embraced only calligraphy and the precepts of Buddhism and Confucianism.
The above retrospect suggests that Japan, in those early days, borrowed her educational system and its subjects of study entirely from China. But closer scrutiny shows that the national factor was carefully preserved. The ethics of administration required a combination Combination of Native and Foreign Element. of two elements, wakon, or the soul of Japan, and kwansai, or the ability of China; so that, while adopting from Confucianism the doctrine of filial piety, the Japanese grafted on it a spirit of unswerving loyalty and patriotism; and while accepting Buddha’s teaching as to three states of existence, they supplemented it by a belief that in the life beyond the grave the duty of guarding his country would devolve on every man. Great academic importance attached to proficiency in literary composition, which demanded close study of the ideographic script, endlessly perplexing in form and infinitely delicate in sense. To be able to compose and indite graceful couplets constituted a passport to high office as well as to the favour of great ladies, for women vied with men in this accomplishment. The early years of the 11th century saw, grouped about the empress Aki, a galaxy of female authors whose writings are still accounted their country’s classics—Murasaki no Shikibu, Akazome Emon, Izumi Shikibu, Ise Taiyu and several lesser lights. To the first two Japan owes the Genji monogatari and the Eiga monogatari, respectively, and from the Imperial court of those remote ages she inherited admirable models of painting, calligraphy, poetry, music, song and dance. But it is to be observed that all this refinement was limited virtually to the noble families residing in Kiōto, and that the first object of education in that era was to fit men for office and for society.
Meanwhile, beyond the precincts of the capital there were rapidly growing to maturity numerous powerful military magnates who despised every form of learning that did not contribute to martial excellence. An illiterate era ensued which reached its climax with the establishment Education in the Middle Ages. of feudalism at the close of the 12th century. It is recorded that, about that time, only one man out of a force of five thousand could decipher an Imperial mandate addressed to them. Kamakura, then the seat of feudal government, was at first distinguished for absence of all intellectual training, but subsequently the course of political events brought thither from Kiōto a number of court nobles whose erudition and refinement acted as a potent leaven. Buddhism, too, had been from the outset a strong educating influence. Under its auspices the first great public library was established (1270) at the temple Shōmyo-ji in Kanazawa. It is said to have contained practically all the Chinese and Japanese books then existing, and they were open for perusal by every class of reader. To Buddhist priests, also, Japan owed during many years all the machinery she possessed for popular education. They organized schools at the temples scattered about in almost every part of the empire, and at these tera-koya, as they were called, lessons in ethics, calligraphy, reading and etiquette were given to the sons of samurai and even to youths of the mercantile and manufacturing classes.
When, at the beginning of the 17th century, administrative
supremacy fell into the hands of the Tokugawa, the illustrious
founder of that dynasty of shōguns, Iyeyasu,
showed himself an earnest promoter of erudition.
He employed a number of priests to make copies
Education in the
pre-Meiji Era.
of Chinese and Japanese books; he patronized men of learning
and he endowed schools. It does not appear to have occurred
to him, however, that the spread of knowledge was hampered
by a restriction which, emanating originally from the Imperial
court in Kiōto, forbade any one outside the ranks of the Buddhist
priesthood to become a public teacher. To his fifth successor
Tsunayoshi (1680–1709) was reserved the honour of abolishing
this veto. Tsunayoshi, whatever his faults, was profoundly
attached to literature. By his command a pocket edition of the
Chinese classics was prepared, and the example he himself set
in reading and expounding rare books to audiences of feudatories
and their vassals produced something like a mania for erudition,
so that feudal chiefs competed in engaging teachers and founding
schools. The eighth shōgun, Yoshimunē (1716–1749), was an even
more enlightened ruler. He caused a geography to be compiled
and an astronomical observatory to be constructed; he revoked
the veto on the study of foreign books; he conceived and carried
out the idea of imparting moral education through the medium
of calligraphy by preparing ethical primers whose precepts were
embodied in the head-lines of copy-books, and he encouraged
private schools. Iyenari (1787–1838), the eleventh shōgun,
and his immediate successor, Iyeyoshi (1838–1853), patronized
learning no less ardently, and it was under the auspices of the
latter that Japan acquired her five classics, the primers of
True Words, of Great Learning, of Lesser Learning, of Female
Ethics and of Women’s Filial Piety.
Thus it may be said that the system of education progressed steadily throughout the Tokugawa era. From the days of Tsunayoshi the number of fief schools steadily increased, and as students were admitted free of all charges, a duty of grateful fealty as well as the impulse of interfief competition drew thither the sons of all samurai. Ultimately the number of such schools rose to over 240, and being supported entirely at the expense of the feudal chiefs, they did no little honour to the spirit of the era. From 7 to 15 years of age lads attended as day scholars, being thereafter admitted as boarders, and twice a year examinations were held in the presence of high officials of the fief. There were also several private schools where the curriculum consisted chiefly of moral philosophy, and there were many temple schools, where ethics, calligraphy, arithmetic, etiquette and, sometimes, commercial matters were taught. A prominent feature of the system was the bond of reverential affection uniting teacher and student. Before entering school a boy was conducted by his father or elder brother to the home of his future teacher, and there the visitors, kneeling before the teacher, pledged themselves to obey him in all things and to submit unquestioningly to any discipline he might impose. Thus the teacher came to be regarded as a parent, and the veneration paid to him was embodied in a precept: “Let not a pupil tread within three feet of his teacher’s shadow.” In the case of the temple schools the priestly instructor had full cognisance of each student’s domestic circumstances and was guided by that knowledge in shaping the course of instruction. The universally underlying principle was, “serve the country and be diligent in your respective avocations.” Sons of samurai were trained in military arts, and on attaining proficiency many of them travelled about the country, inuring their bodies to every kind of hardship and challenging all experts of local fame.
Unfortunately, however, the policy of national seclusion prevented for a long time all access to the stores of European knowledge. Not until the beginning of the 18th century did any authorized account of the great world of the West pass into the hands of the people. A celebrated scholar (Arai Hakuseki) then compiled two works—Saiyō kibun (Record of Occidental Hearsay), and Sairan igen (Renderings of Foreign Languages)—which embodied much information, obtained from Dutch sources, about Europe, its conditions and its customs. But of course the light thus furnished had very restricted influence. It was not extinguished, however. Thenceforth men’s interest centred more and more on the astronomical, geographical and medical sciences of the West, though such subjects were not included in academical studies until the renewal of foreign intercourse in modern times. Then (1857), almost immediately, the nation turned to Western learning, as it had turned to Chinese thirteen centuries earlier. The Tokugawa government established in Yedo an institution called Bansho-shirabe-dokoro (place for studying foreign books), where Occidental languages were learned and Occidental works translated. Simultaneously a school for acquiring foreign medical art (Seiyo igaku-sho) was opened, and, a little later (1862), the Kaisei-jo (place of liberal culture), a college for studying European sciences, was added to the list of new institutions. Thus the eve of the Restoration saw the
