In this Japanese name, the family name is Nitobe. in modern times usually consist of a Family name ( Surname) followed by a Given name. A family name or last name is a type of Surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs

Nitobe Inazō (1862-1933)

Nitobe's likeness on a 5000 yen note

Nitobe Inazō (新渡戸 稲造, Nitobe Inazō^?); 1 September 1862 - 15 October 1933) was a Christian, agricultural economist, author, educator, diplomat, and politician during Meiji period and Taishō period Japan. Events 462 - Possible start of first Byzantine indiction cycle. Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth The, or Meiji era, denotes the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor, running in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July The, or Taishō era, is a period in the History of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics.

Early life

Nitobe was born in Morioka, Mutsu Province (present-day Iwate Prefecture). is the capital city of Iwate prefecture Japan. As of 2003 the city has an estimated Population of 287672 and the density of 588 was an old province of Japan, made up of the present-day prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori, and the municipalities WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on Honshū island His father was a retainer to the local daimyo of the Nambu clan. The ( were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings His infant name was Inanosuke. Nitobe left Morioka for Tokyo in 1871 to become the heir to his uncle, Ota Tokitoshi, and adopted the name Ota Inazo. officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. He later reverted to Nitobe when his brothers died.

Educational career

Nitobe was in the second class of the Sapporo Agricultural College (now, Hokkaido University). was a school in Sapporo established in the purpose of education of student who would pioneer Hokkaidō by Kaitakushi the local government of Hokkaidō in those days or, is one of the leading national universities of Japan. It is situated in downtown Sapporo, just north of Sapporo Station, and stretching approximately He was converted to Christianity under the strong legacy left by Dr. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings William S. Clark, the first Vice-Principal of the College, who had taught in Sapporo for eight months before Nitobe's class arrived in the second year after the opening of the college; thus they never personally crossed paths. William Smith Clark ( July 31, 1826 – March 9, 1886) was a Professor, Massachusetts State Senator, third president is the fifth-largest city in Japan by population It is the capital of Hokkaidō Prefecture, located in Ishikari Subprefecture, and an Nitobe's classmates who converted to Christianity at the same time included Uchimura Kanzo. was a Japanese author, Christian evangelist, and the founder of the Nonchurch Movement ( Mukyōkai) of Christianity in the Nitobe and his friends were baptized by an American Methodist Episcopal missionary Bishop M.C. Harris. For individual churches named Methodist Episcopal Church, see Methodist Episcopal Church (disambiguation The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes Merriman Colbert Harris (1846-1921 was a Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1904 Nitobe's decision to study agriculture was due to a hope expressed by Emperor Meiji that the Nitobe family would continue to advance the field of agricultural development (Nitobe's father developed formerly waste land in the north of the Nambu domain near present-day Towada, then part of Iwate Prefecture, into productive farmland). The (3 November 1852 — 30 July 1912 or Meiji the Great was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession reigning from 3 February is a city located in Aomori, Japan. As of January 1, 2005 with the merger of the town of Towadako the city has an estimated

In 1883, Nitobe entered Tokyo Imperial University for further studies in English literature and in economics. The, abbreviated as, is a major Research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

In 1884, Nitobe traveled to the United States where he stayed for three years, and studied economics and political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems While in Baltimore he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) ^[1]. It was through a Quaker community in Philadelphia that he met Mary Patterson Elkinton, whom he eventually married. While at Johns Hopkins, he was granted an assistant professorship at the Sapporo Agricultural College, but was ordered to first obtain doctorate in agricultural economics in Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. He completed his degree after three years in Halle University and returned briefly to the United States to marry Mary Elkinton in Philadelphia before he assumed his teaching position in Sapporo in 1891. The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg also referred to as MLU, is a public University in the cities of Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə By the time he returned to Japan, he had published books in English and in German, and had received the first of his five doctorate degrees.

Meiji bureaucrat & educator

In 1901 Nitobe was appointed technical advisor to the Japanese colonial government in Taiwan, where he headed the Sugar Bureau. The Japanese colonial period, Japanese rule or the Imperial Japanese occupation, in the context of Taiwan 's history refers to the period between Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia.

Nitobe was appointed a full professor of law at the Kyoto Imperial University in 1904 and lectured on colonial administration policies. or is a major national university in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest university in Japan and formerly one of the Imperial Universities of He became the Headmaster of the First Higher School (then the preparatory division for the Tokyo Imperial University) in 1906 and continued this position until he accepted the full-time professorship at the Law Faculty of Tokyo Imperial University in 1913. He taught agricultural economics and colonial policy and emphasized humanitarian aspect of colonial administration、and was cross-appointed the founding president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University (Tokyo Joshi Dai). His students at Tokyo Imperial University included Tadao Yanaihara, Shigeru Nanbara, Yasaka Takagi, and Tamon Maeda. was a Japanese economist and educator Born in Ehime Prefecture, Yanaihara became a Christian under the influence of Uchimura Kanzo 's Mukyokai (Yanaihara later continued Nitobe's chair in colonial studies at Tokyo University; but Yanaihara's pacifist views and emphasis on indigenous self-determination, which he partly inherited from Nitobe, came into a full conflict with Japan's wartime government during the World War II, resulted in barring him from teaching until after the war). World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Nitobe and Hamilton Wright Mabie in 1911 were the first exchange professors between Japan and the United States under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Hamilton Wright Mabie AM LHD LLD (1846–1916 was an American Essayist, editor critic and lecturer born at Cold Spring N The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a formally private nonprofit organization in practice closely associated with the United States Department of State,

