Nakae Chōmin

Nakae Chōmin

Nakae Chōmin ( Japanese 中 江 兆民 , real name: Nakae Tokusuke ( 中 江 篤 助 ); born December 8, 1847 , in the province of Tosa ; died December 13, 1901 ) was a Japanese thinker and politician of the Meiji period .

life and work

Nakae Chōmin was a samurai of the Tosa-han . He studied Chinese and Western culture in Nagasaki and Edo . The Meiji government sent him to France with the Iwakura Mission , where he continued his education from 1872 to 1874. On his return he opened a school for French language and culture. By 1880, Nakae was recognized as the leading Japanese specialist in French thought and a leading liberal.

Nakae was the editor of the "Orient Freedom Newspaper " ( 東洋 自由 新聞 , Tōyō Jiyū Shimbun ) in 1881 and stood up in the 1880s for the recognition of human rights and called for the descendants of the Chōshū and Satsuma clans to withdraw from the government. After the newspaper was closed, he founded his own magazine, “Notes on Political Reason” ( 政 理 相 談 ) and translated Rousseau's “Social Contract ” and other French writings, but wrote down his own political thoughts in addition to his work as a journalist.

In 1887 Nakae was banned from Tōkyō under the "Security Ordinance " ( 保安 条例 , Hoan jōrei ), but was then elected to the Reichstag as a member of the "Constitutional Freedom Party" ( 立憲 自由 党Rikken Jiyūtō ) in the House of Representatives election in 1890 in the 4th constituency of Osaka . The following year, however, he resigned in an argument with his colleagues, whom he accused of adapting too much to the wishes of the government. - After an unsuccessful attempt to be a businessman, he returned to writing and political activities. He founded a new political party under the name "National People's Party" ( 国民党Kokumin-tō ), but remained unsuccessful. His call for war against Russia in 1900 shows a turn towards nationalism in his final years.

Works

• History of science ( 理学 沿革 史 , Rigaku enkaku-shi ); 1886
• Discussion of three drunkards ( 三 酔 人 経 綸 問答 , Sansuijin keirin mondō ); 1887
  • English: A Discourse of Three Drunkards on Government. Introduction by Nobuko Tzukui and Jeffrey Hammond. 1984 ( UNESCO collection of representative works )
• Waking up the citizens ( 平民 の 目 さ ま し , Heimin no mesamashi ); 1887
• A year and a half ( 一年 有 半 , Ichinen yūhan ); 1901
• A year and a half, continued ( 続 一年 有 半 , Zoku Ichinen yūhan ); 1901

literature

• Noma, S. (Ed.): Nakae Chomin. In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia . Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X .
• Hunter, Janet: Nakae Chomin. In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History . Kodansha International, 1984, ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

Commons : Nakae Chōmin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Noma, S. (Ed.): Nakae Chomin. In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia . Kodansha, 1993.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nakae is the family name, Chōmin the first name.