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

THE LEGACY OF THE JUKU 225juku, although dwindling, still formed part of the educationalscene. Thus it was possible for these authors to have spent someyears in a juku, especially if they had been educated outsideTokyo. However, only a few authors had clearly done so. On theother hand, most of them had a reason to be interested in theeducation of their day. At least 12 were educators and 2 werepoliticians.It is perhaps not surprising that they had more interest in theeducation system of the present than that of the past. So whydiscuss juku at all? The answer can be found in the historicalsituation. As part of the increasing state control in all areas of lifewithin Japan, the Ministry of Education too aimed to do its partin mobilizing the people for the nation. Fundamental educationalreform was on the agenda since 1935, and in 1937 a new office foreducational matters was created (kyōgakukyoku). 43 That same yearanother commission was created, this time directly under thejurisdiction of the cabinet. The calls for reform had increased, andseveral private associations had produced draft proposals. Nihonoyobi Nihonjin published several articles on the subject.The general thrust of educational reform was towardsincreasing centralization and ideological indoctrination. At thesame time, the 1930s were a time of profound structural change.The expansion of secondary and tertiary education, begun in the1920s, still continued. The system became less elitist, andopportunities for women increased. 44 Thus the education systemwas changing in different ways; increasing state control on theone hand, expansion with egalitarian tendencies on the other.These developments are reflected in the articles; the emphasison moral and character education reflects the government’sefforts in this area, and the criticism of mass education in“factories of learning” can be understood in the context of theexpansion. Strong nationalist rhetoric, however, is rare. In onlyone or two articles is the necessity of training excellentindividuals linked to Japan’s ambitions to become a great power.Thus men who had an agenda concerning educational reformused the theme of juku as a pretext for discussing the issues of1938. Some authors explicitly refrained from relating personalexperiences, although they were in a position to do so. Oneexample is Nakayama Kyūshirō (1874–1961; professor of orientalhistory at Tokyo Imperial University). He attended a juku in hishome town in Nagano prefecture, but we learn little about it.