Nitobe Inazo and Bushido By Sato Masahiro Photo : Nitobe Memorial Museum I Christian publishing house in Tokyo and the publisher of a 23-volume The year 2000 marked the 100th and two supplementary volumes set anniversary of the publication of of the complete works of Nitobe, Nitobe Inazo’s (1862-1933) Bushido marked the 100th anniversary of – The Soul of Japan, which he wrote Bushido by publishing another in English. Ceremonies were held translation. Translated by myself, all over Japan to commemorate the this latest effort is based on the first event. The Nitobe Foundation, careful comparison of the first edi- which has been steadily carrying out tion and the revised 10th edition. a succession of fine activities since Bushido was published in 1900 by its foundation in 1984, held a grand a small firm in Philadelphia called commemorative event in the north- Reeds and Biddle. Nitobe was 37 ern city of Morioka, Iwate years old at the time, and the book Prefecture, where Nitobe was born, was a mere 127 pages long. Right to mark the 100th anniversary of the after the book came out, Nitobe publication. The foundation invited went to Taiwan, then Japan’s newly Tweed Roosevelt, great-grandson of acquired colony, to take part in an former U.S. President Theodore effort to improve the sugar industry Roosevelt, to take part in the activi- there. His studies of the sugar ties. It was a well chosen invitation, industry took him all over the world, for President Roosevelt had acted as from the United States to Europe, the intermediary in negotiations and from Egypt to the Indian Ocean. between Japan and Russia that led to He returned to Japan in 1901. There the Treaty of Portsmouth, which he discovered that a pirated version concluded the Russo-Japanese War of Bushido was already being pub- in 1905. At the event, Tweed lished and even went through sever- Roosevelt gave a speech titled Nitobe and his wife Mary with the current ¥5,000 note in al editions in Japan in English. “How Dr. Nitobe Changed World the foreground Within a few years of its publica- History” and scholars from around tion, the book was translated into the world had an international sympo- (Kagawa Prefecture) and Iwate German, Polish, Bohemian and Marathi sium on “What Dr. Nitobe Would Hope Prefecture’s Higashiyama-cho and (a language used on the Indian subcon- for in the 21st Century,” and a memori- Hanamaki. The lectures were held at a tinent), and not long afterwards more al essay contest for university students wide range of places, including univer- translations came out in French, throughout Japan was organized. In sities, community colleges, churches, Norwegian, Hungarian, Russian, addition, the Nitobe Seminar House clubs and junior high schools. Chinese, Greek and Arabic. The book was established in Towa-cho, Iwate Nitobe originally wrote Bushido in has now been translated into more than Prefecture. English while in California, and it has 30 different languages. Even including In Tokyo, the United Nations since been translated into Japanese novels, it has probably been translated University organized a symposium many times. The first Japanese version into more languages than any other (sponsored by the former Ministry of was made in 1908 by his friend Sakurai book by any post-Meiji Japanese Education, Culture and Sports, the Oson. A second translation was made author. (Meiji period: 1868-1912) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the in 1938 by Nitobe’s disciple Yanaihara Why would Bushido be so well Yomiuri Shimbun) to mark the 100th Tadao (available in the Iwanami received all over the world, and even anniversary of the publication. Lectures Library of Classics), and four transla- today still be considered as required on Bushido and Nitobe were also held tions came out after World War II. reading for anyone wishing to under- in many other locations, including Each of these translations was based on stand Japan? Why would Nitobe Inazo, Sapporo (Hokkaido), Mito (Ibaraki the 10th revised and enlarged edition of who was trained in agricultural policy Prefecture), Osaka, Hiroshima, Zentsuji 1905. Kyo Bun Kwan, a leading and agricultural economics, write such Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: January / February 2002 39 a book? And why would he write it in father dug a tunnel and used water from the famous phrase, “I wish I would be a English, no less? To find the answers Towada Lake for irrigation, thus turn- bridge across the Pacific Ocean.” to these questions, one must take a ing the barren land around These words were to shape the rest of closer look at the life of young Nitobe Sanbongihara into a beautiful rice field. his life. Inazo. The two men also drew up plans for a Young Nitobe withdrew from the