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

EDUCATION IN TRANSITION FROM THE TOKUGAWA TO THE MEIJI PERIOD 23in skills necessary for a specific career in a modern field, often inscience and technology, like the Butsuri gakkō, which began in1881 as a night school, or the Tokyo seii koshūsho, a medicalschool established in 1881. 44Mission schools also tended to offer accepted Western subjects.They were established either by foreign missionaries, theJapanese church or individual Christians. 45 One of the earliestwas the Ferris Seminary, established in 1870, when Mary EddyKidder took over Mrs Hepburn’s private school, Hebon juku.Kidder reorganized it as a school for girls with about thirtystudents, and in 1875 it was named the Issac Ferris Seminary(after the head of the Board of Foreign Missions of the ReformedChurch). English was used in the morning classes: philosophy,history, mathematics, English, natural science and gymnastics.Japanese was used in the aftenoon classes: calligraphy, Japaneselanguage, history and literature. The dormitories and the foodwere Japanese style. 46 The best-known example of a missionschool established by a Japanese is Dōshisha in Kyoto, foundedby Niijima Jō in 1874. The school had a theological course and ageneral course and most of the teachers were foreignmissionaries. Niijima’s aim was to establish a Christianuniversity, but Dōshisha did not receive university status untilafter his death, when it became the leading Christianuniversity. 47Mission schools played a particularly important role inwomen’s education above elementary level, as this area wasneglected by the state and less subject to regulation than boys’education. These girls’ schools taught mainly English andJapanese literature, home economics, sewing and music,combined with a Christian education, until a law in 1899prohibited religious instruction in schools. 48 By provid ing girlswith a chance to learn and even to make an independent living,the mission schools contributed significantly to the emancipationof women, but they did not directly challenge the official view ofwomen’s role in society.Christian schools were not the only schools sponsored byreligious groups. Organized Buddhism, which had had amonopoly on education before the Tokugawa period, also set upschools. Some of them had older predecessors, like the Sōtōshūsenmon gakkō established in 1875, which goes back to a templeacademy in 1592, or the forerunner of Ryūkoku University inKyōto, which dates back to an institution founded in 1639. 49