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45-412: The second son of Okakura Kan'emon, a former Fukui Domain treasurer turned silk merchant, and Kan'emon's second wife, Kakuzō was named for the corner warehouse (角蔵) in which he was born, but later changed the spelling of his name to different Kanji meaning "awakened boy" (覚三). Okakura learned English while attending Yoshisaburō, a school operated by a Christian missionary, Dr. James Curtis Hepburn , of

90-501: A century. He regarded Chinese thinker Wang Hui as the main promoter of a communist pan-Asianism. Wang Hui advocated that if social democracy is grounded in Asian civilizational traditions, it renders it possible to avoid the Western type of multi-party democracy and enact a social order with much stronger people's participation. Ties between British India and Japan were pursued by some as

135-509: A scholarship to the Tokyo Institute of Foreign Languages. Quickly after, the school was renamed to Tokyo Imperial University . It was at this prestigious academy that he first met and studied under the Harvard -educated art historian Ernest Fenollosa . In 1886, Okakura became secretary to the minister of education and was put in charge of musical affairs. Later in the same year he was named to

180-638: A succession crisis and O-Ie Sōdō with the removal of Matsudaira Tsunamasa due to insanity was reduced from 475,000 koku to 250,000 koku . A number of the later daimyō of Fukui were adopted into the clan from the Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa family, one of the Gosankyō , the three lesser branches of the Tokugawa clan . During the Bakumatsu period , Matsudaira Yoshinaga (better known as Matsudaira Shungaku),

225-514: A way of pushing against British rule, with revolutionaries such as Subhas Chandra Bose meeting with Japanese leaders, though British intelligence services sought to limit these interactions. The 1951 founding of the Asian Games , now the second-largest sporting event behind the Olympic Games , was partially inspired by a newly independent India's vision for Asian solidarity and the emergence of

270-473: A week or so, Kakuzo felt a little better and was able to talk with people, but on August 25, he had a heart attack and spent several days in great pain. Surrounded by his family, relatives and his disciples, he passed away on September 2." In Japan, Okakura, along with Fenollosa, is credited with "saving" Nihonga , or painting done with traditional Japanese technique, as it was threatened with replacement by Western-style painting, or " Yōga ", whose chief advocate

315-480: Is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian peoples. Various theories and movements of Pan-Asianism have been proposed, particularly from East, South and Southeast Asia. The motive for the movement was in opposition to the values of Western imperialism and colonialism , and that Asian values were superior to European values . The concept of Asianism in Japan and China has changed during

360-488: Is based on the principle of the Rule of Right, and justifies the avenging of wrongs done to others." He advocated overthrowing the Western "Rule of Might" and "seeking a civilisation of peace and equality and the emancipation of all races." Nonetheless, Chinese Pan-Asianism emerged and was equally as imperialist as its Japanese counterpart. Its success was limited by China's political instability and weak international status. Since

405-677: Is registered as a national monument. Fukui Domain The Fukui Domain ( 福井藩 , Fukui-han ) , also known as the Echizen Domain ( 越前藩 , Echizen-han ) , was a domain ( han ) of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871. The Fukui Domain was based at Fukui Castle in Echizen Province , the core of the modern city of Fukui , located in

450-562: The Chūbu region of the island of Honshu . The Fukui Domain was founded by Yūki Hideyasu , the son of shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu , and was ruled for all of its existence by the shinpan daimyō of the Matsudaira clan . The Fukui Domain was assessed under the Kokudaka system and its value peaked at 680,000 koku . The Fukui Domain was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 after

495-450: The Hepburn romanization system. Here, he became well-versed in the foreign language but couldn't read Kanji, the characters of his homeland. As such, his father got him to concurrently study western culture at Yoshisaburō and traditional Japanese in a Buddhist temple. After the abolishment of the feudal system in 1871, his family moved from Yokohama to Tokyo. In 1875, Okakura joined them and won

