

Furthermore, contemporary evaluations of Obata say that he did not just help Fukuzawa, but that Obata's high level of scholarship and influence brought achievements to Fukuzawa. In the 1881 publication "Biographies of Newspaper Contributors," it is written that Fukuzawa always sought Obata's proofreading for publications because Obata's academic ability was a grade above Fukuzawa's, and because of his foundation in Chinese classics, Fukuzawa could not match Obata's writing power. The aforementioned "A Study of Figures in the Liberal and Official Parties" states that many of those currently judging worldly affairs in the political world were under Obata's influence, and those advocating for liberty and civil rights are precisely those conveying Obata's thoughts.

Why did Obata, who was so learned, respected by Fukuzawa, and influential in politics, end up without even a collected works being compiled? Perhaps because he was so close to Fukuzawa, his achievements were absorbed into Fukuzawa's. It is also said that his modest personality meant he did not strongly assert his own achievements. However, looking at Obata's writings, he was by no means merely following Fukuzawa. He also engaged in activities from perspectives and positions different from Fukuzawa's. Today, I would like to examine what kind of modern society Obata envisioned and how he tried to realize it.

Just four years after Obata entered Fukuzawa's Juku, the Tokugawa Shogunate fell, and the era name changed to Meiji. A major turning point from the early modern to the modern era arrived, which Obata himself described as the "Restoration" or the "Meiji Restoration." What did Obata think as he experienced the "Restoration"?

Fukuzawa's Juku had no name for about ten years and was simply called the Fukuzawa Juku or the Dutch Studies Juku. However, in the "Keio Gijuku no Ki" dated April 1868, it was finally named "Keio University." According to the recollections of Toan Matsuyama published in the "Centennial History of Keio University," this "Keio Gijuku no Ki" was created by Fukuzawa adding revisions to Obata's draft.

The "Keio Gijuku no Ki" begins with the following words: "We now establish a company and start a Gijuku (private school), where like-minded individuals can study and refine themselves together. Engaging in Western studies is not a private matter; we wish to make it public to the world and allow anyone with the will to come and learn, regardless of whether they are samurai or commoners." In other words, engaging in Western studies is a public, not private, endeavor. It declares that at Keio University, people with the same aspirations gather to learn while challenging one another, regardless of status. I believe this is an assertion that learning must not be a privilege; it should be open to the public and wisdom should be shared. I believe that this sharing of wisdom among people, regardless of status or position, was a conviction and goal that ran through Obata's entire life.

To share wisdom, Obata published many translated books in the early Meiji period. "Natural Phenomena" (Tenpen Chii) in 1868 explained things that people thought were mysterious phenomena or the wrath of gods—such as lightning, earthquakes, comets, and rainbows—as actually having logic, having causes, and occurring as natural results. Considering the variety of editions, I believe this book was read by many people. It is broadly divided into first and second editions, but within each, subtle differences in woodblock carving and illustrations have been found. At least three types of covers have been confirmed, and movable type editions also exist. I believe it was a book read that widely.

Japan is said to have been a country with high literacy. The fact that the book-lending business, like Tsutaya, was viable as a trade suggests that people were able to read. However, this does not mean everyone could read difficult Chinese classics, so Obata made efforts to ensure his work could be read by more people.

One method was adding furigana (phonetic glosses) that indicated meaning. This was not a technique unique to Obata, but he used it effectively. For example, for the word "planet" (waksei), he put "waksei" on the right and "mayohihoshi" (wandering star) on the left. For "barbaric/wild" (banya), he used "hirakenu koto" (unopened/uncivilized); for "savings" (chozai), he used "takuhae no kane" (stored money). For "supervision" (kantoku), he used "mikajime." In this way, he ensured that the meaning could be understood even if the difficult words were unfamiliar.

He also made extensive use of illustrations. As I mentioned these were translations, Obata's books had original source texts, except for those he wrote as textbooks. Sometimes there was one source, and sometimes several were combined, as in "Natural Phenomena." The illustrations often followed the originals, but in "Natural Phenomena," for example, in a section explaining the refraction of light, he used a picture of a woman in a kimono checking her back hair with a hand mirror. This is thought to be an explanation using a familiar example so that readers could easily understand the principle.

