http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/index.html

Kyoto National Museum

January 2010

Founded in 1897, the Kyoto National Museum holds a rich collection of pre-modern art and artifacts from Japan and East Asia. Offering an English-language website (also available in Chinese, Korean, French, and Spanish), the museum is accessible and user-friendly.

One can access images of the museum's holdings online through two databases. First, its "Online Database" offers a means to search and view over five thousand objects and sets within its holdings. The second means of searching is via the "KNM Gallery." This search engine allows online visitors to peruse selections from specific categories of the collection. One may, for example, browse chosen images from collections of textiles, ceramics, or ink paintings, amongst a total of 14 categories.

While students may enjoy browsing the "KNM Gallery" collections as open exploration, searches at the "Online Database" are more immediately productive for those interested in exploring objects or images related to childhood and family. The search engine can be utilized to search for keywords within a title as well as by a designated category (e.g. painting, calligraphy, sculpture, etc.) While title searches related to "child" or "children" produce relatively narrow results, broader searches and browsing can offer useful assemblies of images and objects.

A search for "child" in the title search category, for example, produces five objects while a search for "children" reveals 15. While these searches do produce interesting samples in porcelain and textiles, broader browsing strategies are more productive. For example, a path through the collection useful for information on children is "Textiles: Dolls," available as a drop-down "category" line in the search engine for the "Online Database." This search strategy offers 113 results that students could productively survey, study, and choose samples to comment upon. A teacher might find it productive to brainstorm along themes of the representation of children and family, the material composition of the dolls and imagined means of manufacture, as well as their potential uses within Japanese families and society for the historical periods represented here.

Image presentation is user-friendly and agile, including magnification that provides a closer look at detail of the objects, images, and figures. See, for example, the 19th century "Child with Fox Mask; Gosho Doll" from Japan's Edo Period that is housed under the category of textiles. The site provides basic details (country, time period, dimensions and more) and enlarging the image enables users to examine the doll's form, materials, and the particularly nice detail of its embroidered garb and puckered grin.

Image quality does vary, however, both in resolution and in the frequency of black-and-white photographs rather than color, yet with strategic use, this site offers valuable materials for classroom utilization.

Susan Fernsebner

University of Mary Washington

Founded in 1897, the Kyoto National Museum holds a rich collection of pre-modern art and artifacts from Japan and East Asia.

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

January 2010

Viewing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum site takes time, as it is very dense in content and full of narratives, documents and images. The site's organization leads from an intense and unblinking description of the horror of the atomic bomb blast through the suffering and destruction of its aftermath, survivors' (hibakusha) stories, reconstruction of the city, and the determination to make of the memorial an enduring message of peacemaking. The historical material that is presented from multiple angles carefully allows the material to speak for the catastrophe and reconstruction.

The site's home page is laid out vertically into five main areas: the Virtual Museum, Kid's Peace Station, Steps Toward Peace, the Peace Declaration, and Links. A virtual museum visit provides a tour of Peace Park, a memorial at the center of reconstructed Hiroshima, which also houses the museum. The website includes a virtual tour, floor plans of the exhibits and a recommended sequence for visiting, and links to online highlights from the exhibits. Special exhibitions include photographs of the damage, artifacts, film footage, artwork from survivors that describes the effects of the blast, and an array of scientific information on the effects. A considerable part of the site is devoted to the campaign for disarmament and elimination of nuclear testing and ultimately, weapons. It includes maps of current nuclear powers, protests against testing, and the Peace Declaration, a speech delivered by the mayor of Hiroshima every year since 1947 on the occasion of the anniversary of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, which annually reiterates the plea for the world to eliminate nuclear weapons. A video features the most recent Peace Declaration. There are also links to peace study courses at universities from MIT to community colleges and high schools, as well as online courses. The "search" feature is organized by topic in addition to allowing keyword searches.

The site's special area for children's viewing and responses via e-mail is called the "Kids' Peace Station and Peace Plaza." There is a lot of content on children, many of whom had been mobilized as school-based crews in the city before the blast to dismantle buildings and create firebreaks in anticipation of "conventional" bombing. In addition, those who are still living were mostly children at the time. Finally, a large portion of the content is aimed at children, from the symbolic origami-folded cranes made by children in memory of the girl Sadako, to the hopes of the next generation for peace, and active education to achieve it. An interesting part of the site is the area for children's input from around the world. A main feature includes presentations on peace activities in various lands by school classes, such as, charity projects, letter-writing campaigns, and symbolic activities surrounding the paper cranes.

