The Training of the Warrior
The history of modern Japanese education can be said to have begun with Tokugawa Ieyasu’s seizure of power in Japan in 1603. Tokugawa desired to establish an education system for the highest social class, the samurai, so as to maintain social order.[i] Since the new education system was directed at the samurai class, the traditional lessons of the samurai’s warrior past were not ignored. Teachers provided students with instruction in physical activities such as archery and horsemanship, and general military science was taught according to Chinese principles.[ii] As time marched on, military training became less and less important, however, with curricula shifting more toward literature and other modern subjects.
[i] Frank Lombard, Pre-Meiji Education in Japan: A Study of Japanese Education Previous to the Restoration of 1868 (Tokyo: Kyo Bun Kwan, 1913), 74-75.
[ii] Lombard, 81-82.
[i] Frank Lombard, Pre-Meiji Education in Japan: A Study of Japanese Education Previous to the Restoration of 1868 (Tokyo: Kyo Bun Kwan, 1913), 74-75.
[ii] Lombard, 81-82.