A Fantasy of Far Japan; Or, Summer Dream Dialogues

by Kencho Suematsu

In this paper I shall sketch something of the systems of education in Japan, especially that of elementary education. My readers, however, must not think I have anything wonderful to show to them; for, as a matter of fact, I have nothing to take them by surprise. All that I can sum up is, that we are doing those things with the utmost sincerity, as we do other things which are already manifest to the Western public In days gone by, that is to say, during the feudal period, there was one college in the capital town of every feudal lord, in which the children of the retainers of Samurai were educated. There were some hundreds of such lords, some great and some petty. Their ranks and importance differed considerably, and naturally the number of their retainers differed; in consequence the scale and magnitude of such colleges also varied. The most famous of them were those of Mito, Chosiu, Kumamoto, and others belonging to great lords. Above all, there was one such belonging to the Shogunate itself. It may be here noted that institutions where the young Samurai practised the use of swords, or spears, or firearms, or the art of jiujitsu, were established sometimes in connection with, and sometimes independently of, these colleges. There were also many plebeian colleges in different parts of the empire. These were mostly private institutions founded by savants. The founders were generally of plebeian origin; but there were among them many who were originally Samurai, and who betook themselves to such occupation from love of independence, or some other causes. But it must be remembered that, though they did not belong officially to the cadre of Samurai, yet the social respect paid to them was great. In such a private institution, the founder himself was the master, assisted by those of his pupils who were more advanced than others. The master taught the advanced pupils, or gave general lectures for the benefit of all; and the advanced taught and gave lectures to the less advanced. The pupils were generally youths of plebeian gentry, but not exclusively so, because many of the youthful Samurai from all parts of the empire enlisted themselves as pupils, especially when any such institution had become famous on account of the achievements of the master and of the general work of the institution.

The curricula of such colleges, both of the official ones of feudal lords and of private ones, were diverse, but generally comprised elementary as well as higher education. There was, of course, no uniform course of study to restrain the method of teaching; and every inventive faculty was employed in each college, so that many special characteristics were observable. But one thing which is undeniable was, that ethical training formed one of the most important branches everywhere.

The chief feature of the college institutions of those days, especially of private institutions, was enforced privation and hardship. I can never forget the days when I, in common with all others, of course, ate meals only twice a day, and those, too, of the simplest diet. The food often consisted of nothing else than a little rice with a very little salt, or the like. We ourselves were cooks in turn. We swept and washed out, not only our own rooms, but those of the master also. We often used cold water in the depth of severe winters for the purpose of washing, and suchlike. We heated the water in turn for the baths of our fellow pupils. We sometimes sat up whole nights in winter with scarcely any fire to warm us, in order to accustom ourselves to rigid discipline. In those days no idea of sanitation in the modern sense entered the minds of the master or of ourselves; neither did any outward show of appearance trouble us, nay, the more one was regardless of those things, the more was one thought strong in character. It is, no doubt, due to the training of those days that I, personally, for instance, cannot bear the trouble of appearing like a grandee, or a fashionable person. Thus, for example, I, who never used gloves in my boyhood, cannot endure the discomfort of wearing them, even on winter days.

Amongst the lower classes (peasants or shopkeepers) there was generally one or other private person, in village or town, who could teach elementary writing and reading, and who taught the children in his neighbourhood by establishing a sort of private school. This was very commonly done by a priest of the Buddhist or Shinto temple of the place. It seems that at one time this was done almost universally by the priests of Buddhist temples; so much so, that we have the term Tera-ko-ya. Tera means a Buddhist temple, Ko means children, and Ya means a house—Tera-Ko came generally to mean children who go to learn elementary writing and reading, and Tera-ko-ya to mean the place where such children were taught. We have a famous tragedy, one act of which is called The Scene of Terakoya. There is a translation in German of that act by a German scholar. It is a scene which represents a tragic incident taking place in the tenth century A.D., in a private school for children opened by an old retainer of a nobleman. It has nothing to do with a temple; and yet it is called The Scene of Terakoya.

