Accessing Technical Education in Modern Japan 9781912961269

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ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Volume I

Accessing Technical Education in Modern Japan –

VOLUME I

Edited by

Erich Pauer CEEJA

& Regine Mathias CEEJA

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

First published 2022 by RENAISSANCE BOOKS P O Box 219 Folkestone Kent CT20 2WP ISBN 978-1912961-25-2 [Hardback 2-volume set] ISBN 978-1912961-26-9 [eBook] © 2022 Centre Européen d’Études Japonaise d’Alsace [CEEJA] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Publishers have made every effort to contact the authors/copyright-holders of certain illustrations reprinted in Accesing Technical Knowledge in Modern Japan. This has not been possible in every case and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals and organizations with whom we have been unable to make contact or to trace.

Cover illustration: Cover of a handwritten notebook from Ohara Junnosuke on Applied Mechanics and sample pages with technical drawings from these notes and from an internship report at Miike colliery (from the 1880s).

Set in Bembo 11 on 11.5pt by Dataworks Printed and bound in England by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd., Chippenham, Wilts

Contents – VOLUME I

Acknowledgements Editors’ Notes on Translation

vii ix

Introduction: Books, Craftsmen, and Engineers: The Emergence of a Formalized Technical Education in a Modern Science-based Education System

xi

Erich PAUER

1. The Translation of Technical Manuals from Western Languages in Nineteenth-century Japan: A Visual Tour

1

Ruselle MEADE

2. The Translation of Western Books on Natural Science and Technology in China and Japan: Early Conceptions of Electricity

19

Christine MOLL-MURATA

3. Creating Intellectual Space for West-East and East-East Knowledge Transfer: Global Mining Literacy and the Evolution of Textbooks on Mining in Late Qing China, 1860–1911

37

CHEN Hailian

4. François Léonce Verny and the Beginning of the ‘Modern’ Technical Education in Japan

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NISHIYAMA Takahiro

5. The Role of the Ministry of Public Works in Designing Engineering Education in Meiji Japan: Reconsidering the Foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) WADA Masanori

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6. From Student-of Confucianism to Hands-on Engineer: The Case of Ohara Junnosuke, Mining Engineer 114 Erich PAUER

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7. The Fall of the Imperial College of Engineering: From the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) to the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial University, 1886

161

WADA Masanori

VOLUME II 8. Kikuchi Kyo-zo- and the Implementation of Cottonspinning Technology: The Career of a Graduate of the Imperial College of Engineering

189

Janet HUNTER

9. The Training School for Railway Engineers: An Early Example of an Intra-firm Vocational School in Japan

217

NAKAMURA Naofumi

10. The Training and Education of Female Silk-reeling Instructors in Meiji Japan

252

SASHINAMI Akiko

11. The Establishment and Curriculum of the To-kyoShokko--gakko- (To-kyo- Vocational School) in Meiji Japan

279

TODA Kiyoko

12. The Development of Mining Schools in Japan

303

Regine MATHIAS

13. Science Education in Japanese Schools in the Late 1880s as Reflected in Students’ Notes

347

OKIHARU Fumiko

14. Education in Mechanical Engineering in Early Universities and the Role of Their Graduates in Japan’s Industrial Revolution: The University of To-kyo-, the Imperial College of Engineering and the Imperial University 390 SUZUKI Jun

List of Contributors

439

Index

445

Acknowledgements –

A FTER OUR CONFERENCE in September 1918 titled ‘The generation and dissemination of technical knowledge in Japan from the Edo to the Meiji period’ a follow-up conference entitled ‘Knowledge on the Move’ was held in September 2019 at CEEJA (Centre Européen d’Études Japonaises d’Alsace), Kientzheim, France. Together with some additional contributions the lectures given at this second conference are gathered in this volume and have been amended for publication. An ‘Introduction’ to these lectures entitled ‘Books, Craftsmen, and Engineers’ has also been added to benefit readers unfamiliar with the history of Japan, especially concerning economic history and the history of technology in that country in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The conference was made possible by the support of several institutions in Japan and France. The editors would especially like to thank the Toshiba International Foundation, which generously supplied the funds to invite speakers from Japan and Europe, and also supported the publication of the conference proceedings presented in this volume. Our thanks also go to the Departement Haut-Rhin and to CEEJA, which provided the conference venue and helped in various ways to make the conference a success. Paul Norbury, publisher of Renaissance Books, kindly agreed not only to include this publication as a second volume to a series on the history of technology in Japan, he has also kindly agreed to include a large number of illustrations to facilitate the understanding of the sometimes very technical explanations. He also advised on the publication process and helped overcome obstacles in preparing this book for publication. The editors would also like to thank Paul Mundy who undertook the arduous task of editing all the manuscripts and preparing them for publication. Erich Pauer & Regine Mathias

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Editors’ Notes on Translation –

THE EDITORS HAVE decided to use the names of historical institutions and organizations etc. according to their original historical designation. Therefore, the Ko-busho- is titled the Ministry of Public Works as was its English name at the time of its existence, and not the Ministry of Industry or Ministry of Technology, as is often the case nowadays. The very early, short-lived designation of the first ministries as ‘Departments’ (Department of Public Affairs, Department of Education etc.) was not adopted. Also, the Imperial College of Engineering is written according to the original Romaji spelling of its name – Ko-bu-dai-gakko-, and not Ko-bu Daigakko- as it became known afterwards. One reason for that is that, due to new designations, it is often no longer possible to identify the former institutions by name! For readers with little or no familiarity with the Japanese language, Japanese works as well as institutions like schools, departments and companies etc. that play an especially important role in some of the chapters, will normally be referred to by an English translation of their titles. It should be briefly pointed out that many institutions changed their names and designations several times during the Meiji period. One example is the To-kyo- Daigaku (University of To-kyo-), which was founded in 1877 as To-kyo- Daigaku, then in 1886, in the course of the incorporation of several other institutions, it was renamed Imperial University and changed its name shortly afterwards to the Imperial University of To-kyo-. The translation of the names of individual types of schools proved to be difficult, because there are different versions, like e.g. Ko-gyo--gakko-, translated as vocational school, industrial school, technical school, or Senmon-gakko-, translated as higher specialised school, professional college etc. The various translations are not always clearly distinguished and sometimes used synonymously in the literature, but also in official Japanese documents in English. We have tried as far as possible to use the English designations used by the institutions themselves.

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The reader should also know that in the early Meiji years the term ‘Tokei’ instead of To-kyo- is often used in the documents and notes, mainly during the 1870s. Long vowels in Japanese words are indicated with a macron over the ‘o’ or ‘u’ as in o- or u-, but in case of terms written in katakana, mostly of foreign origin, long vowels, indicated in Japanese texts with a long hyphen ‘–’ will be indicated using double vowels like ii, aa or ee. Meiji-temporal dates are given as year.month.day (Meiji 12.8.2 = Meiji 12, 8th month, 2nd day), but after the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar it becomes 2 December 1879.

Introduction Books, Craftsmen and Engineers: The Emergence of a Formalized Technical Education in a Modern Science-based Education System Erich PAUER & Regine MATHIAS –

1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS

TECHNICAL EDUCATION, TECHNICAL teaching, no matter what this process is called, it is all about the transmission or transfer of knowledge, specifically technical knowledge, from the teacher to the pupil, from an expert to the learner. The multitude of possibilities of such a transfer, which immediately becomes clear to anyone who even takes a glimpse at this topic, also means the danger of simply stringing together different micro-examples in order to arrive at an overall picture. In this volume, too, even though these difficulties are clear, different examples concerning technical learning are strung together. However, the purpose is not just to add one example to the other. The aim is to make visible how, in a country that previously had no concept of ‘technology’ as an object of knowledge transfer but conveyed it only by means of physically tangible objects and their use, technical knowledge of various kinds from abroad was absorbed and diffused. The examples in this volume show how such processes were supported or hindered by various conditions, but ultimately succeeded in a relatively short period. Generally, the transfer of foreign technical knowledge differs greatly from the transfer of technology within a country where people share the same language, the same (professional) conditions,

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the same possibilities for the production and reproduction of knowledge. Difficulties begin with the question of translating technical terms that describe objects and processes that exist in one country but not in the other. Translating terms, or often creating new ones, opens up a process of unimagined problems.This in itself raises questions about the mechanisms by which this can be done and, not least, it is the agents (scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, etc.) involved in this process who need to be identified in order to make the context of such a transfer clear. The forms of transfer, such as lectures, practical training, internships and, of course, printed material must also be taken into account. Moreover, it is necessary to reconstruct the conditions under which new forms and new kinds of educational institutions evolved under differing circumstances. The hardly manageable amount of knowledge, especially technical knowledge from abroad, flooding Japan in the nineteenth century, led to the emergence of new institutions and ultimately to a new formalized system of technical education. In this process, new disciplines required new forms of teaching. In some cases, the new knowledge was connected to previous areas of knowledge; in other cases, it replaced them. 2. BOOK LEARNING IN THE EDO PERIOD

With the spread of both letterpress and block printing – of which the latter prevailed – an independent book culture emerged in Japan in the course of the seventeenth century, which now, in contrast to earlier epochs, quickly penetrated wider circles of the population. This meant that written knowledge was no longer limited to the elite in the Edo period. In addition to books devoted to questions related to good governance and the economic administration of the country, which were based mostly on Confucian concepts, the range of issues dealt with increased. Topics soon also covered areas such as agriculture, mathematics, geometry, surveying, and – at least in rudimentary form – questions that could be described as ‘technical’ in the broadest sense of the word. However, such ‘technical’ works, often with detailed illustrations, remained limited to a few areas, such as carpentry, clock-making and agriculture. Technical knowledge in many trades was often still declared as ‘family knowledge’ and was usually passed on only within the family trade (which also included workers employed in the house).1 1

For examples of technical drawings in the Edo period see Erich Pauer, ‘Vehicles of Knowledge: Japanese Technical Drawings in the Pre-modern Era, 1600–1868’,

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Books on individual fields of knowledge, such as on plants, animals, mountains and other areas, but also encyclopaedic knowledge, which spread rapidly in the form of sometimes thick, heavy and even fully illustrated ‘reference works’ (setsuyo-shu-), became the basis of common knowledge in the eighteenth century. The partial lifting of the ban on importing books from Europe by the Sho-gun Tokugawa Yoshimune in 1720 once again enabled the dissemination of foreign books, and thus also Western knowledge, in the form of quickly made translations. If it was initially Western medical knowledge that was in demand in Japan, soon the demand expanded to other fields, such as astronomy and philosophy and certain other areas of knowledge. In this way, a new ‘book culture’ emerged that encompassed many areas and was consumed by larger segments of the population. This promoted, among other things, the dissemination of ‘book knowledge’. ‘Knowledge’ would thus no longer be passed on, disseminated and absorbed exclusively through personal instruction of wise men, masters or teachers in different crafts or institutions and in different forms, but simply in written form, by a book. This also meant, in short, that individuals could now acquire knowledge – including technical knowledge – independently from books, and the knowledge that they had acquired in this way could also – if necessary or desired – be put into practice. The effects quickly became visible. 3. THE CLASH WITH THE WEST

The advance of the Western powers in East Asia caused considerable concern in the countries in the region, including Japan, as early as the mid-nineteenth century. It was soon recognized there that it was technical issues that determined the military (and ultimately also political) success of the Western powers on land as well as at sea. At the same time, it had become clear that this threat could not be warded off by existing means, and that only equivalent (technical) means would make this possible. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Tokugawa government (bakufu) had quite regularly placed orders with the Dutch. Besides various other goods, such orders also included publications, mainly on the (natural) sciences (chemistry, botany, geography, mathematics, physics, etc.), as well as literature on architecture, medicine, etc., tools and equipment (microscopes, in Erich Pauer & Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkestone: Renaissance Books, 2020, pp. 28–54.

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telescopes, laboratory equipment, medical equipment, carpentry tools, etc.), and last but not least weapons such as rifles, pistols, bayonets, powder, and – probably often more important than the actual device or equipment itself – the corresponding manuals, handbooks and books on basic scientific and technical knowledge.2 The latter were studied in an attempt to put the items and devices described in the books into practice in Japan. This succeeded in many ways. This is illustrated by some examples of people who had gained the possibility to study such foreign books and the results of their studies. One excellent and early example is Sakuma Sho-zan (1811– 1864), who first studied Chinese learning, then proceeded to Dutch learning (rangaku). By obtaining a translation of a Dutch encyclopaedia he started to make glass, thermometers, etc. Furthermore, proceeding to Western sciences, and after studying electricity, he succeeded in developing a battery and building a telegraph and other devices – just by extracting the knowledge he found in the foreign books. The import of the Dutch description of the gun foundry in Liège, entitled Het Gietwezen In ‘sRijks Ijzer-Geschutgieterij Te Luik (On the casting in the gun foundry in Liège) had an even greater impact. The book, first published in Holland in 1826, comprising 262 pages with some technical drawings, arrived in Japan in the mid-1830s and was – only a couple of years later – translated and intensively studied at several domains in Japan. This resulted in the construction of the first gun foundries with reverberatory furnaces in different domains in the 1850s and 1860s, erected by several Japanese experts on Dutch learning (rangakusha), who had studied the Dutch manuals without any support from foreign engineers or technicians.3 Also, quite amazing is a story reported by the geologist Raphael Pumpelly. On his trip to Japan at the invitation of the Tokugawa Government in 1862 to survey the northern island of Hokkaido-, he was confronted by one of his assistants, Takeda Ayasaburo-, with a question concerning a problem with a blast furnace. Takeda had 2

3

See the list e.g. in ‘Notes on the Japanese Mission’ (Compiled by the Government Record Office, Batavia), in Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 5, 1942, To-kyo-, pp. 254– 264, esp. 261–264. For the history of the various attempts to erect gun foundries and furnaces in various domains in Japan before 1868 see Erich Pauer, Japans industrielle Lehrzeit (Japan’s industrial apprenticeship), 2 vols., Bonner Zeitschrift für Japanologie vol. 4/1 and 4/2, Bonn 1983; see also Ohashi Shu-ji, Bakumatsu seitetsu-shi (History of iron production in late Edo period), To-kyo-: Agune, 1975.

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built a blast furnace,4 about 30 feet high, deriving the idea only from a small illustration in a (basic) chemistry manual entitled Schule der Chemie oder erster Unterricht in der Chemie, veranschaulicht durch einfache Versuche Zum Schulgebrauch und zur Selbstbelehrung, insbesondere für angehende Apotheker, Landwirte, Gewerbetreibende etc. (School of chemistry or first instruction in chemistry, illustrated by simple experiments for school use and for self-instruction, especially for prospective pharmacists, farmers, tradesmen, etc.) by Julius Adolph Stöckhardt (1809–1886, a German agricultural chemist) translated into Dutch. The title of the book specifically emphasises ‘self-instruction’, i.e., ‘book-learning’, which may have encouraged the reader to try out the various options. This book contains virtually no details on constructing or operating such a furnace that Takeda had in mind. For this reason, unfortunately the result was not as expected. Takeda asked Pumpelly for help. The latter was immediately able to explain the reasons for the failure: instead of iron ore as in the West, Takeda had tried to smelt the sand iron commonly used in Japan, which of course would fail.5 However, what is interesting about this story is that Takeda tried to build a technical structure with the help of a rather simple explanation in a book written in a foreign language – and his attempt failed only due to the wrong raw materials. In contrast, Tanaka Hisashige (1799–1881), a scholar of Dutch learning, craftsman, ‘engineer’ and inventor, was successful. He had already achieved fame in the manufacture of clocks, then studied physics and chemistry for several more years. In this way Tanaka gathered comprehensive knowledge of traditional crafts and of Western science and technology. He did not acquire this knowledge in a formalized way. Nevertheless, he gained the knowledge and capabilities equivalent to an engineer of the time. Then, in 1854 he was invited to Saga, where he was to work on new technical developments. The focus was on steam power for ships and locomotives. There he successfully built a small working steam locomotive without ever having seen an original vehicle.6 4

5

6

For details see Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Ei-sho ni mirareta Takeda Ayazaburo-’, in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 11, 1979, pp. 165–175, esp. p. 172. Raphael Pumpelly, Travels and Adventures of Raphael Pumpelly, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920, p. 205. See Erich Pauer, ‘Der industrielle Aufstieg Japans und die Rolle des Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) für die Humankapitalbildung im technischen Bereich’ (The industrial rise of Japan and the role of the Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) in human capital formation in the technical field),

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These are just a few outstanding examples of experts (‘engineers’) at the dawn of Japan’s industrialization who, on their own initiative, acquired technical knowledge from foreign textbooks (some of them translated) and endeavoured to put this knowledge into practice. Many of those pushing such developments with the help of foreign literature were more or less acting as individuals. But on the side of the Tokugawa government, the shogunate, and even more so in the ranks of the feudal domains, research into Western technical literature was increasingly conducted in specialized research institutions with several experts, translators, etc. This was the case at the institution in Saga, where Tanaka Hisashige was working, but the Satsuma domain was also interested not only in research in Western technical literature (e.g., on the steam engine), but also in the practical implementation of the results of this research.They were quite successful, too. Other domains followed, even the shogunate and its retainers. These first steps to introduce foreign modern technical knowledge to Japan seemed successful, but they were individual exceptions, and this approach could hardly be implemented on a larger scale. The educational framework of the Edo period could not meet the requirements for a more systematic acquisition of Western technical knowledge. Indigenous technical knowledge, which existed, but was, as already mentioned, mostly kept secret and only passed on within the ‘family’, i.e. within the framework of a personalized apprenticeship system on an oral basis. Textbooks in the Western sense, for popular use, did not yet exist. Manuals with instructions on how to build a certain device or piece of equipment such as karakuri puppets or clocks as described in the Karakuri zui (Illustrated machinery) in three volumes from 1796, are very rare exceptions.7 4. PERSONAL CONTACTS WITH THE WEST

After the opening of the country in 1854 and the arrival of foreigners in larger numbers, it became possible to gain direct access to technical knowledge through personal contacts with foreigners. One important place to look for information and instruction on Western technology was Nagasaki, the only port through which

7

in Ferrum – Nachrichten aus der Eisenbibliothek (Wissens und Technologietransfer Asien-Europa), no. 82, 2010, pp. 25–40. See Pauer & Meade (eds), ‘Technical Knowledge’, pp. 28–54.

