Agricultural training and overseas study
Nitobe came from a Nanbu samurai family and graduated from Sapporo Agricultural College in 1881. After attending Tokyo University he moved to the United States in 1884 and joined the Quakers. Study in Berlin, Bonn and Halle followed; his 1890 doctorate examined Japanese landholding and agricultural use.
He returned to teaching in Sapporo and elsewhere, and in 1901 also held a post in Japan's colonial government in Taiwan. Agriculture, administration, religious connections and overseas education all formed parts of his career.
Education and the English-language Bushido
As principal of the First Higher School from 1906 to 1913, Nitobe emphasized character education. He later became the first president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University. Around the turn of the century, his English-language Bushido addressed foreign readers through a different educational medium.
The original preface traces the book to questions from Émile de Laveleye and Nitobe's wife about Japanese moral education and customs. European history, literature and religion supply comparisons. The work is his interpretation and defense of ethical traditions, rather than a written code uniformly governing every period of Japanese life.
Information and intellectual cooperation at the League
From 1919 Nitobe worked in the League of Nations Secretariat as an Under-Secretary-General responsible for international bureaux and intellectual cooperation. Existing lists of organizations were outdated. Visits and inquiries, including a Paris survey in 1920, led to a handbook whose first volume appeared in 1921.
This work facilitated information exchange, although established technical organizations resisted centralized control by the League. Intellectual cooperation subsequently addressed university relations, scholarly exchanges, bibliography and intellectual property, with Secretariat staff maintaining continuity between committee meetings.
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