Peasant Riots and Rumor Circulation
A more visible example of peasant unrest is in the spike in riots that occurred in the 1870s. Although education was only one factor in peasant disgruntlement and things like forced conscription and the land tax contributed as well, educational infrastructure was targeted with extreme malice, as they had become symbols of government intrusion. In just May and June of 1873, farmers in Kagawa prefecture burned down thirty-four elementary schools, with 20,000 protestors destroying forty-eight schools throughout the year. In the Fukuoku prefecture on Kyushu in June, 300,000 farmer protestors destroyed twenty-nine schools. That same month in Tottori prefecture, a group of peasants attacked elementary school teachers and burned down two schools. Violence proceeded to occur throughout the next three years, with twenty-nine schools destroyed and twenty-nine more damaged throughout every administrative unit of Mie prefecture in December 1876.[1] New school buildings built by the Meiji government were overwhelmingly the targets, with only one noted instance of an old, pre-Restoration building being attacked during an uprising in Gifu prefecture. Their motivation in this regard was not left to speculation, with protestors shouting “Destroy and burn everything that belongs to the government!”[2] In addition to explosive riots, there was a widespread circulation of degrading rumors pertaining to the school system, particularly teachers. Two teachers in Tottori were accused of sucking the blood from their students and were attacked with farming tools; one was killed. This incident mushroomed into a five-day riot with 12,000 demonstrators that destroyed the local elementary schools in addition to the teachers’ homes, the house of the village headman, and the local police station.[3] This kind of behavior and rumor circulation was not uncommon in the early Meiji period.
[1] Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education, 167-168.
[2] Platt, Burning and Building, 194.
[3] Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education, 168.
[1] Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education, 167-168.
[2] Platt, Burning and Building, 194.
[3] Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education, 168.