Okakura Tenshin and India: Until "Asia is One" was Born

2023/07/18

This book depicts the drama of intellectual exchange between Okakura Tenshin, who visited India in 1902, and Indian intellectuals.

The inspiration for writing this book dates back to reading Okakura's works when I was a high school student. While Okakura wrote "The Ideals of the East" during his stay in India, what he was actually doing there was considered a "mystery," which intrigued me for a long time.

At the Faculty of Letters in Mita, I studied under Professor Masataka Suzuki of cultural anthropology. In graduate school, I studied abroad in Calcutta and conducted field research, but since my doctoral thesis theme was rural social research, the work of tracing Okakura's footsteps remained untouched.

After returning to Japan, when I assisted Professor Shigemi Inaga of Nichibunken with the translation of Bengali materials, he told me that this kind of research is exactly what Japanese Bengali scholars should undertake, and those words stayed with me. However, Japan-India exchange was still considered a minor theme at the time.

Subsequently, with the rise of China, the Japan-India Economic Partnership Agreement and the Security Dialogue (Quad) were established, and India drew attention as a new global power. Indian films became hits, and in 2023, it became the world's most populous country. Thanks to a recommendation for the Keio University publication grant from Professor Sayako Kanda of the Faculty of Economics, the book was finally published.

However, tracing the origins of this book brings back memories of a social studies class in junior high school. Fukuzawa Yukichi's "Datsu-A Ron" and Okakura's "Asia is One" were introduced, and we were asked, "Will you side with the West, or stand with Asia?" No one could answer such a binary question that seemed to determine Japan's future, and it remained a difficult problem; perhaps that was the undercurrent of writing this book.

Recent research suggests that the 1885 "Datsu-A Ron" was not an "Entering Europe" theory siding with Western powers, but rather a declaration of abandoning support for Korea following the failure of the Gapsin Coup. In terms of calling for an escape from colonial situations, Okakura's "Asia is One" inherited Fukuzawa's awareness of the issues. Neither was a binary question.

This book is a story of intellectual exploration that unravels the significance of India for Japan—a challenge since the Meiji era—through Okakura's perspective.

Okakura Tenshin and India: Until "Asia is One" was Born

Masahiko Togawa

Keio University Press

298 pages, 3,960 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.