Osaka and the Meiji Restoration - Koan Ogata's Tekijuku, the roots of Osaka University where Yukichi Fukuzawa also attended, still exists in Osaka.
2022-11-25
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Roots of Osaka University “Tekijuku”
When I researched Osaka and the end of the Edo period, I discovered that there was a school called Tekijuku, which was founded by Koan Ogata to study Dutch studies. It seems to have roots in Osaka University. Japan at the time was isolated from the rest of the world, trading with the Netherlands through Nagasaki, and receiving academic information from the Netherlands about the world. This was called Dutch studies. Koan Ogata is said to be the father of modern medicine in Japan, and even appears in the popular drama ``JIN.'' Yukichi Fukuzawa also entered Tekijuku in Osaka at the age of ２０ to study Dutch studies.
Keio University also started a Dutch studies school.
Keio University appears to be based on the former Dutch Studies School. In Japan, learning was carried out in small cram schools and terakoya like this one. They were not in the position of teacher and student in the current educational system, but rather had a close relationship between teacher and student. Learning flowed from the source to the disciples, and had the energy to directly change the country and society.
Seoul National University is the former Gyeongseong Imperial University
Seoul National University was formerly an imperial university and was established in １９２４ as Gyeongseong Imperial University. It is said that Japan brought modern learning to the Korean peninsula, but what is the true story? In other words, there was no teacher-disciple relationship that aimed to enrich the Korean peninsula.
South Korea's highest academic institutions are historically divided
I have heard that Seoul National University is the best academic institution in South Korea, but what do you think about the origins of the university and its academic activities?
In any case, education during the Japanese colonial period on the Korean peninsula was the same as it is today. If we were to call this a science, it would be completely different.
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Will the issue of separate surnames for married couples change the concept of family in Japan?The issue is not gender equality but the concept of ``home'' that is unique to Japan.
The issue of selective marital separation has recently become a hot topic in Japan. Japan is the only country in the world that has a family registration system that stipulates husband and wife status by law.
A growing number of people are arguing that this is gender discrimination and that it is acceptable for couples to have different surnames. The origin of the problem is that when a woman gets married, she usually takes the man's surname, so it is difficult to use her maiden name at work, or to change information in social procedures, banking, and various other contracts.
However, it is logically incorrect to view this as gender discrimination. This is because under the current law, equality is guaranteed because the surname must be chosen from either a man or a woman. The question becomes what it means for a husband and wife to use the same surname.
In Japan, the concept of family has been around since ancient times, and when you get married, you move into a family. A married woman moves into a man's house and becomes part of his family. There is a cultural background that makes her a member of the family, including her ancestors. The child born there will take the family name of that family. Uji means belonging to the same group, and dates back to the surname system in ancient times.
Japanese people are taught to respect the concept of home and to act in a way that lives up to the name of home. A family crest is a symbol of a family.
In the West, the idea seems to be a little different. Children seem to think that they belong to both the father's and mother's families. In this case, there are four grandfathers and grandmothers, and they belong to the four people. I wonder if the next idea will be to belong to eight people. If you go back in time, you will belong to 100 people.
In other words, the way of thinking about Japanese houses is completely different. In Japan, people search for their ancestors by tracing one family line. In this respect, the opinion that we should refer to Western countries seems to be a rather wild opinion.
Japan has the imperial family as a symbol of the family. The issue of separate family names for married couples and the issue of male lineage inheritance seem to be unrelated, but they are closely related.
The imperial family has stubbornly protected the traditional Japanese concept of home. Joining the imperial family means joining the imperial family. As a unique entity, the imperial family does not have a clan. When a male member of the imperial family marries, the woman he marries loses his family name.
This is stipulated in the Imperial House Law, but when a female member of the imperial family marries and becomes a commoner, like Her Imperial Highness Princess Mako, or a former female member of the imperial family says she does not want to take her husband's name, she is considered a commoner. If current laws are followed, will women remain members of the imperial family? Or will they live a normal life without having a surname?
The Liberal Democratic Party is reluctant to promote separate marriages. This is also because we see it as a problem not with gender equality, but with Japan's unique cultural background and the concept of the Japanese home, which is the foundation of society. Japan has an imperial family that has been connected uninterrupted since recorded history, unlike any other country in the world. Japan has a history of following this model of inheritance.
The danger of Japanese public opinion as a debate develops over the glorification of war following the comments made by athlete Hayata Hina
When asked "What do you want to do now?" at a press conference, Hayata Hina, a medalist in table tennis at the Paris Olympics, answered, "I want to go to the Kagoshima Kamikaze Museum. Because I want to feel that being alive and being able to play table tennis is not something to be taken for granted." This has caused a bit of a stir. Most opinions are praising her, but it seems that a commentator named Furuichi said something unnecessary and caused a stir.