city. But Nitobe Jujiro’s obvious tal- University of Tokyo after just one year, II ents landed him in trouble with incom- however, and went off to study at Johns petent superiors, who cut Jujiro’s career Hopkins University of the United States, Nitobe was born on Sept. 1, 1862 as short through slander. Jujiro died in his where he would remain for three years. the third son of Nitobe Jujiro, a samurai anguish when Inazo was just five years While in the United States he was retainer of Nanbu Han (feudal domain) old. Nitobe, raised by his mother Seki, appointed a SAC assistant, and was sent centered on Morioka. In addition to eventually went to Tokyo to study at once to Germany, where he spent four two elder brothers, he also had four English, staying at a clothing shop run years studying at three different univer- older sisters (he was the youngest child by his uncle Ota Tokitoshi, who adopt- sities. He received a doctorate, got mar- in his family). The Nitobe name had ed the boy. In 1873, Nitobe enrolled in ried to Mary Patterson Elkinton (an been known since medieval ages in a famous Foreign Language School in American), and returned with his wife Japan. Throughout much of the Edo Tokyo (it would later become the to Japan in 1891, where he spent seven period (1603-1867), the Nitobe clan’s University Preparatory Academy). years as a professor at SAC. In addition fiefdom had received 700 koku of rice Then in 1877 he enrolled in the to teaching 19 hours of courses per per year, and even in the waning days Sapporo Agricultural College (SAC), week in a wide range of subjects at of the shogunate it was still a 200-koku which had been established in 1876 to SAC, he also served as principal of the fiefdom, thus the Nitobe were a gen- train personnel for the settlement of private Hokumei High School, worked uine samurai household. Both his Hokkaido. He graduated from the col- as a technical advisor to the Hokkaido father Jujiro and his grandfather Tsutou lege in 1881. Agency to assist in the still-new settle- worked to open up new land for culti- Nitobe entered SAC at the same time ment effort, and participated actively in vation in the domain’s Sanbongihara as Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930; who a number of cultural organizations. The (modern-day Towada, Aomori went on to become an independent heavy workload resulted in a mild ner- Prefecture). Nitobe’s father and grand- Christian missionary) and Miyabe vous breakdown (writer’s cramp). Kingo (1860-1951; who Nitobe took a sabbatical and then retired Photo : Kyo Bun Kwan became a botanist and was from academic life in 1898. eventually given the presti- Upon the advice of Erwin Bältz, a gious Order of Cultural German doctor serving as personal Merits). He was first to sign physician to the Meiji Emperor, Nitobe the “Covenant of the went together with his wife Mary to Believers in Jesus,” estab- recuperate in the United States. While lished by William S. Clark resting at Hotel Del Monte (now after his much-celebrated extended and rebuilt as the Graduate year at SAC, among students School of the U.S. Navy) in Monterey, in the second class, and central California, Nitobe wrote Nitobe was baptized as a Bushido – The Soul of Japan. Christian the following year. Following graduation he III worked as a civil servant for the Hokkaido Development Nitobe’s reason for writing Bushido Agency, helping with the set- is stated clearly in the preface to the tlement effort, as required of first edition. While studying in all SAC graduates at that Germany, he visited the Belgian legal time. His post was later scholar Emile Louis Victor de Laveleye eliminated by reform, and in (1822-92) for two days in the fall of 1883 he began undergraduate 1887. During a stroll with de Laveleye, studies at the University of the conversation turned by chance to Tokyo. It was during his the subject of religion. The Belgian interview for admittance to was surprised when Nitobe told him the university that Nitobe, in that religion was not taught in Japanese Nitobe, Miyabe Kingo and Uchimura Kanzo (from the left) response to a question from schools, and stopped dead in his tracks around 1883 Toyama Masakazu, uttered to ask again, “No religion! How do 40 Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: January / February 2002 you impart moral education?” Nitobe IV poetry as well. (Yamamuro Gumpei was at a loss for an answer, and the [1872-1940], founder of the Japanese question always remained in his mind. I can think of eight possible reasons. branch of the Salvation Army, made His American wife also had many similarly effective use of ancient questions about the behavior and (1) First, the word “bushido” was Japanese poems in writing The thought of the Japanese people.