Also, "Guide to Production" (Seisan Michiannai), published in 1870, was an introductory book on economics. Obata showed that there is theory even in things people do casually without conscious thought in their daily lives. Among these, I think economic books are the most important. The wave of capitalist economy that suddenly rushed in had various impacts on life. For the people, economics could be called the study of eating and living. In this book, Obata explained basic mechanisms such as the role of currency, foreign trade, and domestic distribution, as well as how prices are determined and why taxes exist. For example, he discussed the difference between one person owning 5,000 pounds and 100 people owning 50 pounds each; that translation serves as a very clear explanation regarding the existence of capital. After this, Obata spent seven years translating Francis Wayland's economic book under the title "English Economics," which Fukuzawa is said to have been lecturing on even during the Battle of Ueno in the Boshin War.

I believe his economic books, like "Natural Phenomena," were read by many people. There was a famous democratic rights activist named Emori Ueki; looking at his reading diary, it seems he read both volumes of "Guide to Production" and all nine volumes of "English Economics."

In terms of spreading the sharing of wisdom, there is the existence of the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume", which could be called a bestseller of the time. "Gakumon no Susume" is known as a work by Yukichi Fukuzawa. Since it was included in the collected works published during Fukuzawa's lifetime, I believe Fukuzawa himself only thought of it as his own work in his later years. However, the first volume published in 1872 is listed as co-authored by Tokujirō Obata. Why was it co-authored?

The preface of the first volume, signed by both Fukuzawa and Obata, states that they wrote this to convey the purpose of learning to the people of Nakatsu upon the establishment of a school there, but because someone read it and recommended that its benefits would spread if proclaimed widely to the world, they printed it using Keio University's movable type for their comrades to see. This preface is dated December 1871, but the month before, a Western-style school called Nakatsu City School was established, and Tokujirō Obata took up his post as its first principal. For this reason, it has been said that the school in Nakatsu mentioned in the preface refers to the Nakatsu City School, and by adding the name of Obata, who was an upper-ranking samurai, to that of Fukuzawa, who was a lower-ranking samurai, they could gain interest from a wide range of people. It has been said that Obata's name was, so to speak, a "lending of a name" to acquire more readers. While harboring doubts about whether Obata merely lent his name, I would like to consider the formation of the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume."

On July 14, 1871, the edict for the Abolition of the Han System and Establishment of Prefectures was issued. The Nakatsu Domain, which had changed in nature but continued to exist after the Return of the Land and People to the Emperor, vanished here, and Nakatsu Prefecture was born. In a letter to his friend Ryōzō Yamaguchi dated the 20th immediately following this, Obata described this "extraordinary reform" as a beautiful story of the 1800s, dissolving a 600-year-old feudal system and turning it into a prefecture system all at once. He noted that if the system stabilized, it would be evaluated from abroad as the England of Asia. He evaluated it not merely as the collapse of the Tokugawa system, but as a great reform since the samurai took power—that is, a 600-year reform—achieved all at once. And he said he wanted to take this opportunity to deeply plant the roots of literature, meaning learning. He believed that if learning bore fruit among the people, the public mind would not be greatly destroyed even with some changes, and would gradually enter a better state. In other words, on the occasion of the great change of the Abolition of the Han System, he believed that a stable new society would be formed by people learning and sharing wisdom.

Now, regarding the relationship with "Gakumon no Susume." Among the materials preserved in Nakatsu City, there is a copy of a document submitted by Nakatsu Prefecture to the Ministry of Finance after the Abolition of the Han System. It is on Nakatsu Prefecture stationery, stamped with the official seal of the Nakatsu Domain (I believe this was used as a substitute since the Nakatsu Prefecture seal had not yet been made), and has the tally seal of the Ministry of Finance, so it is an official document. Within it was a "Petition for Publication of a Proclamation" dated October 2, 1871, about three months after the Abolition of the Han System. A petition for publication is a request to publish. Its content was a request for permission to publish the "Proclamation to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture," which had been mentioned when receiving permission to establish the Western school, so that it could be circulated widely to the world like a "newspaper" if there were "those who desired it." There was a plan to build a school in Nakatsu and permission was obtained, and at that time, a "Proclamation to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" was shown. The idea was to distribute it widely to those who wanted it.

What was this "Proclamation to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture"? Among the materials donated to the Fukuzawa Memorial Center by a local historian in Nakatsu and materials held by Nakatsu City, there was a folder titled "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture." Both are almost the same text. When you read it, it surprisingly begins with: "It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man." It is the same as the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume." Furthermore, not just the beginning, but about 80% of the wording is exactly the same. Toward the end, some different parts appear, but the part that is completely different corresponds to the final 240 characters of "Gakumon no Susume." The "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" is precisely the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume." And about a week after this publication petition, a petition to open Western studies was submitted by Nakatsu Prefecture, stating that a Western school would be established with the cooperation of Keio University.

