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

CHAPTER ONEEducation in Transition fromtheTokugawa to the Meiji PeriodTHE TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION in the Meiji periodhas been aptly summarized with the phrase “from one room toone system”. 1 Education in the Tokugawa period wasdecentralized, diverse and often informal. A variety of schoolsexisted, run by the shogunate, the domains or privateindividuals. They were not part of one coherent system, and bytoday’s standards they were small. Attendance patterns varied,including different types of schools and private tuition. Differentschools catered for different classes of society, and the linkbetween achievement in school and social advancement was atbest tenuous.By late Meiji, Japan had a centralized national school systemwith predominantly public schools at all levels. The curriculumwas Western, although Confucian ethics had a place in moralinstruction. Progress through the system depended on passingentrance examinations, and social advancement was conditionalupon academic credentials acquired through schooling. In theorythe system was egalitarian, and some individuals managed torise from lowly circumstances through talent and hard work. Inpractice students coming from a family with a tradition ofeducation and enough wealth to pay for schools were most likelyto succeed.Thus education, like so many other things in Meiji Japan,changed fundamentally within a period of less than forty years.Moreover, whatever “modern portents” there may have beenbefore 1868, the changes were largely motivated by the politicalleaders’ desire to catch up with the West; consequently theyinvolved the importation of an alien culture. This applied both tothe way education was organized and to its content.