Kenji Miyazawa and Inazo Nitobe

Although this year marks the 130th anniversary of Kenji Miyazawa's birth, he had a connection with Inazo Nitobe. Let me introduce that.

On June 25, 1909 (Meiji 42), a lecture by Inazo Nitobe was held at Morioka Middle School (now Morioka Daiichi High School). Nitobe gave a lecture to the students on "cultivating the habit of silent meditation," and among the audience was Kenji Miyazawa, who had just enrolled.

Nitobe was born in Morioka in 1862 (Bunkyu 2), but left his hometown at the age of nine. He went to Tokyo, relying on his uncle, Tokitoshi Ota. After attending Kyokan Gijuku (a school attended by many children of the Morioka domain) and Sapporo Agricultural College (the predecessor of Hokkaido University), he studied abroad in the United States. After returning to Japan, he became the first doctor of agriculture in Japan. Kenji must have felt a sense of awe at seeing Nitobe, who had appeared before him as the principal of the First Higher School.

Kenji, who had a strong longing for Tokyo, visited the city nine times, with his total stay amounting to 350 days. The "Tokyo" notebook, in which he wrote down his thoughts on Tokyo, began to be written in 1909. Seeing Nitobe, who had gone to Tokyo, succeeded, and returned home in glory, I think Kenji's desire to go to Tokyo grew stronger.

Nitobe's achievements, including his book "Bushido," are numerous, but it is not well known that he was an ardent defender of Esperanto, an artificial international language devised by the Polish ophthalmologist Zamenhof.
In May 1920 (Taisho 9), Nitobe was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations. He stayed in Geneva, Switzerland, until December 1926 to fulfill his duties.

In August 1921, Nitobe attended the 13th World Esperanto Congress held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, as a representative of the League of Nations.
In the report compiled afterward, Nitobe wrote, "The power of language is great, and the League of Nations has a good motive to follow the predecessor of the Esperanto movement with special interest. If Esperanto becomes widely spread, that movement could become something of some significance for the moral unity of the world."

Based on Nitobe's report, the League of Nations decided to "refer the question of teaching Esperanto in schools to the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation and have the committee express its opinion on various aspects of the world language problem."
The committee was held at the end of 1923, but in the end, the adoption of Esperanto in school education was not realized.

Nevertheless, Nitobe's activities sparked an increase in interest in Esperanto.
In Japan, the leading pre-war magazine "Kaizo" published a "Special Issue on Esperanto Research" (August 1922 issue), and the number of people learning Esperanto increased.
In this issue, Ujaku Akita, Katsumi Kuroita, Ramstedt, and others contributed articles on Esperanto, and Kenji Kosaka's Esperanto course also began.

It was during this period that Kenji began to take an interest in Esperanto. Although Kenji coined the word Ihatov, which is deeply related to Esperanto, he was indirectly influenced by Nitobe.
In December 1926 (Showa 1), Kenji made his seventh trip to Tokyo and learned Esperanto at the Kokosha in the Marunouchi Building.

He also listened to a lecture by the Finnish Minister, Ramstedt, and noted that Ramstedt recommended writing in Esperanto, saying, "After all, it is best to write in Esperanto" (letter to his father Masajiro dated December 12 of the same year).
Kenji continued to study Esperanto, but he did not go so far as to write in it. However, he actively incorporated Esperanto expressions into his works, such as referring to Morioka as Morio and Sendai as Sendado in his work "The Restaurant of Many Orders" (Polano no Hiroba).

Nitobe became an honorary member of the Universal Esperanto Association in 1927, triggered by his support for Esperanto at the League of Nations. At the 81st World Esperanto Congress held in Prague in 1996 for the first time in 75 years, a "Nitobe Symposium" was held to re-evaluate Nitobe's achievements.

Regarding Kenji Miyazawa and Inazo Nitobe, I introduce them in detail in my book "Kenji Miyazawa: The Universe of Encounters" (Coal Sack Publishing). Please read it if you like.

Kenji Miyazawa: The Universe of Encounters | Ryuichi Sato | Book | Mail Order | Amazon

Also, I introduce Kenji and Esperanto in the catalog (list price 500 yen, postage separate) of the "Kenji Miyazawa and Esperanto Exhibition" (April 2, 2022 - June 7, 2022) that I planned at the Kenji Miyazawa Society. Please read this as well if you like.

Selling the catalog of the "Kenji Miyazawa and Esperanto Exhibition" - Kenji Miyazawa Society Ihatov Center / Kenji Miyazawa Ihatov Museum