In other words, the establishment of a new school was decided, Fukuzawa wrote a text for the people of Nakatsu, and it was published at Keio University at the recommendation of someone who read it—this does not contradict the preface of the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume," but it feels somewhat off. The main reason for this feeling is that the petition to open Western studies, stating the school would open with Keio University's help, was submitted later. The publication petition was submitted before that. In other words, regarding the exhortation, I get the feeling that there was an intention to publish from the very beginning.

What we must consider here are two points: first, who thought of building a Western school in Nakatsu, and second, what are the differences between the "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" and the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume"?

First, regarding the school, as far as Fukuzawa's letters show, it was the idea of the people of Nakatsu. In a letter Fukuzawa sent to his cousin in April 1869, he said he heard Western studies had become popular in Nakatsu. He stated that if a Western school were to be built, it was his parents' hometown after all, so he would go and cooperate. However, a letter between Nakatsu people about two months later contains hearsay that when they tried to invite Fukuzawa, he demanded a very high salary. It was written that since that amount could send 40 people to study in Tokyo, studying abroad was judged more appropriate. One wonders to what extent Fukuzawa intended to be actively involved in the Nakatsu school.

Also, regarding the differences between the "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" and "Gakumon no Susume," in the former, as the title suggests, the latter half clearly takes the stance of the prefecture proclaiming to the people. Also, to encourage learning, it advocates the use of the administrative machinery, such as village officials taking care of the learning of the farmers under them. And it is preached that the officials of Nakatsu Prefecture—that is, the officials themselves—acting on the intentions of the Imperial Court, should convey to the various people that they should possess knowledge and virtue, know their duties, and make the independence of the individual a help for the independence of Great Japan. Did Yukichi Fukuzawa really write this text, which asserts official status and is peppered with respect for the Imperial Court and the "Restoration"?

Ultimately, four months after the Abolition of the Han System, the merger of prefectures took place, and Nakatsu Prefecture was merged into Kokura Prefecture. Consequently, Nakatsu Prefecture became unable to publish the "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" or build the Western school. Since preparations for the school were underway, Nakatsu City School was established at the end of November with contributions from a mutual aid organization of the former domain lord and former Nakatsu samurai, and as mentioned, Tokujirō Obata took up his post as the first principal.

At the opening of this Nakatsu City School, a text titled "Notes on Nakatsu City School" was written in the name of the former domain lord and shown to the people, containing a passage encouraging them to read documents related to learning. A manuscript of the "Notes on Nakatsu City School" remains with additions and corrections in Yukichi Fukuzawa's handwriting, where Fukuzawa himself corrected the expression for the document related to learning from "a text of instruction from the prefecture office" to "the encouragement of learning written by the teacher." Finally, Tokujirō Obata has appeared, but I would like you to listen to the preconditions a little longer.

Reading the documents of the Nakatsu Domain and Nakatsu Prefecture during this transition period, one can see the figures of officials performing their duties while worrying about how to process daily administration, how to change the format of documents they had created until then, and where to submit them. Even if the system changes, the daily lives of the people continue without rest, so they cannot say, "We don't really understand, so we're closing the window and don't know when we'll open." I believe the skill of the administrative officials who navigated this transition period deserves more evaluation. I think we must pay more attention to the excellence of the former samurai who handled the domain administration in the late Edo period and managed everything from the Return of the Land and People to the disappearance of Nakatsu Prefecture.

Here I would like to introduce a person named Hōzan Kuwana. Born in 1837, his age is right in the middle of Fukuzawa and Obata. He served as a senior official (rusui-garō) in Kyoto and was one of the high-ranking retainers of the forty domains summoned to Nijo Castle at the time of the Restoration of Imperial Rule. Fukuzawa calls Nakatsu a small domain, but it was a Fudai domain of 100,000 koku, so I don't think it was a small domain at all. Documents also remain of Kuwana replying on behalf of the domain lord to the Shogunate's inquiries on foreign policy. After the Return of the Land and People, he served as a senior official (daisanji) in the Nakatsu Domain. He was the person who managed things as the top of practical affairs when confusion in domain administration was inevitable. Considering his position in the Nakatsu Domain and Nakatsu Prefecture, I believe it is impossible that he was not involved in the "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" or the establishment of the Western school.

