Dominican University of California
Sakamoto Ryoma: the Nietzschean hero of the Meiji Restoration
Abstract
dc:description.abstract<p>This thesis is a Nietzschean analysis of Meiji Restoration hero Sakamoto Ryoma (1835 - 1867). It discusses the life and times of Sakamoto and basic theories of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900). It argues that despite vastly different historical, cultural, and ideological backgrounds, Sakamoto and Nietzsche were modern men with similar ideas, and that Sakamoto lived those ideas. The author demonstrates that Sakamoto perceived Confucianism-based social and political systems under Tokugawa feudalism as threatening to Japan’s sovereignty in an age of Western imperialism, and that through a Nietzschean “will to power” and resolve to “live dangerously” he helped overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate. The paper compares Sakamoto’s rejection of Confucian-samurai values with Nietzsche’s rejection of Christian values, and Nietzsche’s announcement of the death of God with Sakamoto’s heralding of the death of Tokugawa feudalism. Pointing out the importance that Sakamoto and Nietzsche placed on truth, individualism, self-reliance, and self-determination, the paper argues that Sakamoto, embodying Nietzsche’s “higher man,” created new values and embraced ideas resembling Nietzsche’s doctrine of free death to overcome chaos and create meaning through revolution.</p>
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Arts
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Master's Thesis
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Humanities
- Year
- 2007
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Cohen, Jeff
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Martin Anderson, JD, PhD
- Philip Novak, PhD
Subjects
dc:subject × 2Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record dc:identifier
- https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/262
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:scholar.dominican.edu:humanities-print-theses-1261