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

THE DECLINE OF THE JUKU 197elsewhere got away with minimal formal schooling. The potterKatō Tokurō, born in 1898, claimed he did not attend elementaryschool regularly, since his grandmother thought it would blunthis pottery skills. When as a young man he wanted to learn, heused correspondence courses and attended juku. Apart from thehistory of pottery and painting he also studied the Chineseclassics. 71For most young people, however, the educational scene hadchanged and with it the place of the juku.THE GAKUREKI SHAKAI AND THE JUKU AS ACRAM SCHOOLThe late 1890s marked a watershed in the history of education.The school system envisaged in the Education Law of 1872 hadlargely become a reality. The reforms enacted by the educationministers Mori Arinori and Inoue Kowashi had given theeducation system the shape it was to retain until 1945.Compulsory schooling and rising school attendance resulted inmore people being educated in the new schools. At the same timethe value of formal schooling became more generally acceptedand the demand for education beyond elementary level rose.Middle school attendance increased from 1,170 in 1895 to 9,927 in1905 and 20,852 in 1919. 72More middle school graduates meant more candidates forentry into the high schools. This, together with changes in thesystem, made it harder to pass the entrance examinations; in 1900only one-third were successful. Over the next years theexamination system was reformed serveral times. 73 The highschools were intended by Mori Arinori to produce the country’seducational elite. They were funded and supervised by thecentral government, and by 1900 there were seven of themthroughout the country. High school graduates would gostraight into the working world or enter one of the numerouspublic or private specialist schools (senmon gakkō). Only a smallnumber would continue into one of the two imperialuniversities; in 1900 the universities of Tokyo and Kyōto(established 1897) together took in only 564 applicants. 74By the late Meiji period there was a clear link betweeneducation and employment. This had not been the case before,and the idea of education leading to social advancement was notat first universally accepted. Among farmers and merchants there