Akika Nakamura's
Kanayomi Kaisei Saigoku Risshihen published in 1882 was a simplified version of Masanao Nakamura's
Saigoku Risshihen, the first Japanese translation of Samuel Smiles's
Self-Help.
Akika wrote it for the benefit of the people who were unlearned in Kangaku, the knowledge of Chinese literature, which was an implicit requirement for reading Masanao's book, in spite of the general belief that it enjoyed popularity among an indiscriminately wide range of readers.
Masanao's book, written in Kambun Kundokutai (i.e. the style of reading Chinese in translating it into Japanese), was retold by Akika after the style of such popular reading of the day as Gesaku. In abriding Masanao's book, Akika's interest was not so much in the theories like political assertions, as in the examples of self-improvement ending in success.
Although it is only a part of the attempted publication and left unfinished, Akika's book, originally designed as a
Self-Help primer, makes itself an illustration of how new ideas were received in the early days of Japan's modernization.
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