Diplomat & statesman

When the League of Nations was established in 1920, Nitobe became one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League, and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. The League of Nations was an International organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920 Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation He became a founding director of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (which later became UNESCO under the United Nations' mandate). United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security His legacy in this period includes the settlement of territorial dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the In its resolution, the Islands remained under the Finnish control, but were disarmed and granted autonomy, averting a possible armed conflict (See also Åland crisis). The Åland Crisis was one of the first issues the new League of Nations had to arbitrate

In August 1921, Nitobe took part in the 13th World Congress of Esperanto in Prague, as the official delegate of the League of Nations. The World Congress of Esperanto (in Esperanto Universala Kongreso de Esperanto) has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions with His report to the General Assembly of the League was the first objective report on Esperanto by a high-ranking official representative of an intergovernmental organization. is by far the most widely spoken constructed International auxiliary language in the world ^[2] Although the proposal for the League to accept Esperanto as their working language was accepted by ten delegates, the French delegate used his veto power to block the issue.

After his retirement from the League of Nations, Nitobe briefly served in the House of Peers. This article is about the Japanese body The British House of Lords is also known as the House of Peers for certain ceremonial purposes. He held critical views on increasing militarism in Japan in the early 1930's, and was devastated by Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933 over the Manchurian Crisis and the Lytton Report. refers to the Ideology in the Empire of Japan that Militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation and that the strength of the military is On September 18, 1931, near Mukden (now Shenyang) in southern Manchuria, a section of railroad owned by Japan 's South Manchuria was a report generated by a League of Nations commission in December 1931 to try to determine the causes of the Manchurian Incident which led to the Empire of Japan

Nitobe died in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in October 1933 on the way home from an international conference held in Banff, Alberta. Victoria (vɪkˈtɔɹiə is the capital city of British Columbia. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Banff is the largest town in Banff National Park, in Alberta's Rockies, Canada. Morioka, Nitobe's birth place, and Victoria have been twin cities since 1985. Victoria (vɪkˈtɔɹiə is the capital city of British Columbia. Mary Elkinton Nitobe lived in Japan until her death in 1938. Mary compiled and edited many of Nitobe's unpublished manuscripts, including his memoirs of early childhood, and contributed greatly to the preservation of his writings.

Legacy

Nitobe Inazo was a prolific writer. He published many scholarly books as well as books for general readers (see below). He also contributed hundreds of articles to popular magazines and newspapers. Nitobe, however, is perhaps most famous in the west for his work Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900), which was one of the first major works on samurai ethics written originally in English for Western readers (The book was subsequently translated into Japanese). Bushido The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe is along with the classic text Hagakure by Tsunetomo Yamamoto, a study of the is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial Japan. Although sometimes criticized as portraying the samurai in terms so Western as to take away some of their actual meaning, this book nonetheless was a pioneering work of its kind.

Nitobe's writings are now available in Nitobe Inazo Zenshu (the Complete Works of Inazo Nitobe),24 volume set from Kyobunkan, 1983-1991. His English and other western language work are collected in the 5 volume Works of Inazo Nitobe, The University of Tokyo Press, 1972. Major critical essays on Nitobe's life and thought were collected in John F. Howes, ed. Nitobe Inazo: Japan's Bridge Across the Pacific (Westview, 1995). Full biography in English is: George M. Oshiro, Internationalist in Pre-War Japan: Nitobe Inazo, 1862-1933 (UBC PhD. Thesis, 1986); and in Japanese by the same author: Nitobe Inazo, Kokusai-shugi no Kaitakusha (Chūō Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1992).

His portrait was featured on the series D of ¥5000 banknote, printed from 1984 to 2004.

The Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada is named in his honor. The Nitobe Memorial Garden is a traditional Japanese garden located at the University of British Columbia in the University Endowment Lands, just outside The University of British Columbia ( UBC) is a Canadian public research University with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna Vancouver (vænˈkuːvɚ is a coastal

Quotations

• "What is important is to try to develop insights and wisdom rather than mere knowledge, respect someone's character rather than his learning, and nurture men of character rather than mere talents. Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity "
• "If there is anything to do, there is certainly a best way to do it, and the best way is both the most economical and the most graceful. "

External links

• Works by Inazo Nitobe at Project Gutenberg
• Nitobe Memorial Garden biography of Inazo Nitobe
• Nitobe Memorial Museum, Towada city, Iwate
• Nitobe, Inazo | Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures (National Diet Library)

References

1. ^ For a Quaker View of Nitobe, see Bridge across the Pacific : the life of Inazo Nitobe, friend of justice and peace by Tadanobu Suzuki; Argenta, B. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy the is the only National library in Japan. C.  : Argenta Friends Press, 1994. (Canadian Quaker pamphlets ; 41) ISBN 0920367364.
2. ^ "Esperanto and the Language Question at the League of Nations"