Miyake Setsurei (三宅雪嶺)
Setsurei MIYAKE (July7, 1860 - November 26, 1945) was a philosopher and essayist. He was born in Kanazawa, Kaga Province (present Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture). His real name was Yujiro.
His wife, Kaho MIYAKE (her maiden name was Tanabe) was a classmate of Ichiyo HIGUCHI who was a poet and story writer. Seigo NAKANO, a member of the House of Representatives, was his daughter's husband.
He was a son of Tsune MIYAKE, a Confucian scholar and doctor serving the Honda family who was the chief retainer of the Kaga clan. He graduated from Kaisei School and later from the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Literature, University of Tokyo (later changed its name to the literature college of Imperial University, present University of Tokyo). In 1888, he established a publishing company Seikyosha together with Shigetaka SHIGA and Jugo SUGIURA, and started a new magazine named "Nipponjin" (Japanese, later changed to "Nippon oyobi Nipponjin" Japan and Japanese) to advocate nationalism. He gained public attention by starting a new private magazine named "Gakan" (My Opinions) and contributing reports to magazines including "Chuo Koron" (Central Public Opinions).
He kept himself out of power all his life and declined the offer when he was asked to join the Hayashi Cabinet as the Minister of Education. His consistent attitude for avoiding positions of power gained public acceptance and he was trusted by both the right and left wing political community. In 1943, he received the Order of Culture. His primary works were "Shin Zen Bi Nipponjin" (Truth, Good, Beauty, Japanese) and "Gi Aku Shu Nipponjin" (Deceit, Evil, Ugliness, Japanese) (both books were republished by Fuzambo as Hyakkabunko Library), and "Jiden" (Autobiography, republished by Nihon Tosho Center as 'Ningen no Kiroku' [Records of Human Beings]) and "Uchu" (Universe). He also contributed an article to the magazine "Japan Review."