Special Tour Held on Mita Campus: "A Journey to Places in the Life of Yukichi Fukuzawa"
March 29, 2022
On March 14 and March 17, the Student Affairs Center hosted a special event "A Journey to Places in the Life of Yukichi Fukuzawa." During the tour, which was held for the first time in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Associate Professor Takeyuki Tokura of the Fukuzawa Memorial Institute for Modern Japanese Studies guided participants around Mita Campus in person, while taking in various locations associated with Fukuzawa's life. Participants at the event included students from a variety of Keio's campuses, undergraduate faculties, and graduate schools, with a total 30 students ranging from first-year to doctoral students joining over the two days on which tours were held. The event proved a wonderful opportunity for students to interact with Vice-President Akiyo Okuda, who took part in the tour on March 14, and Vice-President Keita Yamauchi and Dean of Student Affairs, Masanaru Tanoue, who attended on March 17.
The moment from the tour
The tour began at the Co-op Cafeteria's mural "Democracy" (Genichiro Inokuma) and traced the imprints of Fukuzawa's legacy within the campus from his generation to the present. The tour gave participants the chance to experience firsthand the hidden traces of Mita campus's history, through images of post-war reconstruction and artworks expressing the desire for peace, monuments and trees linking locations across eras, and accounts of buildings on campus both existing and gone. The tour also included areas that are usually closed to the public, such as the Mita Public Speaking Hall (Mita Enzetsu-kan) which has been designated as an important cultural property, the attic and base isolation facilities underneath the Old Library, as well as the Ex Noguchi Room. Participants enjoyed walking between locations while listening to a running commentary, at times light-hearted, about the points of interest.
In the attic of the Old Library
Exploring the Ex Noguchi Room
At the end of the tour, Professor Tokura delivered a presentation at the Mita Public Speaking Hall, which was followed by a special roundtable with Keio University's president. In his presentation, Associate Professor Tokura said that the portrait of Yukichi Fukuzawa displayed in the Mita Public Speaking Hall symbolizes how he fought for a free and equal society, fully embracing his revolutionary instincts and becoming a leader of his time. The subsequent roundtable then allowed for President Itoh to interact directly with student's questions and requests in a conversational setting. The event was a unique and valuable opportunity for students to engage openly and up-close with the president about a wide variety of issues, including student autonomy, research, online classes, student activities during the pandemic, and the art of giving speeches.
Roundtable with the Keio University president
Group photo in the Mita Public Speaking Hall (Mita Enzetsu-kan) on March 14
Group photo in the Mita Public Speaking Hall (Mita Enzetsu-kan) on March 17