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The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa Paperback – January 9, 2007
by Yukichi Fukuzawa (Author), & 2 more
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (71)
4.0 on Goodreads
599 ratings
Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901) was a leading figure in the cultural revolution that transformed Japan from an isolated feudal nation into a full-fledged player in the modern world. He translated a wide range of Western works and adapted them to Japanese needs, inventing a colorful prose style close to the vernacular. He also authored many books, which were critical in introducing the powerful but alien culture of the West to the Japanese. Only by adopting the strengths and virtues of the West, he argued, could Japan maintain its independence despite the "disease" of foreign relations.
Dictated by Fukuzawa in 1897, this autobiography offers a vivid portrait of the intellectual's life story and a rare look inside the formation of a new Japan. Starting with his childhood in a small castle town as a member of the lower samurai class, Fukuzawa recounts in great detail his adventures as a student learning Dutch, as a traveler bound for America, and as a participant in the tumultuous politics of the pre-Restoration era. Particularly notable is Fukuzawa's ability to view the new Japan from both the perspective of the West and that of the old Japan in which he had been raised. While a strong advocate for the new civilization, he was always aware of its roots in the old.
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From the United States
Lincoln
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I wanted to read this book because 1 of my children graduated from Keio University and another one is a student there right now. It's a great school in that they encourage their students to think outside of the box. For these reasons, I had more than a passing interest in reading this autobiography by the founder of this famous university. I really enjoyed it. Much more than I expected. The book was written well over 100 years ago, but it's still fresh on many levels. The English translator did a good job and I wonder if it's even better in Japanese. I found myself laughing at certain things, especially regarding his personal and frank observations about society and also himself. On another level, we can see the way Japan once was regarding the caste system between the various classes, with the samurai being at the top of the pecking order. However, even among the samurai there were class distinctions in which small children of higher class samurai families would boss around much older children of lower ranking samurai families. Fukuzawa disliked this caste system and discusses it with keen insight. Fukuzawa was also one of the few Japanese to travel to America at this time, and his visit to Brown University was an important model when he was laying down the academic foundation for Keio University.
By the time you finish the book, Fukuzawa comes across as a really nice man you'd like to have a drink and a long chat with.
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Zack Davisson
5.0 out of 5 stars You must read this book
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2007
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Yukichi Fukuzawa is on the money. Quite literally, actually. He is the face on the Japanese equivalent of the hundred-dollar bill, which is fitting because he was the Japanese equivalent of Benjamin Franklin. A man completely ahead of his times, innovative and far-thinking, yet he never sought personal or political power, and in fact gleefully surrendered his samurai status and refused his clan-paid salary in order to just be an individual. Smack in the middle of civil war, when the armies of the Tokugawa Shogun fought against the armies trying to restore the Meiji Emperor to power, Fukuzawa founded a University. Education, liberation from ignorance, these were the ideals he worked for, not who would be king. His pen was his sword.
"The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" is an extraordinary achievement, not only because of Fukuzawa's own extraordinary life but also for its readability. The guy was a writer, first and foremost, and he knew that the value of any book, any testament of beliefs, was inherent in how many people would pick it up and read it. He specifically wrote in simple, entertaining prose because he wanted the poorest and least-educated person to be able to pick up his works and enjoy them thoroughly, rather than have them be pondered over and studied by obtuse academics.
Fukuzawa lays out his life from his earliest stages, bitterly hating the feudal system that meant he had to bow and scrape to anyone who outranked him, regardless of that persons ability. He saw education as a means out of this proscribed lifestyle, and pursued the study of the Dutch language, which at the time was the only foreign interaction with Japan. His shock when he actually meets foreigners in the open port of Yokohama, and realizing that none of them spoke Dutch and that Holland was actually an unimportant country was a bombshell to the young Fukuzawa. From then on, the study of English obsessed him. He sailed on the first official Japanese mission to the US, founded Keio University based on English education, and tried to silently prod Japan out of its nationalistic frenzy and into the modern world.
Because it is an autobiography, of course, Fukuzawa is free to paint whatever portrait of himself that he wants. There are no "warts and all" revelations here, and even when he tries to describe his faults he comes off as more of a charming rouge than anything else. There are controversies with Fukuzawa, of course, and you will find none of them here. He gives you his personal philosophy of life, tells you how he tried his best to live up to it, all the while giving you a window into one of Japan's most dramatic periods of history.
Anyone interested in Japanese history should read this book. It is that simple. Fukuzawa may be one of the most important figures ever to emerge from Japan, and is influence is still felt to this day. The sheer pleasure to be had from reading "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" is a double bonus, and makes this book essential.
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Risa
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Probably...
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2023
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Fukuzawa-san's biggest fan - anyway, biggest American fan. I bought this book some years ago, but lost it and wanted to read it again.
