Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meiji Japan: The Decline ...

LIFE AT THE JUKU 137Possibly the demand to submit these applications led toregulations being codified where they had not been before. Insmaller juku written rules may well have been unnecessary, if theteacher was in close daily contact with his students.Some masters drew up regulations long before Meiji. An earlyset of rules for Chōzenkan in Niigata prefecture is believed tohave been drawn up by Suzuki Bundai in 1854. 68 It can besummarized as follows: 1) The time for entry is on the first ofeach month, for leaving on the tenth day of the seventh month orof the twelfth month. 2) Students who wish to return home for aperiod have to ask for permission. 3) Students must not be noisyand uncontrolled in their words and behaviour (they must lookafter their own books and utensils and clothes and not wilfullyborrow other people’s). 4) They must clean up. 5) They musttreat their things with care. The next five points detail what is tobe studied. Then the following prohibitions are listed: idleness;gossip; over-familiarity.Bundai noted more rules in his diary in the third month of1854, which can be summarized as following: 1) Students mustrise early; evening lessons last until 10 p.m. except for theyounger ones. 2) The mouth and hands are to be cleaned beforelessons. 3) In the morning a hakama (formal divided skirt) must beworn. 4) After the morning reading (sodoku) there is a rest for thetime it takes to burn a joss stick. 5) After lunch there is a rest forthe period of half a joss stick and at 3 p.m. a rest of one joss stick.6) After the poetry meetings on the first, eleventh and twenty-firstof the month, students are to take a bath.The next five items deal with teaching. Then the followingprohibitions are recorded: 1) mistreating books 2) quarrels andnoisy talk 3) drinking and privately going out for amusement 4)impermissible words and behaviour which cause trouble forothers 5) buying unnecessary implements, other than writingmaterials 6) wilfully borrowing other people’s hats, shoes andclothes 7) when visitors arrive, those not receiving them mustreturn to their business after greeting them, unless they have along-standing relationship with them. Bundai also lists the tasksstudents were expected to perform in turns: cleaning up in themorning and evening; serving tea after breakfast, cleaning andlighting the lamps and cleaning the yard and verandas.Bundai’s rules may well have remained much the same over theyears. Bundai’s heir, Tekiken, who took over in 1870, submitted areport to the authorities that year. It does not contain any