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foreign (Dutch) knowledge could be brought to Japan. There, Dutch experts – often military advisers, mostly navy engineers who were in Japan while their ships were in port – were able to give explanations to interested Japanese ‘experts’ (rangakusha) and craftsmen, especially on steamships and other technical matters. However, it was only after the establishment of the Nagasaki Naval Training Centre in 1855 followed by the opening of a medical school and a hospital in 1857 that one can speak of a little more formalized – and incidentally also successful – school-based instruction. Other attempts to incorporate Western technical knowledge in Japan were made by the Tokugawa shogunate and individual domains by briefly employing foreign experts as teachers. However, this proved difficult (though not impossible), and had no longlasting effects.Yet another way was to go abroad. The experiences of Japanese who had travelled abroad – in some cases without official permission – to acquire the relevant technical knowledge led to further planning of appropriate educational institutions. At the same time, journeys by Japanese official delegations to various countries were planned and carried out. For example, when the ratification document for the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the USA and Japan was personally delivered by a Japanese delegation in Washington in 1860, one reason for this journey was to visit the shipyard there. In the background was the intention in the near future to build a shipyard in Japan itself with the help of engineers from France. The Japanese delegation was taken to all the different departments of the shipyard, thereby gaining an impression of the size of the gap in technical knowledge and skills between Japan and the USA. The report of this visit states: What a marvellous and interesting place it is! From the casting of the steel, to the final details of the most elaborate weapons, everything struck us with wonder and admiration. We saw a howitzer being cast, and an enormous steam hammer worked by steam as easily as one handles a stick. A cutting machine cut a piece of thick iron plate as easily as a pair of scissors cuts a piece of paper. A huge anchor was cut from a large block of steel and finished while we watched. The rapidity with which shells for guns were manufactured, the amount of steam utilised as driving power all over the works, the ingenuity of the various machines – all this is beyond the power of my pen to describe. Great was our wonder as we

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went from one machine to another, watching the work done from start to finish. […].8

If this was an official report, Oguri Tadanobu (Kozukenosuke) (1827–1868), the ‘observer’, one of the three heads of the delegation, was even more impressed by a small gift he received when the group visited the part of the shipyard where the wooden ships were built. There he was presented with a woodscrew, barely 6 cm in size. Woodscrews, however, were completely unknown in Japan where connections were usually made with nails. So, when Oguri returned to Japan, he eagerly propagated this piece.9 For him, the screw represented in a nutshell, as it were, the concentrated technical knowledge of a foreign, unknown but superior culture. The intended purchase of a steam-powered warship in Holland in 1862 also included a plan to send a group of young men to Holland to study shipbuilding. These budding technicians were to accompany the construction of the ship, in the sense of ‘learning by doing’ or ‘training on the job’ and thus directly acquire technical knowledge for Japan.10 A total of 16 people who were to receive appropriate instruction in Holland belonged to this group. Besides five members of the navy (for general naval affairs, machine training, artillery, shipbuilding and navigation), the group comprised two boatswains, a foundryman, a watchmaker, a ship’s carpenter, a blacksmith, a temple carpenter, two experts from the Institute for the Study of Western Books, and two physicians.11 8

9

10

11

The America-Japan Society (ed.), The First Japanese Embassy to the United States of America, To-kyo- 1920, pp. 48–49 (Reprint, undated). For details and the background of this story see the series by Murakami Taiken, ‘Waga kuni sangyo- kakumei no hajimari’ (The beginning of our nation’s industrial revolution) on the Homepage of the Tozenji-Temple in Takasaki, Gunma prefecture; see [email protected] or http://tozenzi.cside.com/ (January 2016). The temple also still has a copy of this screw. Unfortunately, the screw that Oguri brought with him could not be used as such in Japan because it was an ordinary screw and had a slot in the head and screwdrivers were not known in Japan. ‘Notes on the Japanese Mission’ (Compiled by the Government Record Office, Batavia), in Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 5, 1942, pp. 254–264, esp. 254; see also Mark D. Ericson, ‘The Bakufu looks abroad. The 1865 Mission to France’, in Monumenta Nipponica vol. XXXIV, no. 4, Winter 1979, pp. 383–407. Yoshioka Manabu et al., ‘Enomoto Buyo- no Nihon chishitsu-gaku-shi-jo- ni shimeru ichii: Sono hitori kagaku-sha toshite no shuppatsu’ (The position of Enomoto Buyo- in the stream of the geological history of Japan: his start as a scientist), in To-kyo- Gakugei Daigaku kiyo-, Dai 4 bumon, su-gaku, shizenkagaku, no. 53, 2001, pp. 75–134, esp. p. 88.

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All of them were middle-aged, and thus already had appropriate or even extensive knowledge in their fields. A stay of about one year was planned. Unfortunately, the Calypso, which was to take them from Nagasaki via Batavia to Holland for study, was shipwrecked shortly before its arrival in Batavia. Although the 16 people heading for the Netherlands survived the storm, they had to stay in Batavia for a longer period of time before they could continue their journey to Holland.12 While this group was seeking information on shipbuilding in Holland, the shogunate had already begun planning the construction of its own shipyard in Yokosuka with French help. The French expert responsible for this, François Léonce Verny, had in parallel with the construction of the shipyard, also pushed ahead with the establishment of a (technical) school there, where certain specialists were to be trained with the help of French teachers.13 Even though not all of such plans were really successful, these years must be seen as a first and important step to get hold of at least some parts of Western technology. 5. STARTING A NEW SYSTEM: THE TRANSITIONAL PHASE

The Meiji Restoration with the so-called Charter Oath of 1868, which emphasized in point 5 that ‘Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule’, as well as the slogan of Fukoku kyo-hei (Rich country, strong army), pointed the way. Despite some resistance at a high political level, where Japan was envisioned as an agrarian state in the future and thus technical education was not considered expedient for the wider community, plans were quickly developed to build up Japan’s own industry. It soon became clear that this would require either foreign hands – which was not considered desirable – or the country’s own workers to manage these new technologies and industries.The shortage of such personnel could be remedied only by developing and implementing a new educational system including a technical school system of its own. This new education system was to depart from the previous forms of apprenticeship and overcome fraditional ways of thinking in order to establish a formalized school system 12

13

Concerning the travel, the shipwreck and the stay in Batavia see ‘Notes on the Japanese Mission’. For details see the Chapter 4 by Nishiyama Takahiro in this volume.

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according to Western models. This was also true for the elite, the samurai, whose education was essentially based on classical (Neo)Confucian concepts, which rendered scientific knowledge and especially technical knowledge alien to most members of the elite. The intended ‘industrialization’ (whatever one imagined it to be) required the ‘technical bureaucrat’, and even more, the technically and scientifically educated ‘technician’ and ‘engineer’.That meant enforcing a departure from the traditional system and the transition to a modern, Western-oriented technical education in various fields, adequate for the new industry. In this transitional phase, which can be placed in the decades between the Meiji Restoration and 1900, various paths, shaped by individual conditions and motives, led to the acquisition of technical knowledge. Some of these attempts were successful; others unsuccessful. Technical education was not (yet) systematized, but fragmented, acquired in many places and in many ways. Since, as we have seen, shipbuilding was a priority for the shogunate, it is not surprising that it decided early on to build its own shipyard and ships in order to stand up to the foreigners. Here France offered itself as a partner, and it was decided to build a shipyard in Yokosuka with the help of French technology and experts. A special feature of this cooperation was the fact that in addition to employing French engineers and technicians, a school was to be established where technical instruction and lessons in the French language were given to Japanese. Although the teaching was broadly based, it was nevertheless focused on shipbuilding and its requirements. However, there were already two distinct courses: one that imparted higher technical knowledge and one that was more focused on practical and craft requirements. Theoretical and practical instruction were provided in parallel. Although the training was affected in the course of the years before and after the Meiji Restoration, this school consolidated itself as a training centre in the years to come. The orientation towards military requirements in technical education in the early industrialization phase also shaped another training school that was founded out of similar considerations.This was the Numazu Hei-gakko- (Numazu Military Academy). This was a first attempt to modernize military power in the penultimate year of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Although this academy, which continued briefly after the Meiji Restoration, ultimately failed, the curriculum envisaged there was already close to a comprehensive education on a scientific and technical basis. It comprised physics, chemistry, mathematics, especially geometry and trigonometry,

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supplemented by other subjects, including world history and economics. However, these subjects were emphatically oriented towards military use. The academy was also affiliated with a primary school that served as a model for other school foundations in Japan in the early Meiji period.14 After the Meiji restoration, the new government’s efforts to push ahead with a programme of rapid industrialization, seen as the only possible way forward, led to the establishment of a Ministry of Public Works15 serving as a ‘tool’ for further development. Established in 1870, the Ministry was divided into 10 departments (partly transferred from other ministries) tasked with identifying and directing appropriate fields of industrialization in order to promote rapid industrialization. However, the question quickly arose as to who should head such new industrial facilities, and where these technical specialists should be trained. Suitable persons were rare, so the idea of an institution for training such specialists soon became acute. The question of who should be responsible for such technical training was the subject of a competitive dispute between the Ministry of Education (Monbusho-) and the Ministry of Public Works (Ko-busho-) in the following decade. 6. CHALLENGING THE WEST: JAPAN AS AN ‘EDUCATED NATION’

An interesting example of the different views regarding technical education is to be found in a comprehensive information brochure prepared in the early 1870s and published by the Ministry of Education for the 1876 World’s Fair in Philadelphia16 on the ‘educated nation’ of Japan. At least since the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873, Japan had recognized the importance of these events as a forum for pre14

15

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Yoneyama Umekichi, Bakumatsu seiyo- bunka to Numazu Hei-gakko- (Western culture and the Numazu Military Academy in the Bakumatsu period), To-kyo-: Sanseido-, 1935. ‘Ministry of Public Works’ was the term originally used at the time of its establishment, because the government stressed at first the erection of governmentrun industries, namely ‘Public Works’. This is the reason why in this volume the term ‘Ministry of Public Works’ is used. The literal translation for the term ‘Ko-busho-’ would be ‘Ministry of Industry’. In commemoration of the independence of the USA one hundred years earlier, this World Fair was then called in the various publications “Centennial Exhibition” or also “Centennial International Exhibition”.

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senting itself as a civilized country in order to simultaneously counteract the widespread image of inferiority in Western countries. Although this brochure, An Outline History of Japanese Education prepared for the Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876, by the Japanese Department of Education, contains some details about the future education system, the majority of it was devoted to the history of education in early Japan, the shogunate and the period since the revolution (i.e., the Meiji Restoration), followed by chapters on Japanese language and learning and traditional Japanese arts and sciences, etc., embellished with their many facets.17 This was clearly an attempt by the Japanese government to position itself on a par with Western nations by highlighting its centuries-old educational institutions and its significant printed output in literature and art. While the actual policy at that time had a focus on modernization and industrialization, the 1876 brochure deals only cursorily with technical education. In a chapter entitled ‘Professional and Technical Institutions’ there is, besides brief references to a certain ‘Military College’ and a ‘Naval College’, a small six-line paragraph devoted to an ‘Engineering College’ operated by the Department (Ministry) of Public Works to supply the country with competent engineers.18 This astonishingly short paragraph ignores the planning and partial realization of technical educational institutions that were already under way around this time under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Works (Ko-busho-). 7. GOVERNMENT POLICY: THE FOUNDING OF THE IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND OTHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Yamao Yo-zo-, one of the famous Cho-shu- Five19 who went to England from Japan without permission in 1862, had already 17

18 19

An Outline History of Japanese Education prepared for the Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876, by the Japanese Department of Education. The publication was prepared with the help of David Murray, Prof. of mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy at Rutgers College (University) in New Jersey, then an ‘Adviser to the Japanese Imperial Ministry of Education’ and ‘Superintendent of Educational Affairs’. See the biography Dr. David Murray: Superintendent of Education in The Empire of Japan, 1873–1879, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2019. An Outline History of Japanese Education, p. 32. ‘Cho-shu- Five’, a popular term for five young men from Cho-shu- domain (presentday Yamaguchi prefecture), who clandestinely with the help of British merchants

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brought back plans for such technical education institutions. He himself had studied at the University College in London, and then worked at a shipyard nearby. Based on such an experience, he took over the task as head of the Ministry of Public Works to implement a modern technical infrastructure, including a new system of technical education and to push rapid industrialization in the 1870s. Connected to such plans, a Scottish engineer, Henry Dyer, had been employed in 1872, along with other well-trained foreign engineers, by the Ministry of Public Works to support and lead the implementation of modern engineering education. A first step was the establishment of schools attached to two of the departments within the Ministry of Public Works: The Department of Surveying (Sokuryo--shi) and the Engineering Institution (Ko-gaku-ryo-). In the case of the latter, the Engineering Institution, a corresponding school named Ko--gakko- (Engineering School) began its activities already in August 1872. This can be seen as a precursor to the institution that was later renamed Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Imperial College of Engineering, ICE) in 1877. It was the first technical school in Japan to offer higher technical training in line with Western standards. Given that in 1876 ICE and other schools with technical education branches were already in operation, it is astonishing that the Ministry of Education’s Outline brochure devoted only a few lines to them, treating them as rather subordinate and of minor importance. On the other hand, the University of To-kyo- is described in detail on two pages along with its individual subjects and colleges – although in 1876 it had not yet been officially founded (as Kaisei Gakko- it was still in the preparation phase). For example, the Outline describes a College of Chemical Technology as well as a College of Engineering, which were not yet realized at that time.20 This difference in assessment is probably due to the Ministry of Education’s aim of presenting Japan to foreign countries as an ‘educated nation’ whose flagship institutions must include a ‘university’, but not special technical institutions. This could perhaps reflect the idea, also widespread in Western countries, that

20

went to study in Britain and became some years later a driving force for education and industrialization in the Meiji period. An Outline History of Japanese Education, pp. 29–31. An interesting point is that at these two colleges, as well as others, students should be taught in French, an idea which was obviously soon abandoned.

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technical education does not belong in a university, if only because of its practical orientation. Such a practical orientation was, in fact, a key feature of the curriculum at ICE, which combined theoretical education and practical training, including long internships in mines and other companies. The emphasis on practical training was supported by both the Ministry of Public Works, which strove to advance industrial development, and the foreign teachers from the United Kingdom, reflecting the generally positive attitude towards practical training in British technical education. Different assessments of the weight practical training should have within the engineering curriculum was a hotly debated topic at the beginning of the Meiji period. It also led to a persistent controversy in Japan between the Ministry of Education, which favoured theoretical instruction, and the Ministry of Public Works, which had been a strong proponent of vocational and practical education since the beginning of this form of technical teaching. Different ways of thinking clashed, also among the experts brought in from abroad, because a similar discussion was also smouldering in Europe. The English way of thinking, which emphasized practice, clashed with the French, where more theoretically-oriented training predominated. In special industrial sectors such as mining, one encountered yet another way of thinking, the German. After just over 10 years, the competition between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Works ended. The Ministry of Public Works was dissolved in 1885, and technical education was integrated into the general education system under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. In 1886, the Imperial College of Engineering was attached to the University of To-kyo- as its Faculty of Engineering, and all higher engineering education was transferred to the universities. Among other things, in the course of a few years this led to a loss of the emphasis on practical relevance within technical education as had been typical in the former ICE.21 Even though some of the teachers were transferred to the University of To-kyo- and it was declared that the former teaching system at ICE would 21

The lack of practicality in engineering schools established or supervised by the Ministry of Education is mentioned e.g. in the report by the Japanese National Commission for Unesco (ed.), The Role of Education in the Social and Economic Development of Japan, To-kyo-: Ministry of Education, 1966, p. 131.

