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Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) was an Enlightenment thinker and educator of the Meiji period. He was born in Settsu Province (modern Oita, Kyuushu) and was the 5th son of Fukuzawa Hyakusuke, under the Nakatsu domain. He learned Dutch studies (rangaku) under the noted physician and rangaku scholar, Ogata Koan. As he began to travel and join the foreign missions of the Shogunate, he established himself as an intellectual of modern Western civilizations. Alongside establishing Keio University (Tokyo), he was an active supporter of social and intellectual reform. He authored the best-seller, "Gakumon no Susume" (An Encouragement of Learning), which broke ground on views on education. He launched the "Jiji Shinpo" (Current Events), a newspaper that supported political reform. He was a believer in the necessity of independence and self‐respect, practical science (i.e. physics, maths..), and an advocate of "Datsu-A Ron" (an article that argued for the Westernization of Japan and the abandonment of Chinese and Korean governments.)