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

220 PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPANgenryū, a survey of private education since ancient times. 31However, like many juku, Jōu gakkō survived the death of itsfounder only briefly. It ran into financial difficulties and in 1974became the Bunka joshi daigaku fuzoku Suginami kōtō gakkō(Suginami High School Attached to Bunka Women’s University).Kōno’s educational course, which made the school special, foundan end with this change.Better known than Jōu gakkō is Tamagawa gakuen, establishedby Obara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977). 32 Obara had no personalexperience of juku education; in 1905 he entered Kagoshimanormal school and thereafter Hiroshima Higher Normal School,where he also taught after graduating in philosophy from KyotoUniversity. In 1917 he became a director of the new SeijōElementary School, where he was employed until 1933. In thisprivate school he was able to practise some of his own ideas oneducation. But in 1929 he also founded his own school, which henamed Tamagawa juku. Newspapers at the time praised theschool for its “terakoya spirit” in a world of “examination hell”and “employment-seeking hell” (shiken jigoku, shūshoku jigoku).Obara himself described his guiding principles in Tamagawa-jukunokyōiku, published in 1931. He chose the word juku to evokefeelings of nostalgia (natsukashii); juku, he claims, are unique toJapan. Among his educational principles were education of thewhole person, respect for the individual, self-study and selfdeterminationand warm relations between teacher and students,all characteristics commonly ascribed to the juku. Obarapublished several works on education.Even in the more repressive climate of the 1930s new privateschools continued to be founded. One was the present-dayReitaku University in Kashiwa city (Chiba prefecture). 33 Thefounder, Hiroike Chikūrō (1866–1968), is described by hisbiographer as a classical example of the risshin shusse spirit ofearly Meiji. He was largely self-taught, and his biographyillustrates some of the points made earlier (Chapter 5, Studentcareers). The son of farmers from what is now Nakatsu city (Ōitaprefecture), he graduated from the local middle school, thenattempted to enter the normal school (shihan gakkō) in Ōita. Toprepare for the examination he studied at a juku and with privatetutors. Although he failed the examination twice, he passed thequalifying examination which was equivalent to graduation fromthe normal school. He taught at local schools until 1892, thenmoved to Kyōto in order to make his way as a researcher and