Kitamura Toukoku and the Life : On the Natural Law

Abstract

  This article reconsiders the problem of the life, set up by Kitamura Toukoku, in the twenties of the Meiji era. He was a poet and a critic, and died very young, at the age of 25. But he left us very important articles a lot about the concept of the life.

  In those days, the democratic movement abated, while Japanese society was modernized rapidly. The constitution was promulgated, and the Diet was opened. The society had been regulated, but many conflicts remained unsolved. Kitamura said that this society was just like a jail. In such society, Kitamura considered the significance of the life.

  For him, the life should be going on a principle of the natural law. The force of the nature is the absolute cause and the only substance. It rules the human body and soul, which are the modes of the force. Human beings are passive against the force of the nature. But human beings can recognize that the force rules the human beings. There lies the problem of the freedom. This recognition involves the problem of the freedom of reason. Human beings of reason can know what the life is. And human beings can endeavor to get own liveliness and pleasure. That conatus is a human's right based on the natural law. Such human-nature relation is a core of the concept of the life. When this relation is good for human beings, the life will be healthy. But if not good, it is ascribed to the social power because of the restraint of this relation.

  Kitamura witnessed that the social power of the Meiji era kept the people poor and miserable forever. So he decried the Meiji government hard. Besides, he also criticized the social evolutionism that had supported the government. He valued human's life on the natural law, hence it follows that he demanded to ameliorate the condition of society.

  His concept of the life was connected with the politics from the beginning. Put another way, his revolutionary consciousness needed the concept of the life as an urgent problem. He demanded the democracy after the end of the constitutional monarchy. The agency of this democracy was the people who were oppressed by the government. Such people are the multitude. He hoped that people would be relived and would live healthy together. The concept of the life propounded by Kitamura is still important for us today.