On Saturday, March 26, 1921, Chinese scholar Shigeta Oyanagi was dispatched by the Imperial Household Agency to study China for one year. The rapid westernization of the Meiji period was reconsidered in the Taisho period, and interest in Chinese studies increased. Koyanagi was an authority on Chinese studies at that time, and after working as a professor at Gakushuin, Kokugakuin, and Keio University, he became a professor at Daito Bunka Gakuin in 1926 and the president in 1940, but he died.
Born in Niigata Prefecture, he became acquainted with Chinese studies at the age of six, and received his doctorate from the Chosenkan private school in Yoshida-machi, Nishikanbara-gun, and later from the Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Imperial University. In his book “Secrets of Passing the Chinese Literature Examination” (1931), he emphasized that “in order to know the Orient, you need to study Chinese literature.
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