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

PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPAN 81offered a preparatory course for candidates wishing to take theexamination for middle school teachers. However, furtherchanges in the state education system posed a potential threat toNishō gakusha. In 1900 kanbun as a separate subject wasabolished in middle schools. Kangaku scholars protested, andmembers of Nishō gaku submitted a petition, 34 but the changeswent ahead anyway. The increasing influence of Westerncivilization also contributed to the school’s difficulties. Studentnumbers in the early twentieth century fluctuated, but wereusually well below 200. Financial difficulties persisted.Mishima, however, could rely on alumni support. In 1886 someof his former students established the gakuyūkai (association offriends of the school). In 1903 alumni established the Nishō gikaito help their former school and collected money to support it. In1909 the society applied for and received foundation status(zaidan hōjin) for Nishō gakusha. In 1919, just after Mishima’sdeath, the school itself became a foundation with the goal ofmaking Nishō gakusha permanent and preserving and extendingEastern morals and letters. 35 Thus the transition from a juku to aschool was completed, and Nishō gakusha’s existence beyond thelifetime of its founder was secured. The financial support Nishōgikai was able to obtain from its members, as well as fromleading businessmen and from the imperial household, helpedsecure the financial basis of the school. In 1910 the school had 200pupils. It became a senmon gakkō (specialist school) in 1926 andattained university status after 1945.Nishō gakusha began as a typical kangaku juku. What enabled itto survive and prosper while most of the other juku dwindledaway? Several reasons can be given for Mishima’s success. Hedevoted most of his time to education and his dedicationimpressed his students. Many of the reminiscences mention hisdaily lectures, which he never missed however busy, and whichapparently were always popular. He is reported to have shownmuch warmth towards his students even after they had leftNishō gakusha. But such characteristics are attributed to otherteachers whose juku did not outlast them. What distinguishedMishima Chūshū may well have been that from the beginning heaimed to establish something for the long term. His timing wasright. Mishima founded his juku in a climate favourable tokangaku. By the late 1870s reaction against the excesses ofWesternization had set in, and attempts were made to reviveJapanese traditions, including kangaku. The value of