Date of this Version
November 2004
Document Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Extract:
This study focuses on Abe Isô, a professor at Tokyo Senmon Gakkô (the present Waseda University), who is regarded as a Christian socialist in Japan. He was born into the samurai class in its declining days and became concerned about poverty and social inequality as a child. He became a Christian in 1881 while studying at Doshisha (the present Doshisha University)1 and then a socialist after reading Looking backward, a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy (1850-1898), while studying at Hartford Theological Seminary in the United States. Upon returning to Japan in 1895, he began proposing socialist solutions to the “social problem”, at a time when these ideas were still new to the Japanese.
COinS
Publication Details
Masako Gavin (2004) Abe Isô and New Zealand as a model for a “new” Japan
Preprint version
Copyright © Masako Gavin, 2004.