Page 
Educator, cultural interpreter, and civil servant. He spent his early years in the northern Hinshu city of Morioka. He studied agricultural economics at the new Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University), became a Christian,* and in 1883 entered Tokyo University for further instruction in English literature and economics. Desiring to become a "bridge" between Japan and the West, he studied in the United States for three years and in Germany for another three years. By the time he returned to Japan he had published one book in English and German and had earned the first of five doctoral degrees (two of them honorary)
As a professor at his alma mater in Sapporo, Nitobe lectured widely, reorganized the curriculum, and helped administer two private schools. In 1897 he resigned because of poor health and went with his American wife to the United States, where he wrote his famous Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1899) He was head of the first Higher School in Tokyo from 1906 to 1913, when he became a professor of colonialism policy at Tokyo University. In 1918 he attended the Versailles Peace Conference and remained in Geneva as the under-secretary-general of the League of Nations. He returned to Japan in 1926 and became chairman of the Institute of Pacific Relations.
Nitobe's numerous writings in English made him the best known Japanese writer in the west during his lifetime. He also wrote widely on moral cultivation, the subject of his work Shuyo (1911, Self Cultivation).
*Quaker
* * *
A Japanese View of Quakers (abridged) by Dr. Inazo NitobeThe starting point of Quaker teaching is the belief in the existence of the Inner Light. … Whatever the name, it means the presence of a Power not our own, the indwelling of a Personality, other than human, In each one of us. Such a doctrine is ... as old as the oldest form of mysticism. Buddhism is full of references to it. ... The Zen Sect of Buddhism makes it its aim to comprehend it. ...
Let it be far from me to turn Quakerism into Oriental mysticism. Quakerism stays within the family of Christianity. ... Unlike Orientals, George Fox and his followers conceived ... of light as a person, but by making their person eternal and existent before the world was, Quakerism came to much the same conclusion as the old mystics.
Were these mystics misguided, building their houses on the sands of fantasy and clothing themselves in garments woven of cobwebs? ... Modern psychologists do not seem to deny that there can be a gradual development in consciousness. ... [self-consciousness] is a state of development not very difficult for us to attain, in fact every normal being attains it. But is there not a stage still higher, where we can merge ourselves in the great universe? ... Curiously enough the Cosmic sense as described by those who attain it, is very much the same everywhere-whether it be by a Buddhist priest, a Shinto votary, or an American farmer.
The central doctrine of Quakerism is the belief in this Cosmic sense, which they call the Inner Light and all the doctrines and precepts of Quakerism are only corollaries drawn from this premise. ...
Is there then no superiority in the so-called revealed religion, by which is meant, I presume, the revelation of Godhead in the person and life of Jesus Christ? ... We read Lao-tze; we read Buddhist saints; I've study Oriental mystics, ... we are brought very near to the idea of redemption, atonement, salvation. ... but we feel that we have not reached our finality. ... Yes, we see light, but not the one thing essential-perfect, living Personality.
Return to our Page
Added 11th Month, 27th Day, 1998