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

44 KANGAKU JUKU IN THE MEIJI PERIODperiod, their children now attended both the local publicelementary school and the juku of some local Confucian scholar.It was not uncommon for a teacher at a public school to teachprivately as well, as it had been for the teachers of the domainschools. In one case at least the local authorities tried to put a stopto this practice, but it was difficult to control. 11In rural areas, apart from functioning as a bridge betweenelementary school and post-elementary education in a modernschool in town, juku were also attended by children from farmingfamilies, who could not move to a larger town because they hadto combine study with work on the farm. 12In Tokyo juku could be anything from a place offeringelementary education for families who preferred the old ways(e.g. Hasegawa Nyozekan, see Chapter 5) to continuingeducation for a busy man already working 13 to a preparatoryschool where students studied until they could enter the publicschool of their choice to a mere boarding house for studentsattending other schools and juku. 14 For many prospectivestudents from outside Tokyo, a juku was the first point of entryinto the world of education in the capital. This pattern can beseen in the education of the 166 men and three women whosebiographies were published by the Hōchi Newspaper in 1929. 15Most of them were born between 1868 and 1875 and they camefrom the Kantō, Chūbu and Tōhoku regions to Tokyo for studyduring the first twenty years of Meiji, because provision foreducation beyond elementary level was insufficient in their homeregions. They usually came from samurai families. Of the 132students who entered a school immediately on arriving in Tokyo,30 went to a juku, more than to any other type of school, at leasttemporarily For such students juku appear to have served aspreparatory schools until they could pass the entranceexaminations into mainstream schools. This was the beginning ofthe juku as a cram school. Besides, kangaku was still required inentrance examinations for many public schools, but not allschools prepared their students for this. 16 For example, thefamous Keiō gijuku did not offer kangaku.Juku could provide not only lodgings, but also an income forpoor students. They could either take on various jobs in someoneelse’s juku or they could even start their own. It was said that astudent who had completed middle school education in theprovinces was good enough to teach kangaku; of course they hadoften themselves attended kangaku juku. 17