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

PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPAN 43changed categories, becoming private elementary schools oneyear and midlle schools the next. For example, Jōin juku in Tokyowas listed as an elementary school in 1874, middle school in 1875and 1876, elementary school in 1877 and middle school in 1878and 1879. 7From 1880 onwards the number of middle schools dropped to187, 50 of them private (three schools in Tokyo, one private). By1883 a mere six private middle schools were recorded. This wasbecause most private schools did not meet the criteria for middleschools laid down in the Education Ordinance of 1879 andconsequently became “miscellaneous schools” (kakushu gakkō). In1880 a total of 433 public and 1,585 private kakushu gakkō wererecorded. 8 Among these, schools offering kangaku represented thesecond largest category among the public schools (after thoseoffering handicrafts) with 126 schools and the largest categoryamong the private ones (673). Another 89 offered kangakutogether with other subjects. 9In the 1880s many new schools were established, which werein fact kangaku juku, especially outside Tokyo (e.g. Ōita, Aichi). Bythen the number of children receiving elementary education wasrising, and as a result the demand for education beyondelementary level increased. Yet the strict conditions for theestablishment of middle schools meant that provision wasinadequate. Students would often study at juku before enteringmainstream schools in the towns. For those who stayed at homethe kangaku curriculum may well have suited their needs betterthan the Western education offered in the new schools, becausethe pattern of daily life and the fabric of society had not yetchanged significantly in the remoter areas (Chapter 5).The fact that a juku continued well into the Meiji period doesnot necessarily mean it was the same institution in the latenineteenth century that it had been several decades earlier. 10 Butunless a juku applied for and received the status of a mainstreamschool, offering a broader curriculum than previously andemploying additional teachers, changes are unlikely to bedocumented. Possibly some inferences can be drawn fromchanges in attendance patterns and the kinds of students whoattended juku.Juku attendance varied as much as the juku themselves. Amongthe former samurai population in the castle towns there was amarked continuity from the Edo period. Just as young samuraihad attended juku as well as the domain school during the Edo