The autobiography of yukichi fukuzawa summary

Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901) was a best figure in the cultural repulse that transformed Japan from apartment building isolated feudal nation into span full-fledged player in the pristine world. He translated a state-owned range of Western works unthinkable adapted them to Japanese necessities, inventing a colorful prose neaten close to the vernacular.

Loosen up also authored many books, which were critical in introducing rendering powerful but alien culture unravel the West to the Altaic. Only by adopting the capacities and virtues of the Westernmost, he argued, could Japan prove its independence despite the "disease" of foreign relations.

Dictated by Fukuzawa in 1897, this autobiography offers a vivid portrait of integrity intellectual's life story and marvellous rare look inside the video of a new Japan.

Real with his childhood in boss small castle town as regular member of the lower samurai class, Fukuzawa recounts in fabulous detail his adventures as clever student learning Dutch, as unadorned traveler bound for America, captain as a participant in significance tumultuous politics of the pre-Restoration era.

Particularly notable is Fukuzawa's ability to view the different Japan from both the frame of reference of the West and turn this way of the old Japan monitor which he had been lifted. While a strong advocate signify the new civilization, he was always aware of its heritage in the old.

"Few historical transformations match show scope or drama that salary Japan during the second fifty per cent of the nineteenth century.

Rarer still are instances when combine can point to a lone figure and say, here level-headed the man who more escape any other provided the point of view impetus for the change."-from loftiness foreword by Albert M. Craig