Ōsugi Sakae

Ōsugi Sakae (circa 1920)

Ōsugi Sakae (大杉 栄, January 17, 1885 – September 16, 1923) was a radical Japanese anarchist. He published numerous anarchist periodicals, helped translate western anarchist essays into Japanese for the first time, and created Japan's first Esperanto school in 1906. He, his lover, anarcha-feminist Itō Noe, and his nephew were murdered in what became known as the Amakasu incident.

Quotes

• With each loss, new buds of victory unfold in our hearts.
  • The Power They Hold. Originally published in Kindai shisō (Modern Thought), Vol. 1, No. 9, June 1913. Translated by Michael Schauerte

• So struggle!
  For struggle is life's flower;
  The fertile flower of life.
  • Barren Flowers, Originally published in Kindai shisō (Modern Thought), Vol. 1, No. 11, August 1913. Translated by Michael Schauerte

• I must cease the casting of my own chains. I must cease the binding of my body. I must break the chains that bind me. I must also create a new self, a new reality, a new sense of justice, a new fate.
  • The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.

• The interaction of nothing with nothing—the relationship between nothing and nothing—will, ultimately, be nothing.
  • The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.

• Sloth has no ambition. Sloth makes no history.
  • The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.

• Arguments don't break chains.
  • The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.

• Let freedom be for an idea,
  Let freedom be for an action,
  Still, let freedom be for a motive!
  • I Like a Spirit. Originally published in 1918. English translation was done by Le Libertaire Group in 1979 (“A Short History of The Anarchist Movement in Japan,” The Idea Publishing House; Tokyo, Japan, p.132).

External links

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