Traditional learning, Western thought, and the Sapporo Agricultural College: A case study of acculturation in early Meiji Japan

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 977-1014

  Willcock, Hiroko ^a  

^a GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0039246529     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0026749x00003905     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. The first two major periods of acculturation occurred in the seventh and seventeenth centuries.
2. Tokumei Zenkentaishi Ôbei Kairan Jikki, vol. 5, no. 2 (Tokyo: Hakubansha, 1878), pp. 435-8.
3. Kuroda made a specific request for the staff to teach such subjects as Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Veterinary Science, Physiology, Physics, Botany and Civil Engineering.
4. The dedication and commitment of some American employees of the Kaitakushi were amply shown both in the official letters to the Kaitakushi officials and their private letters home. Reflecting their dedication, many of them were obviously unhappy and irritated with the corruption and general inertia constantly displayed by the Japanese officials.
5. His concern for the moral conduct of students was indicated, for instance, by his closure of the Temporary College. Kuroda took this extraordinary action after he witnessed students' wild behaviour on an unannounced visit to the Temporary College.
6. He argued this from the point of economy. He argued, through a case of a Professor in Entomology saving a crop from an invasion of pests, that Japan could save millions of dollars by ready access to advanced knowledge.
7. Hokkaidô Teikoku Daigaku Enkakushi (Sapporo: Hokkaidô Teikoku Daigaku, 1920), pp. 37-8.
8. Ibid., p. 36.
9. The suggestion of Clark was said to have been made to the envoy by Nîjima Jô, a graduate of Amherst College, the founder of Dôshisha University and a man who was to become a friend and close confidant of Uchimura Kanzô. See David J. Michell, 'William S. Clark of Sapporo: Pioneer Education and Church Planter in Japan', Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1988, p. 119.
10. Clark had taught several other Japanese students at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Clark kept in touch with some of them while he was in Japan. In particular, he was closely associated with Yuchi Jiuemon, who worked for the Kaitakushi and acted as an interpreter for Capron and other American employees, and Uesugi Katsu. Clark was also acquainted with Uesugi's father, Narinori, the Lord of Yonezawa, while he was in Japan.
11. Of the twenty-three students, twenty-one were those whom Clark, Wheeler and Penhallow had selected after they themselves conducted entry examinations. Henceforth, the Sapporo Agricultural College will be abbreviated as SAC.
12. Komaba as well as Kôbu chose the British path rather than German, for they believed the British emphasized practicality while the German was highly theoretical. It was after 1880 that Komaba shifted notably to the German model.
13. Saitô Norio, Nihon Nôgakushi p. 165, cited in Nihon Kindai shi ni okeru Sapporo Nôgakkô no Kenkyû by Nagai Hideo (Sapporo: Hokkaidô Daigaku, 1980), p. 18.
14. Saitô Norio, Nihon Nôgakushi p. 165, cited in Nihon Kindai shi ni okeru Sapporo Nôgakkô no Kenkyû by Nagai Hideo (Sapporo: Hokkaidô Daigaku, 1980), p. 18.
15. Clark's letter to his wife, dated October 22, 1876, in W. S. Clark: Clark's Letters from Japan, edited by Kawabata Takashi, Ônishi Naoki and Nishida Kimiyuki (Sapporo: Miyane Press, 1987), p. 27.
16. Ibid. Evidently, both Capron and Clark respected him for his remarkable insight and visionary capacities and were impressed with his ability and achievement in wielding such great power in the empire at the relatively young age of 36. Clark often mentioned that Kuroda was a very remarkable man and in many respects of admirable character. See for example a letter to his wife, August 14, 1876.
17. His contract stipulated the payment of $6,000 for his services, but by the time of his departure this sum had risen to $8,000. It would have assisted substantially the Clark family of eight children.
18. Phi Beta Kappa is a society formed in American universities and is marked by the high academic achievement of its members. Amherst College was founded in 1821 by Noah Webster and was one of the first colleges founded by evangelical Christians at the time of religious reawakening which swept early nineteenth-century America.
