Sugiura Jugo (杉浦重剛)
Jugo SUGIURA (April 19, 1855 - February 13, 1924) was a nationalistic educator and thinker of the Meiji period and the Taisho period. His childhood name was Kenjiro. His father, Jubun SUGIURA, was a Confucian in the Zeze Domain. He was from the Zeze Domain in Omi Province (present Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture).
He gave a lecture on ethics as a part of the studies required for an emperor to the three brothers of the imperial family: young Emperor Showa, Chichibunomiya Imperial Prince Yasuhito and Takamatsunomiya Imperial Prince Yoshihito. He called himself Baiso or Tendai-doshi. He had a nickname, Shimi (book warm), when he was a student.
Later, he was called 'patriot of noble character.'
He established the idea of Rigakushu (his idea of applying schience to every matter).
Career
He was born as the second son of Jubun (Shotei) SUGIURA, a Confucian serving the Zeze clan in Omi Province, and his wife Yae. At the age of 6 (in Japanese counting, it was 5 years old), he was allowed to enter a domain school named Songido, and learned Chinese classics and Western studies from Tando TAKAHASHI, Kikuro KURODA and Gesshu IWAGAKI. Educational influence from the three teachers was strong enough to support him for life as he recalled later that "I received sprit from Mr. Tando, studies from Mr. Kikuro, and knowledge from Mr. Gesshu." At the age of 15, he was appointed instructor of Chinese classics reading.
When he was 15 years old, he went to Tokyo to study at Daigaku Nanko (predecessor of the University of Tokyo) as a student recommended by the clan. As a result of his hard work at the school, in October 1873 he was selected to the lecture in front of Emperor Meiji and conducted experiments of physics and chemistry. In 1876, he was selected as a student overseas of the second dispatch by the Ministry of Education, and went to Europe. He majored in chemistry. At first, he entered the agricultural college in Cirencester to study agriculture, however he gave up this idea, knowing that the major agriculture of Britain was stock farming and the major grain was wheat, and that the studies of those things would be useless in Japan. To study chemistry instead, he transferred to Owens College, Manchester, where he devoted himself to research under the direction of Professor Roscoe and Professor Sholeman. While studying further at the College of Chemistry at South Kensington, London and the University of London, he had a nervous breakdown, and returned to Japan in May 1880.
At the age of 27, he worked for the Ministry of Education and the University of Tokyo. In the mean time, he became the principal of Preparatory School for the University of Tokyo (later the First Senior High School [under the old education system]), and a member for the foundation of Tokyo English School (soon changed its name to Nihon Gakuen Junior and Senior High School), a preparatory school teaching in English to enter old-education-system high schools including preparatory schools for universities.
Later, he was in charge of editorials in the two newspapers of the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun; and together with Setsurei MIYAKE and Shigetaka SHIGA, he put effort into publishing "Nipponjin" (Japanese people, later changed its name to "Nippon oyobi Nipponjin" [Japan and Japanese]) and "Nippon" (newspaper), both had been published by Seikyo-sha. Through these means, he advocated nationalism, which influenced the society at that time. Organizing the Japan Club in 1889, he opposed the draft to revise unequal treaties formulated by Shigenobu OKUMA. After serving as assembly member of Koishikawa Ward, the next year, in 1890, he ran in the first general election for the House of Representatives from Taisei-kai Party to be elected. However, he resigned in 1891.
Then, he founded Tokyo Bungakuin College while teaching young people, and assumed a series of posts of the dean of Kokugakuin University, the president of Toa-Dobunshoin University, and instructor of the school for crown prince. He was also a strong adorer of education by national school (present public school in Japan), and put much effort into enhancing the authority of the state, as he even visited the Tokyo Prefectural First Junior High School, the mecca of secondary education by national school in those days, and lectured, "This school is the first junior high school not only in the imperial capital but also in the empire."
He gave lectures to Michinomiya Imperial Prince Hirohito (Prince Regent, later Emperor Showa) as scholar, and at a certain serious incident in the Imperial Palace, he cooperated with the Kuninomiya family against Ariake YAMAGATA. He died in 1924.