Seton Castle Restoration Ground-Breaking Ceremony Speeches

« Back to Ground Breaking Ceremony Main Page

January 21, 2005
Speech given by Eiji Fujiwara

Hello everybody. Thank you for inviting me to this ceremony. I am very happy to be here today. I will briefly talk about my personal interaction with Ernest Thompson Seton and his families as well as Seton Castle.

I read Seton’s animal stories in my boyhood. Even in those days Seton’s animal stories were very popular in Japan. I was very impressed by his stories, because all of the animals were vividly described and they acted just like human beings. Those stories opened a door to a new world I had never experienced before.

In the 1960’s when I was working as a writer, a Japanese publisher visited me and suggested that I should publish Seton’s animal stories in translation. First of all, I thought, I should fully understand Seton’s works before I start the actual translation work. So I decided to make some research trips to as many of the actual sites of his stories as possible in order to get some insight into Seton’s spirit and his viewpoint.

Seton Castle was the starting point for my research trips. From here I traveled to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and other parts of the United States of America. I roamed around the locations of his stories, including the National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges with my wife, or sometimes alone.

I traveled around the lower states of the US three times, and often visited Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and Currumpaw Plain, the home land of Seton’s famous story of Lobo, the wolf.

After a few years of research trips I came back to Seton Castle and sat down at Seton’s writing desk. And I felt that it was time for me to start my work.

I completed the translation of almost all of his representative animal stories, including his record of his travels in the Artic, and published nine volumes of his books, including his autobiography. This took me four years, from 1971 through 1974.

After that I also wrote and published an original book called, The World of ET Seton, as well as several other books introducing Seton’s way of thinking about animals and his spirit. Meanwhile I gave lectures in schools and on university postgraduate courses for years.

When I took a professorship at a university I taught Environmental Ethics and I worked hard to give my students an understanding of Seton’s spirit in my lectures, until I retired three years ago.

Our mission will be to hand on to the public, especially the younger generation, the spirit of Seton. In order to spread Seton’s great work in Japan, I have been working as the agent in Japan, handling the copyright of Seton’s works, since I met the late Anya Seton Chase and the late Julia M Buttree, as well as Seton’s familes.

I would like to express my thanks to all of the members of Seton’s families and their friends, including the staff of the Academy for the Love of Learning, Philmont museum and Seton Memorial Library, Philmont Scout Ranch, and the Seton Center in Canada, as well as the many other supporters who have worked together to spread his spirit and thought.

It is my honor and great pleasure to attend this ceremony where the new generations, inspired by Seton’s spirit, are today gathering and celebrating the start of the renovation of Seton Castle.

Thank you indeed and congratulations once again!