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be maintained, the facts contradict these words. This becomes clear if one compares reports on internships at ICE with those conducted later at the University of To-kyo-. Both the duration of the internships and the reports on them became considerably shorter over the years.22 With the annexation of ICE to the University of To-kyo-, practically all the relevant documents became lost, except for the Calendars23 and a few other documents. For a long time, the role of ICE and its impact on technical education was ignored by scholars in Japan and the West. Although quite a few of its graduates and their achievements were mentioned frequently in Western literature on Japan’s technical development, their educational background at ICE, which contributed to their successes, remained mostly in the dark. Only since the 1990s, and especially since 2000, have new studies on Henry Dyer and ICE expanded our knowledge about this important institution of engineering education.The present volume, in which the ICE is a central topic of several articles, can also be regarded as part of this recent research. Another issue that was debated among the ministries, politicians and scholars was the importance of studying abroad. Since teaching in the technical schools was almost exclusively in foreign languages (initially in French and German as well as English), studying abroad seemed to make sense and was also advocated by the foreign teachers. At times, the completion of studies abroad was even a condition sine qua non for obtaining a professorship at ICE, as well as at the University of To-kyo-. This is also the reason for the great importance of foreign languages as a gateway to study abroad and to teaching in Japan itself. It was only in a second phase of progressive formalization of technical education, especially after the dissolution of the Ministry of Public Works in the mid-1880s, that there was a transition to teaching technical subjects in Japanese, and to the elimination of the criterion of studying abroad as a precondition for an academic career that had applied at ICE and the University of To-kyo-. The process of formalizing modern technical education in Japan started at the top level, at ICE and the universities. Politicians 22

23

Only a few internship reports from the ICE years have survived in the archives of the University of To-kyo- (see also Pauer's contribution in this publication). Later internship reports from the time after the merger with the University of To-kyohave survived in larger numbers and can be used for comparison. Yearbooks of the ICE and other institutions are referred to as ‘Calendars’.

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prioritized such a ‘top down’ system, not least because they wanted to train Japanese who could replace the expensive foreign experts. However, experience soon showed that this system, which demanded a comparatively high level of education upon entry into the educational institution, often lacked the correspondingly educated pupil or student. For quite some time one made do with auxiliary constructions such as preparatory courses etc. as a bridge to study. The need for technical schools at the level of secondary education, and at a lower level for craftsmen or workers, was recognized only later. Starting in the 1880s, educational legislation laid the ground for middle and higher technical/vocational schools and professional colleges. These opened in increasing numbers, government-run or private, especially after the turn of the century. Thus, with a gap of several years after the formalization of general education, education policy also achieved a thoroughgoing formalization of technical education, which provided the human resources for the further technical and economic development of the country. This was the end of what could be called a ‘transitional period’ of incorporating technical knowledge that had started around 1860. 8. THE CONTRIBUTIONS IN THIS BOOK

Most of the papers in this book were presented at a conference ‘Knowledge on the Move’ at CEEJA, the Centre Européen d’Études Japonaises d’Alsace, in 2019, with a few articles added later.The second of three conferences under the overall title ‘From Craftsman to Engineer’24 dealt with the transition from traditional forms of personal transfer of technical knowledge, for instance between master and pupil or apprentice, to the transmission of such knowledge within the framework of formalized education conducted on the basis of certain specifications. In other words, the questions were, how the transfer and dissemination of modern, mostly Western, technical knowledge was organized during Japan’s industrialization, who the agents were, what the contents were, and what kind of impact did the results have on the country’s technical and economic development.

24

The contributions to the first conference have been published. See Erich Pauer & Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkstone: Renaissance Books, 2020.

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The earlier sections of this introduction briefly outlined the different ways of acquiring Western technical knowledge and the development of educational institutions during the second half of the nineteenth century. These issues are analysed in detail in the 14 chapters of this volume, which are arranged in a more or less chronological sequence. The first three chapters focus on issues related to books, translations and their impact on the spread of knowledge. Partly in continuation of the ‘book culture’ of the Edo period, foreign books – as originals or in Chinese and/or Japanese translations – became one of the main transmitters of knowledge during the transitional years from the Edo to the Meiji period. Ruselle Meade begins with a ‘visual tour’ of a library, whose books originated in Western literature and were translated in Japan, or reached Japan from China as translations into Chinese and were in some cases translated again there. It can be seen that the Japanese were primarily interested in books with technical content that promised practical benefits. At a very early stage, the topics included steam engines and ships, which were particularly important for Japan for military reasons around the middle of the nineteenth century. However, this was followed by books that can be assigned more to the scientific field and which also reached Japan from their country of origin by various means and were translated directly into Japanese.Thus, books on physics, chemistry and other scientific fields were translated wholly or partially into Japanese, forming a foundation for further development. In this context, Christine Moll-Murata shows in her contribution that in addition to translations that covered a broader field, such as physics, works on rather specific topics (she focuses on electricity) were also soon translated. Her study traces in detail the difficult task of creating new terms for previously unknown phenomena and the complex process of getting them generally accepted not only in Japan itself but also in China. During this process many modern technical terms created in Japan were later imported into China. The chapter by Chen Hailian offers deeper insights into the transnational aspects of the transfer of Western technical knowledge through Chinese translations, emphasizing this oftenneglected part of technical knowledge transfer. In her study she shows how European works were translated into Chinese in China, then exported to Japan, where they were often reprinted in the Chinese original or translated again from Chinese into Japanese. The books gained popularity as expressed in several editions

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within a short period and contributed significantly to the accumulation of scientific knowledge in Japan. The articles clearly express how strongly ‘book knowledge’ was relied on in Japan as well as in China around this time and that knowledge transfer via ‘book learning’ was an essential element on the way to technical-scientific progress. That such ‘book knowledge’ very soon needed to be supplemented by professionally trained teachers became obvious, especially to Japanese who had gone abroad for diplomatic or military reasons, but also for study. As already indicated, shipbuilding was regarded as an important part of defence policy. It is therefore not surprising that the government wanted to create the technical prerequisites for modern shipbuilding in this production area at a very early stage, with the support of foreign experts. The latter quickly demanded European-style teaching within the framework of a school similar to French models in order to train engineers and foremen for shipyards. Nishiyama Takahiro reconstructs in his article the establishment of one of the earliest vocational schools in Japan, the Ko-sha, in the Yokosuka shipyard. By analysing the curricula and contents of the courses he shows how quickly this adoption of Western forms of teaching took root in Japan. With this contribution we have arrived at an early phase of formalization of technical teaching. In several of the following chapters the focus is laid on the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE). Two detailed contributions by Wada Masanori deal with the struggles concerning firstly the establishment of ICE after 1871, and secondly its dissolution in 1886. In both articles,Wada attempts a critical assessment of ICE, its impact on Japan’s industrialization and the role foreign teachers and Japanese officials played in the establishment of the first advanced institution for technical education in Japan. Wada concludes that still too little is known about the actual operations and contents of ICE. Erich Pauer fills this gap in part with a contribution from an insider perspective. Based on extensive primary sources, which are unique for this period, namely numerous transcripts, internship reports and diaries of an early student at ICE, Ohara Junnosuke, he reconstructs his life and performance at ICE. Pauer analyses the contents of teaching and how the student coped with the demands of the new subjects during his studies, as well as his subsequent professional career. The curriculum vitae and the professional career of this mining engineer reflect the challenges and chances of education in the transformational period before and after 1868.

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The following five chapters show how technical education developed and was applied in individual industries. Janet Hunter’s contribution uses the example of the mechanical engineer Kikuchi Kyo-zo-, who was an ICE graduate, to show how he successfully applied the technical expertise he gained through his studies in Japan and abroad to the technical development of modern cotton-spinning mills in Japan. As an engineer and manager, he selected and bought machinery abroad, and adapted it and the related technical processes to produce good-quality yarns despite different conditions and qualities of raw materials in the West and Japan. Often it was the companies that got involved in technical training and initiated more formalized support measures. An early example is the Training School for Railway Engineers (TSRE), established by the - Imperial Government Railways at the Railway Bureau in Osaka, that provided fast-track education of civil engineers for railway construction, not least to train its own local staff to replace the foreigners and thus reduce costs. Graduates from TSRE were not only employed by the Imperial Government Railways, but also played an important role in the boom of private railways after the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). One of Japan’s most important export goods in the Meiji period was silk. Shortly after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the government established the Tomioka Silk Mill as a model factory to train women who would then become teachers and transmit their knowledge to other female workers in the country’s silk-producing areas. Sashinami Akiko’s chapter analyses the various attempts by the government and private entrepreneurs to establish schools and training courses responding to the growing demand for silk and the necessity to achieve high-quality products. That permitted an increasingly formalized training of silk-reeling workers to emerge. The previous examples show that the formalization of technical education began at the advanced level, often initially driven by the desire to replace foreign engineers and teachers and to train Japanese teachers for key industries such as silk. Toda Kiyoko shows in her contribution how technical training was established at the level of secondary education after the middle of the Meiji period. She uses the example of the To-kyo- Vocational School (Shokko--gakko-) to illustrate how the limitations of traditional craft apprenticeship training were to be overcome and how middle or low-level technicians and foremen were to be educated with the aim of full-scale industrialization. Toda also analyses the ideas of the second princi-

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pal of the To-kyo- Vocational School, Teijima Seiichi, who played an important role in the process of expanding secondary industrial or vocational education throughout the country. The contribution by Regine Mathias takes up another important industrial sector in Meiji Japan, namely mining. Here, due to foreign influence, the first attempts to establish mining schools were made even before the Meiji Restoration, but they had a low degree of formalization and were predominantly oriented towards practice. The further formalization of mining education largely followed the general pattern of top-down development, starting with the establishment of mining courses at ICE and universities, followed with a time lag by the spreading of mining education at the secondary level in middle and technical high schools. Mining courses at this level included a wide range of school types, government and private-run schools, in-house and industry-wide institutes, higher professional colleges and schools for training workers. While the focus so far has been on technical instruction, the contribution by Okiharu Fumiko takes a broader view and a different perspective. Her focus is on the teaching of science, not at university or high-school level, but in primary and higher primary schools during the Meiji period. To examine the teaching of science, she relies not only on textbooks (which were often translations of various American or English textbooks on physics and chemistry), but also uses the transcripts and notes of higher primary school students. These extremely rare materials allow insights into teaching content and students’ understanding of the subject matter. At the same time, these examples and the changes in educational policy behind them illustrate the general scientific education on which later technical education could build. Okiharu’s contribution should be seen as a research report on a project still in progress, which has so far gone nearly unnoticed in Western countries. The last chapter returns to advanced engineering education. Suzuki Jun looks at the development in the universities and shows what measures were taken there to produce graduates who would advance further developments in the technical and scientific field. He follows mechanical engineering students from different cohorts in their subsequent careers, based on many different materials. In this way, he elucidates the contribution of these engineers to certain phases of industrialization, proving very clearly that it was the increasing number of graduates from technical faculties of various universities that contributed significantly to Japan’s industrial success in the twentieth century.

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REFERENCES Ericson, Mark D., ‘The Bakufu looks abroad. The 1865 Mission to France’, in Monumenta Nipponica, vol. XXXIV, no. 4, Winter 1979, pp. 383–407. Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Ei-sho ni mirareta Takeda Ayazaburo-’, in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 11, 1979, pp. 165–175. Japanese Department of Education (Monbusho-), An Outline History of Japanese Education prepared for the Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876, (Reprint: Hansebooks). Murakami Taiken, ‘Waga kuni sangyo- kakumei no hajimari’ (The beginning of our nation’s industrial revolution) on the Homepage of the Tozenji-Temple in Takasaki, Gunma prefecture; see sharmila@ theia.ocn.ne.jp or http://tozenzi.cside.com/ (January 2016). ‘Notes on the Japanese Mission’ (Compiled by the Government Record Office, Batavia), in Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 5, 1942, To-kyo-, - pp. 254–264. Ohashi Shu-ji, Bakumatsu seitetsu-shi (History of iron production in late Edo period), To-kyo-: Agune, 1975. Pumpelly, Raphael, Travels and Adventures of Raphael Pumpelly, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920. Pauer, Erich, Japans industrielle Lehrzeit (Japan’s industrial apprenticeship), 2 vols., Bonner Zeitschrift für Japanologie, vol. 4/1 and 4/2, Bonn 1983. Pauer, Erich, ‘Der industrielle Aufstieg Japans und die Rolle des Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) für die Humankapitalbildung im technischen Bereich’ (The industrial rise of Japan and the role of the Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) in human capital formation in the technical field), in Ferrum – Nachrichten aus der Eisenbibliothek (Wissens und Technologietransfer Asien-Europa), no. 82, 2010, pp. 25–40. Pauer, Erich, ‘Vehicles of knowledge: Japanese technical drawings in the pre-modern era, 1600–1868’, in Erich Pauer & Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkestone: Renaissance Books, 2020, pp. 28–54. Pauer, Erich & Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkstone: Renaissance Books, 2020. Yoneyama Umekichi, Bakumatsu seiyo- bunka to Numazu Hei-gakko(Western culture and the Numazu Military Academy in the Bakumatsu period), To-kyo-: Sanseido-, 1935. Yoshioka Manabu et al., ‘Enomoto Buyo- no Nihon chishitsu-gakushi-jo- ni shimeru ichi: Sono hitori kagaku-sha toshite no shuppatsu’ (The position of Enomoto Buyo- in the stream of the geological history of Japan: his start as a scientist), in To-kyo- Gakugei Daigaku kiyo-, Dai 4 bumon, su-gaku, shizenkagaku, no. 53, 2001, pp. 75–134.

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The Translation of Technical Manuals from Western Languages in Nineteenth-century Japan: A Visual Tour Ruselle MEADE

–

THE TERM ‘BOOK learning’ is often used derisively to describe knowledge that, while scholarly, is impractical. The well-known nineteenth-century British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for example, lampooned what he considered a French over-reliance on books for training engineers, advising his apprentices that ‘a few hours spent in a blacksmiths and wheelwrights’ shop will teach you more practical mechanics’.1 There is a tendency to see the written word as the province of scholars, and embodied skills as the realm of the artisan. However, certainly in the case of early modern Japan, this would be to disregard the diverse types of publications produced by artisans, as well as the practical endeavours of the scholarly classes.2 Increasingly, attention is being paid to the ways in which practical knowledge is circulated in print.3 However, qua books – as material objects – technical manuals can also tell us much about the nature of the communities that use them. This exploration of translated 1

2

3

Brunel quoted in Robert Angus Buchanan, The Engineers: A History of the Engineering Profession in Britain, 1750-1914, London: Jessica Kingsley, 1989, p. 163. For the case of artisanal literature, see Endo- Motoo, Nihon shokunin no kenkyu(A study of Japanese artisans), To-kyo-: Yu-zankaku, 1961. For the many practical activities carried out by honzo-gaku scholars, see Federico Marcon, The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. For one example of this, see Angela N.H. Creager, Mathias Grote, Elaine Leong (eds), ‘Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Science’, BJHS Themes, vol. 5, 2020. 1

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technical manuals in nineteenth century Japan therefore adopts a ‘visual’ approach that highlights the materiality of these objects. This approach reveals facets of the technical community in Japan, such as how professional identities emerged and changed over time, the role of print in establishing professional authority, and the role of language in shaping professional identity.

Fig. 1: A page from Saiga shokunin burui (Categories of artisans illustrated in colour) showing artisans producing paper, 1784. Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1286830/14.

The increasing appearance of foreign ships in Japanese coastal waters from the late eighteenth century was a catalyst for the study of new languages, including French, Russian, English and Manchu.4 The shogunate also started hiring translators to work in its Astronomy Bureau (tenmonkata) in Edo. Despite Western military threat being the impetus for this activity, few of the works translated under the auspices of the Astronomy Bureau focused on defence. Indeed, one of the largest projects conducted by the Bureau was a translation of a Dutch work based on Noël Chomel’s Family Dictionary, which ultimately resulted in a 102-volume work in Japanese.5 Many scholars involved in this project also pursued private scholarship. Much of this focused on the history and 4

5

Rebekah Clements, A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 179. Clements, A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan, p. 185.

