Fukuzawa Yukichi

Birth in Osaka and return to Nakatsu

Fukuzawa Yukichi was born on 10 January 1835 in Osaka, Japan, into a low-ranking but respected samurai family of the Okudaira clan of Nakatsu. His father, Fukuzawa Hyakusuke, held the rank of nakakosho with a low stipend of a little over thirteen koku of rice, and served as the domain's overseer of the treasury in Osaka. The family's position, though clerical, provided some material comforts beyond their small official stipend. Fukuzawa was the youngest of five children, with one older brother and three older sisters.

His father was a Confucian scholar who opposed his children learning practical skills like mathematics, considering them the "tool of merchants" and demeaning to their samurai status. Hyakusuke died in 1836, forcing the family to return to their home castle town of Nakatsu in Kyushu. The move was difficult for Fukuzawa's mother, O-Jun, who had grown accustomed to city life. The family faced a significant reduction in income, living on their small official stipend. As the younger son, Fukuzawa had no prospect of inheriting the headship of the family and its associated stipend, which would go to his older brother. His options were limited to being adopted into another family, becoming a priest, or remaining at home and supporting himself through odd jobs.

Life in a feudal society

Nakatsu was a small, provincial castle town governed by the Okudaira clan, loyal vassals of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate. Society was rigidly stratified by law. The samurai class was at the top, followed by peasants, artisans, and merchants. Within the samurai class, strict feudal discipline reinforced the lower samurai’s inferiority to the upper. A lower samurai had to use honorific language, speak with a different accent, and in some cases, prostrate himself on the ground when in the presence of an upper samurai. The Fukuzawa family was of lower samurai status, living in a district far from the central castle, a physical indicator of their social standing. Advancement beyond one's inherited rank was nearly impossible; as Fukuzawa later wrote, there was as much chance of promotion as a "four-legged beast [might] hope to fly like a bird." This rigid class system instilled in Fukuzawa a lifelong resentment of the feudal system, which he declared he hated "as though it were my father’s murderer."

Poverty forced many low-ranking samurai families, including the Fukuzawas, to engage in side jobs to survive, such as making sandals or umbrellas, despite the official disdain for commercial activities. Education was also stratified; upper samurai studied Confucian classics and military strategy, while lower samurai were primarily instructed in practical skills like writing and arithmetic. Fukuzawa did not begin his formal education until the age of fourteen, but he quickly excelled, leading discussions and debates on Chinese philosophy. Encouraged by his liberal-minded mother, he developed a desire to leave the "narrow stiffness" of Nakatsu.

Travels abroad and early career

Move to Edo and first mission to America

In 1858, the Nakatsu domain ordered Fukuzawa to move to Edo (modern Tokyo) to establish a Dutch studies school for the domain's vassals. Shortly after arriving, he visited the new treaty port of Yokohama and was shocked to discover that most Westerners there spoke English, not Dutch. His years of Dutch study were suddenly obsolete. He immediately began to teach himself English.

In 1860, as part of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, the Tokugawa shogunate sent its first diplomatic mission to the United States. While the main delegation traveled on an American warship, a second ship, the Kanrin Maru, was purchased from the Dutch to serve as an escort, crewed entirely by Japanese sailors. Determined to be part of this historic voyage, Fukuzawa volunteered his services and was accepted as the personal steward to the ship's captain, Kimura Yoshitake. The Kanrin Maru reached San Francisco after a harrowing journey. While most of his fellow travelers were disoriented by the foreign culture, Fukuzawa sought to learn as much as possible. He was not surprised by Western technology, which he understood from his studies, but was struck by social and cultural differences, such as the apparent wastefulness of American society and customs like ladies and gentlemen dancing together at parties.

Mission to Europe

Upon his return to Japan in June 1860, Fukuzawa was hired by the bakufu as a translator of diplomatic documents. The period was one of intense anti-foreign sentiment, and those associated with Western learning risked their lives. Fukuzawa remained cautious but determined to continue his work. In 1861, he married Toki Okin, the daughter of an upper-ranking Nakatsu samurai.

In 1862, Fukuzawa joined another shogunal mission, this time to Europe, as an official translator. The goal was to negotiate a delay in the opening of further ports to foreign trade. The mission traveled through France, Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and Portugal over the course of a year. In London, the group visited the 1862 International Exhibition, Woolwich Arsenal, and the Houses of Parliament. Fukuzawa was an indefatigable note-taker, inquiring about hospitals, banks, the postal system, and the party system. This journey solidified his belief that Japan needed to adopt not just Western science but also its social and political institutions to achieve equality and strength. He began writing his famous work Conditions in the West in 1864, with the first volume published in 1866.