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

ConclusionTHE HISTORY OF THE JUKU INTO THE MEIJI PERIOD tells USthings about education in Meiji Japan that the conventionalnarrative focusing on the public system does not. Education inearly Meiji was characterized by a diversity of educationalinstitutions, and individuals often showed considerable initiativeand dedication in providing and acquiring education. Theirthoughts did not always conform to those of the policy makersand did reflect some of the tensions that resulted from livingthrough a period of rapid and profound change. The people ofAkita distrusted the new schools and continued to send theirchildren to juku. Ikeda Sōan lamented over the pressure to turnhis juku into a commercial operation. These episodes, besidesrevealing the actual experiences that lay behind the debates andpolicies, also suggest some of the general conflicts that expressedthemselves in the history of education: government control versusprivate intitiative; central control versus regional independence;new and foreign education versus traditional education. Formany, the new schools may well have been the first place wherethey were confronted with Western civilization. Illustrations ofschools in the Meiji period often depict the children sitting onchairs at desks in purpose-built classrooms, with a teacher in illfittingWestern dress standing at the front and pointing with astick at a board or wall chart with characters and illustrations.The teacher and children look ill at ease (see Figure 10). Incontrast, scenes from terakoya (or tenarai juku) appear relaxed andfamiliar (see Figure 8 or the cover illustration, for instance).Contrasting the kangaku juku with the modern schools makesthem appear as outdated institutions, the demise of which was amatter of time. Outdated they may have been, but some of thesuccesses the modern education system is credited can be with