Mori Ogai
A preeminent Japanese intellectual, who advanced Japan's modernization in a diverse range of fields, including medicine, literature, and the arts, and contributed to a reevaluation of Japanese culture
1862-1922
Mori Ogai was a novelist, critic, translator, and army surgeon of the Meiji and Taisho eras. He was born in Tsuwano, Iwami Province (present-day Shimane Prefecture), as the eldest son of Mori Seitai, in a family of hereditary physicians to the daimyo of the Tsuwano Domain. His birth name was Mori Rintaro, and he was also known by such pen names as Senda Sambo Shujin and Kanchoro Shujin (Master of Kanchoro, his home). At the age of 7, he enrolled in Yorokan, the Tsuwano Domain school, where he attended classes in Confucian classics and Japanese classical literature, while his father tutored him in Dutch grammar. In 1872 the Mori family relocated to Tokyo, and Ogai lodged at the residence of a relative, Nishi Amane, and studied German at Shinbun Gakusha, a private school in Hongo. In 1881 he graduated from the University of Tokyo Medical School and enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army as a medical officer. In 1884 Ogai went to study in Germany, where he engaged in hygiene research in Munich, Berlin, and other German cities. During this time, he also developed interests in European literature, art, philosophy, and aesthetics. In 1888 he returned to Japan, and in 1894 he served in the First Sino-Japanese War. In 1899 he gave up his posts as concurrent director of the Military Medical Department of the Imperial Guard and president of the Army Medical School to become surgeon general of the 12th Division of the Japanese Imperial Army in Kokura. In 1904 he was sent to the front line of the Russo-Japanese War. In 1907 Ogai was promoted to Army surgeon general and assumed the post of director of the Medical Bureau in the Department of War, the highest position attainable for a medical doctor. In 1916 he retired from the Department of War, and in 1917 he was appointed as concurrent director general of the Imperial Household Museum and director of the Imperial Archives. In 1919 he was also appointed as the first director of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1922 Ogai passed away at his home, which he called Kanchoro, in Sendagi, Tokyo. His ashes are buried at Yomei Temple in Tsuwano and at Zenrin Temple in Mitaka, Tokyo.
Apart from his official duties for the Meiji government, Ogai also engaged in enlightenment and outreach activities in a diverse range of fields, primarily medicine and literature. He founded such journals as Eisei shinshi (The New Journal of Hygiene), Iji shinron (New Medicine), and Koshu iji (Public Health), and spoke out against feudalistic practices in medical circles in Japan. In government, he advised Yamagata Aritomo, a powerful government official, and had a hand in the Japanese language policies pursued by the Ministry of Education, as when he prevented changes to Japanese historical orthography. As part of his duties as director of the Imperial Archives, he published the historical research pamphlet Teishi ko (A Study of the Posthumous Names of Emperors). He also established the literary journals Bungaku hyoron shigarami-zoshi (Literary Criticism Notebook) and Mezamashi-gusa (Eye-Opening Notes), and engaged in criticism from a romantic and idealistic perspective, thus contributing to the formation of literary criticism. Ogai's collection of translated poems Omokage (Shadow Images), his translation of Hans Christian Andersen's Improvisatore (Sokkyo shijin), and his translation of Faust (Fausuto) had enormous impacts. He organized poetry readings at his home, which he called Kanchoro Poetry Readings. By writing the trilogy Maihime (The Dancing Girl) and other works of fiction in a refined literary style reminiscent of classical Japanese, Ogai provided a model for the modern novel free from the lowbrow features of light literature. He then went on to publish in rapid succession a diverse range of contemporary novels, including Hannichi (Half a Day), Wita sekusuarisu (Vita Sexualis), Fushinchu (Under Reconstruction), Chinmoku no to (The Tower of Silence), Kanoyoni (As If), and Gan (Wild Goose). His Okitsu Yagoemon no isho (The Last Testament of Okitsu Yagoemon) was acclaimed for expanding the horizons of the historical novel. This was followed by a string of masterpieces: Abe ichizoku (The Abe Clan), Yasui fujin (Madam Yasui), Sansho dayu (Sansho the Bailiff), and Takasebune (The Takase River Boat). Next he published three historical biographies, Shibue Chusai, Izawa Ranken, and Hojo Katei, which were critically acclaimed for their sophisticated style. His works are collected together in Ogai zenshu (Collected Works of Mori Ogai), spanning 38 volumes and containing numerous critical biographies and research papers. The site of Kanchoro, his former residence in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, became the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum. This museum and the Mori Ogai Museum in Tsuwano, his birthplace, house large collections of his personal effects. Most of the books that formed Ogai's personal library are now housed in the University of Tokyo Library as the Mori Ogai Collection.
