10. EDUCATION IN JAPAN. Introduc tion.— In 270 A.D. the king of Korea sent his ambassador to the Imperial Court of Japan. This led to the adoption of the Chinese learn ing, which, for more than 1,000 years, was the most important factor in the Japanese educa tional system. From time to time Japan sent special missions and students to China for study, while many Chinese and Koreans went to Japan and were naturalized.
With the advent of Chinese learning Con fucianism soon became the foundation of Japan's moral and literary education. About this time Buddhism also entered the country. It found devout adherents at the court, and priests went in large numbers to China to study Buddhism and its literature. Out of the joint. influence of these two, her social refinement was attained. Early In 701 A.D. we find an educational system laid out in the Taiho* Stat ute. A state university was founded in the capital, Kioto, and provincial schools were es tablished in the provinces, while powerful fami lies in the provinces founded private schools to educate their own children and those of their relatives and retainers. It was maintained that the basis of all good actions lies in filial piety, and copies of "Kokyo,) or the 'Treatise on Piety,) were distributed throughout the empire and every home had a copy. Thus moral edu cation was encouraged. At this epoch literature also flourished among the women of high class. But the pen was soon obliged to give way to the sword. The powerful families in the prov inces waged war upon each other, while at the court people passed most of their time in com posing effeminate poems, and seldom cared to enter deeply into the study of literature. Olt the other hand, the military class had no spare time to devote to learning, and literature be came the sole monopoly of the priests. They taught their neighbors' children in the an nexes to the temples, hence came the word (Terakoya,* or children's house of the temple, which institution survived even until the estab lishment of the modern elementary schools.
In 1603 A.D. Tokugawa Iyeyasu founded the Bakufu or Shogunate in Yedo, When peace was restored, he encouraged arts and learning. In 1691 A.D. Tsunayoshi, the fifth Shogun, founded a college which was the origin of the (Shoheiko,* the highest seat of Chinese learn ing in Yedo. Distinguished scholars came out
of this school and literature again prospered. Feudal lords in the provinces, following the ex ample of their feudal chief in Yedo, also set up schools for the sons of their retainers. These may be called the public schools of the time. There were also many private schools estab lished by scholars on their own account, who taught young men Chinese classics. These schools, it must be remembered, chiefly taught the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, to gether with literature and history. *The com mon people need not be profoundly taught; they should be made chiefly to rely upon the rulers,b was the educational policy of the government. But after the Middle Ages, the Terakoya pros pered and was free to all. During the regime of Tokugawa, peace continued for more than 250 years, which led to the rapid development of The pure Japanese literature, rivaling the Chinese classics, began to gain much attention, and it soon made wonderful progress and attained a height heretofore un known. The intercourse with foreign countries became more frequent under the early Toku gawas and by the study of the Dutch language the enlightenment of the West was introduced into the country. Many people studied medi cine, physics, chemistry, etc., together with the foreign military science. Later, the Bakufu itself established in Yedo an institution called the °Bansho-torishirabe-sho,* the Place for In vestigating Foreign Books, and also a medical school called the aIgakusho,* i.e., the Place for Medical Study, which gave a great impetus to the study of Dutch. Toward the close of the Tokugawa regime, some began to study English and French books also, while others went abroad for study by the order of the govern ment and in unauthorized cases ran away from the country for the same purpose. In short, learning which had declined during the Middle Ages again prospered during the Tokugawas, and besides the prosecution of the Chinese liter ature and philosophy, there arose gradually a new field of the Western science, producing many distinguished scholars even among the common people.