Kendou Ishii

Japanese: 石井研堂 - いしい・けんどう

Year of death: December 6, 1943
Year of birth: June 23, 1865 (August 14, 1865)
An independent cultural historian of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods. His real name was Tamiji. He was born in Koriyama Village (Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture) in the territory of the Oshu Nihonmatsu Domain. After graduating from Koriyama Elementary School, he worked as a teacher at the same school and then moved to Tokyo, where he became the editor of the magazine Kokokumin (later Shokokumin) in 1889. Of the many boys' magazines available at the time, the magazine became so popular that it proclaimed itself to be the "king of the magazine world." This was probably because Kendo, who did not follow the elite course of modern Japan, created a magazine that met the hopes of self-taught boys in the same situation as he had been. This kind of sensibility is also present in the book series Rika Jyuunikagetsu (Twelve Months of Science) and Shonen Kogei Bunko (Boys' Craft Library), published from 1901 to 1902. His book Meiji Jibutsu Kigen (The Origin of Things, published in 1908, revised and expanded in 1909), can be said to be an encyclopedia of Meiji culture. He belonged to the Meiji Culture Research Society, which included Yoshino Sakuzo, and was involved in the editing of the Meiji Culture Collection.

(Yuzo Tsubouchi)

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

Japanese:

没年：昭和18.12.6(1943)
生年：慶応1.6.23(1865.8.14)
明治・大正・昭和期の在野の文化史家。本名民司。奥州二本松藩領郡山村(福島県郡山市)生まれ。郡山小学校を卒業後,同校教員などを務めたのち上京,明治22(1889)年雑誌『小国民』(のち『少国民』)の編集者となる。当時数多くあった少年雑誌のうちで,同誌が「雑誌界之大王」を標榜するほどの人気雑誌となったのは,近代日本のエリートコースを進まなかった研堂が,かつての自分のような境遇にある独学少年たちの希望にかなった雑誌作りをしたからであろう。そういうセンスは同34年から同37年にかけて刊行された単行本シリーズ『理科十二ケ月』や『少年工芸文庫』にも通底している。その著『明治事物起原』(1908刊,44年改訂増補版)は,明治文化を知る百科事典といえる。吉野作造らの明治文化研究会に属し,明治文化全集の編集にも当たった。<参考文献>山下恒夫『石井研堂』

(坪内祐三)

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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