He was born into a family of doctors serving Tsuwano domain in Iwami; his father Nishi Tokiyoshi was a domain physician. His family was related to that of the later great writer Mori Ogai. Fond of learning from childhood, he was taught Chinese classics by his grandfather and father.
After studying at the domain school Yorokan, he deepened his learning in Osaka and Okayama. Around this time he is said to have turned from orthodox Zhu Xi Confucianism to the teachings of Ogyu Sorai. It shows his habit of testing ideas himself rather than accepting them whole.
While in Edo he was deeply shaken by Perry's arrival. Feeling the need to know the West, Amane left his domain without permission and began studying Dutch and English. It was a great decision to pursue new learning even at the cost of his status.
He began working as an assistant instructor at the Bansho shirabesho, the shogunate's institute for studying Western books. Tsuda Mamichi and others were also there, and they studied Western learning together. As a shogunal official he found a way to put Western knowledge to the nation's use.
By shogunal order he went to the Netherlands with Tsuda Mamichi and others. Under Professor Vissering at Leiden University he studied law, economics and statistics, and also encountered philosophy. It is counted among the first cases of Japanese studying Western social sciences systematically.
Returning from the Netherlands, he became a professor at the Kaiseijo, successor to the Bansho shirabesho. He compiled the international law lectures he had studied abroad, later publishing them. His work of devising many new words to convey Western learning in Japanese began.
In Kyoto he served near shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, teaching French and explaining Western political systems. Around the return of power he is said to have written Gidai soan, a draft showing a new form of government with a deliberative assembly.
After the shogunate ended, he became head of the Numazu Military Academy in Shizuoka domain, where the Tokugawa had moved. A new school teaching mathematics and languages as well as military science, it trained many talented people. As a Tokugawa retainer he devoted himself to new education.
Invited by the Meiji government, he entered the Ministry of Military Affairs, later the Army Ministry, and worked on building military institutions. At his private school Ikueisha he lectured on Hyakugaku renkan, presenting the whole picture of Western learning to Japanese.
At Mori Arinori's call he founded the Meirokusha with Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nakamura Masanao, Kato Hiroyuki and others. He wrote essays for the Meiroku zasshi to spread new ideas. He was one of the central figures of the enlightenment effort to root Western thinking in Japan.
He published Hyakuichi shinron, in which, among other works, he rendered the Western word philosophy as tetsugaku. He is also said to have coined or spread many words still in use, such as those for science, technology, art and reason. He laid the base for discussing learning in Japanese.
Under Yamagata Aritomo he helped draft the Admonition to Soldiers and the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors given by the emperor. Though an enlightenment thinker, he also took part in shaping the spirit of the Meiji state's military.
When the Imperial Diet opened, he was chosen as a member of the House of Peers. In later years he suffered from illness and lived quietly at Oiso. Just before his death in 1897 he was made a baron. His life left a great mark on the language of learning.
He died at Oiso. The many words he created to bring Western learning to Japan came to be used not only in Japan but also in China and elsewhere. His birthplace still stands in his hometown of Tsuwano, where his achievements are remembered.
Ogyū SoraiMatthew C. PerryTokugawa YoshinobuFukuzawa YukichiYamagata AritomoMori ArinoriMori ŌgaiNakamura Masanao
William S. ClarkKanō HōgaiTakahashi YuichiSoejima TaneomiYuri KimimasaŌkubo ToshimichiKawanabe KyōsaiNakamura Masanao
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.