Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (73 page)

The principal subject of debate during the latter part of 1879 was education. Meiji’s Oath in Five Articles had promised that the Japanese would seek learning throughout the world in order for their country to catch up to the advanced countries. The emperor’s abiding interest in education was evidenced by the frequency of his visits to schools wherever he traveled. He himself continued to receive instruction from Motoda Nagazane and others in the Confucian classics. He was particularly affected by Motoda’s insistence on
ch
ū
(loyalty) and
k
ō
(filial piety) as the central Confucian virtues, even though these two virtues had not been stressed in the Confucian writings of China or in those of the Japanese Confucianists of the Tokugawa period. During the Meiji era the four Confucian virtues commonly cited in statements on education—
jin
(humaneness),
gi
(righteousness),
ch
ū
, and
k
ō
—were seen as adjuncts to the policy of “civilization and enlightenment” favored by the bureaucrats.
⁸
However,
jin
and
gi
tended to receive less attention than
ch
ū
and
k
ō
, virtues that lent themselves easily to the new state’s policies.

The emperor also listened to lectures delivered on works of Japanese tradition and (to a lesser extent) Western history. His preferences in education, regardless of the subject matter, were conservative, as we can infer from this poem:

The emperor also revealed in his poetry his awareness that traditional learning was insufficient in a modern world:

Despite the emperor’s belief in the importance of the learning of the past, the new education tended to be Western in orientation. For example, on July 14, 1876, when the emperor visited an elementary school in Aomori, ten pupils of English gave talks in English and wrote compositions. The following were the subjects:

Speech: Hannibal’s speech encouraging his soldiers.

Composition: In celebration of His Majesty’s visit to Aomori.

Speech: Andrew Jackson’s speech in the U.S. Senate.

Composition: A song in praise of enlightenment and progress.

Speech: Cicero’s attack on Cataline.

Composition: A song in praise of education.
¹⁰

The emperor had to leave the school before all the planned talks and compositions could be completed. As he departed, the pupils sang for him a song in English. The emperor gave each of them five yen with which to buy a copy of
Webster’s Intermediate Dictionary
. But on his return to T
ō
ky
ō
, he told Motoda that he thought that the pupils’ ignorance of Japan was the fault of “American educational methods” in practice, since the school system was established in 1872.
¹¹

After his return from his journey of 1878 to Hokuriku and T
ō
kai, the emperor sent for Iwakura Tomomi and informed him that it was essential to cultivate in the schools traditional Japanese morality. He obviously had not been pleased with Japanese children who, though ignorant of Japanese traditions, glibly delivered speeches in English on Hannibal and Cicero.

The emperor was interested not only in academic institutions but also in technical training schools where “practical learning” was taught. On January 24, 1878, he visited the forerunner of the Faculty of Agriculture of T
ō
ky
ō
University, and in the rescript pronounced on this occasion, he declared, “We believe that agriculture is the foundation of the nation.”
¹²
This insistence on the importance of agriculture to the nation was, of course, nothing new: Confucian philosophers had been saying the same thing for more than a thousand years. What was distinctive was that the students were learning about modern agricultural methods in a school, whereas in the past they would have been expected to learn how to be successful farmers by laboring in the fields. Such a school was not intended to destroy traditional agriculture or crafts that had been passed down from generation to generation; rather, this formal education in scientific techniques would lead to increased agricultural production and to a more prosperous society.

On July 15, 1878, the emperor pronounced a rescript at the ceremonies opening the engineering university. A school where technology would be systematically taught was new to Japan and an important part of the process of “enlightenment.” In order to raise Japanese techniques to the standards in the advanced countries, it was necessary to hire foreign experts as teachers. On his visits to schools throughout the country, Meiji always singled out the foreign teachers for special attention. When they were about to leave Japan after completing their contractual duties, he usually granted them audiences, an honor much less frequently bestowed on Japanese. President Grant, as we have seen, urged the Japanese to retain their foreign advisers. Although he expressed the hope that teaching positions of every kind would be one day filled entirely by Japanese, he noted that it would be unwise “to hurry unnecessarily the dismissal of foreign instructors…. I believe that you should keep for as long as they can be kept foreigners, like those of world reputation who have founded His Majesty’s Engineering University.” His advice was heeded.

Meiji also encouraged Japanese (who could afford it) to study abroad, to observe conditions in other countries, acquire practical learning, and keep Japan from falling behind in progress.
¹³
He stressed even in his poetry the importance of the absorption of Western civilization:

In 1872 an edict on education had been promulgated providing for the standardization of education throughout the country, mainly along the lines of the French educational system.
¹⁴
Although the plan proved to be too idealistic to be realized with Japan’s limited resources, it was indicative of the great importance attached to education from the start of the Meiji era.

