著者

武田 清子

出版者

国際基督教大学

雑誌

国際基督教大学学報. I-A, 教育研究 (ISSN:04523318)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, pp.34-71, 1961-12

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The Democratic movement of the Taisho period (1912-1925) is one of the most important movements in the development of the democratic trends in modern Japan. The generation who served as the national leaders during the establishment of postwar democracy in Japan were the products of this movement who struggled and survived the pressure of the militaristic fascism. Thus Japanese postwar democracy was not a gift of the US Occupation but was a national product from within. Sakuzo Yoshino, a Christian professor of political science and leading democrat, was the central figure of this movement. Under the Meiji constitution, without denying the Emperor System he worked for the right of the people as much as possible within that framework, having been attacked on both sides by the extreme nationalists and the extreme leftists. First of all, I would like to study and analyze the nature of this attempt of democracy. Secondly, this period is called, at the same time, a period of humanism when Christianity took root in the cultural and social soil of Japan. Having been received within the bosom of the culture and even losing itself in it, Christianity sought to bring about a renewal of the common man and society. The individuals of this type were Inazo Nitobe, Toyohiko Kagawa, and Sakuzo Yoshino. In Yoshino the basis of democracy was definitely Christian faith, and particularly Christian concept of man. I would like to evaluate the understanding of "Man" and its role as the basis of Taisho Democracy.