Yukichi Fukuzawa Essay

Book Report Yukichi Fukuzawa is one of the great founders of modern thinkers that contributed heavily to Japan’s enlightenment. He championed the idea of Western civilization and made the greatest impact within the Japanese culture. He established universities, newspapers, publishers, taught commercial and political undertakings, while doing his best to practice them. Fukazawa wrote a few books during the Edo period and Meiji Period, which have inspired the Japanese culture. His autobiography explains his roots and how he journeys through life from Tokugawa to Meiji. Fukuzawa was the youngest, born into the low-ranking samurai of the Okudaira Clan of Nakatsu on the island of Kyushu. His mother, O-Jun also belonged to a samurai clan of the similar rank. His father had passed away only a year and a half after his birth and the family would move to Nakatsu. Fukuzawa recalls how his mother raised him; “Moreover, my mother, although she was a native of Nakatsu, had accustomed herself to the life of Osaka, then the most prosperous city in Japan, and so the way she dressed us and arranged our hair made us seem queer in the eyes of these …show more content…
Some samurai felt the change was too hazardous and preferred the ancient method of living while many other samurai thought about modernizing Japan like the Western world. Fukuzawa felt this was the chance to revolutionize the country’s society for good since he despised the Confucius rigid social-order system of the Tokugawa’s. With this new kind of government, any low-ranking samurai would be able to rise up through studying and be able to take control of the fresh political support system. A yearly stipend was offered to former daimyos and samurai to submit to the new government. The samurai eventually lost their class privileges when it was declared that all people were