A VISUAL TOUR

3

geography of foreign countries, as well as on military matters, but there was also an interest in production techniques that could be adopted by artisans. One translator who turned his attention to glassmaking techniques, Baba Sadayoshi (1787–1822), produced Biido seiho- shu- setsu (A collection of glass production methods) in 1810.This work was based on Dutch translations of books initially written in French, namely Le nouveau dictionnaire complet des arts et des sciences – tome 4/1013 (1772) by Egbert Buys, Dictionnaire Œconomique by Noël Chomel (1709), and Spectacle de la nature – tome 7 (1732–1742) by Antoine Pluche.6 Sadayoshi’s work did not immediately influence artisanal techniques. However, when domains such as Satsuma were looking to innovate in their decorative glass production techniques, Sadayoshi’s work became a useful reference, and some of the production techniques described in his translation were used in the development of Satsuma kiriko glass, made of carefully cut coloured glass.7 News of First Opium War (1839–1842) in China, which circulated widely in Japan, refocused minds on military technology. Following the Qing defeat at the hands of the British, the Tokugawa shogunate encouraged and ordered coastal domains to make use of ‘foreign military strategies’ in bolstering their defences.8 This set off a bidding war among a number of domains, including Saga, Mito and others, along with the Sho-gun’s demesne Nirayama, for Dutch scholars. One domain that was particularly successful in attracting scholars was Satsuma domain. The domain’s entrepreneurial lord Shimazu Nariakira (1809–1858) established factories for the study of Western technologies, and hired well-known Dutch scholars such as Ogata Ko-an (1810–1863) and Sugita Seikei (1817–1859) to carry out research into technologies such as reverberatory furnaces (for the casting of cannons) and telegraphy. Of particular interest to Shimazu, however, were steamships, as he had ambitions to build one. For this project Shimazu enlisted the services of Mitsukuri Genpo (1799–1863), a scholar at the shogunate’s Astronomy Bureau, requesting that he research the subject using 6

7

8

Céline Zuretti, ‘Le Rôle des traductions scientifiques dans l’essor technique japonais au XIXe siècle’, e-Phaïstos,VI–1, 2017, pp. 1–14, p. 8, doi: 10.4000/ephaistos.3056 Zuretti, ‘Le Rôle des traductions scientifiques dans l’essor technique japonais au XIXe siècle’, p. 10. Clements, A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan, p. 194.

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Dutch books. The result of Mitsukuri Genpo’s research was Suijo-sen setsuryaku (An outline of steamships, 1849), a translation of excerpts of G.J. Verdam’s Volledige verhandeling over de stoomwerktuigen (A complete study of steam engines, 1837) and the 4th volume of his Gronden der toegepaste werktuigkunst (Principles of applied mechanical engineering, 1828–1837).9 Satsuma domain used Mitsukuri’s translation to construct a steamboat. First, they created a model of a steam engine, and then embarked on its construction in Edo and Kagoshima. A marine steam engine was completed at the domain’s compound in Edo in 1855, and was loaded onto a small ship, whereon it was successfully operated. The result was Japan’s first steamship, the Unko--maru.10

Fig. 2: A page from Kaijo- ho-jutsu zensho (A compendium of marine gunnery), a translation of J.N. Calten’s Leiddraad bij het onderrigt in de zee-artillerie (Guide to teaching in the marine artillery). The translation was completed in 1843. Mitsukuri Genpo was one of the team from the Astronomy Bureau that translated this work alongside Utagawa Yo-an. Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/11222203/13.

9

10

Miwa Shu-zo-, Bakumatsu Meiji-ki ni okeru riko-gakusho kaidai: kikai ko-gakusho o chushin ni (Bibliography of science and engineering books from the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods, with a focus on mechanical engineering books), To-kyo-: Nihon Kikaigakkai, 1997, p. 62. Miwa, Bakumatsu Meiji-ki ni okeru riko-gakusho kaidai.

A VISUAL TOUR

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In his quest to acquire as much information about European technologies as possible, Shimazu Nariakira also hired Kawamoto Ko- min (1810–1871), another Dutch scholar who had worked alongside Mitsukuri Genpo at the Astronomy Bureau. Kawamoto Ko- min was well known in Dutch-studies circles for his Kikai kanran ko-gi (Expanded observations on waves in the atmosphere, 1851–1856), a popularized and expanded version of the physics book Kikai kanran (1825). Kikai kanran was a translation by his father-in-law of Johannes Buijs’s Natuurkundig schoolboek (Physics school textbook).11 While he was working for Satsuma domain, he published Ensei kiki jutsu (Lectures on curious machines from the far West), which comprises transcriptions of lectures he delivered to students in Satsuma. This work was published in two volumes, the first appearing in 1854, and the second in 1857. The table of contents of this work reflects the priorities of the domain. The first volume covers daguerreotypes, telegraphs, steam engines, steamships, and steam locomotives. The second volume covers electroplating methods, daguerreotype machines, air balloons, as well as mining lamps and air-exchange methods for coal mines. The preface to the second volume reveals that Ensei kiki jutsu includes translations from Pieter van der Burg’s Schets der natuurkunde (A synopsis of physics, 1850), but it also appears that some sections from the first volume, notably the chapter on telegraphs, also comprise translations from this source.12 It is understood that Ko- min also consulted Jan Karel van den Broek (1814–1865), a Dutch physician who was stationed at the Shogunate’s Naval Academy in Nagasaki (Nagasaki Kaigun Denshu- -jo).13 Satsuma domain certainly could not be accused of complacency toward the threat of Western encroachment in Asia. The shogunate, on the other hand, had directed relatively little attention to the translation of Western military technologies since the early nineteenth century. However, it was spurred into action after the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853. In 1855, the shogunate established the Yo-gakusho (Institute of Western Study),14 regrouping Dutch scholars from across the country, 11

12 13 14

Nihon Gakushikan (ed.), Meiji-zen Nihon butsuri kagaku shi, To-kyo-: Nihon Gakujutsu Shinko-kai, 1964. Miwa, Bakumatsu Meiji-ki ni okeru riko-gakusho kaidai, p. 21. Miwa, Bakumatsu Meiji-ki ni okeru riko-gakusho kaidai, p. 21. The following year, this was renamed Bansho shirabesho, then Yo-sho shirabesho in 1862, and then Kaiseijo in 1863. These institutions were antecedents of the

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including Kawamoto Ko-min and Mitsukuri Genpo, who had been providing their services to Satsuma domain. The primary role the Institute of Western Study and its successors was to translate books on Western affairs. However, an important source of information was imported Chinese-language periodicals, which provided accounts from the West, including technological developments. Popular topics included the expansion of steam locomotive transport, including railways and steamships, as well as the underwater transAtlantic cable between the United States and Great Britain. 15 Also popular during the 1860s were Chinese-language translations of Western works, and works written in Chinese by Protestant missionaries with the help of Chinese scholars. Although official reprints of works were published by shogunal authorities, it is believed that many more were copied and circulated only in manuscript form. Among the imported Chinese-language works on science were An Introduction to Mathematics (Shuxue qimeng, 1853) by Alexander Wylie, A Simple Theory of Dynamics (Zhongxue qianshuo, 1858) also by Wylie, and A New Essay on Scientific Knowledge (Bowu xinbian, 1855) by Benjamin Hobson.16 Particularly influential was William Alexander Parsons (W.A.P.) Martin’s Introduction to Science (Gewu rumen, 1868; Kakubutsu nyu- mon in Japanese).17 (See also the chapter by Christine Moll-Murata in this volume.) W.A.P Martin (1827–1916) was an American missionary who arrived in China in 1850, and who worked as an interpreter for the American Minister in Beijing. From its establishment in 1862, Martin taught international law at the Tongwenguan, an institute for Western learning in Beijing, later becoming its president. An official Japanese reprint of his Introduction to Science

15

16 17

University of To-kyo-, which was established in 1877. Nihon Gakushikan (ed.), Meiji-zen Nihon butsuri kagaku shi (A history of physics and chemistry in Japan before the Meiji period), To-kyo-: Nihon Gakujutsu Shinko-kai, 1964. Liu Jianhui and Joshua Fogel, Demon Capital Shanghai: The “Modern” Experience of Japanese Intellectual, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2012, p. 96. Liu and Fogel, Demon Capital Shanghai, p. 82. Chinese-language works on other topics enjoyed even wider circulation. For example, W.A.P. Martin’s Elements of International Law (Wangguo gongfa, 1864; JP: Bankoku ko-ho-) became a “virtual classic” in Japan. This work was adopted as a textbook for both elementary schools and institutions of elite learning. Masuda Wataru (Joshua Fogel, trans.), Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era, Richmond: Curzon, 2000, p. 3.

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(Kakubutsu nyu- mon)18 was published in Japan with kunten (Japanese reading punctuation) in 1869, just one year after its publication in China. This official version was divided into seven volumes: water, gas, fire, electricity, dynamics, chemistry, and mathematics. A Japanese translation (wage) of this work appeared in 1870. Each volume of the original work was completed by a different translator, namely Yanagigawa Shunsan (1832–1870), Yasuda Jirokichi (??–??), Yoshida Kensuke (1838–1893), Okumura Seiichi (??–??), Sato- Ryu- ji (??–??), Udagawa Jun’ichi (1848–1913), and Tsukahara Shu- saku (??–??), respectively.

Fig. 3: Frontispieces of two versions of Kakubutsu nyu-mon (Introduction to science), by W.A.P Martin. Official reprint with punctation markers added by Motoyama Zenkichi (left). Japanese translation (wage) published in 1870 (right). In total, this Japanese translation comprised twenty volumes. Source: Fig. 3a: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/825806/2; Fig. 3b: https:// dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/825829/2.

The popularity of Kakubutsu nyu-mon in Japan can be seen not only in the attention lavished on its translation, but also in the fact that this work was also the basis for many other science books produced in the early Meiji period. Excerpts appeared in several popular publications, with illustrations from Kakubutsu nyu-mon making their way into other publications in only slightly modified form. 18

Kakubutsu is a Neo-Confucianist term that literally means ‘investigation of things’ and is used here as a translation for the term ‘science’.

8

(a)

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

(b)

Fig. 4: Pages showing illustrations in Kakubutsu nyu-mon (a) and in Hatsumei kiji (Accounts of invention) a popular science book published in 1873 (b). Note that the image from Kakubutsu nyu-mon (a) is reproduced with some modifications in Hatsumei kiji. Source: Fig. 4a: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/825807/9; Fig. 4b: https:// dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/84 5534/7.

When the shogunate was deposed, many of those who had worked in its institutions continued to work in successor institutions managed by the Meiji government. Others, such as Kawamoto Ko- min, opened their own private academies. Many, however, decamped to the Numazu Military Academy (Numazu Hei-gakko- ) in Shizuoka. This academy, which existed only from 1868 until 1871, was in important site of technical translation and textbook production. So prolific was the academy as a site of book production that works produced there later came to have their own moniker: Numazubon, or ‘Numazu books’. One such Numazu-bon was Hitsusan kunmo- (An introduction to calculation, 1869), compiled by Tsukamoto Akikata (1833–1885), an instructor at the academy. It gained widespread popularity and is said to be the first fully fledged textbook of Western mathematics in Japan.19 While iconic technologies such as the telegraph and the steam locomotives captured the public imagination during the early Meiji period, a key priority of the government was the more 19

Higuchi Takehiko, Numazu Hei-gakko- to sono jidai (The Numazu Military Academy and its time), Numazu: Numazu-shi Meiji Shiryo-kan, 2014.

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prosaic issue of water engineering. Many of Japan’s rivers had highly variable flows. Rivers that gushed during the rainy season would become subterranean during drier months. Although this made them passable by foot, this highly variable flow made them unsuitable as channels for transport, and left surrounding areas susceptible to flooding. A priority was to regulate water flow by building canals, weirs, and reservoirs. Two rivers were the target of these early water improvement works: namely the Yodogawa and Tonegawa rivers.20 Two early-Meiji translations focusing on river improvement works were Chisuigaku shuka hen and Chisui tekiyo-, both of which were published in 1871. Both works were translations of D.H. Storm Buysing’s Handleiding Tot De Kennis Der Waterbouwkunde,

Fig. 5: A page from Hitsusan kunmo-, published by the Numazu Military Academy in 1869. Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/827631/13. 20

Doboku Gakkai (ed.), Meiji igo honbo- doboku to gaijin (Japanese civil engineering and foreigners in the Meiji period and beyond), To-kyo-: Doboku Gakkai, 1942.

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Voor De Kadetten Der Genie (Guide to the science of hydraulic engineering, for engineer cadets, 1844, 2nd ed. 1845, 3rd ed. 1864) and translated by Atsumi Teiji (1836–1884). Chisuigaku shuka hen comprises a full translation of the first chapter of the second volume of Buysing’s work on ‘The main rivers of the Netherlands’, whereas Chisui tekiyo- comprises a partial translation of the first and second chapters – ‘The main rivers of the Netherlands’, and ‘Shipping by river and canal’, respectively – of the second volume of Waterboukunde.21 Other translations were produced after the arrival of the o-yatoi (foreign employees) hired by the Meiji government. The lectures of Cornelius Johannes van Doorn, who was invited by the government from 1872 to 1880 to engage in water management engineering, were published as Chisui so-ron (A complete treatise on river management, 1873). This work was widely copied and circulated in manuscript form. Among his other works were Chisui yo-moku (A syllabus of river management) and Teibo- ryakkai (A brief explanation of embankments), which were incorporated into textbooks used by engineers later in the Meiji period.22 Another Dutch o-yatoi whose lectures in Dutch were translated into Japanese was Johannis de Rijke, who stayed in Japan for 29 years from 1873 to 1903. Among his works were Sabo-ko- ryakuzukai (Rough sketches on erosion control), and Sabo- ryakujutsu (An outline of erosion control).23 Later on in the Meiji period, there would be translations of lectures by other o-yatoi. For example, lectures on mining by Curt Netto, a German mining engineer and metallurgist hired by the Meiji government in 1878 to teach metallurgy at the University of To-kyo-, were published as Nihon ko-zan hen (On Japanese mines). During the early Meiji period, civil engineering fell under the purview of the newly established Ministry of Public Works (Ko-busho-). To train a new generation of engineers, the Ministry established the Ko-bu-ryo- (later Ko-bu-dai-gakko-, the Imperial College of Engineering) in 1871. At the time, the Ministry of 21

22

23

Doboku Gakkai, Senzen dobuku meisho 100 sho (100 famous pre-war civil engineering books) http://library.jsce.or.jp/Image_DB/s_book/jsce100/s100list. html#sbooks. Accessed 5 Mar. 2021. Kokudo ko-tsu-sho-, Nihon no kasen gijutsu no kiso wo tsukutta hitobito ryakushi (A brief history of those who created the foundations of Japanese river engineering) https://www.mlit.go.jp/river/pamphlet_jirei/kasen/rekishibunka/ kasengijutsu11.html. Accessed 5 Mar. 2021. Kokudo ko-tsu-sho-, Nihon no kasen gijutsu no kiso wo tsukutta hitobito ryakushi.

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(a)

11

(b)

Fig. 6: Illustrations on river embankment construction in van Doorn’s Chisui so-ron, 1873 (a), and according to de Rijke in Takatsu Giichi, Doboku yo-roku, 1881 (b). Source: Fig. 6a: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/995300/28. Fig. 6b https:// dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/846086/3.

Public Works was headed by Yamao Yo-zo. Along with four other young samurai from Cho-shu- domain, popularly known as the Cho-shu- Five,Yamao had travelled clandestinely to Britain in 1863 to study.24 Using a network of connections established during his stay in Britain, Yamao hired Henry Dyer, a young Scottish engineer, to head the new college and to develop a curriculum. Henry Dyer was highly recommended as he had studied under William J.M. Rankine. Rankine was then Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Glasgow, and had produced a canonical series of engineering manuals.25 (For the Imperial College of Engineering see the articles by Wada and Pauer in this volume.) It was expected that students at this new college would be relatively competent in the languages of their instructors. Dyer staffed the college with English-speaking instructors, most of whom came from Britain. The entrance exam for the school 24

25

Andrew Cobbing, The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain: Early Travel Encounters in the Far West, Richmond: Japan Library, 1998. These were A Manual of Applied Mechanics (1858), A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859), A Manual of Civil Engineering (1862), and A Manual of Machinery and Millwork (1869).