His thinking is brilliant, honest and refreshing... a believer in equality for ALL - no exceptions.
I wish we had had a statesman like him here!
BTW, he's also genuinely funny, entertaining, and readable.
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Kenneth
5.0 out of 5 stars Very insightful to the development of Fukuzawa’s ideas
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2022
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A super interesting read about a super interesting man. Really interesting to see how he formulated his views which influenced Japan so much in the years to come. Also, he really needs to admit to his drinking problems, it’s like 1/3 of the book for some reason.
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SrHaller
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2024
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The book is in “ok” position but this is just a fabulous autobiographical of Yukichi Fukuzawa I had to buy it. I took a course in Japanese history at MTSU and I found myself in a trans with the book I had to have it back. A great autobiographical of Japans most influential being on planet.
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Clayton R. MacIntosh
5.0 out of 5 stars Review of the Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Fukuzawa's autobiography is well-written and a joy to read! He led an amazing life and lived during a time when Japan was changing from a feudal society to a country that was rapidly assimulated European and American manufacturing and military concepts.
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Cozette A. Thomas
3.0 out of 5 stars School Assignment
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2009
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This book was assigned for my World History class and well I don't think I would have read it if it wasn't assigned. I found it to be interesting and m easy read. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interested in Asian Culture.
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Loves the View
4.0 out of 5 stars Old Ways Die Hard
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2008
Format: Paperback
There are hundreds and maybe thousands of memoirs and narratives of the US Civil War. Not so Japan. This book is important due to the rarity of narratives for this unusual time in Japan.
Yukichi Fukuzawa was born the second son of a lower status samurai in a lower status clan. Being under the radar screen he was able to get approval for his studies, an approval which he connived to disguise his real passion for learning Dutch. Little did he know that his knowledge of Dutch would lead to a passion for English which would later have such great importance.
The treaties may have been a done deal for the west, but Japan would not have maintained 200+ years of seclusion unless there were a vested interest for keeping it so. Fukuzawa describes (was it 13?) years of real and imagined attempts on his life. He refers to some assassinations of those supporting relations with the world, and a chronology at the end documents even more. This schoolmaster, teaching the dreaded western ways, who could easily have been deeper in the fray, describes how kept his head down.
The book is good. Its rarity makes it valuable, but it is not a 5 star book. Its rambling style is probably a result of its being dictated. In some areas there is a lot of detail such as his drinking habit. I'd rather have less of that and more description of his living quarters, the campus, the faculty or the nature of his students. Page 140 has the first mention of his wife. There is a chapter later about his family, but it is more about harmony and the achievements of his children. Interesting to me would be his courtship, family/clan customs/rituals (he apparently lives with his mother in law) and the role his wife seems to have as and advisor.
The author is at his best in his vignettes of his life and travels such as the difficulty of getting instruction and materials in Dutch and later English, the Japanese delegation's trip to Paris, impressions of Hawaii (far too short), how students copied books and how students paid tuition wrapped like a bento.
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Matthew Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2022
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I was assigned this book for a summer class about Japanese history since 1850 and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read such a magnificent book.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
not to much to say about a required reading
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From the United States
T W
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
College course book
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Christina
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2013
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This book does a great job of giving you an idea of what things were like in Japan around the Meiji Restoration. Yukichi's stories read very fast and keep you interested.
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Charlie Canning
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of autobiography rendered in clear and direct prose
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2013
Format: Paperback
In an essay entitled "The Opportunity of Japan" (1915), American sociologist Thorstein Veblen compared the rapid transformation of Japanese society during the Meiji Period (1868-1912) to the rise of Germany some years earlier: "In a measure their [Japan's] case is paralleled by that of the German people, e.g., who have recently made an analogous but less immoderate and less precipitate move out of mediaevalism into the modern system of industry and science ... though, herein, again, the rate and ratio of enhanced achievement on the part of the Germans fall short of the spectacular sweep of the Japanese."
And spectacular it was. At the time of Fukuzawa Yukichi's birth in Osaka in 1835, Japan was a largely feudal society beset by internal division. At the time of his death nearly seventy years later in 1901, Japan was a modern state with a centralized government, a civil service, a postal system, dual-entry accounting, universities, factories, an impressive railway network, modern shipbuilding capabilities, and a military that would soon defeat a major European power in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. No single person had any more to do with the social engineering for this miracle than writer and educator Fukuzawa Yukichi.
Born to a lower-ranked samurai family from the Kyushu, Fukuzawa began to rebel against the Confucian-based caste system from the time that he was a child. In his Autobiography, he tells us that he had inherited his antipathy to the social order from his father: "To me, indeed, the feudal system is my father's mortal enemy which I am honor-bound to destroy." Throughout his youth, he was the "nail" that resolutely refused to be pounded down: "I was always unconcerned with the way of society, and it was my inborn nature to act always in my own way." Fukuzawa's ticket out of the narrow confines of the Nakatsu clan's domain in Kyushu was the study of Dutch (Ran-go) in Nagasaki and Osaka. Later, he moved to Edo and began studying English.
