Let me look back on my junior high and high school days and write about why I decided to study sociology at university.
I have loved reading since elementary school.My favorite was history books.
At that time, Kaiseisha published "The Light of the World" and "The Light of Japan" (I remember that they were published for each grade, one for the first grade and the other for the second grade), which I loved.In the story of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel, in Japan, historical figures such as Okuninushi no Mikoto, Prince Shotoku, Nobunaga Oda, and Hideyoshi Toyotomi appear one after another.I should have read the story, but I don't remember much about it.
In my high school classics class, I learned the classic "The Tale of Genji," but I didn't know what was interesting about it.On the other hand, it may sound strange, but Kenko Yoshida's "Tsurezuregusa" made a lot of sense to me.
Because I am like this, I remember that when I was in junior high school, I was not able to write the reading report that was my summer vacation homework well, probably because there were many novels and stories in the assignment books.
When I was in the first year of high school, I read Tetsuro Watsuji's "Fudo" (Iwanami Shoten) and was very moved.The contents of this book are as follows.
Tetsuro Watsuji, a philosopher and ethicist (professor at Kyoto Imperial University and Tokyo Imperial University) who went to study in Europe from Japan in the Taisho era (XNUMX-XNUMX), sails to Europe via the Indian Ocean.Based on his experience in Europe, he explored how the climate [comment: in Watsuji's words, monsoon type, desert type, ranch type] affects the people living there. that was discussed.
The content was difficult, but I was moved by the wonderfulness of the logical writing, and honestly thought that it would be great if I could write something like this in the future.Being a boy of fifteen, he must have been able to think this way boldly.
In my second year of high school, my homeroom teacher was a world history teacher.After going on to graduate school at Hiroshima University, this teacher gave up his research career and became a high school world history teacher.This teacher's class was very interesting, and he talked about current affairs in the morning homeroom.What I still remember is that student movements were taking place all over Japan at the time, university conflicts were intensifying, and the Soviet army invaded the Czech Republic, suppressing the Czech democratization trend.
Influenced by this teacher, I decided to study history and entered the Faculty of Letters. I read "The Spirit of Islam" (Iwanami Bunko).This work argues that Protestantism (especially Calvinism) had a great influence on the birth of capitalism in Western Europe, that is, a seemingly unrelated religion had an effective effect on the birth of the new economic system of capitalism. This was demonstrated using various historical sources.
At the time, while listening to history lectures, I thought it was interesting to learn about new historical facts through various historical materials, but I wanted a theory about why such things happen.In terms of sociology, I want to know the dynamism of history or the mechanism of social change.At that time, I came across Max Weber's writings, which gave me the opportunity to think deeply.
Many of my friends who went on to study sociology went on to work in mass media (TV stations, newspaper companies), advertising agencies, and general companies.
I couldn't make up my mind to go on to graduate school, so I thought about finding a job.
Part of the reason why I chose to major in sociology as an undergraduate was coincidence.It was fortuitous that I came across Tetsuro Watsuji's Fūdo in high school, and Weber's The Ethics of Protestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism in my first year of university.But the books I encountered there have shaped my life.
Life is about weaving threads of chance into threads of necessity.
Reading has the power to direct people.
Faculty of Sociology Department of Sociology Professor Toshio Tomoe
