81 Enryō also spoke of the necessity of personally experiencing the world, saying, “What you see in Europe and America is very different from what you imagine sitting back comfortably in Japan.” For him, no matter how minor the country was, its people all had a spirit of independence. In other words, America had its own particular Amer-ican style and Britain had its own British style. The first thing Enryō did after his return to Japan in July 1889 was publish his “An Opinion on the Objectives of Improving the Philos-ophy Academy.” The content was divided into three parts. The first discussed how in Western countries they actively special-ized in those areas of scholarly learning and arts that had developed natively (for example, the study of linguistics, writing, history, and religion, etc.). The further development of studies unique to the given country was essential to their national independence. The second asserted that, in addition to the study of native scho-lastics and arts, Western countries were also actively engaged in East-ern studies, and Japan also needed to promote such studies. The third argued that Japan only placed importance on academic ability but in Western countries teachers employed teaching methods that sought to also cultivate people’s personality, character, and mo-rality. This could be seen in the case of the “British gentleman.” Jap-anese education should improve in this area, where it was lacking. In August Enryō expanded on this view and published “Future Objectives of the Philosophy Academy.” Here he outlined the fol-lowing plan for developing the Philosophy Academy into a university. Enryō wanted the Philosophy Academy to become a “Japan-cen-tric” university. It would specialize in studies particular to Japan
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