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540-631: The Manchurian battlefields". Okakura's final work, The White Fox , written under the patronage of Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1912, was an English-language libretto for the Boston Opera House. The libretto incorporates elements from both kabuki plays and Wagner 's epic Tannhäuser and may be understood, metaphorically, as an expression of Okakura's hoped-for reconciliation of East and West. Charles Martin Loeffler agreed to Garner's request to put

585-624: The Meiji Restoration and its territory was absorbed into Fukui Prefecture . In the Sengoku period , the area around Fukui was known as Kita-no-sho, and controlled by Shibata Katsutoyo , the adopted son of Shibata Katsuie , one of Oda Nobunaga 's leading generals, after the Asakura clan was dispossessed by Shibata Katsuie. After Shibata Katsutoyo died of illness during the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583,

630-476: The Monroe Doctrine , which opposed European imperialism to foster the unimpeded growth of American imperialism. From a Chinese perspective, Japanese Pan-Asianism was interpreted as a competing ideology to Sinocentrism as well as rationalization of Japanese imperialism (cf. Twenty-One Demands ). Sun Yat-sen , despite his consistent praise of Japan as a cultural partner, questioned whether they would follow

675-553: The Nihon Bijutsuin (日本美術院, lit. "Japan Visual Arts Academy"), founded with Hashimoto Gahō and Yokoyama Taikan and thirty-seven other leading artists. At the same time, Okakura had opposed the Shintoist Haibutsu Kishaku movement which, in the wake of the Meiji Restoration had sought to expel Buddhism from Japan. With Ernest Fenollosa, he worked to repair damaged Buddhist temples, images and texts. Okakura

720-502: The 2000s, Chinese scholars have a more nuanced view of Pan-Asianism, especially those of the Japanese variety. Historian Wang Ping proposed an evaluation system based on chronology: co-operative Classical Asianism (until 1898), expansive Greater Asianism (until 1928), and the invasive Japanese ‘ Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ’ (until 1945). Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek stated that China has been following pan-Asianism for over

765-645: The Emperor's "glory" to be displayed. These were evident in government policies such as the Hakko ichiu and Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere agendas. Even Kakuzō was critical of Japan's expansionism after the Russo-Japanese War, viewing it as no different than Western expansionism. He expected other Asians to call them "embodiments of the White Disaster". Historian Torsten Weber compares these contradictions to

810-612: The European powers, and Kentaro Oi (1843–1922) who attempted to push social reforms in Korea and establish a constitutional government in Japan. Pan-Asian thought in Japan was further popularized following the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). This sparked interest from Indian poets Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo and Chinese politician Sun Yat-sen . The growing official interest in broader Asian concerns

855-696: The Imperial Art Commission and sent abroad to study fine arts in the Western world. After his return from Europe and the United States, in 1887 he helped found, and a year later became director of, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (東京美術学校 Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō ). The new arts school represented "the first serious reaction to the lifeless conservatism" of traditionalists and the "equally uninspired imitation of western art" fostered by early Meiji enthusiasts. Limiting himself to more sympathetic aspects of art in

900-684: The Indian Government, following a report in the London Spectator . Okakura Kakuzō , a scholar and art critic, also praised the superiority of Asian values upon Japanese victory of the Russo-Japanese War : ASIA is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius , and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas . But not even

945-464: The Second World War. The idea of " Asian values " is somewhat of a resurgence of Pan-Asianism. One foremost enthusiast of the idea was the former Prime Minister of Singapore , Lee Kuan Yew . In India , Ram Manohar Lohia dreamed of a united socialist Asia. A number of other Asian political leaders from Sun Yat-sen in the 1910s and 20s to Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s similarly argue that

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990-491: The West, at the school, and in a new periodical Kokka , Okakura sought to rehabilitate ancient and native arts, honoring their ideals and exploring their possibilities. When, in 1897, it became clear that European methods were to be given ever increasing prominence in the school curriculum, he resigned his directorship. Six months later he renewed the effort, as he saw it, to draw on western art without impairing national inspiration in