19. Fujita Fumiko, American Pioneers and the Japanese Frontier (Wesport, Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 91.
20. Michell, 'William S. Clark of Sapporo', p. 15.
21. Quoted in ibid., p. 122.
22. Ibid., p. 123.
23. Clark's letter to his wife in October 1876, Kawabata Takashi (ed.), W. S. Clark: Letters, p. 39.
24. William Clark, First Annual Report, 1877, p. 47.
25. William Wheeler, Second Annual Report, 1878, p. 6.
26. The Northern Studies Centre at Hokkaidô University holds a number of lecture notes written by students who entered the SAC during its first four years.
27. Nitobe Inazô, Nitobe's letter to Miyabe Kingo, April 20, 1884, in the collection of letters exchanged between early SAC students held at the Northern Studies Centre at Hokkaidô University.
28. See, for example, a note taken by Ibuki on a lecture entitled 'geographical position of the human centre of appearance' by John Cutter. References as well as text books on such disciplines selected by the American staff for the Library were as substantial as others on sciences. Particularly, books on history and literature were in abundance, which reflects Clark's philosophy. See Catalogue of Books in the Library of the Sapporo Agricultural College, published by the Sapporo Agricultural College from Shûeikai in 1888.
29. Scott's comments on self-culture and Bacon's work on learning as set down in students' lecture notes, for instance, were well selected for the purpose of teaching the moral culture of the West.
30. Yanaihara Tadao, Daigaku ni tsuite (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1952), p. 92.
31. When the temporary college was reopened in April 1873, there were about thirteen items on punishment. No punishment was mentioned in the college code in the new regulations.
32. Michell, 'William S. Clark of Sapporo', p. 22.
33. Ibid.
34. John Locke, no. 147, 'Some Thoughts Concerning Education', in Peter Gay, John Locke on Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1971), p. 108.
35. Ibid., no. 135, p. 99.
36. Yan Yuan, an eighteenth-century Confucian scholar of shixue, changed Dong Zhongshu's axiom to 'follow righteousness in order to pursue the utility; illumine the Way in order to calculate the success', in 'Yen Yuan, Chu Hsi, and Wang Yangming', Chung-ying Cheng, Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (eds), Principle and Practicality (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), p. 42.
37. Wang formulated the unity of knowledge and action (zhixing heyi) and the fulfilment of the innate knowledge of goodness (zhi liangzhi) as essential dimensions of practicality. For Wang Yangming knowledge is the 'plan' (zhuyi), and action is the 'effort' (gongfu) for knowledge. Knowledge is the beginning of action and action is the completion of knowledge. The principle of Wang Yangming's unity of knowledge and action was that knowledge and action were one and the same and occurred simultaneously. This principle meant true knowledge is for the sake of action and without action, knowledge could not be called knowledge. (Wang Yangming, Instructions for Practical Living, translated by Wig-tsi Chan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 11).
38. Nake Tôju, 'Okina Mondô', Nakae Tôju, Nihon Shisô Taikei, vol. 29 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974), p. 136.
39. Ibid., p. 138.
40. Shimizu Yasuzô, Nakae Tôju (Tokyo: Azuma Shuppan, 1967), p. 152.
41. Ibid. He expressed the idea of experience by various expressions such as tainin, taitoku, taiken and taisatsu.
42. In noting the existence of two main ideological currents in Japanese education, nationalist statism and liberal democracy, Yanaihara Tadao, a former President of Tokyo University, has contrasted Tokyo University with SAC as the two most influential institutions established in the early Meiji period. He remarked that it was unfortunate for the development of modern Japan that imperialist nationalism and statism fermented in Tokyo University became the dominant political thought of the society and that the country failed to develop further the liberal democratic ideology that was nurtured in SAC. Yanaihara Tadao, Daigaku ni tsuite, p. 93.
43. Clark's frequent correspondence with his former SAC students continued until near his death in March 1886 and their reminiscences, retold and published repeatedly, vividly illustrated the closeness and mutual affection he shared with his students.
