Yoda Gakukai

Japanese: 依田学海 - よだ・がくかい

Year of death: December 27, 1909 (Meiji 42)
Year of birth: Tempo 4.11.24 (1834.1.3)
A scholar of Chinese classics and literature in the late Edo and Meiji periods. His name was Choshu, his pen name was Momokawa, and he was commonly known as Kozo, Shinzo, Shichiro, and Uemonjiro. He went by the name Gakukai, and after the Meiji period he took the name Momokawa, and called his villa in Mukojima Yanagi Seiro. He was born in Edo and was a samurai of the Sakura domain (Chiba prefecture). He was taught Confucianism and poetry by Fujimori Koan, and his awareness of economics also grew. From the Ansei to Keio periods he served as a page, temporary inspector, county magistrate, and caretaker of the domain, and after the Meiji Restoration he traveled between Kansai and Edo as a fudai domain, petitioning for the life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu and conveying the domain lord's submission to the government. After the Meiji Restoration, he became a domain councillor and deputy chief councillor. In 1872 (Meiji 5), he became secretary of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce. In 1895, he was appointed editor of the Dajokan's Shushi-kyoku (later the Shushikan), but due to the faction of Shigeno Seisai (An'yu) trying to exclude the Kawada Mikae faction, in 1891 he was transferred to the Ministry of Education as a junior clerk in the Music Investigation Section and Editorial Bureau. In 1895 he retired from this position and made a living as a writer. As a dynamic Chinese classicist who admired Wei Shuzi, he left behind many prefaces, postscripts, epigraphic biographies, supported the improvement of theatrical performances by Kan'ya, Danjūrō and others, and held joint novel critiques with young writers such as Mori Ogai and Koda Rohan, among others, and was involved in a wide range of activities. Neither going with the flow nor going against it, but observing the changes of the times with keen eyes, his 46-year-old diary stands out as a brilliant cultural record. His works include "Danso", "Tankai", "Huanyuan", "Xuekaiji Zuo", "Xuekai Gamu", "Bokusui Twenty-four Views", "Yoshino Shuui Meikaho", "Kyoubijin" and many others. <References> "Xuekai Nikki" (12 volumes) compiled by the Xuekai Nikki Research Society, "Xuekai Nikki" (12 volumes) and "Bokusui Bessho Miscellany"

(Miyazaki Shuta)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治42.12.27(1909)
生年：天保4.11.24(1834.1.3)
幕末明治期の漢学・文学者。名朝宗,字百川,通称幸造,信造,七郎,右衛門二郎。学海と号し,明治後は百川を名とし,向島の別宅を柳蔭精廬と称した。江戸生まれの佐倉(千葉県)藩士。藤森弘庵に儒ならびに詩文を授かり,経世の意識も高まる。安政～慶応期は藩の中小姓,仮目付,郡代官,留守居役を歴任,大政奉還後は譜代藩として徳川慶喜の助命嘆願,あるいは藩主の恭順を政府に伝えるために関西,江戸間を奔走。維新後は藩公議人,権大参事。明治5(1872)年,東京会議所書記。同8年,太政官修史局(のち修史館)の編修に任ぜられるも重野成斎(安繹)派による川田甕江派排斥のため,同14年文部省音楽取調掛兼編輯局少書記官に転任。同18年非職,以後文筆で糊口した。魏叔子を奉ずる躍動感に溢れた漢文家として多くの序跋碑文記伝を残し,勘弥,団十郎らの演劇改良を後援し,森鴎外,幸田露伴ら若手と小説合評をするなど活動は広い。時流に乗らず逆らわず,しかし鋭敏に時代の推移を見届けた46年間にわたる日記は文化記録として突出した精彩を放つ。著書は『談叢』『譚海』『話園』『学海記縦』『学海画夢』『墨水二十四景記』『吉野拾遺名歌誉』『侠美人』その他多数。<参考文献>学海日録研究会編『学海日録』全12巻,『墨水別墅雑録』

(宮崎修多)

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

<<: Tamotsu Yoda

>>: Nighthawk