In China, it is said that national team players unfollowed Hayata on Weibo, and it is questionable how they knew about it so quickly, but since Chinese players are truly national representatives, it is best to assume that they will be used for political purposes. This topic seems to have developed beyond what Hayata said into a discussion of whether past wars are glorified. It is better to know that the term "glorifying war" is a term used by the continent and the peninsula.
For the continental peninsula, it doesn't matter what that war was like for Japan or what its purpose was. Many Japanese people have simply been imprinted with the idea that it was all Japan's fault and have internalized that belief. Therefore, when something like Hayata's remarks come out, they instinctively jump to the conclusion that it should be glorified or not. In other words, there is no in-between. Before even evaluating past wars, it seems that many Japanese people only receive biased information about how past wars occurred, and this will not lead to a good outcome.
This may seem sudden, but have you ever seen Hideki Tojo's suicide note? He was a man who led the war at the time and was sentenced to death at the Tokyo Trials after the war.
Here is an excerpt from Hideki Tojo's suicide note.
A celebration of shadows, a blend of Japanese and Western Japan.The continent abolished writing and destroyed its past.A completely different approach to history.
Japanese culture and shadow worship
Beautiful Japanese lacquerware in the dim light
Japanese aimed for balance and harmony
What was done on the continent was the denial of the past
Kanji abolished in Korea
The introduction of simplified Chinese makes it difficult to read the past
If you can't read past documents, you can't read history
Learn ancient Japanese and Chinese texts
A continent that burns the past and creates history
Japan's imperial family continued to exist
When I think about Japanese culture, I sometimes think of Junichiro Tanizaki's ``In Praise of Shadows.'' He remembers that during his junior high school Japanese class, he encountered some difficult sentences and had trouble understanding them. He talked about how you can rediscover the wonders of Japanese culture by learning about the background in which that culture was born.
Japanese lacquerware is based on black, and Japanese lacquerware was created in an era without electricity to create a beautiful appearance on a dimly lit dining table lit by candles. It was explained that.
White plates and glass cups became prized, perhaps because black dishes didn't look good in the light of a light bulb. However, if you eat on Japanese tableware in the dim darkness of candlelight, you will notice something beautiful about it.
To put it simply, in Japan there is a term called fusion of Japanese and Western styles. During the Meiji and Taisho eras, a large amount of Western culture flowed into Japan, but the Japanese strived to balance and harmonize with Japan's ancient culture. This is inheritance based on compatibility and harmony.
Yukichi Fukuzawa described Western culture as being like an epidemic. He preached that resisting these things would not prevent them from becoming infected, so we needed to think in terms of accepting them.
Japan sought compatibility and harmony not only in vessels and cultural customs, but also in the letters and documents that conveyed them.
On the other hand, what happened on the continent seems to be different. What is China's Cultural Revolution? In introducing socialism and communism, it was a movement to destroy the historical Chinese culture that they were proud of, and they actually destroyed cultural properties and slaughtered the people who had protected them.
What about in Korea? After becoming an independent country after the war, in 1948, it was decided that official documents should be written in Hangul under the Hangul Special Law, and in 1970, the abolition of Chinese characters was declared, and Chinese characters began to disappear from textbooks one after another. It seems that there is no problem with using Hangul as the national script, but by abolishing Hanja, it became impossible to read past documents. Efforts to abolish writing are incomprehensible to Japanese people.
The same meaning applies to simplified characters (current Chinese characters that have been simplified and symbolized), which were introduced during China's Cultural Revolution. By replacing Traditional Chinese (old Chinese characters) with simplified Chinese, people who received subsequent schooling were unable to read documents written in Traditional Chinese in the past.
Currently, traditional Chinese characters are used in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This was because he wanted to be influenced by the Cultural Revolution.
Particularly in South Korea, historical perceptions change so freely that one major reason can be said to be the inability to approach past documents.
Documents from the Japanese colonial period and even earlier were written in Chinese characters, and modern Koreans are unable to read any of them. You probably don't even want to read it. Does it mean that history does not already exist in documents?
As an Asian, this is truly deplorable and pitiful. Is it possible to foster national consciousness and culture in this way? Both of these are unthinkable in Japan.
Japan continued to utilize the writings of the past, reinforcing the sounds with hiragana called Manyogana and inventing Japanese writing.