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therefore included translation exercises from English into Japanese and vice versa.26 The College’s library catalogue reveals the extent to which literacy in English was required. The vast majority of the works held in the library were textbooks written in English, and Dyer himself assigned Rankine’s texts for his courses. The numbers of titles in English measured in the hundreds and often only a few copies of each work were held. However, there are some works that were clearly considered of particular value, as can be gauged by the number of copies of each title held. Table 1 lists the most commonly held titles. Among these are civil engineering manuals also used for training in Britain. Unwin and Goodeve’s works, for example, came to be used alongside Rankine’s manuals on engineering courses in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. Table 1: Manuals with most copies held by the Imperial College of Engineering Library.’ Author

Title

Number of copies

Mathematics: Wilson

Elementary Geometry

340

Todhunter

Trigonometry for Beginners

234

Wilson

Algebra for Beginners

192

Unwin

Elements of Machine Design

71

Rankine

Applied Mechanics

55

Rankine

Manual of Civil Engineering

55

Perry

Treatise on Steam

48

Goodeve

Elements of Mechanism

34

Egleston

Hydraulic Mining in California

62

Milne

Notes on the Ventilation of Mines

47

Lyman

Reports of Progress for the First Year of the Oil Surveys

30

Civil Engineering:

Mining and Mineralogy:

26

Henry Dyer, ‘Imperial College of Engineering Tokei: Calendar, Session MDCCCLXXIII-LXIV’, in Nobuhiro Miyoshi (ed.), The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer: A Collection in Five Volumes, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2006, p. 1.

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Author

Title

13

Number of copies

Chemistry: Roscoe

Elementary Chemistry

120

Harcourt and Madan

Practical Chemistry

65

Everett

Elementary Textbook of Physics

58

Maxwell

Theory of Heat

51

Physics:

Source:

Imperial College of Engineering, Catalogue of Books contained in the Library 1880.

The expectation that students would be competent in English meant that few works were translated for this audience. For example, Rankine’s A Manual of Civil Engineering, which was used at the College of Engineering, was not translated until 1880. A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers was translated in 1885. Rankine’s other manuals were not translated.

Fig. 7: Frontispiece of the Japanese translation of A Manual of Civil Engineering. Note that Rankine’s name (transliterated into kanji as ⹒ᆒ) appears within the title of the volume. Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/846027/1.

Although few technical manuals were translated for use in the Meiji government’s flagship technical training institution during the early Meiji period, translation certainly occurred outside of it. These translated works tended to be used in industry and in other training institutions where teaching was not carried out by foreign employees. Reflecting its importance to the Japanese economy at the time, textiles were the focus of a considerable number of translations

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during the early Meiji period. Among translations on textiles were Meriyasu orikata (1873), a translation of Dana Bickford’s Illustrated Instructions for Setting Up and Running the Bickford Family Knitting Machine (1871), Senko- shinsho kagaku jikken (Chemical Experiments in Dyeing, 1878), Seiyo- senshoku ho- (Western Dyeing Methods, 1878) and Seiyo- sarasa senho- sho (Western Cotton Dyeing Methods, 1879). These two latter works were published by To-kyo-’s Department for the Promotion of Industry, indicating that local authorities also engaged in translation to spur production within their locality. (a)

(b)

Fig. 8: Illustrations of the Bickford’s family machine as they appear in Dana Bickford, Illustrated Instructions for Setting Up and Running the Bickford Family Knitting Machine, (Hartford: Case, Lockwood, and Brainard 1871) (a) and its Japanese translation (b). Source: Fig. 8a: archive.org. Fig. 8b: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/847946/8.

From the 1880s onward, we can see a change in approach in how translators identified themselves. This comes with the emergence of graduates from the Imperial College of Engineering and its successor, the Faculty of Science at the University of To- kyo- . Increasingly, translators mentioned their academic degrees alongside their names, suggesting that institutional credentials were considered an important qualification

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for translation. There was also a marked change in approach in how comprehensively works were translated. Most translations published during the 1870s were abridged translations, although translators did not always divulge this fact. Take for example, the 1873 translation of William Gillespie’s Manual of Land Surveying (Sokuchi shinpo-). Gillespie’s original tome exceeded 500 pages, but the two volume Japanese translation totalled only 33 cho-. By contrast, though also abridged, the 1886 retranslation of Gillespie’s work, Sokuryo- kyo-kasho, was a much more comprehensive version comprising three volumes of 112, 134, and 108 pages, respectively. Later translations would also show greater uniformity in terminology. Until the mid-1870s when glossaries started to be published, translators would often either rely on precedent or create their own translation terms in their works. Nomura Ryu-taro-, the translator of Sokuryo- kyo-kasho, complained that this laissez-faire approach had resulted an inchoate lexicon which had become a source of “great inconvenience for readers of translated works” (yakusho wo yomu mono wa o-i ni […] fuben). He therefore produced A Dictionary of Engineering Terms (Ko-gaku jii), a bilingual English-Japanese dictionary, in 1876. This work was reprinted in 1886, with further expanded editions appearing in following in 1888 and 1894. The terms provided in this dictionary came to be accepted as the standard translation of engineering terms for their English equivalents. As the numbers of engineers with formal qualifications grew, so too did their sense of professional identity. This can be seen with the emergence of specialist publishers catering to this audience. These included Ko-gaku Shoin, Ko-dankai, and Ko-gaku Kyo-kai. The most prolific and long-lasting publisher, however, was Kenchiku Shoin, which released almost 220 manuals from its establishment in 1893 until it ceased business in 1941. A key selling point for Kenchiku Shoin was that its writers were professionals with real-world experience. Not only did all of their authors possess a degree either in science or engineering, but they were also invariably attached to state-run institutions (e.g., the Navy, Army, To-kyo- Municipal Water Department), and were often members of professional organizations, such as the Engineering Society (Ko-gakkai) and the Society of Architects (Zo-gakkai). The importance of Nomura Ryu-taro-’s A Dictionary of Engineering Terms can be seen in the fact that Kenchiku Shoin adopted a policy of using this work for deciding on the terms used in their publications.

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(a)

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(b)

Fig. 9: Page from Sokuryo- kyo-kasho showing an illustration of a compass (a). The frontispiece of this work (b). Note how the names of the translators, Nomura Ryu-taro- and Hara Ryu-ta, are both preceded by (rigakushi) an indication that they were graduates of the Faculty of Science at the University of To-kyo-. Source: Fig. 9a: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/845914/5; Fig. 9b: https:// dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/845914/1.

This tour, though brief, reveals the changing character of the technical field in Japan over the course of the nineteenth century and how translation (as a process) and translations (as a material artefact) from European languages reflect this change. In the early nineteenth century, technical translation was the preserve of Dutch scholars whose vocation, in most cases, was hereditary. For late nineteenth century translations, institutionalized academic training would become an important part of their professional identity, at least at the elite levels. This shift was also accompanied by a change in language from which most translations were sourced. Initially, Western books were encountered in Dutch, even if they were originally written in another language. In the late Edo period, Chinese became an important language through which knowledge about Western technologies were acquired, and in the early Meiji period, English gained in influence. By the end of the century, however, translation lessened in importance, and indeed the adjective ‘Western’ (seiyo-) was seen less and less in the titles of works, and was eventually abandoned as an adjec-

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tive for technologies such as the steamship and railway. With the growing independence of the technical field, engineers began to feel ownership over such technologies rather than seeing them as a foreign import. REFERENCES Buchanan, Robert Angus, The Engineers: A History of the Engineering Profession in Britain, 1750–1914, London: Jessica Kingsley, 1989. Clements, Rebekah, A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Creager, Angela N.H., Mathias Grote, Elaine Leong (eds), ‘Learning by the Book: Manuals and Handbooks in the History of Science’, in BJHS Themes, vol. 5, 2020. Doboku Gakkai (ed.), Senzen doboku meisho 100 sho (100 famous prewar civil engineering books) http://library.jsce.or.jp/Image_DB/s_ book/jsce100/s100list.html#sbooks. Doboku Gakkai (ed.), Meiji igo honbo- doboku to gaijin (Japanese civil engineering and foreigners in the Meiji period and beyond), To-kyo-: Doboku Gakkai, 1942. Dyer, Henry, ‘Imperial College of Engineering Tokei: Calendar, Session MDCCCLXXIII-LXIV’, in Nobuhiro Miyoshi (ed.), The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer: A Collection in Five Volumes, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2006. Endo- Motoo, Nihon shokunin no kenkyu- (A study of Japanese artisans), To-kyo-: Yu-zankaku, 1961. Higuchi Takehiko, Numazu Hei-gakko- to sono jidai (The Numazu Military Academy and its time), Numazu: Numazu-shi Meiji Shiryo-kan, 2014. Kokudo ko-tsu-sho-, Nihon no kasen gijutsu no kiso wo tsukutta hitobito ryakushi (A brief history of those who created the foundations of Japanese river engineering) https://www.mlit.go.jp/river/pamphlet_ jirei/kasen/rekishibunka/kasengijutsu11.html. Liu Jianhui and Joshua Fogel, Demon Capital Shanghai: The “Modern” Experience of Japanese Intellectual, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2012. Marcon, Federico, The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. Masuda Wataru (Joshua Fogel, trans.), Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era, Richmond: Curzon, 2000, p.3. Miwa Shu-zo-, Bakumatsu Meiji-ki ni okeru riko-gakusho kaidai: kikai ko-gakusho o chu-shin ni (Bibliography of science and engineering books from the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods, with a focus on mechanical engineering books), To-kyo-: Nihon Kikaigakkai, 1997.

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Nihon Gakushikan (ed.), Meiji-zen Nihon butsuri kagaku shi (A history of physics and chemistry in Japan before the Meiji period), To-kyo-: Nihon Gakujutsu Shinko-kai, 1964. Zuretti, Céline, ‘Le Rôle des traductions scientifiques dans l’essor technique japonais au XIXe siècle.’, e-Phaïstos, VI-1, 2017, pp. 1-14, p.8, doi: 10.4000/ephaistos.3056.

2

The Translation of Western Books on Natural Science and Technology in China and Japan: Early Conceptions of Electricity Christine MOLL-MURATA

–

1. INTRODUCTION

THE 2019 WEB of Science analysis of ‘highly cited researchers’ (the top 1% most quoted in scientific and scholarly journals in all fields of academic knowledge) includes 192 researchers in the field of engineering. Given the trend of ‘China’s rise to the highest levels of research’1 the evidence for the field of engineering is no exception: among the 192 researchers most cited in the journals analysed, 64 are based in China. Of the names of all ‘highly cited researchers’ in engineering, 105 (54.6%) are Chinese.2 As a contrast, this chapter looks back about 150 years to the period when the achievements of modern science and technology were otherwise distributed over the globe and were just being diffused to and adopted in East Asia. Decisive factors for establishing any new science and technology include the transfer of theories and applications, the linguistic encoding of this knowledge, and the institutions that accommodate and promote such innovations. This chapter focuses on the encoding and conceptualization of terms in the early phase of transfer, and 1

2

David Pendlebury, ‘Highly Cited Researchers 2019: Strong evidence of Mainland China’s rise to the highest levels of research’, website Clarivate, https://clarivate. com/blog/highly-cited-researchers-2019-strong-evidence-of-mainland-chinasrise-to-the-highest-levels-of-research/ (accessed 27 Feb. 2021). ‘Highly Cited Researchers, Powered by Web of Science, 2019 Recipients’, website Clarivate, https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2019/ (accessed 27 Feb. 2021). 19

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it studies the China–Japan axis of what can be conceived of as a triangular relationship between the West (Europe and America), China and Japan. 2. FROM THE WEST TO CHINA AND JAPAN

The transmission ofWestern science and technology to China in the early modern and modern periods constitutes a well-studied field of research. Both the study of Jesuit translations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and interest in the translation practices of the mainly Protestant missionary teams of the nineteenth centuries as well as secular specialists have stimulated important monographs and collective volumes.3 One of the most intriguing facets in this complex process of transmission is the interaction between China and Japan in the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1890s, the second phase of re-adoption or ‘return loans’ to China of the most central terms of politics and sociology coined in Japan is better known than the first. For instance, the important study by Wolfgang Lippert on the origins of Marxist Chinese terminology showed that 3

To name just a few of these, works on the missionary and secular Western specialists as well as their Chinese counterparts have been studied by Michael Lackner’s research group. See Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz (eds), New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China, Leiden: Brill, 2001, as well as Michael Lackner and Natascha Gentz (eds), Mapping Meanings: The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, Leiden: Brill, 2004. The group is also working on a database for ‘Chinese as a scientific language’ (Wissenschaftssprache Chinesisch) and ‘Modern Chinese scientific technologies’ maintained at websites of the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen and at the University of Heidelberg. Important research in the United States has been conducted by Benjamin Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. More focused on the Jesuit transmission of Western learning, including terminology, is Florence C. Hsia, Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Jesuit mathematics has been studied by Catherine Jami in The Emperor’s New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. From the linguistic perspective, Viviane Alleton pioneered with her work Terminologie de la chimie en chinois moderne, Paris: Mouton, 1966. Chemistry was also taken up by James Reardon-Anderson’s monograph The Study of Change: Chemistry in China, 1840–1949, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, and David Wright, Translating Science. The Transmission of Western Chemistry into Late Imperial China, 1840–1900, Leiden: Brill, 2000. More closely related to the topic of this chapter is Erik Baark’s study Lightning Wires: The Telegraph and China’s Technological Modernization, 1860–1890, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.

EARLY CONCEPTIONS OF ELECTRICITY

21

socio-political new terms were for the most part translations from the Japanese that had been taken over in the last decade of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries.4 Yet the transmission of terms for science and technology between Japan and China also occurred earlier, from the 1840s to the 1890s, but has received less attention. At this time, Western works were translated into Chinese or directly written in Chinese and thereafter transmitted to late Tokugawa and early Meiji Japan. These works were often produced in cooperation between Western missionaries or secular scholars and their Chinese colleagues. For instance, as pointed out by the historian of science and technology Feng Lisheng, John Herschel’s (1792–1871) pathbreaking Treatise of Astronomy (1835) was translated in the 1850s into Chinese by Alexander Wylie and Li Shanlan, and soon after translated from Chinese into Japanese and applied there. Here the direction was straightforward, from China to Japan.5 This chapter suggests a closer reading of the section on electricity in one of the earliest relevant works, Benjamin Hobson’s Bowu xinbian (‘Broad Learning’, or ‘Treatise on Natural Philosophy’, as translated by Benjamin Elman), which was published in China in 1851 and edited and reprinted as Hakubutsu shinpen in Japan several years later. This chapter asks whether and how the specific neologisms for technical terms in this text were adopted in Japan and whether they remained in general use in China. 3. ELECTRICITY

In the twentieth century, electricity came to affect all engineers and almost all craftspeople worldwide. But electricity is a phenomenon that has been observed by humanity since ancient times. Written references to electrical fish and deliberations about the quality of lightning have been preserved from both European 4

5

Wolfgang Lippert, Entstehung und Funktion einiger chinesischer marxistischer Termini: Der lexikalisch-begriffliche Aspekt der Rezeption des Marxismus in Japan und China, Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1979; see also Wolfgang Lippert, ‘Language and the Modernization Process: The Integration of Western Concepts and Terms into Chinese and Japanese in the Nineteenth Century’, in Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz (eds), New Terms for New Ideas, pp. 57–66. Fan Jing, Feng Lisheng, ‘Wan Qing tianwenxue yizhu “Tan tian” banben kao’ (A Study of the editions of the late Qing astronomical translation “On the sky”‘, in Nei Menggu shifan daxue xuebao (Ziran kexue ban) (Journal of the Inner Mongolia Normal University, Natural Sciences Edition), 2007, vol. 6, pp. 694–700.

