Tozai aifurete

by Inazō Nitobe

明治から大正にかけて活躍した教育者、農学者、倫理哲学者である新渡戸稲造の論文。初出は「東西相触れて」［実業之日本社、1928（昭和3）年］。東と西、左と右は相対するように思えるが、実は、区別があるようで区別がない。東洋と西洋はどこを基準に区別されるか、歴史や地理から考えた例を挙げ、その区別がどんなに曖昧なのかを述べている。これをもとに、東洋人と西洋人の融和を論じた作品。

11 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2012

About the author

Nitobe Inazō (新渡戸 稲造; 1862 – 1933) was a Japanese agronomist, diplomat, political scientist, politician, and writer. His father Nitobe Jūjirō was a samurai and retainer to the local daimyō of the Nanbu clan. His grandfather was Nitobe Tsutō and his great-grandfather was Nitobe Denzō (Koretami). He was converted to Christianity under the strong legacy left by 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 ofthe college and so they never personally crossed paths. 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. 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 and Japanese culture written originally in English for Western readers (The book was subsequently translated into Japanese and many other languages).