Texts from the past also have different phrasing and adjectives, so in Japanese education, we study classical and Chinese texts and try to read past documents. This is to experience the way of thinking and cultural customs of Japanese people who lived in the past.
To begin with, the history of the continent is one in which kings kill other kings due to wars, and dynasties change. At that time, many things built by past dynasties will be destroyed, creating a structure in which a good king reigns after defeating a bad king. At that time, something called ``book burning'' is performed. Documents from the previous dynasty were burned and destroyed. The destruction and fabrication of history is not new.
The only dynasty in Japan exists outside of the imperial family, and the Japanese imperial family has been protected and maintained through all eras. The Japanese never thought of abolishing the imperial family in any social change. For this reason, we can know that Japan existed with the Emperor even during the #Imperial Era.
In other words, the continent's approach to the past and Japan's approach to the past are fundamentally different.
His Majesty the Emperor, who continued researching fish, discovered 10 new species - two were announced at academic conferences after his abdication.
Most members of the imperial family enroll at Gakushuin University, and their academic majors are not related to politics, economics, or military affairs. The reason is said to be that the Emperor, as a symbol of Japan, is not involved in these activities. Emperor Showa studied biology, and when his attendants said that the grass they cut around the Imperial Palace and Fukiage Palace was ``cutting weeds,'' he said, ``There is no such thing as weeds.''
``Every plant has a name, and each grows in its own favorite place. We shouldn't take a one-sided approach and label it as a weed. Be careful,'' he said. .
In 1964, His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus, then Crown Prince, visited Thailand with Her Imperial Highness Princess Michiko. When he met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej and learned about Thailand's current situation of food shortages, he proposed to King Adulyadej that they try growing tilapia as a protein source. Upon returning to Japan, he donated 50 tilapia raised at the Akasaka imperial estate to Thailand.
When former King Bhumibol Adulyadej bred them in his palace pond, the number of young fish increased to 10,000 in a blink of an eye due to their ease of raising and strong reproductive ability. They were sent to various places through the Fisheries Experiment Station, and became a source of food for the Thai people. Even today, it is a common fish in Thailand under the name Pranin. Pura is an abbreviation for Emperor, and Nin is the kanji for Akihito read aloud.
His Majesty the Emeritus also majored in biology and mainly conducted research on fish. In June 2021, after the Emperor's abdication, two new species of goby were discovered, and His Majesty the Emperor himself named them ``Awayukiftus goby'' and ``Sebosyftus goby'' and announced them at an academic conference. A total of 10 new species of fish have been discovered and announced to the world by His Majesty the Emperor.
The only one in the world? Japan eats raw eggs. Why are raw eggs safe in Japan? Egg rice is a soul food in Japan.
Japan seems to be the only country in the world that eats raw eggs. Japan is known as a country where tap water is drinkable, but you might think it's a similar story, but it's not. In Japan, tap water is drinkable because it is soft and sanitary water is thoroughly controlled, and eggs are only born from chickens, so there is no difference in countries around the world.
Even if you explain it as a food culture, eggs are probably eaten all over the world, so why did Japan come to eat eggs raw? You might think it's a matter of Japanese tastes, but foreigners say that sukiyaki is delicious, and even simple rice with egg is delicious. Could it be that only Japanese people noticed the taste of raw eggs?
If you ask foreigners, they will tell you that raw eggs are dangerous. Then, I wondered why Japanese eggs were so safe, and when I looked into it, I found out that Salmonella bacteria is contained in the parent hens' feces and urine and seems to penetrate through the egg shells. Alternatively, if the parent chicken is infected with Salmonella, eggs infected with Salmonella will be born. Current Japanese poultry farms take thorough measures to prevent Salmonella, which is why they can even be eaten as raw eggs.
Then, when did Japan start eating raw eggs? When I researched it, I found that before the Edo period, food derived from animals was avoided due to the influence of Buddhism, and there seems to be a mention of raw eggs in the Edo period. Later, there was a mention of tamago kakigohan (egg-dried rice) in the Meiji period, and it is said that Ogai Mori also liked eating it.
When I researched Salmonella, I discovered that it was named after Daniel Salmon, a bacteriologist who discovered the type strain of the Salmonella genus, Hog cholera, in the United States in 1885. It became. In the Edo period, there would have been no recognition of Salmonella.
In summary, Japanese people did not have any biological knowledge about Salmonella, but they did know that if parent chickens were kept in an unsanitary environment, the baby eggs would have fatal problems if eaten by humans. On the other hand, they knew that if they thoroughly managed and cleaned the chickens, this problem would not occur.
