★★★★☆ 元は1894年の日本を世界に紹介する本、ということでナショナリスティックな内容。明治当時の日本の懸命さが伝わる。

★★★★☆ At the turn of the century the wave of Westernisation was unstoppable. This book was a resistance from this Christian Japanese author, to claim that Japan was also great. A bit too subjective but the real value of this book is the intention of the author.
Jump to English review below ↓

🔽基本情報🔽
代表的日本人
内村鑑三 1908
"Representative men of Japan" from Japan and the Japanese 
Kanzo Uchimura, 1894 and 1908
鈴木範久 訳 1995
256 pages
2024年4月 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

元々は1894年に日本を紹介する本、Japan and the Japaneseとして英語で書かれ、1908年にRepresentative men of Japanとして再度世に出て、それが新しく日本語訳されたもの。
という前置きだけで、いかにナショナリスティックかが分かる。

圧倒的に押し寄せる西洋文化にはばかり、日本人だって素晴らしいんだということを伝える為の本。

確かに内容も、著者の主観的な部分が多く、どの章もまず日本のその分野の紹介から始まり、それぞれの人物がどうして日本人らしくて素晴らしいかを語る。
最初の西郷隆盛の征韓論の正しさを訴えるようなのが気になったけど、あとがきによると、内村鑑三本人は日露戦争をもって反戦主義になったとのことで、西郷隆盛の数ヵ所はその名残のよう。

５人について学ぶところもあるけれど、それよりも、著者がどういう姿勢でこの書をもってヨーロッパと対等になろうと訴える姿勢がメインの面白さ。

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽

  ●●●●●楽天●●●●●
代表的日本人 （岩波文庫　青119-3） [ 内村　鑑三 ]
価格：858円（税込、送料無料) (2025/10/2時点)
  
  
●●●●●アマゾン●●●●●


代表的日本人 (岩波文庫 青 119-3) 

🔽 日本語情報 (「BOOKS」「楽天ブックス」「アマゾン」より引用) 🔽 
著：内村　鑑三
訳：鈴木　範久
ISBN：9784003311936
出版社：岩波書店
判型：文庫
ページ数：256ページ

— English —

★★★★☆ At the turn of the century the wave of Westernisation was unstoppable. This book was a resistance from this Christian Japanese author, to claim that Japan was also great. A bit too subjective but the real value of this book is the intention of the author.

🔽 log 🔽
“Representative men of Japan” from Japan and the Japanese
Kanzo Uchimura, 1894 and 1908
Read 2024.4


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It was originally written under the title of “Japan and the Japanese” in 1894, then released again as “Representative Men of Japan in 1908.
You get the idea how nationalistic the intention was.

At the turn of the century, the West has ruined Asia and the wave of Westernisation was unstoppable.
This book was a resistance from this Christian Japanese author, to claim that Japan was also great.

As it turns out, a lot in this book is subjective.
Each chapter starts off by introducing how Japan is doing in the particular field, and goes on to say how each man is great and Japanese are wonderful.
The first man in the book is Takamori Saigo, and the book goes a bit extreme to praise his idea that Japan should conquer Korea, Seikanron, which I felt uncomfortable, but then I read in the afterword that Uchimura soon later became anti-war so those comments were just left over from his older belief.
Today he is remembered as a pacifist (so it feels weird he had agreed on seikanron, but there you go people can change)

So, it is a bit too subjective and very specific to this particular period of time in Japan to actually learn any history of Japan or these Japanese men.
However what’s more important and interesting, indeed the value of this book, is the intention of the author, why he wrote it in this way, how he wished Japan to be equal to European powers and how that was the aim of many intellectuals from this period.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Representative men of Japan

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Representative Men of Japan Kindle Edition

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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