Susan Douglass

George Mason University

Viewing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum site takes time, as it is very dense in content and full of narratives, documents and images.

http://hikoma.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/

Nagasaki University Library

September 2009

The Japanese Old Photographs of the Bakumastu-Meiji Periods collection housed at the Nagasaki University Library offers a rich assembly of images of Japan, most of which were taken in the latter half of the 19th century. The collection currently holds approximately 6,000 photographs from that period, many of which are hand-tinted. The collection runs rich in its themes and subject matter with a broad assembly of images of landscapes, architecture, religious sites, city and work-site scenes, as well as individual and group portraits of people of all ages.

The site offers a variety of methods by which to search and explore its content. The two most profitable ways to do so are via the "Defining Your Search" tab or via the "Category or Keyword" tab. "Category or Keyword" offers 77 different keywords within broader categories (e.g. "Person," "Urban Facilities," "Manners and Customs"). The keyword of "child" is also offered here and leads to 126 photographs.

"Defining Your Search" can also be useful as it allows one to enter a word that might appear in a photograph's own description. While those texts are somewhat limited, generally running just a few lines to describe a scene and not necessarily accompanying each photo, searches using this method can prove profitable.

For example, while the keywords of "toy" and "game" are not offered on the provided "Category or Keyword" page, a search within the "Defining Your Search" mode produces 52 hits for "toy" and 24 for "game." The search engine thus has a fair amount of flexibility that, with some creativity in approach, can be quite usefully employed.

One may also view each of the 14 photographers’ collections individually. The contingent of photographers whose work resides in the collection includes a majority of Japanese photographers as well as others from England, the U.S., Austria, and the Netherlands. Finally, searches can also be conducted by location, with provided listings not only in Japan but also, to a limited degree, in China, Thailand, and Singapore.

The content of the images related to children is quite useful. While some photographs are more formal in their posed composition than others, a fair number offer a view towards household scenes and daily life. Suzuki Shin-ichi’s image of a "Girl Playing with a Baby" presents a domestic image of a baby being cared for by an older girl, surrounded by a number of toys which she appears to be employing in an effort to entertain the infant (who, it would also appear, may actually have been more interested in the photographer beyond the frame). While this would appear to be a posed studio image, others can be found of children in the fields, city streets, in country schools and the like.

This collection of images can be utilized in explorations of a diverse range of themes. Students might explore the presentations of domestic ideals related to the child in posed scenes such as "A Woman Putting her Child to Bed" and the "Girl Playing with Baby" noted above, as well as others like these that can be found in the collection.

Other lines of exploration might include the elements of material culture, particularly clothing and toys, that can be seen here (see, for example, "Country Children"), as well as the photographs of game-playing and work itself – indeed, sometimes the two seem to overlap (see "Children Playing in a Flume" for fishing as fun).

Limitations to the site do exist. The descriptions often lack dates, locations, and other identifying information. The images themselves are generally small in size and limited in their clarity for powerpoint (or other) reproduction. These limitations do not hamper constructive use of the collection, however, which can be usefully mined in a student’s own survey of the material and further compared with other collections on the topic.

Susan Fernsebner

University of Mary Washington

The "Japanese Old Photographs of the Bakumastu-Meiji Periods" collection housed at the Nagasaki University Library offers a rich assembly of images of Japan, most of which were taken in the latter half of the 19th century.

One, childhood is the function of personhood; the role of komori is important.
Two, play carefully; don’t choose dangerous play.
Three, you can play, but don’t forget your charge on your back.
Four, copy the good deeds; use the polite language.
Five, always be cheerful; if you smile, your charge will smile.
Six, don’t force your charge to wake up or to sleep.
Seven, whatever you do, do for your charge; don’t do anything your charge may not like.
Eight, a child will soon grow into an adult; treat your charge as if it were an adult.
Nine, the role of komori is important; komori replaces the mother to protect the child.
Ten, don’t give any poisonous food or a dangerous toy to your charge.

(Kozo 1985)

---

One, we are all bullied.
Two, we are all hated.
Three, we are all forced to talk.
Four, we are all scolded.
Five, we are all forced to carry babies who cry a lot.
Six, we are all fed with terrible food.
Seven, we are all forced to wash diapers in the cold water of the river.
Eight, we are all impregnated and shed our tears.
Nine, we are all persuaded to leave, and finally,
Ten, we all must leave.

---

I want to go home
I want to see my house.
I want to see my mother’s face.
Even if I cannot see her, I want to talk to somebody about my wretched life.

Color photograph of two young Japanese girls--perhaps 9 or 10 years old--carrying younger siblings strapped to their backs.

Know ye, Our Subjects:

Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as friends true; bear yourselves in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue learning and cultivate arts, and thereby develop intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance public good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial state; and tus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth. So shall ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers.

The way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors, to be observed alike by Their Descendants and the subjects, infallible for all ages and true in all places. It is Our wish to lay it to heart in all reverence, in common with you, Our subjects, that we may all attain to the same virtue.