After the merger, Kuwana initially served in Kokura Prefecture but resigned and studied English studies at Keio University in Tokyo. According to the recollections of Tatsuya Ameyama, who was also a Nakatsu samurai and a student of Fukuzawa, when Obata lectured on Draper's "History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science," Kuwana reportedly took notes on that lecture. And when Obata translated J.S. Mill's Three Essays on Religion and published it under the title "Three Essays on Religion" in 1877, Hōzan Kuwana's name is listed as a proofreader for both the first and second parts. In other words, there was close interaction between Kuwana and Obata, and Obata, who became the first principal, would naturally have been involved in the preparations for establishing the Western school.

Unless a handwritten manuscript appears, a conclusion cannot be reached, but I believe that at least the "Exhortation on Literature to the Samurai and People of the Prefecture" had hands other than Fukuzawa's involved. And I suspect that because there were parts remaining when revising it into the first volume of "Gakumon no Susume," it was initially called "the encouragement of learning written by the teacher" and made a co-authored work. However, as the second and third volumes followed and years passed, the proportion would have thinned, and I believe "Gakumon no Susume" came to be recognized as Fukuzawa's work.

In any case, the first thing Obata worked on upon entering the Meiji era was not making learning a privilege—that is, sharing wisdom with the people. He wanted to plant the roots of learning deeply, believing that doing so would stabilize society.

In the "Minkan Zasshi" (People's Magazine) first published in February 1874, Obata published "A Text to Inform Farmers." In it, he said it is necessary for people to take an interest in politics and think about the country as if it were their own village. Knowing the quality of the government's actions is the duty of the "people of one nation," and as long as one is born Japanese, regardless of one's position, one should understand taxes, land titles, schools, and preaching—that is, the tax system and school system—and consider the quality of the Japanese government. By making an effort to read and knowing the situation by reading newspapers, he stated that eventually, people would emerge from among the public to stand in the assembly and conduct Japan's politics.

Obata believed that by people engaging in learning, a system where the monarch and representatives of the people jointly conduct politics—namely, joint governance by ruler and people—could be realized. He argued that if politics reflecting the intentions of the people were conducted, stability would be brought to society. What Obata aimed for was a society where the will of the people is reflected in politics.

In the preface Obata wrote for "On the British Constitution" published in July 1881, he stated that since the opening of the country, Japan's learning and arts changed in a single morning, and the political system would also change, but the form it should reach is joint governance by ruler and people. In the New Year of 1889, the year before the opening of the National Diet, he said that from the base state of 600 years of feudal stipends, receiving the reflection of Western civilization, military rule was overthrown, and the beginning of joint governance by ruler and people was opened by the "Great Restoration" and the Charter Oath. He stated that the promulgation of the Constitution and the opening of the National Diet were "unprecedented great events for our country," and "our thirty-five million brothers" should celebrate this together. Since the "Restoration," he consistently aimed for a political system where people take an interest in politics and the monarch and the people share duties.

In the June 1875 issue of "Minkan Zasshi," Obata wrote "Discussing the Evils of Limiting Inheritance to the Eldest Son," citing Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. He argued that to solidify the change from the feudal system to the prefecture system, a transformation of the "family" (ie) system, which formed the backbone of feudal society, was necessary. To that end, instead of allowing the privilege of inheritance only to the eldest son, inheritance should be distributed equally among children regardless of gender. If equal inheritance were realized, privileged classes within the home would disappear. As a result, he claimed, equal rights for men and women would be practiced, civil rights would be restored, morality would rise, and a spirit of enterprise would emerge. I think Obata's consciousness is revealed in this expression "restored" regarding civil rights. That is, civil rights originally exist in people, but they had been lost under 600 years of feudalism. He believed that under the new system, people should take them back into their hands again.

Next, I would like to consider local self-government.

Fukuzawa wrote "On Decentralization of Power, Advocating Less Centralized Government in Japan" in 1876, but within it, he referred to an editorial on political power and administrative power that Obata published in the magazine "Katei Sōdan" in December of that year, stating "As said in the theory of the Frenchman 'Tocqueville' translated by Mr. Obata." Since Fukuzawa wrote his piece around November 1876, considering the timing, it is thought that Fukuzawa either saw Obata's manuscript before publication or summarized his own opinions while listening to Obata's views as he worked on the translation. For details on Obata's translation from Tocqueville and its influence on Fukuzawa, please refer to the research by Ms. Ryu Erin ("The Discovery and Oblivion of Tocqueville and Meiji Intellectual History "). What I want to emphasize is that Obata's achievements had no small influence on Fukuzawa. And why did Obata think about local self-government earlier and more specifically than Fukuzawa, and engage in the translation of Tocqueville?