44. When he left Sapporo in April 16, 1877, about twenty-five students and friends mounted on horseback accompanied him to a village ten miles distant from Sapporo. After a hearty lunch together, he shook hands with the students, who were in tears. It was claimed that his last words to them as he rode off were 'boys, be ambitious!' However, there have been conflicting views as the accuracy of the acount. Uchimura's version is based on a poem by Ôshima Masatake written immediately after Clark's departure and recorded as such in his reminiscence written in later life. Clark's highly emotionally charged departure was romanticized, recounted to their juniors and published by the students. Clark's now famous injunction was virtually unknown outside SAC until around the turn of the century.
45. Uchimura Kanzô, Uchimura Kanzô Shisô Sensho, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Haneda Shoten, 1927), pp. 250-8.
46. W. Wheeler, Second Annual Report of the Sapporo Agricultural College, p. 8.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid., p. 14.
49. John Locke, 'Some Thoughts on Education', no. 66, pp. 42-6.
50. Fujita Fumiko, American Pioneer and the Japanese Frontier (Wesport: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 110.
51. W. Wheeler, Second Annual Report, p. 12.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.
54. Nakae Tôju, 'Okina Mondô', Nakae Tôju, Shisô Taikei, vol. 29 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974), pp. 50-1.
55. Kaibara Ekken, 'Yamato Zokkun', in Ekken Zenshû, Ekkenkai (ed.) (Tokyo: Ekkenkai, 1910-11), p. 60.
56. Kaibara Ekken, 'Gojôkun', Kaibara Ekken, Nihon Sishô Taikei, vol. 34 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974), p. 147 and 'Yamato Zokkun', Ekken Jukkun (Tokyo: Yûhôdô Bunko, 1916), p. 80.
57. Kaibara Ekken, 'Gojôkun', Kaibara Ekken, Nihon Sishô Taikei, vol. 34 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974), p. 147 and 'Yamato Zokkun', Ekken Jukkun (Tokyo: Yûhôdô Bunko, 1916), p. 80.
58. Minamoto Ryôen, ' "Jitsugaku" and Empirical Rationalism', in Principle and Practicality, p. 414.
59. Mukai Genshô, for instance, was impressed with the advanced scholarship of Western astronomy, but abjured the metaphysical component as its foundation. Okada Takehiko, 'Yamazaki Ansai and Kaibara Ekken', Principles and Practicality, p. 271.
60. Kaibara Ekken, 'Yamato Zokkun', in Ekken Jukkun, pp. 88-9.
61. Fujita Fumiko, American Pioneer, p. 108.
62. W. Wheeler, Second Annual Report, p. 15.
63. Ibid.
64. However, one student remembered Wheeler as, next to Clark, the most charismatic and able teacher among the foreign teachers at SAC. Wheeler was, according to him, strict and yet sincere in his conviction and taught students following that conviction. His bearing was distinguished. He earned a lot of respect from students for his ability, moral fibre and his strength of character. Suzuki Toshio, op. cit., p. 116.
65. Uchimura Kanzô, 'Freewilling and Freedoing', Uchimura Kanzô Chosaku zenshû, vol. 7 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1952), pp. 276-80.
66. Uchimura Kanzô, 'Jusha ni naraubeshi', Shôri no Shôgai, Yamamoto Shichihei (ed.), vol. 2 (Tokyo: Yamamoto Shoten, 1991), pp. 175-8.
67. Uchimura Kanzô, 'Waga Risô no Hito', ibid., p. 336.
68. Uchimura Kanzô, How I Became a Christian, Complete Works of Kanzô Uchimura (Tokyo: Kyôbunkan, 1970), p. 87. Through the Reverend Davison the Methodist Episcopal Church initially offered the members of the Believers in Jesus a donation of about US$800 for their planned church, but later settled for a loan after a strong objection voiced by Uchimura and some other members against their financial dependence on missionaries.
69. Ibid.