Riku Katsunan - Kuga Katsunan

Japanese: 陸羯南 - くが・かつなん

Year of death: September 2, 1907
Year of birth: October 14, 4th year of Ansei (November 30, 1857)
A newspaper reporter in the Meiji period. Born in Hirosaki, Mutsu Province (Aomori Prefecture), as the eldest son of Nakata Kensai, a samurai of the Tsugaru clan. He studied Chinese classics from an early age, and entered To-o Gijuku, the successor to the clan school, where he studied Chinese classics and English. In 1873, he dropped out of To-o Gijuku and entered Miyagi Normal School in Sendai, but clashed with the principal and was expelled, and moved to Tokyo in 1876. In July of the same year, he entered the Ministry of Justice Law School. His classmates included Hara Takashi, Fukuda Hinami, and Kokubu Seigai. In 1887, he was expelled along with Hara Takashi and others for a bribery scandal that arose from dissatisfaction with dormitory meals, and he returned to his hometown of Aomori and became editor-in-chief of the Aomori Shimbun. In the same year, he also took the surname Riku, under the pretext of restoring his relatives' Riku family. In 1888, he was fined for slander. He left the Aomori Shimbun and worked in a variety of jobs, before becoming a Daijokan official in 1881, and entering the world of bureaucracy. During this time, he researched French politics and administration, translated and published books on the subject, and cultivated the foundations of his later political debate. When the Cabinet Official Gazette Bureau was established in 1885, he was appointed chief of the editorial department, but in 1886, he left the office to pursue independent public opinion activities, and on April 3 of the same year, with the support of Tani Kanjo and Sugiura Jugyou, he launched the newspaper Tokyo Denpo, which he further developed into the newspaper Nippon on February 11 of the following year. He rejected the partisan and commercial nature of newspapers, and presented a strict newspaper philosophy of an "independent newspaper" that would stand on its own merits alone, which had a major impact on newspaper journalism. At the same time, he advocated nationalism, and while partnering with the magazine Nipponjin, published by Seikyosha and run by Miyake Setsurei and Shiga Shigetaka, he engaged in public opinion activities that led to nationalism that criticized Westernization throughout the 1880s and 1890s. However, at the end of the Meiji period, the newspaper business fell into a difficult position amid the trend toward sales-oriented publishing, and in 1906 he was forced to sell off Nippon. He died of illness the following year. He was a typical example of an "independent newspaper reporter" in the Meiji period.

(Teruo Ariyama)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治40.9.2(1907)
生年：安政4.10.14(1857.11.30)
明治時代の新聞記者。陸奥国(青森県)弘前に津軽藩士中田謙斎の長男として生まれる。幼少時から漢学を学び,藩校の後身東奥義塾に入学,漢学,英学等を学ぶ。明治6(1873)年東奥義塾を中退し,仙台の宮城師範学校に入学したが,校長と衝突し退学となり,9年上京。同年7月,司法省法学校に入学した。同期生には,原敬,福本日南,国分青崖らがいた。12年寮の食事への不満が原因で起きた賄征伐事件で,原敬らと共に退学処分を受け,故郷青森に帰り『青森新聞』編集長となった。またこの年,親戚の陸家再興の名目で陸姓を名乗る。13年,讒謗律に触れ罰金刑を受ける。青森新聞社を退職し,種々の仕事を転々としたのち,16年に太政官御用掛となり,官僚の世界に入った。この間,フランスの政治,行政の調査に当たり,その書物を翻訳出版するなど後年の政論の基礎を培った。 18年内閣官報局が新設されるや,編集課長に就任したが,21年,在野の言論活動を志し退職,同年4月3日,谷干城,杉浦重剛らの支援を受けて新聞『東京電報』を創刊し,さらに発展させて翌22年2月11日新聞『日本』を発刊,新聞の党派性,営利性を否定し,自らの信ずる「道理」のみによって自立する「独立新聞」という峻厳な新聞理念を提示し新聞ジャーナリズムに大きな影響を与えた。同時に国民主義を標榜し,三宅雪嶺,志賀重昂らの政教社の発行する雑誌『日本人』と提携しながら,明治20年代,30年代を通じて,欧化主義を批判するナショナリズムを領導する言論活動を展開した。しかし明治末期には,新聞界の営業主義化の大勢のなかで新聞経営は苦境に陥り,39年『日本』を手放さざるをえなくなった。翌年病没。明治期の「独立新聞記者」の典型であった。<著作>『陸羯南全集』全10巻

(有山輝雄)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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