Nishi Amane

Nishi Amane
( Takahashi Yuichi )

Title page "Bankoku kōhō"

Grave in the Aoyama Cemetery

Nishi Amane ( Japanese 西 周 ; * March 7, 1829 , † January 30, 1897 ) was a philosopher and political administrator at the beginning of the Meiji period who advocated the idea of ​​the Enlightenment . Amane coined the Japanese word tetsugaku ( 哲学 ) for the western term philosophy .

Live and act

Amane came from Tsuwano , a small residential town in the western Japanese prefecture of Shimane . His ancestors were doctors in the service of the daimyo who ruled there . He was allowed to study Confucianism instead of medicine . He was able to look around in Osaka and Okayama , then became a teacher at the local Han school Yōrōkan , where he studied the social principles of the philosopher Ogyū Sorai .

In 1853 he was sent to Edo , where, under the impression of Matthew Calbraith Perry, he began to turn to Western science. He broke away from his Han and began to study Rangaku under Tetsuka Ritsuzō (1822-1878) . In 1857 he got his position in the newly established office for the study of foreign science, the Bansho Shirabesho . In 1859 he married the doctor Ishikawa's daughter Masu. In 1863 he was ordered by the government with Tsuda Mamichi and others as part of an order for warships . a. sent to Holland, studied law, economics and philosophy at the University of Leiden under Simon Vissering and brought the ideas of positivism and utilitarianism to Japan.

Back in Japan in 1865, he became a professor at Keiseisho in 1866 , and translated as a great achievement Elements of International Law by Henry Wheaton , which appeared in 1870 as Bankoku kōhō ( 万 国 公法 ). He met Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu , who was staying in Kyoto, and suggested that he seek advice from the French on military issues. He then worked for a short time himself at the Numazu Military Academy . In 1867, in connection with the demand for the Shogun's abdication, he recommended that the state be restructured and the separation of powers and a national assembly introduced. During this time he used his property as a private school and gave lectures. One of his students was the later philosopher Kiyono Tsutomu (1853-1897), who dealt extensively with Kant .

In 1873 he founded the Meiroku Society ( 明 六 社 , Meirokusha ) with Fukuzawa Yukichi , the Minister of Culture Mori Arinori (1847-1889) and others , and introduced Western philosophy under the catchphrase "Enlightenment" ( 啓蒙 , keimō ) to the To promote the “civilization of (Japanese) society” ( 文明 化 , bummeika ).

Nishi worked in various ministries, including a. in the Ministry of Military Affairs, where he formulated the " drafting decree " of 1873 ( 徴 兵 令 , Chōhei-rei ). In 1882 he wrote the draft for the “Imperial Soldiers' Edict ” ( 軍人 勅 諭 , Gunjin chokuyu ).

In 1881 Amane founded the "Society for German Studies" with Aoki Shūzō , Katsura and others ( Kyūjitai : 獨 逸 學 協會 , Doitsugaku kyōkai ), the forerunner of today's Dokkyō University .

In 1897, shortly before his death, Amane was made a baron. He is buried from the Aoyama cemetery . In 1952, the Japanese Post issued a 10 yen commemorative stamp .

Works (selection)

• Hyakuichi shinron ( 百一 新 論 ): A small encyclopedia
• Hyakugaku renkan ( 百 学 連環 ): Another encyclopedia
• Chichi kōmei ( 致知 啓蒙 ): "Enlightenment of (traditional) knowledge"

Remarks

1. ↑ There are two almost identical versions of this painting in Tsuwano: the portrait shown here is in the possession of the “Tsuwano Taikodani inari jinja” shrine, the second is in the Tsuwano Local History Museum. (On display at Kanagawa Prefecture Art Museum exhibition in 2013).
2. ↑ Actually Shūsuke ( 周 助 ).
3. ↑ Meiroku means here "in the year Meiji 6", ie 1873.
4. ↑ Prince Kitashirakawa (1847–1895), who had stayed in Berlin from 1870 to 1877, became the first president .

literature

• Toshihiko Suzuki (Ed.): Nishi Amane in: Nihon daihyakka zensho. (Denshibukku-han), Shogakukan, 1996.
• S. Noma (Ed.): Nishi Amane in: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , pp. 1087-1098

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Nishi is the family name, Amane the first name.