Soon after the new school system was promulgated, there were complaints that the authorities were so determined to carry through the ambitious plan, regardless of the costs, that they were spending huge sums of money. The administrators were also charged with excessive interference in the schools. As the result of these and other complaints, Education Minister Tanaka Fujimaro (1845–1909) was sent to America to observe education there. On his return he proposed basic departures from the system instituted in 1872: the educational system should be changed to accord better with the national strength, the conditions of people’s life, and the existing culture. The French system would be replaced by a decentralized educational system in which responsibility would be shifted to the localities.
¹⁵
A draft bill was submitted in May 1878 for examination by It
ō
Hirobumi, who made some modifications such as giving greater autonomy to local authorities and minimizing interference from the central government. After passing the Genr
ō
-in with further modifications, the bill was presented to the emperor for his approval.

In the meantime Iwakura Tomomi, charged by the emperor with incorporating traditional virtues into the new education, had concluded that Japan’s educational policies had to be changed. Such men as Sasaki Takayuki and Motoda Nagazane were convinced that loyalty and filial piety must be the cornerstone. Moral training (
sh
ū
shin
) had always been a basic part of the elementary-school curriculum,
¹⁶
using such Confucian works as the
Great Learning
for texts, but these men felt that
sh
ū
shin
tended to be overshadowed by foreign learning.

On April 16, 1878, Iwakura and Sasaki had an audience with the emperor at which he stressed the importance of moral education, regardless of whether a person was a student of Chinese learning, a devotee of the emperor, or even (like Fukuzawa Yukichi and Kat
ō
Hiroyuki) advocates of Western learning. On May 5 during an audience with the emperor, Iwakura read aloud the proposal of someone who favored a republican government—presumably as a warning against too great a tolerance of dissenting opinions. He urged the emperor to devote himself more than ever to his Heaven-appointed duties so as to ensure the fairness of the government’s policies. The most essential concern was education. Judging from recent conditions, Iwakura observed, the blind adherence of many people to Western ways deprives them of independent, self-respecting thought. If a Westerner says the
Analects
is a good book, they read it at once; if a Westerner says it is a bad book, they throw it away without hesitation. It reminds one of ignorant men or women rushing off to worship at whatever Inari shrine happens to be popular at the moment.
¹⁷

On June 26, the day after the revised bill was submitted to the emperor, he promised, in view of the importance of the matter and his own personal interest, to have a written record of his views prepared. This document, composed by Motoda, was in two parts. Although it purported to present the emperor’s views, they were in fact Motoda’s. The first part declared:

The essence of the teachings for high and low alike of our ancestors and our national classics is that the essential function of education is to teach benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and filial piety. The Way of human beings should be cultivated by the exhaustive study of knowledge and the arts. However, in recent years only knowledge and the arts have been respected, and in their eagerness to run after the trivialities of “civilization and enlightenment,” quite a few men have broken rules of conduct and impaired customs. Moreover, taking the astute proclamation that old, unenlightened customs are to be rejected and learning is to be sought throughout the world as the commencement of the Restoration, such people have promised they will adopt the superior practices of the West and demonstrate they are capable of making improvements each day. But what happens is that they dismiss, as long-standing evils, benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and filiality and recklessly vie to adopt Western ways. This is to be dreaded for the future and may in the end make them unaware of the great principle of loyalty to one’s sovereign and filial behavior toward one’s parents. Their attitude does not accord with the basic principles of education in our country.

For this reason, from this time forward, basing ourselves on the teachings of our ancestors, we should teach benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and filial piety, and our moral teachings should be based chiefly on Confucius. People should revere sincerity and good conduct and study the different disciplines in accordance with their particular talents. As they continue their progress, morality and technical skills, both essential and auxiliary, will all be present, and the teachings of the Great Mean and righteousness will fill the land. Then, in its spirit of independence, our country shall not be ashamed before any nation in the universe.
¹⁸

In his second essay, Motoda touched on his experiences while traveling with the emperor:

Last autumn when I examined schools in the various prefectures and observed the pupils’ scholarly attainments, the instruction offered to children of farmers and merchants consisted entirely of high-flown empty theories. In extreme cases the pupils were able to speak Western languages well but were incapable of translating the foreign words into Japanese. When these children graduate some day and return home, it will be difficult for them to apply themselves once more to their basic occupations. The high-flown empty theories they have learned will be of no use to them either if they wish to become officials. In addition, I heard everywhere that quite a few of them are so pleased with themselves, they make fun of their elders and obstruct the provincial officials.
¹⁹

Motoda urged the establishment of courses in agriculture and business instead of highbrow knowledge, so that graduates would return to their basic occupations and prosper. The emperor summoned It
ō
Hirobumi and, telling him of his desire to improve education and correct morals, asked It
ō
for his views.

It
ō
’s memorial to the throne, after an opening paragraph indicting the collapse of morals that marked the times, declared that in order to remedy the situation it must be treated as a disease and that in order to cure a disease it was necessary to find out what had caused it. He traced the origins of the present undesirable situation in education to the changes brought about by the Restoration. The end of the closed country era and the feudal system meant that the samurai class was no longer bound by traditional discipline and constraints. This liberation, though desirable, entailed the loss of the good qualities in the old system. Deprived of their former means of support, samurai had become involved in partisan politics and infected by radical ideas emanating from Europe.