October 30, 1890

Our children will surely become ill and die if we fail to give attention to their care during childhood. Moreover, if we do not educate them thoughtfully, they will invariably grow up so bigoted and stupid that they will be unable to compete even among barbarians. These are truisms most easy to understand. When it comes to caring for children, there is a natural instinct among parents, regardless of wealth and sophistication, to feel that they must earnestly protect their young. Is it not really strange and regrettable, however, that they are not a few who without reflection ignore the factor of education?

From infancy until they are six or seven, children's minds are clean and without the slightest blemish while their characters are as pure and unadulterated as a perfect pearl. Since what then touches their eyes and ears, whether good or bad, makes a deep impression that will not be wiped out until death, this age provides the best opportunity for disciplining their natures and training them in deportment. They will become learned and virtuous if the training methods are appropriate, stupid and bigoted if the methods are bad. Just as a young tree once bent at planting cannot be straightened when it grows up, what deeply penetrates children's minds during this sensitive and keen period cannot be changed after they grow up, even though one may desire to do so. How can we avoid giving attention to this age that is the dividing point at which it is determined whether an individual throughout his life will be wise or stupid, good or bad?

The countries of Europe and American have naturally left nothing undone in establishing schools everywhere and developing every method for the education of their children. With the advance of modern culture, however, the theory is increasingly widespread that education in the home clearly surpasses that in the schools. The theory runs as follows: A family resembles a country, and for parents to educate their children is their clear responsibility from the point of view of natural ethics (tendō jinri). Parents at home are able to guide children at any time during infancy when the young people are most receptive. Teaching what they desire to teach and transmitting what they desire to transmit, the father by his strictness and the mother by her tenderness carry on together without the injury of outsiders disturbing and tempting the children. Once the children leave home, it will be impossible for them to avoid disturbing and tempting evils even though their education is in a place of upright customs. Since the affection of even good teachers and good friends is vastly different from the guidance of parents as the best teachers for educating small children.

This principle applies, however, only to the comparatively wealthy middle and upper class families since there are few parents even in the enlightened countries, not to mention unenlightened countries, who train their children sufficiently at home. There are times when even such [advantaged] parents can only entrust the training of their children to others for the reason that they are prevented by their occupations from performing their family duties. Under present conditions in society, however, parents take for granted that their children should be entrusted to others, and they seem not to recognize that their children's education is their principle parental responsibility. The homes being without parental training, the children of the rich consequently become accustomed to arrogant and extravagant ways by associating only with ignorant and blind servants, while the children of the poor learn mean and dirty habits by mingling with ignorant and stupid children. How can these children avoid becoming ignorant and stupid and thus waste their days in profitless and harmful activities?

When the children grow up ignorant and delinquent because their parents were prevented by their occupations from training them, not a few parents freely admonish the children or even go so far as to reproach the children's friends and teachers without recognizing that they, the parents, themselves are the guilty. While they may be extremely mistaken, however, they should not be harshly blamed. Should you ask why, it is because they do not know how to educate their children since they, after all, did not themselves receive training from their parents.

What then should we do about the situation? Needless to say, event though we want to halt the illness, the cure cannot be accomplished in a day when the disease has penetrated to the marrow of the bone. Therefore, I do not now suddenly hold the parents wholly responsible for the education of their children. If parents just recognize the training of their children to be their responsibility and if they attentively exhaust their powers to this end, then I hope that their children will also understand their responsibility to educate the succeeding generation and that this may ultimately become a family tradition and regional custom. What I desire still more deeply is only that, by actively establishing girls' schools and devoting our energies to educating girls, we may train these girls to understand how important it is for them to educate the children to whom they give birth.

Napoleon I once observed to the famous woman teacher Campan, "Since all the old methods of education really seem to be worthy of respect, what do we lack for the good upbringing of the people?" When Campan replied "Mothers," the emperor exclaimed in surprise, "Ah, this is true! This single word suffices as the guiding principle of education." These are indeed meaningful words.

In a later number, I shall explain the necessity for girls' schools.

The essence of education, our traditional national aim, and a watchword for all men, is to make clear the ways of benevolence, justice, loyalty, and filial piety, and to master knowledge and skill and through these to pursue the Way of Man. In recent days, people have been going to extremes. They take unto themselves a foreign civilization whose only values are fact-gathering and technique, thus violating the rules of good manners and bringing harm to our customary ways. Although we set out to take in the best features of the West and bring in new things in order to achieve the high aims of the Meiji Restoration—abandonment of the undesirable practices of the past and learning from the outside world—this procedure had a serious defect: It reduced benevolence, justice, loyalty, and filial piety to a secondary position. The danger of indiscriminate emulation of Western ways is that in the end our people will forget the great principles governing the relations between ruler and subject, and father and son. Our aim, based on our ancestral teachings, is solely the clarification of benevolence, justice, loyalty, and filial piety.