I mentioned Hōzan Kuwana earlier, but I would also like to introduce another person, Kan'un Suzuki. He also came from a family that would become domain elders in the Nakatsu Domain. Born in 1832, he was two years older than Fukuzawa and served as a councilor (sansei) of the Nakatsu Domain immediately after the Return of the Land and People. Like Kuwana, he was a figure who handled administration during the transition from the early modern to the modern era, amidst a chaotic situation where the government's orders were constantly changing.

Obata became the principal of Nakatsu City School in November 1871 and moved to Nakatsu; during the year and a half he stayed there, he consulted with Suzuki on a certain matter and continued frequent correspondence even after returning to Tokyo. What was the matter Obata and Suzuki were consulting on? It was the provision of employment for the shizoku, the former samurai class. In the Meiji era, stipends continued but would eventually disappear. The economic independence of the shizoku was a major issue. Suzuki and Obata consulted on every challenge regarding employment for the shizoku, centered on the sericulture and silk-reeling industry, from the problem of teachers to the procurement of capital and raw materials like seedlings. In other words, Obata was in a position where he had to think about the future of the shizoku as a realistic problem much more than Fukuzawa. For this reason, he likely held a high interest in theories of local self-government.

Also, what is very interesting about both Hōzan Kuwana and Kan'un Suzuki is that they returned to the front lines of local government as the new system of local self-government was established by the government's Three New Laws in 1878. Kuwana served successively as the head of Hita District starting in 1878, then head of Oita District and Higashikunisaki District. Suzuki served as the head of Shimoge District, which included Nakatsu, for a long time starting in 1878. In other words, I think there was a reality where they had to rely again on the skills of officials who had navigated the transition period. Even if they succeeded in a break once through the Abolition of the Han System, in the end, there was a reality where they had to rely on the skills of those who were at the administrative front at the end of the early modern period and navigated the period of confusion. By seeing Nakatsu's challenges up close, Obata likely became interested in the challenges of local self-government facing Japan early on and tried to find solutions.

Next, I would like to examine Obata's thoughts on relations with foreign countries.

In February 1875, Obata wrote an editorial titled "Refutation of Inland Travel" in "Minkan Zasshi," stating how to deal with foreign countries and what is necessary for Japan at a time when people's hearts were still prone to collapse.

Obata argued that in a world where power is right and might becomes authority, to maintain the country's independence without becoming violent or fawning, it is necessary to "cultivate influence" rather than military force. Then, by what are momentum and power nurtured? He said it is "bonds" (tsuna). Obata said there are bonds of sharing old stories, bonds of looking up to one government, bonds of sharing the same language, bonds of sharing customs and habits, bonds of sharing the land of graves, bonds of sharing ancestral achievements, and bonds of sharing schools and play. And he said that if thousands of things that become a common cause (seeds of national pride) accumulate, they become tools to maintain the public mind and solidify the national polity. It is the tie between people and the identity that connects the individual to the nation of Japan. He argued that having a consciousness as Japanese through such "bonds" leads to cultivating influence and maintaining the country's independence without becoming violent or fawning on others.

Fukuzawa described this editorial in "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization" as "something that truly captured my heart." For the influence of this editorial on "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization," please refer to the research by Professor Naoaki Hiraishi ("Yukichi Fukuzawa and Masao Maruyama: The Intellectual Origins of Modern and Contemporary Japan").

In "On Treaty Revision" published by Obata in the March 1882 issue of "Kojun Zasshi," he stated that what most relates to the order, chaos, prosperity, and decline of a country are external threats and diplomatic issues. And what Obata pointed out was "subtle disadvantages," disadvantages cleverly hidden within treaties. Obata said that if one accurately understands what the problem is in diplomatic relations or the situation the country is currently in, one can find a solution. However, "a calamity of not knowing has no way to be saved before it breaks out, and no technique to be saved after it breaks out." In other words, if you don't know what the problem is, there is no way to prevent it, and no way to save it after disaster strikes. He said that what is necessary for the treaty revision Japan faces is the consciousness of "our people" trying to correctly understand the position Japan is in; if that happens, the government can conduct treaty revision negotiations "having gained the hearts of the citizens."

