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Document Details :

Title: Maruyama on Fukuzawa
Subtitle: Two Battles, One War
Author(s): JOOS, J.
Journal: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica
Volume: 29    Date: 1998   
Pages: 205-240
DOI: 10.2143/OLP.29.0.583571

Abstract :
No serious analysis of the intellectual evolution of the Meiji era would be complete without any reference to Fukuzawa Yukichi (Nakatsu;1835-1901). The importance of this writer is widely acknowledged: together with Nishi Amane (Tsuwano; 1829-1897), Tsuda Mamichi (Tsuyama; 1829-1903) and a few others, he is considered to be the founder of a modern approach to history, thought and society in Japan. More even than the baffling number of copies that his books sold during the Meiji era, or even the appearance of his effigy on the 10,000 yen note, the dazzling amount of research on Fukuzawa that has appeared since the beginning of the twentieth century is a telling indicator of this general acknowledgement. This acknowledgement has certainly not always been laudatory: besides being hailed as one of the “founding fathers” of the modernist lineage in Japan, Fukuzawa has equally been the target of criticism from those who look askance at his nationalist stance in the later years of his career. Even during his lifetime, Fukuzawa had to face up to verbal and even physical attacks because his points of view were allegedly tilted too heavily towards individualism, utilitarianism and internationalism1. Would it be too rash a conclusion to presume that he was under attack in these cases precisely because of the high degree of identification of his person with all the ‘isms’ he propagated, in other words because of his convincing qualities?

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