For morality, the study of Confucius the best guide. People should cultivate sincerity and moral conduct, and after that they should turn to the cultivation of the various subjects of learning in accordance with their ability. In this way, morality and technical knowledge will fall into their proper places. When our education comes to be grounded on Justice and the Doctrine of the Mean, we shall be able to show ourselves proudly throughout the world as a nation of independent spirit.

TWO NOTES ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

1. All men are by nature benevolent, just, loyal, and filial. But unless these virtues are cultivated early, other matters will take precedence, making later attempts to teach them futile. Since the practice has developed recently of displaying pictures in classrooms, we must see to it that portraits of loyal subjects, righteous warriors, filial children, and virtuous women are utilized, so that when the pupils enter the school, they will immediately feel in their hearts the significance of loyalty and filial piety. Only if this is done first and then other subjects taught later will they develop in the spirit of loyalty and filial piety and not mistake the means for the end of other studies.

2. While making a tour of schools and closely observing the pupils studying last autumn, it was noted that farmers' and merchants' sons were advocating high-sounding ideas and empty theories, and that many of the commonly used foreign words could not be translated into our own language. Such people would not be able to carry on their own occupations even if they some day returned home, and with their high-sounding ideas, they would make useless civil servants. Moreover, many of them brag about their knowledge, slight their elders, and disturb Prefectural officers. All these evil effects come from an education that is off its proper course. It is hoped, therefore, that the educational system will be less high-flown and more practical. Agricultural and commercial subjects should be studied by the children of farmers and merchants so that they return to their own occupations when they have finished school and prosper even more in their proper work.

<h3>Primary School Enrollment Rates (percent of children of primary school age who were enrolled in school)</h3> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <thead> <tr> <th>Date</th> <th>Primary Schools</th> <th>Boys</th> <th>Girls</th> <th>Total</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>1873</td> <td>12,597</td> <td>39.9</td> <td>15.1</td> <td>28.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1874</td> <td>20,017</td> <td>46.2</td> <td>17.2</td> <td>32.3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1875</td> <td>24,303</td> <td>50.8</td> <td>18.7</td> <td>35.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1880</td> <td>28,410</td> <td>58.72</td> <td>21.91</td> <td>41.06</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1885</td> <td>28,283</td> <td>65.80</td> <td>32.07</td> <td>49.62</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1890</td> <td>26,017</td> <td>65.14</td> <td>31.13</td> <td>48.93</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1895</td> <td>26,631</td> <td>76.65</td> <td>43.87</td> <td>61.24</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1900</td> <td>26,857</td> <td>90.35</td> <td>71.73</td> <td>81.48</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1905</td> <td>27,407</td> <td>97.72</td> <td>93.34</td> <td>95.62</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <br /> <h3>Enrollment and Attendance in Yoshida Elementary School, 1883</h3> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <thead> <tr> <th>Month</th> <th># children enrolled</th> <th># children attending</th> <th>Avg daily attendance</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>January</td> <td>100</td> <td>90</td> <td>80</td> </tr> <tr> <td>February</td> <td>100</td> <td>90</td> <td>50</td> </tr> <tr> <td>March</td> <td>132</td> <td>120</td> <td>111</td> </tr> <tr> <td>April</td> <td>119</td> <td>109</td> <td>100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>May</td> <td>119</td> <td>106</td> <td>93</td> </tr> <tr> <td>June</td> <td>119</td> <td>80</td> <td>68</td> </tr> <tr> <td>July</td> <td>119</td> <td>77</td> <td>54</td> </tr> <tr> <td>August</td> <td>119</td> <td>94</td> <td>75</td> </tr> <tr> <td>September</td> <td>118</td> <td>89</td> <td>83</td> </tr> <tr> <td>October</td> <td>118</td> <td>92</td> <td>81</td> </tr> <tr> <td>November</td> <td>118</td> <td>76</td> <td>66</td> </tr> <tr> <td>December</td> <td>118</td> <td>87</td> <td>82</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Three images. Image 1: 18th century woodblock print, vibrant color, depicts school setting with students on the floor. Some are working/reading alone, others seem to be working together. Teacher is in the back. Image 2: line art illustration of a Meiji-era elementary school classroom from a teacher training manual. Depicts students at desks in rows facing forward. Teacher is at front of class writing on chalkboard. Image 3: color photograph of a classroom with wooden desks in neat rows with a chalk board and teacher's lectern in the front and individual chalk writing boards on each desk.