Message from the President to Everyone 14th Letter (July 20): Reading Former Faculty Member Uchida Hyakken, Part 2

→ English (by Google Translation)

This is a continuation from the last issue. I have been writing about Uchida Hyakken, a disciple of Soseki Natsume, a German literature scholar and a former faculty member of Hosei University. In the previous issue, we introduced the appeal of short stories and the essay "Maada-kai" which was the basis for the movie "Maada-da-da.

In the essay "Maada-kai," many graduates of Hosei University appear. Among them was a writer named Saburo Hirayama, who later accompanied Hyakken on his travels in "Abo Train", "Dai-ni Abo Train" and "Dai-san Abo Train". He was a student at Hosei University while working for the former Japanese National Railways (JNR) as an editor of their newspaper, and when he was a student at the university, he had his tuition fees covered by Uchida Hyakken. So there was a professor who couldn't bear to see him and paid his students' tuition fees. Incidentally, the "Abo Train" series is a rather unusual travelogue in which he wrote about a journey that just moved from station to station. That is why it is called "Awa. His companion, Saburo Hirayama, had a daughter named Hinako. This name was given by Hyakken, and in "Maada Kai" he describes Hinako as a baby. I met Hinako-san many times. I was taken by a friend to a very cozy oden shop in Mishuku, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, where I met Hinako-san many times. Hinako-san had attended "Maadakai" when she was a child, which Hyakken also wrote about.

Hyakken also has two other works related to Hosei University, one is "Jissetsu Souheiki" and the other is "Gakko Souheiki", "Gakko Souheiki Yo'ou" and "Yosei Jidai" which were the basis of "Jissetsu Souheiki" and "Gakko Souheiki". In a nutshell, there was a conflict between writers at Hosei University, where Natsume Soseki's students had gathered, and Morita Souhei plotted to seize power within the school and kicked Hyakken out. This was the incident known as the "Hosei Disturbance. Jissetsu Souhei Ki" is a very detailed account of Morita Souhei and the events that took place. The way he describes Morita Souhei is similar to that of Soseki, not in a bad way, but in a vivid and humorous way that makes readers laugh at him.

Another kind of essay is about the Hosei University Aeronautical Society. In 1929, when the first aviation research society in Japan was formed at Hosei University, Hyakken took on the role of president and worked hard to organize a flight for students to visit Europe. The flight to Europe by the students was the flight of the "Young Japan," a propeller-driven plane of the Hosei University Aeronautical Society, which arrived in Rome in 1931 with only a map and compass, and was said to be the greatest achievement of the century. The student who founded the Aviation Research Association was Katsuyoshi Nakano, who later became a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun and later played a central role in the founding of All Nippon Airways, serving as its vice president. Hyakken's "Aerial Decomposition" is a memorial filled with sadness for Katsuyoshi Nakano. Hyakken also wrote many other essays about the Aviation Research Association, including "Hatsufuki (First Flight)," "Gakusei Kogaku no Hatsugen," "Rouma Kogaku," "Dai-ni no Tachi-Ji (Second Takeoff)," and "Gakusei Kogaku no Kuraku (Cradle of Aviation). Hosei University had such a history of aviation. The current Department of Aeronautical Pilotage in the Faculty of Science and Engineering is rooted in this history of Hosei University.

In this way, Uchida Hyakken wrote about a great variety of things. All of his works seem to have been written in a relaxed and amusing manner. If the faculty and students of Hosei University can share this idea of making study, research, and people interesting, our university will become even more interesting.

July 20, 2020
Hosei University President TANAKA Yuko