Who was this person?
A journalist and historian from the Meiji to the Shōwa era. Born in Higo Province, he studied under Niijima Jō at Dōshisha. He founded the Min'yūsha, publishing the magazine Kokumin no Tomo and the Kokumin Shimbun and advocating commoners' democracy, but after the Triple Intervention he turned to nationalism. He completed his monumental History of the Japanese Nation in the Early Modern Period and received the Order of Culture.
| Name | Tokutomi Sohō (徳富蘇峰) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1863 – 1957 |
| Period | Late Edo–Shōwa |
| Birthplace | Higo Province |
| Main achievements |
|
He was born at his mother's family home in Higo, now Kumamoto Prefecture, the eldest son of Tokutomi Kazutaka; his real name was Iichirō. The Tokutomi had long served as village officials in Minamata, where Sohō spent his early childhood. His father was a pupil of the thinker Yokoi Shōnan, and Sohō took to learning early. The later novelist Tokutomi Roka was his younger brother.
At the Kumamoto Yōgakkō he encountered Western learning and Christianity and joined his friends in forming the Kumamoto Band. He then entered the Dōshisha English School in Kyoto and was baptized by its founder Niijima Jō. Deeply moved by Niijima's character, he revered him as his teacher throughout his life.
Students caused an uproar over the running of the school, and Niijima Jō struck his own palm with a cane to admonish them. Feeling responsible for the trouble, Sohō left Dōshisha just before graduating. The episode only deepened his reverence for Niijima.
Returning to Kumamoto, he opened a private academy, the Ōe Gijuku, with his father. Studying the works of British liberal thinkers, he developed his idea of heiminshugi, a commoners' principle valuing the lives of ordinary people. He taught history and politics to young people with enthusiasm and honed his own writing.
Having won fame with Shōrai no Nihon, he moved to Tokyo, founded the Min'yūsha publishing society and launched the magazine Kokumin no Tomo. Preaching nation-building by the strength of ordinary people rather than modernization from above by the government, he captured the hearts of the young. His brother Roka and Kunikida Doppo also joined the Min'yūsha.
He founded a new company and launched the Kokumin Shinbun newspaper. Discussing politics and society in clear, forceful prose, he became an opinion leader across the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras. The paper won many readers, and Sohō's name became known nationwide.
After the First Sino-Japanese War he was deeply shocked when Japan returned the Liaodong Peninsula under the Triple Intervention of Russia, Germany and France. Concluding that nothing could be protected in international society without power, he shifted from heiminshugi to a stance stressing national strength. This turn was also criticized as a betrayal of principle.
While most newspapers opposed the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War, the Kokumin Shinbun alone supported it. As a result, the paper's offices were attacked during the Hibiya riots by crowds angry that Japan had won no indemnity. Sohō came to be seen as a pro-government journalist.
Wishing to leave a true record of Japanese history, he began his life's work, Kinsei Nihon Kokuminshi, a history of the Japanese people in the early modern age. He first meant to cover the Meiji period onward, but deciding he had to start earlier to explain it, he began from the age of Oda Nobunaga. He is said to have kept writing even on the day of the Great Kantō Earthquake.
His younger brother Tokutomi Roka, long estranged from him over differences of outlook, lay gravely ill at Ikaho in Gunma Prefecture. Hearing the news, Sohō rushed to his side, and the brothers were reunited after many years and reconciled. Roka died shortly afterward.
In recognition of his long career as a commentator and works such as Kinsei Nihon Kokuminshi, he received the Order of Culture. In the midst of the war, as head of an association of writers and journalists, he was publishing many pieces supporting the nation's war effort. His influence was great and would later be harshly called to account.
After the defeat he was held responsible for his wartime writings and named as a war crimes suspect. Because of his age and illness he was allowed to remain at home, and he was ultimately never indicted. He gave up his public posts and settled quietly in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Resuming the writing interrupted by the war, he at last completed all one hundred volumes of Kinsei Nihon Kokuminshi. The monumental work, more than thirty years in the making, covers the period from Oda Nobunaga to the early Meiji era. As a history drawing on abundant sources, it is still consulted today.
He died at his home in Atami, Banseisōdō. Having stood in the world of public debate from Meiji to Shōwa, his shift from heiminshugi to nationalism still draws both praise and criticism. Yet the vast body of writing and history he produced remains an important key to understanding modern Japan.
A. A journalist and historian from the Meiji to the Shōwa era. Born in Higo Province, he studied under Niijima Jō at Dōshisha. He founded the Min'yūsha, publishing the magazine Kokumin no Tomo and the Kokumin Shimbun and advocating commoners' democracy, but after the Triple Intervention he turned to nationalism. He completed his monumental History of the Japanese Nation in the Early Modern Period and received the Order of Culture.
A. Period: Late Edo–Shōwa. Born in 1863, died in 1957.
A. Tokutomi Sohō was born in Higo Province.
A. The novelist Tokutomi Roka was Sohō's younger brother. Roka worked at his brother's Min'yūsha and published works such as Hototogisu, but differences in outlook and other reasons kept the brothers estranged for many years. In 1927 Sohō visited Roka on his sickbed, and the two are said to have reconciled.
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
Follow this life (autoplay)Oda NobunagaYokoi ShōnanNiijima JōKunikida DoppoNiijima YaeHoshi Tōru
Tanabe SakurōMori ŌgaiNitobe InazōOkakura Kakuzō (Tenshin)Tsuda UmekoFutabatei ShimeiKawakami OtojirōKuroda Seiki
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.