Osaka and Keio University

2022/05/31

Image: Grand Front Osaka, home to Osaka Station and Keio Osaka City Campus

Osaka is a place with deep connections to founder Yukichi Fukuzawa and Keio University. Fukuzawa, who was born here, cultivated the foundations of his learning at "Tekijuku," a meritocratic school without class distinctions, and it was here that the first branch of Keio University, "Osaka Keio Gijuku," was established.

Osaka, which opened at the mouth of the Yodo River, has long functioned as a logistics network via water transport. During the Edo period, it was the economic center where tribute rice and local specialties from various domains were collected, earning it the nickname "the nation's kitchen." The sandbars of the Yodo River (Nakanoshima and Dojima) were lined with the kurayashiki (warehouse-residences) of various domains from western Japan. Fukuzawa was born on January 10, 1835 (December 12, Tenpo 5), within the kurayashiki of the Okudaira family of the Nakatsu Domain in Buzen, located in Dojima. Although he returned to Nakatsu (Oita Prefecture) at 18 months old following his father's sudden death, he returned at age 20 to pursue Western studies (Rangaku). He spent three and a half years at Tekijuku, the Rangaku school of physician Ogata Koan, devoting himself to his studies day and night.

Later, under orders from his domain, Fukuzawa went to Edo in 1858 (Ansei 5) and opened a Rangaku school—the origin of Keio University—within the Okudaira family's middle residence in Tsukiji Teppozu. In 1868 (Keio 4), the school moved to Shiba Shinsenza and was named "Keio University" after the era name. By the early Meiji period, its reputation was unrivaled, and students wishing to study Western learning flocked from all over the country. Consequently, Keio University decided to establish branch schools for regional students, and in 1873 (Meiji 6), the first branch, "Osaka Keio Gijuku," was opened. This school, which contributed to the education and human resource development of Osaka, soon lost its reason for existence because "for students outside the region, there was no difference in cost or effort between studying in Tokyo or Kansai." It closed in less than two years. Today, one can trace this history in Osaka through a monument inscribed with "independence and self-respect" that commemorates the branch school, and another at his birthplace inscribed with "Birthplace of Yukichi Fukuzawa."

In May 2008, 150 years after the opening of the Rangaku school in Tsukiji Teppozu, the "Keio Osaka Riverside Campus" was established as part of the 150th Anniversary Commemorative Project, overlooking the Dojima River near the birthplace monument. This satellite campus, established to re-establish a base in Kansai—a region with deep historical ties—and to aim for the further development of Keio University, moved to Grand Front Osaka (directly connected to JR Osaka Station) in May 2013 and was renamed "Keio Osaka City Campus." As a place where people and learning intersect to deepen "jinkan kosai" (social interaction), a core philosophy of Keio University, it carries out various activities such as educational research, information dissemination, and hosting lectures to share research results.

On the campus floor, photo panels of "Keio students of Osaka Keio Gijuku" are displayed, conveying Fukuzawa's spirit to the present day—a spirit that rejected old customs and traditions and taught that "civilization is the progress of the human spirit and virtue."

(Yukiko Ozaki, Office of the President, Keio Osaka City Campus Office)