In the commentary for Volume 8 of the "Collected Works of Yukichi Fukuzawa," Juro Iwatani explains, citing actual litigation results, that extraterritoriality was not a familiar problem for general Japanese people, and that is why Yukichi Fukuzawa preached in the 1884 "On Treaty Revision" and "Popular Discourse on Foreign Diplomacy" that "even the common people in every corner of Japan" should take extraterritoriality as their own concern and worry about it. However, Obata had already stated in his 1882 "On Treaty Revision" that it is essential for Japanese people to understand the meaning of "subtle disadvantages" and what they bring.

What Obata, who aimed for the sharing of wisdom, emphasized beyond that was having an identity as Japanese—so to speak, the "creation of the Japanese people." By understanding the unit of Japan as a single entity, one can recognize domestic politics and diplomatic relations as one's own affair and one's own problem. He believed that this would lead to establishing and sustaining a new modern society and protecting Japan's independence. That is how Obata thought.

So far, we have considered the wisdom of wisdom and virtue. Now I would like to consider virtue. In the previously mentioned "Discussing the Evils of Limiting Inheritance to the Eldest Son," Obata said that by eliminating the "family" system, which is a symbol of the feudal system, virtue would "rise." He believed that in modern times, a new virtue suitable for the era was necessary. In the "Foreword to the Collected Works of Fukuzawa," an episode is written about how around 1868, Obata found Wayland's The Elements of Moral Science at a second-hand bookstore during a walk, brought it back, and everyone translated it with great enthusiasm. We can see that Obata was interested in new virtue during the transition from the early modern to the modern era. In Nakatsu City, there is a collection of his books donated by his will, among which works on moral science and ethics are scattered.

Also, he seems to have taken an interest in J.S. Mill's Three Essays on Religion as soon as it was published in London in 1874. The copy remaining in Nakatsu City as Obata's book is the second edition that came out that year, and as early as July 3 of the following year, he took up this book at the Mita Public Speaking Event, and the content of the speech was published in the "Yubin Hochi Shimbun" on August 2. Emori Ueki, a democratic rights activist who participated in the speaking event, wrote in his diary, "A theory that one must not leave things to nature." As I mentioned earlier, Obata later translated this work and published it under the title "Three Essays on Religion"; in the preface to the second part, he touched on Mill's attempt to establish "humanity" outside of religion, stating that the Japanese intellectual class, which had developed thoughts outside of religion for hundreds of years, could be convinced that humanity can exist independently of religion—that is, that morals and virtues not based on religion exist.

And Obata aimed to explore and establish what the most appropriate virtue was in Japan's modern society, the new society. I will introduce two episodes from his time as a member of the House of Peers.

One concerns the compilation of ethics (shūshin) textbooks for elementary schools using national funds, which was discussed in the 9th Diet in February 1896. Obata argued that theories of ethics are difficult things for which a standard cannot be decided even if scholars of all times discuss them to the end. He argued that it is not of a nature that can be created by collecting opinions and selecting or compromising, and he opposed the method of creating an editorial committee with national funds to summarize it into one book.

Also, in the 14th Diet in February 1899, a bill to prohibit smoking by minors was introduced, and Obata opposed it. You might think "Oh?" for a moment. Obata, of course, agreed with the prohibition of smoking by minors. However, he argued that it is something parents should supervise and do as part of education, and to restrain it with the power of the government and the power of the police is a shameful thing. In both cases, Obata's opposition was rejected, and the bills were passed.

I believe his thoughts on virtue are expressed in these assertions. Virtue must be something cultivated in the interaction between people, in the family, and in society. We can see that he emphasized people proactively creating virtues suitable for society.

When I think about the era Obata lived in and the era we live in now, I feel we are in a similar situation in terms of the information revolution. It is said that since Perry's arrival in 1853, both the quality and quantity of information changed greatly. Barriers of status and region disappeared, and people were, so to speak, swallowed by a flood of information. I feel the same about the present day, being tossed about by the rapid progress of IT since the 1990s.

Under the feudal system, the sources of information were limited, and the credibility of the content was guaranteed to some extent by the source. However, with the collapse of the feudal system, that guarantee disappeared. While exposed to a flood of information, people did not know the criteria for judging what was correct and what was wrong.

Obata tried to have a new organization take on that guarantee: the Kojunsha, launched in 1880. Kojunsha was explained as a social club modeled after British gentlemen's clubs for "exchanging knowledge and consulting on worldly affairs," and its origin, if we believe Fukuzawa's letters, was Obata's idea. However, among the letters Fukuzawa sent in 1879, 21 mention Kojunsha, and 11 of those are soliciting membership, so it is often explained that the establishment of Kojunsha began with Fukuzawa's intention, but because he disliked being thought of as a political organization by appearing in public, he deliberately put Obata in the front and remained a behind-the-scenes supporter. This part is difficult to verify, but at least after its launch, it was Tokujirō Obata who devoted himself to making it an organization for transmitting accurate information and eliminating the information gap between the city and the countryside.

