{"id":965,"date":"2015-10-29T19:17:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T10:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/?p=965"},"modified":"2016-03-13T00:35:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T15:35:12","slug":"a-founder-of-wasedas-humanities-and-a-fighter-for-social-justice-hajime-onishi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/column-en\/2015\/10\/29\/965\/","title":{"rendered":"A founder of Waseda\u2019s humanities and a fighter for social justice, Hajime Onishi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"494bcdab0c786a0be35af4970d8bc4a2\"<\/a>Waseda University Archives
\nAssistant Takashi Hiroki<\/p>\n

In September 1891, Waseda University\u2019s predecessor, Tokyo College, recruited a new instructor and specialist in philosophy.\u3000His name was Hajime Onishi. Onishi was still a graduate student at Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) but was invited to Waseda by author, critic, and professor, Tsubouchi Shoyo.<\/p>\n

Onishi was born in the Nishida castle town of Okayama in 1864. Onishi had a close relationship with Christianity from a young age and while studying at what is now Doshisha University, was baptized by Japanese missionary, educator, and Doshisha founder Niijima Jo. Onishi later enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Tokyo where he studied logic.<\/p>\n

Tokyo College, which had just established its humanities and social sciences department the year before, made Onishi responsible for classes in philosophy, logic, psychology, and aesthetics. Together with Tsubouchi Shoyo, Onishi helped build the foundation of Waseda\u2019s humanities and social sciences. According to the November 1910 issue of\u00a0Waseda Bungaku<\/i>, Onishi \u201cwas well-reasoned and logical, but had a passion that inspired students.\u201d Examples of notable students that attended Onishi\u2019s classes include educator Umaji Kaneko, playwright and author Hogetsu Shimamura, critic and thinker Ryosen Tsunashima, historian Kanichi Asakawa, and Japanese studies scholar Ryusaku Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A photograph of a 1896 graduation cermony for the humanities department. Onishi is pictured in the front row, second from the right and Waseda founder Okuma Shigenobu is in the center.<\/p><\/div>\n

Onishi was dedicated to educating future generations, but was also passionately devoted to his own academic and social endeavors. One example is his role in the \u201cKanzo Uchimura Incident,\u201d which revolved around an instructor at the First Higher School of Japan and his subsequent termination for not using the \u201cmost respectful language possible\u201d when referring to the emperor in his course syllabus. This incident led to a public dispute between education and religion. Onishi made a firm stance against nationalism and challenged Imperial University professor and philosopher Inoue Tetsujiro, who condemned Christianity as incompatible with Japanese culture and considered its followers \u201cinherently disloyal\u201d to Japan.<\/p>\n

Onishi\u2019s career as an instructor came to an end when in 1898, the Ministry of Education ordered him to study abroad in Europe. Onishi spent most of his eight years at Waseda engaged in research and education. In Europe, Onishi was so immersed in his research that he would forget to rest and eat. He became ill and after returning to Japan, passed away in November 1900 at the young age of 36. He had been offered a position as Dean of Kyoto Imperial University\u2019s new humanities department, but did not have the chance to take up the position.<\/p>\n

After his death, a seven volume compilation of Onishi\u2019s writings was published. The editor of this compilation was Umaji Kaneko, one of Onishi\u2019s brightest pupils that later went on to become a prominent Waseda educator. Many documents related to Onishi are currently stored in the Waseda University Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waseda University Archives Assistant Takashi Hiroki In September 1891, Waseda University\u2019s predecessor, Tokyo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[232,245],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column-en","tag-waseda_history-en","tag-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}