Sugihara Shiro on Kawakami Hajime

Abstract

Abstract: In the last stages of his scholarly life, Sugihara Shiro （1920-2009） wished to collate his lifeʼs research on the history of economic thought in a four-volume work. The ti-tles of these volumes were descriptive of not only his area of research but also his peculiar viewpoint applied in those areas. In the first volume, which is on Marx, Sugi-hara essentially viewed the essence of economy in the “economy of time,” and appre-ciated Marxʼs unique insight of the dialectical relationship between necessary labor time and free disposable time. In the second volume, which is on John Stuart Mill, Sugihara considered Mill to be a sincere inquirer of human freedom, who anticipated the conditions of modern industrial society and mass democracy. The third volume deals with Kawakami Hajime, and the fourth volume, which was unpublished, is his investigation of modern Japanese economic thought using a bibliographical ap-proach. 　Kawakami Hajime （1879-1946） was a special figure in Sugiharaʼs life. This is because Sugihara grew up in the academia of Kyoto, where Kawakamiʼs influence still remained, and inherited Kawakamiʼs moralistic views. This is seen also in Sugi-haraʼs study of Marx and John Stuart Mill. 　In this essay, the author critically examines Sugiharaʼs new interpretation of Kawakamiʼs Bimbo Monogatari （Tales on Poverty） and suggests that the adoption of Marxism by Japanese intellectuals occurred under the influence of the Russian Revolution. In the authorʼs view, this historical context overshadows the work of sev-eral generations of Japanese intellectuals, including Sugihara. Kawakamiʼs moralist attitude did not change, even though he became a Marxist, and can be seen in his re-flections on religious truth and scientific truth during his prison years. When Sugi-hara called Kawakami a “Man on Voyage,” he seemed to be expressing his sympathy toward Kawakamiʼs quest for truth in the difficult years of the twentieth century. JEL classification numbers: B 14, B 51, N 35.