He was born in Azabu, Edo, eldest son of Nakamura Buhei, a low-ranking shogunate constable. His father came from a farming family in Usami, Izu, and had been adopted into the Nakamura house. From childhood he studied the Four Books and calligraphy; he later took the pen name Keiu.
He studied Chinese learning at the school of Ibe Kozan in Tsukiji, and the next year received an introduction to Dutch learning from the physician Katsuragawa Hoshu. Though centered on Confucian studies, his early interest in Western knowledge later led him to English studies.
He entered the dormitory of the Shoheizaka academy, the shogunate's highest school, studying Confucianism under Sato Issai and English under Mitsukuri Keigo. Rising as a brilliant Confucian student, he quietly kept up his English and deepened his interest in the West.
He was appointed professor at the Shoheizaka academy and the next year also headed the Kitenkan school in Kofu. He later rose to official Confucian scholar of the shogunate, the highest post for a Confucian, yet his longing for Western learning remained strong and he kept seeking a chance to study abroad.
As supervisor of students the shogunate sent to Britain, he left Yokohama with twelve young men including Toyama Masakazu, reaching London on New Year's Day of the next year. In Britain he was deeply impressed that the nation's wealth rested on its people's diligence and independence.
With the fall of the shogunate he returned home and moved to Shizuoka with the Tokugawa family. He became a professor at the Shizuoka school and a lifelong friend of the American missionary Clark, who also taught there. He set to translating Smiles's Self-Help, a gift from a friend in Britain.
He published Smiles's Self-Help as Saigoku Risshi Hen. Known for the line Heaven helps those who help themselves, its stories of Westerners who rose by their own effort inspired Meiji youth, selling over a million copies and rivaling Fukuzawa Yukichi's An Encouragement of Learning.
He translated the British thinker Mill's On Liberty as Jiyu no Kotowari, introducing the dignity of the individual and the importance of freedom; the book influenced the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. The same year he was invited by the new government to head the Finance Ministry's translation bureau.
Leaving the ministry, he opened the English school Dojinsha at his home in Koishikawa, which became as famous as Fukuzawa's Keio Gijuku. With Fukuzawa Yukichi, Mori Arinori, Nishi Amane and others he formed the Meirokusha, writing for its journal to spread new Western ideas.
After hearing a sermon by the missionary Cochran in Yokohama, he welcomed him to Dojinsha, and in December he and his adopted son were baptized by Cochran. He became the first Japanese member of the Canadian Methodist Church, with the baptismal name John.
He became head of the newly opened Tokyo Women's Normal School, devoting himself to training women teachers. He also helped found the Rakuzenkai, which set up a school for the blind and deaf, and later served as a professor at the University of Tokyo.
With the opening of the Imperial Diet, he was appointed by the emperor to the House of Peers. Around the same time he headed the Women's Higher Normal School and was respected in education. Counted among the six great educators of Meiji, he is known with Mori Arinori and Niijima Jo as a Christian educator.
He died in Tokyo in June this year. Versed in both Confucian and Western learning, he spread through Saigoku Risshi Hen the idea of opening one's own path by effort. His words sustained many young people of Meiji and are still remembered as a classic translation.
Satō IssaiFukuzawa YukichiNiijima JōMori ArinoriNishi Amane
Nishi AmaneYuri KimimasaŌkubo ToshimichiKawanabe KyōsaiTerashima MunenoriKido TakayoshiŌtori KeisukeEtō Shinpei
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.