It was, however, only after the inauguration of the Meiji era that education became thorough and universal. In the earliest days of this era there was an officer called Daigaku-Betto (Chancellor of the University), who was a functionary of great dignity. In the course of a few years a special Ministry was instituted for education, with a Minister of State, who, of course, had a chair in the Cabinet; and that system has ever remained the same. The Minister of Education controls the educational affairs of the whole country. At first the sphere of direct control of the central Government was naturally limited to higher education; but, with the abolition of the feudal system and the gradual consolidation of local administration, the sphere has extended step by step, and has culminated in the present system of universal education.

For the system of education, also, we are indebted to Europe and America; for the method of its practical working is, like many other new institutions, borrowed from the Occidental nations. The only difference perceptible, perhaps, lies in the fact that in Japan the moving force of the whole system is manipulated by the central Government to a greater degree than it is in any other country—certainly far more so than it is in England. The question of how far popular education should be interfered with by the state, or rather what difference of advantage exists between the system whereby the state takes upon itself far-reaching responsibility and one whereby a great margin is left to an independent development of private institutions, is a matter which admits many pros and cons. It is not, however, my business to discuss this problem in this place. The fact remains, that with us the state exercises conspicuous influence in the matter. Almost all the educational institutions of Japan are official or public; for they belong either directly to the state or to the local administrations (Prefectural or Communal), and they are all controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Ministry of Education. There are some private institutions also, it is true; but their number is very small when compared with the others, and even those must abide by the general direction of the state. The reason of this is, that private undertakings for elementary education have to be similar to the compulsory education imposed by the state, and such similarity can only be acquired by following the general direction of the state. In those of a higher standard, it is because there are many things in which certain privileges are given to those persons who possess certain educational qualifications. For instance, in obtaining a postponement of actual enrolment for military service, or in becoming a candidate for civil service examinations, such educational qualifications are generally measured by the standard of certain public institutions; so that private institutions of higher standard have to conform themselves to the direction of the state, if they wish to avail themselves of the aforesaid privileges. The chief reason why in Japan the state takes upon itself so much responsibility in education is, apart from the intrinsic merit per se of the system, that the country, under the circumstances of the period, could not afford to wait patiently the natural growth of extensive private enterprises.

Putting aside special and technical educational institutions, as well as those of a private nature, the grades of our educational institutions are: (1) the Universities; (2) High Colleges, which may be regarded as preparatory Almæ Matres for universities; (3) Middle Schools; (4) Higher Primary Schools; (5) Common Primary Schools.

The first two belong to the state itself. The last three belong to local administrations—in fine, there is one or more of the Middle Schools in each Prefecture, supported by the prefectural taxes, the number varying according to the requirement of the locality; and one or more Higher Primary Schools in each county, and one or more Common Primary Schools in each village-community, all supported by local rates. The case of cities is similar to that of a county and its village-communities put together. The system is thoroughly carried out throughout the country; for I can say that there is no community where a Primary School is not provided. In populous towns there are Kindergarten for the benefit of little boys and girls under school age, though the number of such Garten is still only a few hundreds in all.

Elementary education is compulsory for both boys and girls: the school age begins at six. Common Primary Schools are the places where compulsory education is given. The course is four years. Excuses for absence are taken only in certain cases. According to the official report of the school year of 1901-2, the percentage of the boys receiving requisite elementary education was 93.78, and that of the girls 81.80, the average being 88.05.

The present system of our writing, which is more commonly used than another which consists of phonetic letters only, is very cumbersome, because it consists of a mixture of Chinese ideographs and our phonetic letters. It is a great drawback to our education, nay to our national life. Boys and girls, however, have to learn it; and, therefore, the poor children of Japan have to take more pains than those of other countries, which are blessed with the common use of a phonetic alphabet only.