Abstract
I. Introduction: the Japan Academy and Freemasonry
Freemasonry, though not well known to Japanese people, is an initiatic society which has played an important part in the formation of modern Occidental civilization since the eighteenth century. So that historical connections are not absent between this fraternal association and the Japan Academy. Firstly, two of the founding members of the Academy, Amane Nishi and Mamichi Tsuda, had been initiated into Freemasonry at Leiden as early as 1864. Secondly, its equivalent in the United Kingdom being the Royal Society of London, the Japan Academy developed exchange, notably after the Second World War, with this British institution whose close relations with Freemasonry were known since its foundation in 1660, starting with Elias Ashmole and Sir Robert Moray. Lastly, just as the Japan Academy maintains intimate relations with the Imperial House, so British Freemasonry has been placed under the protection of the royal family since the early nineteenth century. All this justifies the subject of the present paper.(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