Related People, Things and Events
Books
Translations by Ogai Mori
Critical writings and magazines
Writings by Mori as army surgeon Rintaro Mori
Biographies and critical biographies
Related Works
Portraits of Ogai
Materials related to fictional and historical novel writing
Handwritten notes and miscellaneous records by Ogai
Books from Ogai’s personal collection
Materials related to Ogai Mori as an army surgeon
Videos
Past Exhibitions
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Institutions Holding Related Materials
The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.
With the aid of supporters from a range of fields, The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University, familiarly known as "Enpaku", was founded in October 1928 to commemorate the 70th birthday of Professor Tsubouchi Shoyo and the completion by him of the translation into Japanese of all 40 volumes of the "Complete Works of Shakespeare", a task to which the Professor had devoted half his life. Since then, as Asia's only museum dedicated solely to the theatre, Enpaku has been engaged in collecting works relating to the theatre and motion pictures both in Japan and all around the world. Its extensive collection of about one million works that has been amassed over 85 years may be termed as "the history of theatre" itself. Meanwhile it also contributes to researchers from a wide range of fields, extending from the theatre and motion pictures to other areas such as literature, history, clothing and construction.
2012年、文京区立森鴎外記念館として開館。前身は「文京区立本郷図書館鴎外記念室」で、図書館は現本郷図書館。文京区の千駄木は鷗外がその半生を過ごした地であり、記念館はその旧居「観潮楼」の跡地に建てられている。月命日の7月には、遺言書の原資料を展示する。「余ハ石見人森林太郎トシテ死セント欲ス 宮内省陸軍皆縁故アレドモ生死別ルヽ瞬間アラユル外形的取扱ヒヲ辞ス 森林太郎トシテ死セントス 墓ハ森林太郎墓ノ外一字モホル可ラズ」
明治43年(1910)開設の東京市立本郷簡易図書館が前身で、昭和37年(1962)森鷗外ゆかりの観潮楼跡地に「鷗外記念本郷図書館」として開設された。平成18年(2006)鷗外記念室と分離して現在地に図書館のみを移転。地階に「鷗外コーナー」を設け、鷗外の著作のほか、森茉莉、小堀杏奴などの著作や鷗外に関する評論などを収集している。
森鷗外の蔵書。国史、文学など中心に、伝記書、江戸古地図や武家の名鑑などのほか、和漢の古医学書、ドイツ留学中に収集したと思われる洋書など、分野は多岐にわたる。『於母影』などの翻訳に用いられた洋書原本、『渋江抽斎』などの史伝を執筆する過程で収集した参考資料や自筆ノート、自筆写本などの手稿なども含まれる。多くは柿渋色の表紙を付けて糸綴じし、鷗外自筆の題簽を附した装丁となっている。鷗外が書入れをした資料も多くみられ、鷗外の人柄もうかがい知ることができる。 関東大震災で壊滅した図書館の復興のため、大正15年(1926)1月遺族から寄贈された。
島根県鹿足郡津和野町町田。記念館は国指定史跡森鷗外旧宅の南側に隣接し、旧宅を展示物の一部として取り込んでいる。一階に展示室、二階に収蔵室などで構成され、映像や写真パネル、遺品をはじめ貴重な資料の展示を行っている。
関連の論文、講演、通信、図書、および森鴎外研究関連サイトリンク集などを紹介する。
日本の統計学に寄与した人物のひとりとして森鷗外が紹介されている。明治22年(1889)「スタチスチック」の訳語を「統計」とするのは適切か、統計学は科学であるのか、統計は因果関係を探究する方法かなど、本質的な議論を展開している。
森鴎外の「高瀬舟」など関連の舞台公演の演目や人物の情報を調べることができる。演目情報では出演者やスタッフなども載せている。伝統芸能の保存及び振興を行う独立行政法人日本芸術文化振興会が運営するサイト。
森鴎外の肖像写真を掲載している。
References
- 平凡社
- 小学館
- 平凡社
- 加藤周一 著,鷲巣力 編,平凡社