When Kojunsha was launched on January 25, 1880, it first published "Kojun Zasshi" on the 5th of the following month. In this magazine, Kojunsha members from various places sent diverse questions to the managers about illness, land sales, inheritance, and so on; when a question was published in the magazine, other members would answer, or the headquarters would prepare and publish an answer from an appropriate expert. Obata served as a manager since the launch and reported on incoming letters at conventions. From his remaining letters, one can catch a glimpse of him busily searching for respondents. The sharing of wisdom was also the sharing of information.

Earlier, I mentioned that Obata wrote an editorial titled "Discussing the Evils of Limiting Inheritance to the Eldest Son" and argued for the necessity of transforming the "family" (ie) system that forms the basis of the feudal system. From June 4 to 7, 1898, Obata attended a special committee of the House of Peers to discuss its revision and stated his opinions.

In the government's explanation of the Meiji Civil Code's theory of relatives, Nobushige Hozumi, Kenjiro Ume, and others argued that Japan has a wonderful, pure family system unparalleled in other countries. They claimed that law has no power to change social customs and must be based on the actual state of society in our country, and therefore they compiled the Civil Code emphasizing the traditional family system.

Obata countered that what they were trying to enact in the Civil Code was not Japan's traditional family system. He argued that what the government called Japan's pure family system was merely a system created and protected by the Tokugawa Shogunate to maintain the "family" as a hollowed-out entity to support its feudal system. And he asked what the origin of the family is, the source that defines a family as a family, in the government's view.

Obata believed that one must not create an empty thing called a family without substance. For example, he asked the government official: if a child is born out of wedlock and the mother's "family" refuses to enter that child into the family register, would a family register be created independently for that child? In other words, he asked if they would create a family register with only a zero-year-old baby listed, with no substance as a family, and call that a household. The government's answer was yes. Obata believed that a family must not be like that. That is based on the "family" system which is merely a custom created by samurai families to maintain the feudal system, and can by no means be called a traditional Japanese family.

He believed that a family should be a group and a space with substance where wisdom and virtue can be shared. In 1888, Obata wrote a textbook called "Steps to Elementary Geography." This takes the unique form of students going on a five-night, six-day study trip and explaining what they see and hear on the spot, but the description includes the concept of taking new knowledge gained from observations—such as railways, telegraphs, electric lights, and gas lights—as souvenirs for their parents. In other words, the sharing of wisdom in the family is not just from parent to child, but also spreads from child to parent.

Also, Obata's thoughts on in what situations virtue grows or should be grown, which I mentioned in the section on sharing virtue, are related to the nature of the family.

In the special committee, Obata tried to discuss the origin of the family and what is sought in a family, but because the family in the Civil Code had taken on the cloak of Japan's "traditional form," the discussion did not reach the essence, and as a result, Obata ended up asking similar questions many times. Currently, discussions on separate surnames for married couples and same-sex marriage are being held, but to me, it seems they are immediately replaced by discussions of whether it is inconvenient or not. I feel that the standard of discussion should be why a family is a family if the couple's surname is the same but not if it is different, or why it is a family if the genders are different but not if they are the same, and providing an explanation that everyone can agree on; thus, I feel I can understand Obata's feelings.

Ultimately, Obata was faced with the choice of whether to continue the discussion or to establish the Civil Code ahead of the major issue of treaty revision. While stating that some articles were difficult to understand, he chose to trust the government officials who were experts and stated that it was more important to enact laws recognized by foreign countries at this opportunity and not miss the timing for treaty revision, so as not to have regrets that would make one "bite one's navel" (regret bitterly). He then moved to support the bill based on political judgment.

Actually, there was one more thing Obata was particular about at this time. It related to the period of prohibition of remarriage for women and the identification of the father when pregnancy is discovered after divorce. He argued that since there is always a time lag between the time a marriage breaks down and the time a divorce is finalized, it is strange to codify it without considering that. This provision was finally abolished in April 2024. I suppose it was difficult for Obata to get his theory of family through.