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and Chinese antiquity. The electrostatic qualities of amber, when rubbed, were known both in pre-modern China and Europe.6 However, it was with the turn to scientific exploration of nature in the seventeenth century in Europe that a more systematic analysis of these natural phenomena emerged. This included scientific experiments regarding electricity and magnetism, and many are the illustrious names of physicists or natural philosophers who brought forth new theories about electricity and its applications. The term itself was coined around 1600 by the British scholar William Gilbert (1544–1603) as ‘electrica’, and in the following years, various types of electrifying machines were built. Benjamin Franklin in 1752 invented the lightning rod, and in his research on electricity defined positive and negative charges. In 1770, the Italian physician Luigi Galvani studied the physiological impact of electricity on frog legs, and in 1780, his compatriot Alessandro Volta invented the volta column, the first battery that allowed the production of electrical currents without friction. Friction was the underlying principle of the appliance constructed by Dutch and German technicians, the so-called Kleist bottle or Leyden jar, invented in 1745. Electricity was first used for lighting when in 1810 the chemist Humphry Davy invented the light bow lamp, which first lit public places in 1843, namely the Place de l’Étoile in Paris. Telegraphy was developed by Samuel Morse in 1833, and the beginnings of electrical locomotives started in 1832. Thus, the 1830s can be considered as a period when the accumulated knowledge and also the inventors’ imaginations stimulated a great number of new applications for electricity. The Leyden jar was a means to store electrical charge built up by friction between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. This was important for the further study of the properties of electricity. ‘Leiden’ is the key word for exploration about how this knowledge came to Japan. The story of the scholar Hiraga Gennai (1728–1780) and his Erekiteru is well known. He had acquired this type of generator of static electricity in Nagasaki in 1770 and developed this into a box form in 1776. It is likely that this type of generator of static electricity had come to Japan by way of the Dutch.7 6

7

Joseph Needham, Wang Ling, Kenneth Girthwood Robison (eds), Science and Civilisation in China (SCC), vol. IV, Physics and Physical Technology, part 1, Physics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962, p. 238. Needham, SCC, vol. IV, pt. 1, p. 238, refers to the late eighteenth-century Hashimoto Donsai’s (i.e., Hashimoto So-kichi) treatises Erekiteru yakusetsu (A translated discourse

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23

In China, scholars were aware of electrical phenomena such as lightning as well, but the actual occurrence of the term dianqi 䴫≇ for electricity is generally attributed to an introduction of Western science of the 1850s, the Bowu xinbian. This collection was written by the British Protestant medical missionary Benjamin Hobson (1816–1873). Hobson stayed in China between 1839 and 1859, where he directed hospitals in Macau and Hong Kong. He became most famous for his medical writings, especially the Treatise on Anatomy and on Midwifery and Diseases of Children. But the Bowu xibian is important as the first compendium of Western scientific knowledge and terminology that was transmitted to a wider audience in China. It was published in three instalments, the first of which contained chapters ‘On the Earth and the atmosphere’, ‘On heat’, ‘On the nature of water’, ‘On light’, ‘On electricity’. The second instalment is a ‘Digest on astronomy’, and the third concerns natural history. This book was well received in China, but even more so in Japan. This is illustrated by the fact that there are two editions of the book in China, the original publication of 1855 and a reedition from 1898, but at least eleven Japanese editions, both in Chinese with furigana and punctuation, and translations as well as comments and lectures on the subject. The earliest re-edition in Japan dates from 1864, nine years after the Chinese edition, and in short sequence, re-editions appeared between that date and the first ten years of the Meiji era (up until 1877).8 This work has been studied by a great many Chinese and Japanese scholars. Among the Japanese studies, those by Matsunaga Toshio pointed out that the text is an adaptation of an earlier English compendium, Robert and William Chambers’ Educational Course (1835 ff.).9 Both Nakamura Satoshi and Yatsumimi Toshifumi explain that the book became a textbook for elementary schools in Japan.10

8 9

10

on electricity) and Erekiteru kyu-ri gen (A study of the basic principles of electricity) 1811, both treatises reprinted in Saigusa Hiroto (ed.), Nihon kagaku koten zensho, vol. 6, To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1942, pp. 527–569 and 571–627. For details on the editions see appendix 1. Matsunaga Toshio, ‘Chenbaasu cho Kagaku nyu-mon to Obata Tokujiro- yaku Hakubutsu shinpen ho’i, (Chamber’s Kagaku nyu-mon and Obata Tokujiro-’s translation of Hakubutsu shinpen ho’i, in Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku ningen kagaku, vol. 24, 2003, pp. 149–168. Nakamura Satoshi, ‘Hakubutsu shinpen ni miru Nihon no kindai kagaku kyo-iku’(Japan’s education in the modern sciences as seen from New Edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), in To-yo- Daigaku Chu-goku tetsugaku bungakka kiyo-, no. 21, 2013,

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The part on electricity is an encyclopaedic, thematically parallel presentation of topics and applications concerning electricity. It is an adaptation, rather than an exact translation of the Educational Course’s Part Four, ‘Reid and Bain’s chemistry and electricity’.11 Rather, it adds points of interest here and there and is generally not as well structured as the Educational Course. The points on electricity in the Bowu xinbian include general observations on the character of electricity with positive and negative charge, electrical shocks, the effect of electrical shocks in anatomy, the application of electricity in electroplating, electro-generators and batteries, but also appliances for entertainment, such as kites and marionettes with electrical applications, telegraphy and an explanation of telegraphic encoding, the use of electricity in printing, lightning rods and electric fishes.

Fig. 1: The explanation of the ‘electrisator’ as ‘erekiteriseeru mashine’ (third column from left) in [Kanban] Hakubutsu shinpen. Source: Official Sino-Japanese version of the new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen, Edo: Ro-so-kan, Yorozuya Heishiro-, Genji 1 [1864], part 1, fol. 52b. (Photo: Murata Masato; Courtesy: CEEJA Edo Bunko, Colmar).

11

pp. 318–305, 317; Yatsumimi Toshifumi, ‘Bakumatsu Meiji shoki torai shita shizen shingakuteki shizenkan–Hobuson Hakubutsu shimpen wo chu-shin ni’ (Between natural theology and natural philosophy: A study of B. Hobson’s Chinese works and their Japanese editions), in Aoyama Gakuin Joshi Tanki Daigaku so-go- bunka kenkyu-jo nenpo-, no. 4, 1996, pp. 127–140, 127. The section on electricity was written by Alexander Bain (1810–1877), a Scottish inventor of electrical clocks and of a prototype for the fax machine.

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Fig. 2: The explanation of the ‘erekishikage’ (third column from left) as the ‘electric device’ Source: Hakubutsu shinpen yakkai, kaitei 2 han (Commented translation to new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen, revised second edition), vol. 2B, fol. 70b., - mori Ichu-, [To-kyo-:] edited and translated by O Aoyama Seikichi, Meiji 7 [1874]. (Photo: Murata Masato; Courtesy: CEEJA Edo Bunko, Colmar).

Interestingly enough, in the Sino-Japanese version with furigana reading aids and punctuation, the electro-generator denkiki was explained (in furigana) as erekiteriseeru mashine (ȰɴȵɎɲɃό ɳɦȿᆀ(ɕ)), that is, ‘electrisator’ or electrical machine (Fig. 1). In the translated version,12 the furigana say erekishikage ‘electric device’ (Fig. 2). This shows us that in Japan the older, transliterated term, which can be derived from Hiraga Gennai’s erekiteru, still had clarifying power for the new device, rather than the newer term ‘lightning’ (den) for electricity or electrical matter. In Japan, denki was the newer term for ‘electricity’. An entry in the Nihon kokugo daijiten corroborates this view. It explains that in the first part of his 1854 narration Ensei kiki jutsu (On new machinery from the West), the scholar and inventor of the term ‘chemistry’ (kagaku, lit.’ learning of changes’), Kawamoto Ko-min (1810–1871), still explained the term denki as etsureki, a 12

Hakubutsu shinpen yakkai, kaitei 2han (Commented translation to New edition of natural philosophy, revised second edition), vol. 2B, fol. 70b. The corresponding section in Chambers’ Educational Course (IV), Elements of Chemistry and Electricity, New York: A.S. Barnes, 1850, Part II, p. 259 ff. describes and illustrates ‘The electrical machine’.

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Japanese transliteration of ‘electric’. The even more complicated etsurekitekirishiteita, the ‘electricitator’, was used in the lecture manual on physics Kikai kanran ko-gi (1851–1857), edited by the same author. Here, etsureki was commented as: ‘The Chinese nowadays translate this as denki (lightning fluid)’. In the second part of Ensei kiki jutsu, etsureki was completely replaced by denki. According to Kokugo daijiten, this was the first occurrence of the term denki in Japanese.13 That leads to the conclusion that the 1850s was the critical period when the older phonetic transcription from the Dutch learning, which is quite cumbersome and unsuggestive, was superseded by the new term ‘lightning fluid’ which was in current circulation among the Chinese. 4. EXCHANGING TERMS

The transition from the one term to the other can still be seen in the comments and side notes to the Japanese Bowu xinbian editions of the 1860s and 1870s. As for the Chinese translation of the new term, a comparison of nine bilingual dictionaries published between 1823 and 1892 shows the earliest occurrence in Wilhelm Lobscheid’s (1822–1893) English and Chinese dictionary of 1866, which gives Chinese equivalents for quite a number of English terms for electrical appliances.14 In other words, this is a case where no reloan was made. The Japanese language absorbed the Chinese word, and it is still in use today. For the translation of the appliance ‘telephone’, the opposite was the case. In Chinese, the appliance was first referred to as delüfeng ᗧᖻ付.15 The term denwa 䴫䂡 for ‘telephone’ was invented in Japan and later taken over in the Chinese language.16 13

14 15

16

Nihon kokugo dai jiten, To-kyo-: Sho-gakukan (2000–2002), Second Edition. Electronic version consulted. See Appendix 2, no. 5. Herbert A. Giles, Chinese-English Dictionary, London: Quaritch; Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1892, p. 362, no. 3664. Zhu Demei, ‘Qiantan Hanyu zhong de Riyu ‘Wailaiyu’ (Preliminary discussion of Japanese ‘Foreign loan words’, in Kejifeng (Technology trend), no. 23, 2010, p. 17, states as a reason for the change of terms a long report by a group of Chinese students from Shaoxing in Japan (among them the prominent writer Lu Xun (1881–1936). They compared Japanese to Chinese neologisms, referring to ‘electric speech’ (dianhua) as more ‘to the point’ than the phonetically close,

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27

As for the actual use of electricity in science and technology, from explorations of the Chinese side, this was a relatively slow process. As pioneering institutions of modern technology, the arsenals were likely places for the study and application of science and technology. The treatise on the Jiangnan Arsenal by the Director Wei Yungong (1867–1914) mentions several electric devices, but hardly as a separate category. Thus, one electric generator17 is enumerated as well as the production of ‘electrically activated torpedoes’.18 Apart from that, only a nickel-plating device for the production of Mauser smallbore guns is discussed at greater length as an ‘electrical appliance’.19 Furthermore, reference is made to electrical lighting and circuit boxes.20 Further initiatives to introduce theoretical physical knowledge by translation and practical implementation after the publication of Bowu xinbian (Hakubutsu shinpen) have been outlined by Amelung,21 and for the branch of electrical science by Xu Huakun.22 The first systematic presentation of the theory and application of electricity, the 1879 textbook Dianxue (‘Electrical science’) was produced at the Jiangnan Arsenal. It was an adaptation of Henry Minchin Noad’s (1815–1877) The Students’ Textbook of Electricity (1867), orally translated at the Arsenal by the chief translator John Fryer (1839–1928) and transcribed by his junior colleague Xu Jianyin (1845–1901).23 As

17

18

19 20 21

22

23

but semantically unrelated (literally) ‘virtue-rule-style’ (delüfeng). Lu Xun studied in Japan between 1902 and 1904. Wei Yungong, Jiangnan zhizaoju ji (An account of the Shanghai Arsenal), a photomechanic reprint of the original edition, Shanghai: Wenbao shuju, 1905, in Jindai Zhongguo shiliao congkan, series 23, 41, vol. 404, Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1969, chap. 3, fol. 49a. Electronic version in database Chinese Text Project consulted: https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&res=2570 (accessed 22 Febr. 2021). The date for this entry is given as Guangxu 28 (1902). Thomas L. Kennedy, The Arms of Kiangnan: Modernization in the Chinese Ordnance Industry, 1860–1895, Boulder, Col.: Westview Replica 1978, p. 110, dates this at starting from 1881. For the Tianjin Arsenal, Kennedy, p. 117, refers to the electrical production of underwater mines (shuilei) since 1876. Wei Yungong, Jiangnan zhizaoju ji, chap. 10, fol. 14a/b, dunie dianji 䥽䧣䴫₏. Wei Yungong, Jiangnan zhizaoju ji, chap. 8, fol. 14 a. Iwo Amelung, ‘Naming Physics: The Strife to Delineate a Field of Modern Science in Late Imperial China’, in Michael Lackner and Natascha Gentz (eds), Mapping Meanings, pp. 381–422, 387–390. Xu Huakun, ‘Zhou Xun he Dianxue gangmu’ (Zhou Xun and the general outlines of electricity), in Hangzhou daxue xuebao, no. 15/1, 1988, pp. 52–56, here 54. Li Yan, Feng Lisheng, ‘Wan Qing kexue yizhu “Dianxue” chutan’ (First explorations of the Late Qing translation ‘Study of electricity’), in Nei Menggu shifan daxue xuebao (Ziran kexue Hanwen ban), vol. 36, 2007, pp. 701–709.

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the editors of the series of translated books at the Jiangnan Arsenal remarked, the first chapter of Dianxue24 is not in Noad’s Textbook, but was taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on electricity written by David Brewster.25 The textbook followed closely, but not literally, both the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Noad’s Lectures, making additional explanations where it was deemed necessary. For instance, the phonetic rendering of ‘electron’ is introduced once with particular emphasis as ‘Yiliketuolun’ ԕ・‫ݻ‬㝛ٛ,26 as a phonetic transliteration of Gilbert’s newly coined term from around 1600. But apart from this mention, the only option to express electricity is the term dian, often in combination with qi.27 The ten parts of the translation follow Noad’s Lectures, including (I) Frictional electricity (mo dianqi, rubbed electricity), (II) Magnetism (xitie qi, the quality of attracting iron), (III) Electro-physiology (shengwu dianqi, living organisms and electricity), (IV) Voltaic electricity (hua dianqi, electricity (created by) chemical reactions (in voltaic piles or batteries)), (V) Electro-magnetism (dianqi xitie attracting iron by means of electricity), (VI) Diamagnetism (xitieqi zali various principles of magnetism),28 24

25

26 27

28

Dianxue (Study of electricity), by Henry M. Noad, transl. by John Fryer, transcribed by Xu Jianyin, Shanghai: Jiangnan zhizaoju, 1879. Digital edition from website Harvard Library consulted, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/curiosity/ chinese-rare-books/49-990081653720203941 (accessed 26 Feb. 2021). Jiangnan zhizaoju keji yizhu jicheng. Wulixue juan Di er fence: Dianxue. ed. by Feng Lisheng and Duan Hailong, Hefei: Zhongguo kexue jishu daxue chubanshe, 2017, ‘Dianxue tiyao’ (Brief summary of ‘Study of electricity’), Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1855, vol. 8, pp. 523–535, ‘History of Electricity’. Digital edition from the National Library of Scotland consulted, https://digital.nls.uk/193242033 (accessed 26 Feb. 2021). Dianxue, juan shou (introductory chapter), fol. 2b. Elman, in On Their Own Terms, p.191, states that endogenous Chinese observations of magnetism and static electricity did set out from thunder and lightning in the first place, and that although French Jesuit scientists at the Chinese court, Michel Benoist (1715–1774) and Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot (1718–1793), conducted experiments involving electricity around 1755, they decided not to communicate their findings. Thus, the prehistory of the association of ‘electricity’ and dian most likely cannot be attributed to eighteenth-century Jesuit ideas spread in China. Diagmagnetism, the phenomenon that certain substances, such as bismuth, are repelled (and move across, therefore ‘dia’) an induced magnetic field, while other substances, such as iron, are attracted to the poles of the magnetic field (see Henry Minchin Noad, The Student’s Text-Book of Electricity, London: Lockwood & Co., 1867, pp. 286–287, electronic version in Google Books consulted). The translation in Dianxue, chap. 6, fol. 4b is heng xitiezhi (crosswise iron-attracting quality). Presently, the terms kangcixing or fancixing (‘magnetism-resisting’ or ‘anti-magnetism’) are more common.