For Fukuzawa, Western learning was an absolute necessity if Japan wished to avoid the fate of China. The idea was first defensive: Japan needed to modernize to protect itself from foreign incursions. Later, however, Fukuzawa urged his countrymen to take a more cosmopolitan outlook so as to become a great nation of the world: "I must take advantage of the moment to bring in more of Western civilization and revolutionize our people's ideas from the roots. Then perhaps it would not be impossible to form a great nation in this far Orient, which would stand counter to Great Britain of the West, and take an active part in the progress of the whole world."
Fukuzawa's Autobiography is a classic of the genre. In some ways, it can be compared with Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. But Fukuzawa is decidedly less dogmatic than Franklin. Fukuzawa's tone is more like that of Charlie Chaplin. Both men tell their life stories with considerable grace and charm while managing to define the times they lived in. Like Chaplin, Fukuzawa is a masterful storyteller and the narrative moves along at a companionable pace through all of the principal events of the early Meiji era. Since Fukuzawa was both participant and observer, one would expect him to focus on his own achievements. And while he does touch on some of these (the founding of Keio University, for example), he usually follows anything that might be termed self-aggrandizement with passages that show a corresponding weakness of understanding or character. The net result is that the reader trusts and admires this man and willingly turns the page to see what is next.
Elsewhere in his writings, Fukuzawa wrote that he wanted to develop a prose style that was so clear and direct that his words could be understood by a servant woman straining to hear what was being said from the next room. In his Autobiography, dictated to a secretary and translated into English by Fukuzawa's grandson Kiyooka Eiichi, Fukuzawa has done exactly that: He has taken one of the most complex and disparate subjects (the Restoration) in Japanese history and managed to explain it so that it can be understood by a novice. This is no small achievement.
At the end of the Autobiography, Fukuzawa Yukichi looked back over a life that had been more successful than he could have ever imagined. Vindicated, honored, loved - gratified by Japan's recent victory of China in the Sino-Japanese War and - he thought - feudalism. When Fukuzawa died in 1901, he could not have foreseen what was about to happen. Japan was going to double-back on itself - to combine Western science and the extant elements of feudalism into an autocratic state (This is historian E. H. Norman's thesis in his Japan's Emergence as a Modern State and Feudal Background of Japanese Politics).
The reason that many people believe that the key to understanding Japan today can be found in the Meiji period is that the work that Fukuzawa set himself to do as a boy in Nakatsu is still unfinished. And that is why the man on the ¥10,000 banknote has a Mona Lisa smile.
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Alessandro da Montefeltro
5.0 out of 5 stars Yes read this book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2020
Format: Paperback
Yes, read this book…
At 18 years old… 1971 as a freshman at University, I enrolled in a course called “Studies in Japanese Intellectual History“… Taught by Harry Harootunian.. I basically chose this course from the title… Knowing I knew nothing about the subject matter… This book was on the reading list… Dr. Harootunian also assigned novels and other reading material that highlighted the great changes in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration… This book and Dr. Harootunian’s enthusiasm for the subject opened up this young man’s mind… I am now 67 years old…I retain the original copy of this book today and all the other books that were assigned reading material.
…Thank you Dr. Harootunian!!!
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Andy
5.0 out of 5 stars The Man on the Money
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2010
Format: Paperback
I bought this book for a course on Modern Japan. The cover I received was barren and dull so it did not peak my interest at first glance. Fortunately I was mistaken regarding my first impression of the book and it is now on my top three list of favorite books of all time! Fukuzawa is inspiring, intriguing, and demonstrates what an interesting read historical accounts should be! His story transitions from the nearly isolated Edo period as a samurai ranked official (though at this time it is peaceful and samurai are now scholars) to the rapidly changing Meiji Restoration (this is when social ranks are abolished based on birthrights). He studies Dutch in order to read books on new technologies such as guns and medicines. He even travels to Europe and gives the perspective of its peoples from a Japanese view. There is another essay he wrote after the main text which was used to inspire education among civilians which is still useful today. I will actually be reading this book again soon-- it's that good!
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From other countries
Walli
1.0 out of 5 stars Buch ist in schrecklichem Zustand
Reviewed in Germany on October 21, 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Das Buch weißt sowohl Beschädigungen am Einband (2-3 cm Riss) als auch Risse in den ersten 15 Seiten auf. Diese sind noch dazu aufgewellt. Das Produkt wirkt wie gebraucht. Ich habe das Produkt zurückgesandt.
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