Enlightenment thinker of the Meiji period.
From his childhood, he excelled in scholarship.
He learned English without a master and was
sent abroad by the shogunate to study modern
civilization. He founded Keio Gijuku University
in 1868. Since then, he engaged himself in
writing books advocating people's independence
and abolishment of the traditional class system.
A portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi
is used on the current 10,000-yen note.
Keio Gijuku University
Keio Gijuku University is a renowned private
institution rivaled only by Waseda University.
While he was
teaching pupils at his private school at Edo,
a collision between the government and shogunate
forces broke out nearby. Though the pupils
were agitated, he did not stop giving lessons
telling them, "No matter what may happen,
I will not stop learning."
In his work "An Exhortation Toward Learning,"
he writes, "All men are equal under the sun."
That was the first writing that introduced the equality
of human right to the Japanese.