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

THE DECLINE OF THE JUKU 201potentially representing an alternative to the new schools, to anauxiliary institution, helping to support the system.The strong pressure to conform in order to survive isillustrated particlularly well by Hōmei gijuku in Sasayama(Hyōgo prefecture). 85 This juku, remarkably, was established in1885, at the time when other juku were disappearing. In this itwas not unique, but, unlike others, it was deliberately conceivedas an alternative to the new system, and in its early phase kangakudominated. Students read the Chinese classics in the teacher’shome, the emphasis was on moral and character training andmany students did not graduate. Half of the students were ofsamurai descent. In 1899 Hōmei gijuku became a middle school,and gradually its curriculum developed to emphasize knowledgeand passing examinations to gain entry to further schools. Theproportion of commoners attending rose, as did the number ofgraduates. In 1920 it was placed under the administration of theprefecture. After 1945 it became a high school.If a juku could thus change to become part of the mainstream,could not some of them have changed into another role tobecome part of the “support system”? In fact, there is noevidence of a direct continuity from the traditional juku to themodern cram school. A few isolated examples, should they exist,cannot confirm that there was continuity from the traditional tothe modern juku. Most of today’s juku were established in the1960s and 1970s, and today’s “masters”, as likely as not female(or else managers of a whole chain), do not claim any continuityfrom the prewar period. 86Nevertheless, it can be argued that the significant role playedby the traditional juku in the Meiji period paved the way for thepresent-day juku, if we look at the consumers rather than theproviders of juku education; today’s juku thrive as a result ofparental choice. From the Edo period onwards it was commonnot to rely solely on formal schooling, but also on informal typesof education. In the 1870s and 1880s this pattern was reinforced,partly because provision of modern schools lagged behind andpartly because modern schools were perceived to neglecttraditional elements of education which were still highlyregarded and part of a kangaku education: moral education andthe Chinese classics. As a result, an established custom combinedwith the emergence of a society where educational credentialsprevailed to set the scene for a new type of juku.