After Obata's death, anecdotes about him were published in the "Jiji Shimpo" from May 14 to June 26, 1905. Among them, Sadashiro Hamano, who came to Edo from Nakatsu together to study at Fukuzawa's Juku and also served as President, stated that while Obata should be described with words like "gentle and sincere" and "mild, kind, respectful, and humble," inside him a fierce fire of the heart was burning; however, because he did not like eccentricity, he seemed to suppress that flame and prioritize mildness in all things.

What was the "fierce fire of the heart burning" within Obata? I believe it was the challenge of how to form a modern society in Japan. Obata believed that what is important in a modern society is for people to think proactively about the country's politics, not just about their immediate surroundings—to perceive it not as someone else's business, but as their own. He believed that the new society that could be transformed from the 600-year-old feudal system must be a society where people share wisdom and virtue and can maintain rights and a spirit of enterprise.

As a foundation for that, he thought of the creation of an awareness of Japan and an identity as Japanese, and as things to nurture and maintain that, he thought of information networks and new ways of being a family. While Obata himself tried to be a man of enterprise, I believe he also wished for the people to be people of enterprise in order to build a new society in Japan.

When introducing Tokujirō Obata, I always worry about how best to describe him. In the announcement this time, I wrote "a modern Japanese intellectual," but what is an intellectual in the first place?

In the transition from the early modern to the modern era, I believe an intellectual in Obata's time was someone who could engage with society through their "wisdom." In the present day, there are many tools for transmission, but at that time, the positions from which one could transmit to society were limited. I believe Obata was precisely such a person who could transmit to society and engage with society through "wisdom." His influence was such that, for example, the "Text to Inform Farmers" I mentioned earlier, which stated that people should know the quality of the government's actions, received fierce condemnation from Judge Harufusa Kitabatake. Kitabatake criticized that there were no villains who misled the world and slandered the people as much as Fukuzawa and Obata.

Obata provided wisdom to the people, showed virtue, aimed for people to share them, and proposed protecting independence based on a consciousness as Japanese. What we must not misinterpret about Obata's thoughts is that, as can be seen from his words and actions we have seen so far, what he was advocating was the importance of people thinking of domestic politics and diplomacy as their own affairs, and the consciousness as Japanese for that purpose. It is different from Japanese-first-ism. In "A Text to Inform Farmers," he says "polish your wisdom moderately." This also seems likely to cause misunderstanding, but "moderately" does not mean he is telling them to know their place; it means appropriately. It means acquiring enough information to be able to think of things as one's own affair. I believe that continuing to transmit the essential conditions for forming a new society was Tokujirō Obata's figure as an intellectual in modern Japan.

The other day, when I held a workshop in Nakatsu City, I was asked, "If you could meet Mr. Obata, what would you want to ask him?" I answered without hesitation, "I would like to meet Mr. Obata around 1897 and ask him how he thinks Japan will turn out from now on." I believe that from around that time, Obata's thoughts gradually began to change. Earlier, I introduced how Obata's opinions on the creation of ethics textbooks and the prohibition of smoking by minors were not accepted. Not only those, but almost none of Obata's proposals as a member of the House of Peers were adopted. Among them, the biggest setback was the introduction of the gold standard in 1897. He continued to argue that there was no need to shift from the silver standard and that the introduction of the gold standard was premature, and finally became the last person in the House of Peers to oppose it. Given the opportunity for a final opposing argument in the plenary session, he stated that the general trend had already been decided, but expressed regret that the start of the deliberation was whether or not it was necessary to change from the silver standard. Since 8 out of 15 people argued it should be changed, the transition from the silver standard became the starting point. However, since 2 of the 8 were advocating a bimetallic system, in terms of gold standard versus silver standard, the latter was more numerous at 6 to 7; if the initial question had been whether or not to make it a gold standard, the discussion should have been 6 to 9 in favor of the silver standard or bimetallism. He faced many such realities in his activities as a legislator.

Obata was in poor health from the year before he died of stomach cancer in 1905, recuperating in Beppu and elsewhere, and wrote letters to his family from there. In the letters, what he was constantly concerned about was the war situation of the Russo-Japanese War. He would be frustrated when a warship was sunk and rejoice unreservedly at news of victory. Was Obata's thought not influence rather than military force? Was it not the wisdom and virtue of the Japanese for that purpose? Had the path Japan should take changed?

However, since meeting Mr. Obata is not possible, I must solve that mystery by learning myself. Twenty years ago, Reijiro Hattori said that in order to make it possible for many people to participate in Obata research, a collected works must be compiled. Although there are still inadequacies, the "Collected Works" has now been published in six volumes. I would be very happy if young researchers could also engage in Obata research.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.