Selected Essays by Fukuzawa Yukichi

Fukuzawa offers a valuable contemporary view of the debates that led to the establishment of the political institutions of imperial Japan. Masterfully translated and set in context by helpful commentary, these essays show Fukuzawa changing his mind even as he stands fast. * Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University in the City of New York, USA * To read this selection of Fukuzawa Yukichi's classic writings on Japan's government is to encounter a master observer, analyst, and advocate of epochal political change in the making. Thanks to the translations and commentary--along with the concise and expert introductory essay--offered in this volume, readers have the chance to follow as Fukuzawa's lively, supple, and powerful intellect grappled over three decades with the question of how Japan's government and people could together create a responsible and responsive polity. We owe a debt of gratitude to Albert and Teruko Craig for this scholarly gift. * Andrew E. Barshay, Professor of History, University of California Berkeley, USA *

Albert M. Craig is Harvard-Yenching Institute Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Harvard University, USA. He is the author of Choshu in the Meiji Restoration (1961), The Heritage of Japanese Civilization (2003), Civilization and Enlightenment: The Early Thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi (2009), and, with others, of East Asia, Tradition and Transformation (1973). He is the editor of Japan, A Comparative View (1973) and co-editor of Personality in Japanese History (1970). He was the director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He has also been a visiting professor at Kyoto, Tokyo and Keio universities. He has received Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Japan Foundation Fellowships. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government. Teruko Craig is Senior Lecturer Emerita at Tufts University, USA. She has translated several books from Japanese into English, including Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (1988), The Autobiography of Shibusawa Eiichi: From Peasant to Entrepreneur (1994), Remembering Aizu: The Testament of Shiba Goro (1999) and In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist, Hiratsuka Raicho (2010).

Introduction The Progress of Civilization and the Stages of Government 1. The Progress of Civilization 2. Feudal Government, West and East 3. Westerners View Japanese Feudalism 4. Monarchy, the Second Stage of Government 5. Whitewashing European Monarchy 6. Representative Government, the Third Stage Fukuzawas Politics The Later Essays 7. The Division of Power (Bunkenron), 1877 8. On a National Assembly (Kokkairon), 1879 9. The Trend of the Times (Jiji taiseiron), 1882 10. Revering the Emperor (Sonnoron), 1888 11. The Future Course of the Diet (Kokkai no zento), 1890 Endnotes Acknowledgments Index