1035-653: The West: Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all

1080-571: The area was given to the Aoyama clan . However, the Aoyama sided with the Western Army under Ishida Mitsunari during the Battle of Sekigahara and were thus dispossessed by the victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu . In 1601, Ieyasu awarded Echizen Province to his second son, Yūki Hideyasu as a 670,000 koku fief. Yūki Hideyasu was permitted to change his name to Matsudaira Hideyasu, and he rebuilt Fukui Castle and

1125-464: The arts". Okakura argued that "Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life". [Teaism] insulates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. None of this, he suggested,

1170-612: The assigned kokudaka , based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields, In addition, Fukui Domain administered the extensive tenryō territories in Echizen Province on behalf of the Tokugawa shogunate, deriving substantial revenue from these holdings, which were not counted as part of its nominal kokudaka . [REDACTED] Media related to Fukui Domain at Wikimedia Commons Pan-Asianism Pan-Asianism ( also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism )

1215-403: The domain was reduced further with the creation of subsidiary domains as Yoshie Domain and Echizen-Maruoka Domain . the domain was plagued with financial difficulties through most of its history, due to frequent flooding, crop failure, epidemics and the profligate spending of its daimyō . In 1661, Fukui became the first han to issue hansatsu (domain paper money). In 1686, the domain faced

1260-574: The early 20th century from a foreign-imposed and negatively received, to a self-referential and embraced concept, according to historian Torsten Weber. Originally, Japanese Pan-Asianism believed that Asians shared a common heritage and must therefore collaborate in defeating their Western colonial masters. However, Japanese Asianism mostly focused on East Asian territories, with occasional references to South East Asia and West Asia. Their ideologues were Tokichi Tarui (1850–1922) who argued for equal Japan - Korea unionization for cooperative defence against

1305-471: The end, of life. In this, Kakuzō was utilising the Japanese concept of sangoku , which existed in Japanese culture before the concept of Asia became popularised. Sangoku literally means the "three countries": Honshu (the largest island of Japan), Kara (China) and Tenjiku (India). However, Japanese Pan-Asianism evolved into a more nationalist ideology that prioritized Japan's interests. This

1350-618: The great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to search out the means, not the end, of life. In his subsequent book, The Awakening of Japan , published in 1904, he argued that "the glory of the West is the humiliation of Asia." This was an early expression of Pan-Asianism . In this book Okakura also noted that Japan's rapid modernization

1395-417: The path of exploitation like Western powers in the future in his final years. Sun was a proponent of Pan-Asianism. He said that Asia was the "cradle of the world's oldest civilisation" and that "even the ancient civilisations of the West, of Greece and Rome, had their origins on Asiatic soil." He thought that it was only in recent times that Asians "gradually degenerated and become weak." For Sun, "Pan-Asianism

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1440-742: The poetic drama to music, but the project was never staged. Okakura's health deteriorated in his later years. "My ailment the doctors say is the usual complaint of the twentieth century— Bright's disease ," he wrote a friend in June 1913. "I have eaten things in various parts of the globe—too varied for the hereditary notions of my stomach and kidneys. However I am getting well again and I am thinking of going to China in September." In August, 1913, "Kakuzo insisted on going to his mountain villa in Akakura , and finally his wife, daughter and his sister took him there by train. For

1485-576: The post-colonial world order. However, Indian pan-Asianism faded away after the fallout of the 1962 India-China War . Pan-Asianism in Turkey has not yet been fully explored, it is not known how many people hold this ideology and how widespread it is. However, Turks who supported Japan in the Second World War and have the Pan-Asianism ideology use a redesigned Turkish flag based on Japan's flag in

1530-610: The snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal , which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic , who love to dwell on the Particular , and to search out the means, not