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(VII) Magneto-electricity (xitie dianqi), (VIII) Thermo-electricity (re dianqi), (IX) Electric telegraphy (dianqi bao), (X) Miscellaneous practical applications of electricity (dianqi shichen biaozhong ji zhu zafa electrical clocks and watches and various other appliances).29 Although electrical engineering may not have been a core subject to be studied at the Jiangnan Arsenal, Dianxue was not the only didactical work on electricity. Among the several other editions of textbooks and studies of electricity and related fields of technology, the reprint series of Jiangnan Arsenal translations from Western languages include Dianxue gangmu (General outline of electricity) of 1881, which is the translation of Notes of a Course of Seven Lectures on Electrical Phenomena and Theories (1870) by the natural scientist and inventor John Tyndall (1820–1893), and Dianxue cesuan (Measuring and calculating electricity), from the American scientist and inventor Thomas O’Connor Sloane’s (1851–1940) The Arithmetic of Electricity (1891), translated and published between 1906 and 1908. However, among these, Dianxue remained the most important and was reprinted several times. Nevertheless, it seems not to have been received in Japan with the same enthusiasm as Bowu xinbian. To date, the author has not found a translation of the book into Japanese. 5. ELECTRICITY AND ITS APPLICATIONS

As for contemporaneous civilian appliances of electricity, telegraphy and street illumination were the most important.The first telegraph line that connected Shanghai and Hong Kong was installed in 1871.30 Given the size of the territory, the investment costs and initial popular resistance, the process of a larger coverage was protracted one. The first school for telegraphers was established in Fuzhou in 1876. As to electrical street illumination at night, Shanghai was the forerunner. In Shanghai, the first trial electrical lighting was demonstrated by R.W. Little, who had founded the Shanghai Electric Company, in 1882.Yet in the initial years, competition with 29

30

These items include electric clocks, chronoscopes, chronographs, electric thermometers, electric targets, electric log, electric break (for railway trains), electric boiler feed, electric hydrostatimeter, electric engraving machine, electric loom, researches of H. Wilde (on producing dynamic electricity and inducing magnetism, leading to ‘illuminative powers’ and application in lighting), and on the measuring the quantity of electricity given by induction machines (Noad, Student’s Text-Book, pp. 477–504, in Dianxue, chap. 10, fol. 1a–27b.) Erik Baark, Lightning Wires: Telegraphs and China’s Technological Modernization 1860–1890, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 82.

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gas lamps was fierce, so that electric lighting was introduced only gradually.31 Likewise, Taiwan’s provincial governor and reformer Liu Mingchuan (1836–1896) established electrical lighting in the walled city of Taipei in 1887.This was not yet on a permanent basis, but it is interesting to note that this was before Japanese colonial times.32 For comparison with Japan, in To-kyo-, electrical bow lamps were in use since 1878, and referred to as denkiko-.33 6. CONCLUSION: THE TRIANGLE

Benjamin Elman has given an outline of the developing triangle of Chinese, Japanese, and Europe-USA interaction in respect to the acquisition of science and technology since the sixteenth century. His perspectives include theories, applications, linguistic encoding as well as institutions of scientific research. The practical applications in engineering are less of his concern. Elman outlines that one of the hindrances for the advances in scientific research, particularly physics, may have been the segmentation of the branches of physics instead of a more integrative conception of the fields of mechanics, optics, acoustics, electricity, and thermodynamics.34 From the perspective taken in the present deliberations, this may have been less of a problem, whereas the relatively late institutionalisation of learning science and technology in China has definitely played a larger role. As the global achievements in science, and especially in engineering, of our day show, this triangle has tremendously changed within the last 150 years. Explorations of examples at the early stages of the adoption of the sciences in China and Japan has reached a fairly complete understanding of the initial processes. The study of the coherence of institutions, 31

32

33

34

Electrification of the rural areas was much slower. Wu Xiujie, Ein Jahrhundert Licht. Eine technikethnologische Studie zur Beleuchtung im chinesischen ländlichen Alltag, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009, p. 129 f. points to large-scale electrification projects after 1958, which were first and foremost intended for raising industrial production. She states that electricity for lighting became generally available in villages only in the 1970s. According to the statistics she cites (p. 138), in 1965 30% of the villages in Hebei had access to power supply networks, and even in 1990 5% of the villages still had no access. James W. Davidson, The Island of Formosa Past and Present, London: Macmillan, and Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1903, p. 247. To-kyo- Nichinichi shinbun, Meiji 11 (1878), December 24, mentions that during the graduation ceremony of the Physics Department of the Faculty of Science of To-kyo- University, experimental use was made of electric lighting. Elman, On their Own Terms, p. 415.

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theories, terms and applications in the initial triangular setting will gain much from stressing application on one hand, and taking the focal point of present-day achievements with a view to transnational and global perspectives on the other hand. APPENDIX 1

Editions of the Bowu xibian / Hakubutsu shinpen Chinese: Bowu xinbian sanji ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘й䳶 (New edition of natural philosophy in three parts), Shanghai: Mohai Shuguan (Inkstone press), Xianfeng 5 (1855), Block printing. Bowu xinbian tushuo ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘െ䃚 (Illustrations and explanations to new edition of natural philosophy), ed. by Chen Xiutang 䲣‫؞‬า, Shanghai: Cang Jingshi Guan, Guangxu 24 (1898), Lithography. Japanese: Kanban Hakubutsu shinpenᇈᶯঊ⢙ᯠ㐘 (Official version of the new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), Edo: Ro-so-kan, Yorozuya Heishiro- 㘱 Ⲱ㡈зቻ‫ޥ‬ഋ䛾, Genji 1 (1864). Hakubutsu shinpen yakkai ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘䁣䀓 (Commented translation of the - mori Ichunew edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), ed. and transl. by O བྷ἞ᜏѝ, (Tokyo:) Aoyama Seikichi 䶂ኡ␵ਹ, Meiji 2–3 (1869– 1870). Kaisei Hakubutsu shinpen: zen 3satsu ᭩↓ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘‫ޘ‬й޼ (Corrected new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen in three volumes), Kagoshima Prefecture, Meiji 4 (1871). Hakubutsu shinpen ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘 (New edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), (To-kyo-): Fukuda Takanori ⾿⭠ᮜᾝ, Meiji 5 (1872). Hakubutsu shinpen yakkai, Kaitei 2 han ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘䁣䀓 ᭩䀲⡸ (Commented translation of the new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen, - mori Ichu-, (To-kyo-:) improved re-edition), ed. and transl. by O Aoyama Seikichi, Meiji 7 (1874). - saka-fu: Hakubutsu shinpen ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘, ed. by Fukuda Takanori, O Tsurugaya Kyu-bei ᮖ䋰ቻҍ‫ޥ‬㺋, Meiji 8 (1875). Hakubutsu shinpen engi ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘╄㗙 (Expounded new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), ed. by Horino Ryo-hei, ะ䟾㢟ᒣ; (Aichi-ken) Inuyama-machi: Horino Ryo-hei, Meiji 8 (1875). Hakubutsu shinpen kogi 2–4 ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘䅋㗙ধ2-4 (Lectures on the new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen, 2–4), ed. by Kondo- Keizo- 䘁㰔൝䙐 䘠 (To-kyo-): Aoyama Seikichi et al., Meiji 9 (1876).

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Go-to- hakubutsu shinpen 唷九ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘, ed. by Komuro Seiichi ሿᇔ䃐 а九, (To-kyo-:) Inada Masakichi ぢ⭠᭯ਹ, Meiji 9 (1876). Hakubutsu shinpen chu- kai ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘䁫䀓 (Comment to the new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), comm.by Fukuda Takanori To-kyo-: Ho-shu-doᇍ䳶า, Meiji 9 (1876). Hakubutsu shinpen: Hyo-chu- ঊ⢙ᯠ㐘 ⁉䁫 (Commented and punctuated new edition of Hakubutsu shinpen), ed. by Ajiro Ryo-suke ᆹԓ 㢟䕄; Fujii Saisho- 㰔Ӆᴰ䁬, Kyo-to: Kawashima Kyu-emon ⋣ጦҍ ਣ㺋䮰, Meiji 10 (1877). APPENDIX 2

The term for ‘electricity’ featured in nine bilingual dictionaries published between 1823 and 1892: ķ1823 Robert Morrison (1782–1834), A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, London / Macao: East India Company Press, Thoms (1815–1822), vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 644: 䴫 T’hëén: The fire emitted from clouds; lightning. ĸ1843 Walter H. Medhurst (1796–1857), Chinese-English-Dictionary, containing all the words in the Imperial Dictionary, Batavia: Parapattan, p. 1283: 䴫 T’hëén: Lightning. Ĺ1847 Walter H. Medhurst (1796–1857), English-Chinese-Dictionary, Shanghae: Printed at the Mission Press (1847–1848), vol. 1, p. 483: Electricity: ⩕⧰⼘⧫⪳Ⲭ⚛ѻ⌅ (The method of rubbing amber to glass and emitting fire). ĺ1853 Joseph Des Guignes (1721–1800), Dictionarium Sinico-Latinum, Hong-Kong:Typis missionis de propaganda fide, no. 11958 䴫 TIÉN Fulgetrum, fulgur, fulgor, qui tonitru praecedit. Ļ1866 Wilhelm Lobscheid (1822–1893), English and Chinese dictionary: With the Punti and Mandarin pronunciation (1866–1869), Hongkong: Daily Press Office (1866–1869), vol 1, p. 712 Electric, electrical 䴫ಘⲴ; electrical shock 䴫≓Ⲭ᫺; an electrical machine 䴫≓ѻಘ Electrician ᆨ䴫≓㘵; one versed in the science of electricity ᮉ䴫≓ 㘵, 䴫≓ঊ༛ Electricity, the subtle agent called electric fluid 䴫≓; The science which unfolds the phenomena and laws of electric fluid 䴫≓ѻ⨶, 䴫≓ѻ䚃 Electrifiable ਟ㌽䴫≓Ⲵ Electrified, charged with electricity 䴫≓Ⲵ Electrify, to communicate electricity to ۣ䴫≓ (…)ۣ䴫≓䙾Ԇ⢙; (…) to electrify an audience ԕ䴫≓ۣ㚭㘵

EARLY CONCEPTIONS OF ELECTRICITY

33

Electrifying ۣ䴫≓ Electrine, belonging to amber ⩕⧰Ⲵ Electrization ۣ䴫≓㘵 Electro-chemical 䴫❹⌅Ⲵ Electro-chemistry, the science which treats of the agency of electricity and galvanism in effecting chemical changes 䴫❹ѻ⌅ Electro-magnetic 䴫᭍Ⲵˈ䴫᭍ѻ⨶Ⲵ Electro-magnetism, that science which treats of the agency of electricity and galvanism in communicating magnetic properties 䴫᭍ѻ⌅ Electro-metallurgy ԕ䴫≓䪢䠁ѻ⌅, 䴫䪢ѻ⨶ Electro-negative 䴫䲠Ⲵ Electro-plated 䴫≓䪢Ⲵ Electro-polar 䴫䲠䲭Ⲵ Electro-telegraph 䴫๡ Electrolyze, to ԕ䴫≓䧄⢙ Electromoter (sic) ᓖ䴫≓ѻಘˈᓖ䴫≓࣋䠍 Electrometor (sic) अ䴫≓㘵ˈⲬ䴫≓㘵 Electron ⩕⧰ Electrophorus ⭏䴫ಘѻಘ Electrum 䴫≓ѻ⢙ˈⲬ䴫≓ѻ⢙ Cathode 䴫≓䲠䐟; the negative pole 䲠ᾥ ļ1877 Couvreur, Séraphin, (1835–1919), Dictionarium linguae Sinicae latinum, cum brevi interpretatione gallica, ex radicum ordine dispositum; Ho Kien Fou: In missione catholica S.J., p. 649, no. 11958   

䴫 éclair - fulgur 䴫≓ électricité 䴫㏛ télégraphe électrique

Ľ1889 Williams, Samuel Wells, (1812–1884), A syllabic dictionary of the Chinese language: arranged according to the Wu-fang Yuen Yin, with the pronunciation of the characters as heard in Peking, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, p. 896 

䴫 TIEN: lightning; a flash of lightning, electricity (…) to telegraph; electric 䴫㏛ telegraph wires 䴫๡ a telegram 䴫≓㺘 an electrical machine

ľ1890 Couvreur, Séraphin, (1835–1919), Dictionnaire classique de la langue chinoise, Ho Kien Fou: Imprimérie de la mission catholique, p. 879

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TIEN 䴫 éclair 䴫≓ fluide électrique 䴫㏛ fil télégraphique 䴫๡(Ӝ๡) télégramme Ŀ1892 Giles, Herbert A. (1845–1935), A Chinese-English dictionary, London / Shanghai etc.: Quaritch / Kelly & Walsh, p. 1107 䴫4 TIEN Lightning; Electricity 䴫≓ Electricity 䴫≓⟸ An electric light REFERENCES Alleton, Viviane and Jean Claude Alleton, Terminologie de la chimie en chinois moderne, Paris: Mouton, 1966. Amelung, Iwo, ‘Naming Physics: The Strife to Delineate a Field of Modern Science in Late Imperial China’, in Michael Lackner and Natascha Gentz (eds), Mapping Meanings: Translating Western Knowledge into Late Imperial China, Leiden: Brill, 2004, pp. 381– 422. Baark, Erik, Lightning Wires: The Telegraph and China’s Technological Modernization, 1860–1890, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. Chambers’ Educational Course, (IV), Elements of Chemistry and Electricity, New York: A.S. Barnes, 1850. Digital edition from Hathi Trust consulted, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095713327 &view=1up&seq=265 (accessed 1 March 2021). Davidson, James W., The Island of Formosa Past and Present, London: Macmillan and Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1903. Elman, Benjamin, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1855. Digital edition from the National Library of Scotland consulted, https://digital.nls.uk/193242033 (accessed 26 Feb. 2021). Fan Jing, Feng Lisheng, ‘Wan Qing tianwenxue yizhu “Tan tian” banben kao’ (A Study of the editions of the late Qing Astronomical Translation “On the Sky”, in Nei Menggu shifan daxue xuebao (Ziran kexue ban) (Journal of the Inner Mongolia Normal University, Natural Sciences Edition), 2007, vol. 6, pp. 694–700. Feng Lisheng and Duan Hailong (eds), Jiangnan zhizaoju keji yizhu jicheng (Series of translations on science and technology from the Jiangnan Arsenal), vol. 2: Physics, part 2: Electrical studies, Hefei: Zhongguo kexue jishu daxue chubanshe, 2017.

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Giles, Herbert A., Chinese-English Dictionary, London: Quaritch, Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1892. ‘Highly Cited Researchers, Powered by Web of Science, 2019 Recipients’, website Clarivate, https://recognition.webofscience. com/awards/highly-cited/2019/ (accessed 27 Feb. 2021). Hsia, Florence C., Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Inui Akifumi, Yamamoto Mitsuyoshi, Kawaguchi Yoshihiro, ‘Edo kara Meiji no denki’ (Electricity in the period from Edo to Meiji), in Kokushikan Daigaku Riko-gakubu kiyo-, (Transactions of the Kokushikan University School of Science and Engineering), no. 5, 2012-03, pp. 22–29. Jami, Catherine, The Emperor’s New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Kennedy, Thomas L., The Arms of Kiangnan: Modernization in the Chinese Ordnance Industry, 1860–1895, Boulder, Col.: Westview Replica, 1978. Lackner, Michael, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz (eds), New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China, Leiden: Brill, 2001. Lackner, Michael and Natascha Gentz (eds), Mapping Meanings: The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, Leiden: Brill, 2004. Lippert, Wolfgang, Entstehung und Funktion einiger chinesischer marxistischer Termini: Der lexikalisch-begriffliche Aspekt der Rezeption des Marxismus in Japan und China, Wiesbaden: Steiner 1979. Lippert, Wolfgang, ‘Language and the Modernization Process: The Integration of Western Concepts and Terms into Chinese and Japanese in the Nineteenth Century’, in Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, Joachim Kurtz (eds), in New Terms for New Ideas Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China, Leiden: Brill, 2001, pp. 57–66. Li Yan, Feng Lisheng, ‘Wan Qing kexue yizhu “Dianxue” chutan’ (First explorations of the Late Qing translation ‘Study of electricity’), in Nei Menggu shifan daxue xuebao (Ziran kexue Hanwen ban), vol. 36, 2007, pp. 701–709. Matsunaga Toshio, ‘Chenbaasu cho Kagaku nyu- mon to Obata Tokujiroyaku Hakubutsu shinpen ho’i’ (Chamber’s Kagaku nyu- mon and Obata Tokujiro-’s translation of Hakubutsu shinpen ho’i), in Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku ningen kagaku (Human sciences review, St. Andrew’s University), 2003, vol. 24, pp. 149–168. Nakamura Satoshi, ‘Hakubutsu shinpen ni miru Nihon no kindai kagaku kyo-iku’ (Japan’s education in the modern sciences as seen from Hakubutsu shinpen, new edition), in To-yo- Daigaku Chu-goku tetsugaku

