130 The life and achievements of Sakuma Shozan, a thinker from the end of the Edo period
The following is written in German. The Man Who Lived 30 Years Ahead of His Time — Sakuma Shōzan by MITSURU × Claude Sonnet 4.6 × Gemini Introduction: Why “Sakuma Shōzan” Now? Hello everyone, this is MITSURU. You may be surprised and ask, “Why is a late-Edo scholar appearing on a dance instructor’s blog?” In fact, when I was building the concept of my “Upper and Lower Body Edit Dance,” what supported me was not a dance textbook, but the life philosophy of a man named Sakuma Shōzan . Shōzan was a pioneer who, in an age closed off by national isolation, studied the world independently and advocated “the logic necessary for Japan’s survival.” After standing on the front lines for 30 years and eventually reaching the realization that “the coordination between the brain and body is what will save healthy life expectancy,” I began to feel that my own challenge strangely overlaps with the loneliness of being ahead of one’s time that Shōzan must have felt. “Truth can sometimes hurt peo...