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

24 PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPANFollowing the example of the Christian missionaries, someBuddhist schools for girls were established. In Hakodate, wheremany missionaries were active, members of several Buddhistsects cooperated to found the Rikuwa jogakkō, later HakodateŌtani gakuen, in 1888. In 1891 Yamamoto Kō, a graduate fromthe Ferris Seminary, became the first full-time head mistress. Shedied young, however, and her successors were men. 50 Buddhistschools concentrated on the Buddhist scriptures and Chineseclassics, but also taught other subjects. At middle school levelthey modelled themselves on the state middle schools. 51Educational institutions for Shintō studies were established aspart of the nationalistic reaction in the 1880s by Shintoists andscholars of National Learning. The present KokugakuinUniversity was founded as Kōten kōkyū sho (Institute of JapaneseLiterature) in 1882 to provide students with an education inJapanese classics and Japanese history, literature and otherbranches of National Learning. The Ise jingū kōgakkan was alsofounded in 1882; there had been a library and school in Ise sincethe Tokugawa period, and at the beginning of Meiji the Uji gakkōwas established and run by the shrine office from 1873. In 1903the school came under control of the interior ministry as agovernment professional school (kanritsu senmon gakkō). 52Tetsugakukan (forerunner of Tōyō University), founded in1887 by Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), was another institution thatspecialized in Eastern thought. Enryō was a Buddhist scholarwho had graduated in philosophy from Tokyo University in 1885.His school mainly trained future Shintō and Buddhist priests andteachers, and the curriculum included Western philosophy. In1899, after two unsuccessful previous applications, Tetsugakukanwas granted a privilege exempting its graduates from the stateexamination for teachers introduced in 1886, which only 20percent of the candidates passed. In return Tetsugakukan had tosubmit to strict government controls. Tetsugakukan lost theprivilege again in the so-called Tetsugakukan Affair of 1902,which sparked off a major confrontation between privateinstitutions of higher learning and the government. 53Most private schools that survived in the long run did so eitherby becoming similar the public schools or by offereing aspecialized subject which was highly in demand, such as law,science or technology. Kangaku juku were just one among severaltypes of private institutions. A brief look at the fate of kangakuduring the Meiji period will suggest why they held their own for