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DB: BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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作成日:2010/10/28 00:08:45 JST最終更新日:2020/10/05 02:45:32 JST
RUBRO FILOSOFIA y SOCIOLOGIA
TITULO An American Teacher in Early Meiji Japan (★)
AUTOR Edward R. Beauchamp
EDITORIAL University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 0-8248-0404-X
IDIOMA INGLES
CODIGO INTERNO FL-0057
NOTA (★)(Contemporary historians of education, however, can mine a rich lode of materials of a similar nature stretching back to at least the middle of the nineteenth century. One example of the possibilities of this type of study is the American educational impact on Japan during the early days of the Meiji period. Emerging from almost three centuries of isolation in 1868, the young Meiji Emperor´s promulgation of the Imperial Charter Oath best illustrates the new internationalism of the ´Mikado´s Empire´. This proclamation laid down the aims of the new government, called on the people to eschew old-fashioned ways, and insisted that ´Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world´. In response to this, many Japanese students journeyed, at government expense, to the United States and western Europe seeking to learn the secrets of western power and prestige so that Japan could join the ranks of the modern and powerful nations of the world. A slightly different manifestation of the Emperor´s charge was the employment of foreign specialists as teachers, technicians, and experts by both the new government in Edo (soon renamed Tokyo, or eastern capital) and several of the ´han (fief)´ governments in order to foster rapid development. The Japanese employed several thousand foreign helpers, or ´yatoi´, in the first two decades of the Meiji era (1868-1912). /Of these so-called ´yatoi´, one of the earliest, most influential and interesting was a young American graduate of Rutgers University, William Elliot Griffis. Born in Philadelphia in 1843, Griffis, very early in his life established close personal contacts with Japan and the Japanese. Several intersections with things Japanese highlighted his otherwise conventional childhood. At an early age he witnessed from his father´s wharf the construction and launching of Commodore Perry´s future flagship, the U.S.S. ´Susquehanna´ ; in the streets of Philadelphia he personally viewed the first Japanese diplomatic mission to visit the United States, and while studying at Rutgers, he befriended and tutored several of the earliest Japanese students to study in the United States prior to the Meiji Restoration. In addition, the institution which he attended, Rutgers College, had very close ties to the Dutch Reformed Church whose missionaries had been active in Japan at least a decade prior to his graduation. Finally, one of his Rutgers´ classmates was the son of Robert Pruyn, a former American diplomatic representative in Japan. These experiences whetted his interest in Japan and appear to have been instrumental in his being offered the opportunity to teach in Japan in September of 1870. After declining the original offer, he reconsidered and decided that it was his duty to go to Japan. In many ways, the approximate three-and-one-half years that Griffis spent in Japan was the highlight of his life, and provided him with the seeds from which he fostered his long-time reputation of being one of our earliest ´Japan hands´. In Japan, he was a visible actor on the periphery of the historical stage, and he savored every moment of it. /Griffis claimed that he was the first of the several thousand ´yatoi´ who were employed as a direct result of the Charter Oath, and the only white man to have actually lived under the feudal system in the interior of Japan. As a result of his relatively high status in developing Japan, and his sharp instincts which drew him toward important people, Griffis was able to make the acquaintance of a wide variety of influential men --both westerners and Japanese-- in Japan during 1870-1874. These elements, then, both shaped and informed his writing and lecturing on Japan and the Japanese problems for the remainder of his life. /On a more personal level Griffis, like many contemporary Peace Corps-men, missionaries (both educational and religious), and others with similar functions, grappled with culture shock soon after his arrival in the interior of Japan. This led him to go to great lengths to secure a position in the more cosmopolitan capital when the loneliness and his perceived cultural deprivation became too much for him to handle. Ironically, however, his relations with his Japanese hosts were at their highest level when he was lonely and isolated in Fukui, exposed to all kinds of alien cultural influences which he could not accept. When he finally received a position in Tokyo, these relations with the Japanese officialdom rapidly deteriorated. After a very brief, initial period of good relations in the capital, several incidents and domestic problems began to follow one upon the other, leading to Griffis´ departure from Japan in July 1874. /Twice decorated by the Japanese government for his services to the nation, Griffis consciously styled himself as an interpreter of Japan to his fellow countrymen and attempted, at every turn, to foster better understanding between his native and adopted lands. It is clear that William Elliot Griffis, almost a century before Point Four, AID, and the Peace Corps, was playing a comparable role in a developing nation. His sense of mission in wanting to help the Japanese develop not only fulfilled a psychological need in Griffis, but helped to shape the growth of several important and influential Japanese politicians, statesmen, businessmen, and scholars. His experiences in Japan and his compulsion to share them with other Americans informed two generations of scholars and intelligent laymen. [from ´INTRODUCTION´])

   

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