Records and Accounts

Letters Addressed to Inoue Tetsujirō（※要利用申請）

Description

Recently joining Nichibunken’s collection of documents are 140 letters addressed to philosopher Inoue Tetsujirō (1856–1944), purchased in 2012. The letters were written between 1882 (Meiji 15) and 1941 (Shōwa 16), during which he joined the faculty of Tokyo University as assistant professor through his time as professor and later president there and later served as president of Daito Bunka Gakuin (now Daito Bunka University). The present database provides access to the letters via digital images. It also includes a small number of letters without his name as an addressee or without his address written.
　Today, the contents of Inoue Tetsujirō’s library, his diary, manuscripts in his hand, and other materials are mainly in the collections of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library, the University of Tokyo Archives, the Bunkyo Historical Museum (Bunkyo Furusato Rekishikan), and the Daito Archives. The present collection of letters at Nichibunken is notable for its items by prominent figures of academia, including the universities where he served, and other intellectuals of the time.
　Among these people are former students of Inoue such as Yoshida Kumaji (pedagogist) and Katō Genchi (scholar of religion, scholar of Shinto studies), former university presidents like Katō Hiroyuki (political scientist) and Hamao Arata (educational administrator), and other names including Ōwada Takeki (Japanese literature scholar), Kakei Katsuhiko (jurist), Takashima Beihō (Buddhist thinker), Murakami Senshō (scholar of Buddhism), Sakaino Kōyō (scholar of Buddhism), Tomomatsu Entai (Buddhist thinker), Ōnishi Tomota (philosopher), Kure Shūzō (psychiatrist), Mikami Sanji (historian), and Hozumi Nobushige (jurist). The list suggests the wide network of scholars and other experts with whom Inoue corresponded.
　The letters are a valuable resource in conjunction with Inoue’s diary, which was partially transcribed and published in 2012 under the title Sonken nikki: Ji Meiji 33-nen shi Meiji 39-nen (Sonken Diary 1900–1906).
　The creation of the database was funded by Nichibunken in FY 2012–2013 under the supervision of the Research Group on Inoue Tetsujirō organized to study Inoue-related letters housed in the Nichibunken collection. With Mori Hirohisa as adviser and supervisor, the database was compiled by the Research Group on the Letters Addressed to Inoue Tetsujirō (Iida Ken’ichirō, Isomae Jun’ichi, Isomae Reiko, Tanigawa Yutaka, Nagao Munenori, Nishida Shōichi, Fukushima Eiju, Matsukane Naomi, and Mizuuchi Yūta).

Editorial supervisor: Isomae Jun’ichi
Database project supervisor: Mori Hirohisa
Data compilation supervisor: Fukushima Eiju
Data compilation: Iida Ken’ichirō, Isomae Reiko, Matsukane Naomi, Mizuuchi Yūta,
Nagao Munenori, Nishida Shōichi, and Tanigawa Yutaka

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