1575-473: The surrounding jōkamachi as his capital. His son, Matsudaira Tadanao was of violent disposition and was on bad terms with Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada , and was consequently dispossessed and banished to Kyushu. He was replaced by his younger brother, Matsudaira Tadamasa , with a reduction in kokudaka to 500,000 koku . His descendants continued to rule over Fukui until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. Under Tadamasa's successor, Matsudaira Mitsumichi ,

1620-704: Was a high-profile urbanite who retained an international sense of self. He wrote all of his main works in English . Okakura researched Japan's traditional art and traveled to Europe , the United States and China , and lived two years in India during which he engaged in dialogue with Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore . Okakura emphasised the importance to the modern world of Asian culture , attempting to bring its influence to realms of art and literature that, in his day, were largely dominated by Western culture . In 1906, he

1665-561: Was also one of a trio of Japanese artists who introduced the wash technique to Abanindranath Tagore , the father of modern Indian watercolor. As part of the Izura Institute of Arts & Culture, Ibaraki University manages Rokkakudō , an hexagonal wooden retreat overlooking the sea along the Izura coast in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture , that was designed by Okakura and built in 1905. It

1710-580: Was appreciated by the Westerner. In his "sleek complacency", the Westerner views the tea ceremony as "but another instance of the thousand and one oddities which constitute the quaintness and childishness of the East to him". Writing in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War , Okakura commented that the Westerner regarded Japan as "barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace", and began to call her civilized only when "she began to commit wholesale slaughter on

1755-401: Was artist Kuroda Seiki . In fact this role, most assiduously pressed after Okakura's death by his followers, is not taken seriously by art scholars today, nor is the idea that oil painting posed any serious "threat" to traditional Japanese painting. Yet Okakura was certainly instrumental in modernizing Japanese aesthetics, having recognized the need to preserve Japan's cultural heritage, and thus

1800-582: Was evident by the growth of secret societies such as Black Ocean Society and the Black Dragon Society , which committed criminal activities to ensure the success of Japanese expansionism. Exceptionally, Ryōhei Uchida (1874–1937), who was a member of the Black Dragon Society, was a Japan-Korea unionist and supported Filipino and Chinese revolutions . In addition, Asian territories were seen as reservoirs of economic resources and outlets for

1845-590: Was invited by William Sturgis Bigelow to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and became the Curator of its Department of Japanese and Chinese Art in 1910. His 1903 book on Asian artistic and cultural history, The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan , published on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War , is famous for its opening paragraph in which he sees a spiritual unity throughout Asia, which distinguishes it from

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1890-452: Was not universally applauded in Asia: ″We have become so eager to identify ourselves with European civilization instead of Asiatic that our continental neighbors regard us as renegades—nay, even as an embodiment of the White Disaster itself." In The Book of Tea , written and published in 1906, has been described as "the earliest lucid English-language account of Zen Buddhism and its relation to

1935-482: Was one of the leading political figures in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. The final daimyō of Fukui was Matsudaira Mochiaki , who served as imperial governor under the Meiji government until the abolition of the han system in 1871 and the creation of modern Fukui Prefecture . Source: Like most domains in the han system , Fukui Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide

1980-499: Was one of the major reformers during Japan's period of modernization beginning with the Meiji Restoration . Outside Japan, Okakura influenced a number of important figures, directly or indirectly, who include Swami Vivekananda , philosopher Martin Heidegger , poet Ezra Pound , and especially poet Rabindranath Tagore and art benefactor, collector and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner , who were close personal friends of his. He

2025-537: Was shown in the establishment of facilities for Indian Studies. In 1899, Tokyo Imperial University set up a chair in Sanskrit and Kawi , with a further chair in comparative religion being set up in 1903. In this environment, a number of Indian students came to Japan in the early twentieth century, founding the Oriental Youngmen's Association in 1900. Their anti- British political activity caused consternation to

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