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

148 PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPANthe juku became separate from the residence. A refectory wasbuilt at an uncertain time. In 1874 a library was added. In 1881 anew main building was erected.Essentially, however, a juku remained an extension of themaster’s residence. This lack of separation between house andschool, living quarters and classroom, presented its ownproblems. Fukuzawa Yukichi’s descriptions of life at Tekijuku (ajuku for Western learning, though kangaku juku were probablysimilar) may be extreme, but it shows what could happen if agroup of youths lived and studied together in the confines of aprivate residence. 86 Tokutomi Kenjirō’s description of NakanishiSeizan’s juku gives another vivid picture:The school building had originally been an ordinaryfarmer’s house, as I have said, so there was no division intoclassrooms, dining rooms and dormitory, only one large allpurposeroom. Our “classroom” was simply the area wherethe floormats were a little cleaner than elsewhere, our“dining room” the noticeably dirtier part, while we sleptanywhere, out of the way of desks and tables. At the shoutof “Class-time!” we would jump up from wherever we hadbeen relaxing, under the windows, or in the quiet light bythe sliding half-transparent paper doors, or in one or otherof the shadowy corners of the room, to sit in a big circle—and there was our “classroom”. Outside of lesson times youmight find anything going on: […] 87Strict discipline was required to preserve the kind of formalatmosphere, which most masters deemed indispensable forsystematic study. Regulations telling students to tidy up in themorning, to assemble for a formal greeting ceremony and towear formal clothing at least during lessons show how themaster tried to prevent the kind of scenario described byFukuzawa Yukichi. Tokutomi Kenjirō, too, describes the studentsof Seizan’s juku sitting “stiffly upright in the formal posture” (p.79) during lessons.During the summer heat it must have been particularly hard tomaintain discipline, and a certain relaxation of rules waspermitted. Nevertheless, Benzai’s summer regime describedabove shows an attempt to preserve decorum during the hotterpart of the year. Some juku closed for a month or so during thesummer. Even if they did not do so formally, students sometimes