View source for Yūben

{{Short description|Oratory magazine in Japan (1910–1941)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox magazine
| image_file    =
| image_size    =
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| editor        =
| editor_title  =
| frequency     = Monthly
| circulation   =
| category      = Oratory magazine
| company       =
| publisher     = Dainihon Yūbenkai
| founded       = 1910
| founder       = [[Seiji Noma]]
| firstdate     = February 1910
| finaldate     = 1941
| country       = Japan
| based         = [[Tokyo]]
| language      = [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| issn          =
| oclc          =
}}
{{Nihongo|'''''Yūben'''''|雄辯||''Eloquence''}} was a Japanese monthly magazine which focused on [[public speaking]]. It was in circulation in Tokyo between 1910 and 1941 and gained popularity among different sectors of the Japanese society.
==History and profile==
''Yūben'' was launched by [[Seiji Noma]] in 1910 as a monthly magazine, and its first issue appeared in February that year.<ref name=rozen>{{cite magazine|author=Junya Morooka|year=2014|title=Historical Inquiry Into Debate Education In Early 20th Century Japan: The Case of Intercollegiate Debates In Yūben|magazine=Rozenberg Quarterly|url=https://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2014-historical-inquiry-into-debate-education-in-early-20th-century-japan-the-case-of-intercollegiate-debates-in-yuben/}}</ref><ref name=bae>{{cite thesis|author=Catherine Yoonah Bae
|title=All the girl's a stage: Representations of femininity and adolescence in Japanese girls' magazines, 1930s–1960s|location=[[Stanford University]]|pages=35–36|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/304468205|isbn=978-0-549-62286-4|degree=PhD
|year=2008|id={{ProQuest|304468205}}}}</ref> Noma was also the founder of the publishing house [[Kodansha]] which was first named Dainihon Yūbenkai (Japanese: the Great Japanese Oratorical Society).<ref name=rozen/> ''Yūben'' was the first magazine started by the company.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Books: Clubby Magazines|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,747935-2,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=26 May 2022|date=10 September 1934}}</ref> The goal of ''Yūben'' was to improve the [[Self-expression values|self-expression]] ability of young people which was considered to be significant for democracy.<ref name=mast/> Therefore, the magazine provided scholarly and popular articles about oratory and published the texts of the speeches by [[Public speaking|orators]]<ref name=mast>{{cite journal|author=Massimiliano Tomasi|title=Oratory in Meiji and Taishō Japan: Public Speaking and the Formation of a New Written Language
|journal=Monumenta Nipponica|issue=1|date=Spring 2002|volume=57|pages=43–71|jstor=3096691}}</ref> who included [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[William Jennings Bryan]] and [[Theodore Roosevelt]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Richard J. Jensen|editor2=John C. Hammerback|title=In Search of Justice: The Indiana Tradition in Speech Communication|year=1987|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-6203-968-5|location=Amsterdam|pages=43–44|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqrrHSkVUw0C&pg=PA44|author=Roichi Okabe|chapter=American Public Address in Japan: A Case Study in the Introduction of American Oratory through the Yuben (Monthly Magazine on Oratory)}}</ref>
''Yūben'' also featured articles in regard to the historical significance of public speaking and its impacts on the modernization of Japan.<ref name=mast/> These articles were both instructive and entertaining.<ref>{{cite journal|author=S. Takahashi|title=The Magazines of Japan
|journal=EVols|date=1946|volume=13|issue=1|page=55|url=https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/31946/1/13-Volume1.pdf}}</ref> The first issue of ''Yūben'' had a circulation of 14,000 copies.<ref name=bae/> Over time it became very popular among intellectuals, politicians, and university student and read by nearly all politicians of the period.<ref name=mast/> The first issue of the magazine was edited by the academics from [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]].<ref name=mast/> The contributors of the following issues were individuals from various public and private institutions.<ref name=mast/> In the period between 1930 and 1935 the magazine organized 14 comprehensive debates where university students publicly discussed the common problematic political topics of the period, including [[Capital punishment in Japan|capital punishment]] and international marriage.<ref name=mast/> ''Yūben'' folded in 1941.<ref name=rozen/>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuben}}
[[Category:1910 establishments in Japan]]
[[Category:1941 disestablishments in Japan]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in Tokyo]]
[[Category:Defunct professional and trade magazines]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1910]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1941]]
[[Category:Monthly magazines published in Japan]]
[[Category:Kodansha magazines]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]