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bungakka kiyo- (Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Philosophy and Literature of To-yo- University), no. 21, 2013/03, pp. 318–305. Needham, Joseph, Wang Ling, Kenneth Girthwood Robinson, Science and Civilisation in China (SCC), vol. IV, Physics and Physical Technology, part 1, Physics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. Noad, Henry Minchin, The Student’s Text-Book of Electricity, London: Lockwood & Co. 1867. (Electronic version in Google Books consulted.) Noad, Henry Minchin, Dianxue (Study of Electricity), transl. by John Fryer, transcribed by Xu Jianyin, Shanghai: Jiangnan zhizaoju, 1879. Digital edition at website Harvard Library, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ curiosity/chinese-rare-books/49-990081653720203941 (accessed 26 Feb. 2021). Pendlebury, David, ‘Highly Cited Researchers 2019: Strong evidence of Mainland China’s rise to the highest levels of research’, website Clarivate, https://clarivate.com/blog/highly-cited-researchers2019-strong-evidence-of-mainland-chinas-rise-to-the-highestlevels-of-research/ (accessed 27 Feb. 2021). Reardon-Anderson, James, The Study of Change: Chemistry in China, 1840–1949, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Saigusa Hiroto (ed.), Nihon kagaku koten zensho, vol. 6, To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1942, pp. 527–569 and 571–627. To-kyo- Nichinichi shinbun, Meiji 11 (24 December 1878). Wei Yungong, Jiangnan zhizaoju ji (An account of the Shanghai Arsenal), photomechanic reprint of the original edition, Shanghai: Wenbao shuju 1905, in Jindai Zhongguo shiliao congkanx, series 23, 41, vol. 404, Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe 1969, chap. 3, fol. 49a. Electronic version in database Chinese Text Project consulted: https://ctext.org/library. pl?if=gb&res=2570 (accessed 22 Feb. 2021). Wright, David, Translating Science. The Transmission of Western Chemistry into Late Imperial China, 1840–1900, Leiden: Brill 2000. Wu Xiujie, Ein Jahrhundert Licht. Eine technikethnologische Studie zur Beleuchtung im chinesischen ländlichen Alltag, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009. Xu Huakun, ‘Zhou Xun he Dianxue gangmu’ (Zhou Xun and the Dianxue gangmu), in Hangzhou daxue xuebao 1988, no. 15/1, pp. 52–56. Yatsumimi Toshifumi, ‘Bakumatsu Meiji shoki torai shita shizen shingakuteki shizenkan–Hobuson Hakubutsu shinpen wo chu-shin ni’ (Between natural theology and natural philosophy: A study of B. Hobson’s Chinese works and their Japanese editions), in Aoyama Gakuin Joshi Tanki Daigaku so-go- bunka kenkyu- -jo nenpo- no. 4, 1996, pp. 127–140. Zhu Demei, ‘Qiantan Hanyu zhong de Riyu “wailaiyu”‘ (Preliminary discussion of Japanese ‘loan words’ in Chinese), in Kejifeng (Technology Trend), no. 23, 2010, p. 17.

3

Creating Intellectual Space for West–East and East–East Knowledge Transfer: Global Mining Literacy and the Evolution of Textbooks on Mining in Late Qing China, 1860–19111 CHEN Hailian

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1. INTRODUCTION: ‘THE STUDY OF MINING’ AND GLOBAL MINING LITERACY

STANDING ON THE verge of collapse, reform-minded late Qing officials placed hope in restoring power through modernizing science and technology in order to resist foreign encroachments. Similar to the emphasis on technical education during the Meiji period in Japan (1868–1912), those Chinese governors attached strategic importance to promoting science and technology in the Selfstrengthening Movement (zìqiáng yùndòng,1861–1895), although the Chinese government did not undertake the thorough institutional reform that took place in Japan.2 By 1895, they had established more 1

2

The results presented in this article are part of the author’s research carried out within the project ‘Die Wegbereiter von Chinas Aufstieg zur Technologiemacht: Technische Bildungseinrichtungen und ihre Studierenden im Zeitalter des Globalen Wandels, 1860–1911’ (The Pioneers of China’s Rise to Technological Power: Technical Educational Institutions and Their Students in the Age of Global Transformation, 1860–1911) at the University of Leipzig, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, project number 01UL1909X). The author would like to thank BMBF for its generous financial support. Special thanks are due to Mr. Bradford C. Gray for his careful editing of the text. See, for example, Kuo Ting-yee and Liu Kwang-ching, ‘Self-strengthening: The pursuit of Western technology’, in John K. Fairbank (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, Volume 10: Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911, Part 1, London: Cambridge 37

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than twenty technical schools modelled on Western systems.3 Also parallel to the development of Western-style education, more than 500 books were translated by missionaries and their Chinese collaborators from Western languages into Chinese from 1860 to 1900.4 Although some of these books addressed ethical and religious topics, the majority of them were on scientific and technical subjects, accounting for over 70% of all the translations.5 Some of these books, particularly the important translations published by the Translation Bureau of the Jiangnan Arsenal and Beijing School of Foreign Languages, were also quickly exported to Japan.6 The Chinese scientific terms disseminated to Japan in various books and journals before and after 1860 had a great influence on the early Meiji scholars, who commonly possessed a solid knowledge of classical Chinese. During this period, Dutch works declined in popularity among Japanese scholars, who now began to prefer other Western works, especially those in English.The Chinese translations provided an important and timely vehicle for their quick grasp of English. After 1880, a language standardization reform took place in Japan to unify Japanese speech and writing, and the modern Japanese lexicon in the natural sciences took its initial shape. Although almost no contemporary Chinese scholars paid attention to the changes and development of scientific works in Japan at that time, Japan became a crucial knowledge exporter to China in the decades that followed.7

3

4

5 6

7

University Press, 1978, pp. 491–542. For a brief comparative view of the Chinese and Japanese reforms during and after the 1860s, see, Ezra F. Vogel, China and Japan: Facing History, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019, pp. 65–76. See Knight Biggerstaff, The Earliest Modern Government Schools in China, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1961. See also Chen, Hailian, ‘Technology for Re-engineering the Qing Empire in an Age of Crisis: The Concept of “Arts” and the Emergence of Modern Technical Education in China, 1840–1895’, ICON (peer-reviewed and accepted, forthcoming 2021). Xiong Yuezhi, Xixue dongjian yu wan Qing shehui (The dissemination of Western learning and the late Qing society), Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1994, pp. 11–12. Xiong, Xixue dongjian, p. 12. Benjamin A. Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005, pp. 410–412; Wang Xiaoqiu, ‘Hanyi xifang keji shuji dui Riben de yingxiang (The Chinese translations of Western works and their influences on Japan)’, in Li Tingju and Yoshida Tadashi (eds), ZhongRi wenhua jiaoliu shi daxi: kejijuan (Compendium on the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange: Volume on science and technology), Hangzhou: Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1996, pp. 248–262. Shen Guowei, Jindai Zhong Ri cihui jiaoliu yanjiu: hanzi xinci de chuangzhi, rongshou yu gongxiang (A study of modern Sino-Japanese lexical exchanges: creation, acceptance, and sharing of new Chinese words), Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2010, pp. 23–25, 65–110.

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After China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, the Japanese achievements in educational reform during the Meiji period began to draw the attention of the late Qing reformers.The East–East (i.e., from Japan to China) transfer of knowledge became a new normal in the last two decades of the late Qing era: modern-style schools modelled on those in Japan were adopted in China;8 the number of Chinese students travelling to Japan increased rapidly, from less than 100 from 1896 to 1898 to over 8,000 in 1905;9 hundreds of Japanese teachers in different subjects were hired in China;10 and Japanese books, in particular, textbooks for schools, became favoured for translation by those Chinese students returning from Japan.11 In analysing these historical events, previous studies have addressed the significance of the Sino-Western and Sino-Japanese cultural contacts, exchanges, and transfers of scientific knowledge, especially under the Chinese term ‘xixue dongjian’ (the dissemination of Western learning in China). One mainstream research field is concerned with the educated Jesuit and Protestant missionaries and their Chinese elite collaborators, as well as their translated works and activities dating back to the late Ming period (1368– 1644).12 Nevertheless, modern scholars devoted relatively little attention to technical subjects, such as mining (broadly defined to include geology, mineralogy, prospecting, ore treatment, and metallurgy) in the context of China’s transformation. Mining, considered even older in human history than agriculture, was both an old and a new topic for the nineteenthcentury Chinese intellectuals. The long eighteenth century (ca. 1680s–1820s) witnessed the boom of traditional mining in China, especially the two most distinctive mining industries, copper and zinc, for the minting purposes of the Qing (1644–1912) state. Mining administration undertaken by the Qing officials was crucial in 8

9

10 11

12

See Cong Xiaoping, Teachers’ Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese NationState, 1897–1937, Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2007, pp. 18–37. Paula Harrell, Sowing the Seeds of Change: Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895– 1905, Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 1992, pp. 2, 61–73; and Douglas R. Reynolds, China, 1898–1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan, Cambridge, MA.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1993, pp. 41–64. Reynolds, China, 1898–1912, pp. 65–110. Bi Yuan, Jianzao changshi: Jiaokeshu yu jindai Zhongguo wenhua zhuanxing (Making common sense: Textbooks and the transformation of modern Chinese culture), Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2010, pp. 36–83; Reynolds, China, 1898– 1912, pp. 117–126; Xiong, Xixue dongjian, pp. 638–656. See, for example, Xiong, Xixue dongjian; Adrian Arthur Bennett, John Fryer: The Introduction of Western Science and Technology into Nineteenth-Century China, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967; and, Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung et al. (eds), New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China, Leiden: Brill, 2001.

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maintaining the thriving metal-producing and consuming culture. Nevertheless, those literati-officials appointed to supervise mining taxation or transportation of mining products generally had no hands-on experience in mining practices. Their knowledge of mining, or mining literacy, was limited to administrative and managerial skills. The real techniques were mastered by illiterate or semiliterate artisans, skilled and unskilled miners, and various mining labourers, who could neither write down their technical knowledge nor have access to published works on mining.13 At the same time, throughout the Chinese imperial periods, mining was not a favoured topic for the Confucian-trained literati-officials because, in an agrarian society, agriculture was viewed as the basis of society, while mining was often considered by the rulers to be a threat to social stability.14 After 1850, various mining crises, including water drainage problems, shortage of capital, corruption in the mining administration, and social unrest, exacerbated this unfavourable view of mining. Nevertheless, these crises, in association with the survival of late Qing China, posed a new challenge for the literati-officials. Their mining literacy, initially coming only from management processes, had to be renewed and updated with Western learning, in particular with the incorporation of Western mining techniques. In addition to translating and introducing Western works on mining into China, those late Qing intellectuals were eager to re-discover the knowledge of mining in classical learning. ‘The study of mining’ (kuangxue ⽖ᆨ)15 was re-established as a new academic field after 1860. 13

14

15

See Chen Hailian, Zinc for Coin and Brass: Bureaucrats, Merchants, Artisans, and Mining Laborers in Qing China, ca. 1680s–1830s, Leiden: Brill, 2019, pp. 395– 400. See also Peter J. Golas, Science and Civilisation in China. vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 13: Mining, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. See Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, Chapter 3 and 7. In this regard, the Confuciantrained literati-officials also showed remarkably disproportionate interest in different sectors of technological practices. For example, hundreds of agricultural treatises and monographs were written and published before 1900. See Francesca Bray, ‘Chinese Literati and the Transmission of Technological Knowledge: The Case of Agriculture’, in Dagmar Schäfer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 299–325. Recent studies by Li Mingyang and by Fang Yibing have shed some new light on the formation of modern mining knowledge under Western influence. See Li Mingyang, ‘Zhong Xi zhishi jiaohui xia de “kuangxue”’, in Gongcheng yanjiu: kuaxueke shiye zhong de gongcheng (Journal of Engineering Studies), vol. 9, no. 6, 2017, pp. 638–643, (note by the author: Li’s original English title for his paper is ‘Learning of Mines at the Meeting of Chinese and Western Knowledge’.

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Depending on the context, the terms for the intellectual discourse on ‘the study of mining’ (kuangxue), for general ‘mining affairs’ (kuangwu ⽖उ), and for ‘mining administration’ (kuangzheng ⽖᭯), were often used interchangeably. The last two terms, as the author has discussed in my earlier study on zinc mining, should be interpreted as the Qing officials’ ‘soft’ techniques or managerial skills with regard to mining technology.16 The new term kuangxue stresses the scholarly enthusiasm in pursuing the knowledge of mining in the technical aspect, but it is still a term coined within the old frame of kuangwu or kuangzheng. In some contexts, kuangxue also referred to the financial and organizational aspects of the new managerial skills. This chapter examines the evolution of textbooks on mining and by coining the term ‘global mining literacy’, it analyses how Western or global mining knowledge17 was re-established in the Chinese knowledge system, and became a new feature of the late Qing intellectual culture. This chapter first briefly analyses the nature of Chinese traditional mining literature in comparison with Europe. It describes the English missionary and educator in China John Fryer’s (1839–1928) efforts in purchasing the earliest Western sources on mining, and demonstrates how text-based mining knowledge was circulated among Chinese intellectuals and influenced mining practices. It then points out the limits of using the translated works in mining education and discusses the language difficulties in producing textbooks in Chinese. It examines the changes of textbooks on minerology in the Japanese translation ‘fever’ after 1895, and briefly evaluates the last efforts of the late Qing mining experts or engineers to produce their own textbooks. 2. DEFINITION OF TEXTBOOKS AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE WRITINGS ON MINING

To begin, the term ‘textbook’ needs clarifications. The word ‘textbook’ is commonly believed to have been first or publicly used

16 17

A revised version by the author is titled ‘Study of Mining’ at the converging point of Chinese and Western knowledge); and Fang Yibing, ‘Kuangchan xin zhishi de xingcheng, chuanbo yu jindai Zhili mei tie kuang kaifa de zhaoshi (1863–1874)’ (From discourse to action: the commencement of the first modern mining project in China (1863–1874), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu, vol. 37, no. 2, 2018, pp. 188–204. See Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, Chapter 4, esp. pp. 167–170. The term ‘global knowledge’ in this article refers to the knowledge transferred from the West to China and Japan and from Japan to China (primarily after 1895), and it stresses the transnational/transregional and cross-cultural flow of knowledge.

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in China by missionaries as well as non-missionaries (such as John Fryer) in naming ‘The School and Textbook Series Committee’, which was established in 1877 in Shanghai (later becoming the Educational Association of China during 1890–1915).18 However, the Chinese translation for that association was Yizhi shuhui (Useful Knowledge Book Society) and did not apply the equivalent term for textbooks. The modern Chinese term jiaokeshu ᮉ、Җ for textbook was regularly used after 1897. Therefore, scholars tend to call those translated books appearing, roughly, before 1897 or 1900, proto-textbooks, since there were neither teaching plans nor specific learning programmes at schools published along with the translations.19 Such a periodization in studying the history of modern Chinese textbooks is commonly accepted, and almost all the existing research on textbooks treats the year 1902 as the starting point of modern textbooks. In that year, the modern-style school system, with an urgent demand for school textbooks, was announced nationwide.20 Nevertheless, existing studies have omitted that the borrowed modern Chinese term ‘textbook’ was also an evolving concept in the Western context. ‘Textbook’, for example, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is ‘a book that contains detailed information about a subject for people who are studying that subject’.21 ‘Textbook’ also has several synonyms, such as ‘handbook’, ‘manual’, ‘primer’, and even ‘text’, which emphasize the instructional purpose of these documents.As George Sarton points out, early science textbooks were often called ‘treatises’ before the nineteenth century.22 We should not ignore the fact that the wide reception of learning science and technology among elites in the West did not happen before the nineteenth century. At the beginning of their development, the technical education institutes in Europe were separated from the university systems. Only after 1870 did a global 18

19

20

21

22

After 1915, the Educational Association of China was renamed China Christian Education Association. See Eunice V. Johnson, Timothy Richard’s Vision: Education and Reform in China, 1880–1910, Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2014, pp. 71–72. It remains unclear so far whether the Chinese term jiaokeshu was a loanword borrowed from Japanese. See Bi, Jianzao changshi, p. 8. See, for example, Peter G. Zarrow, Educating China: Knowledge, Society and Textbooks in a Modernizing World, 1902–1937, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/textbook (accessed 20 November 2020). George Sarton, ‘The Study of Early Scientific Textbooks’, in Isis, 38 (1948), pp. 137–148. Cf. Josef Simon, ‘Textbooks’, in Bernard Lightman (ed.), Companion to the History of Science, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016, pp. 400–413.

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convergence of technical education occur, and higher technical education (in particular, engineering education) become a legitimate academic field in the world.23 Even in the 1880s, there were still debates over science education and classical learning among British elites.24 Yet, much earlier than in China, technology was included among the scholarly arts in early modern Europe. Writings transmitting technology-related knowledge as well as technical drawings were vital vehicles for the formalization of engineering or technical education.25 In particular, in the fields of mining as well as metallurgy, treatises written by experienced experts in Europe began to emerge and flourish after 1500.26 Informal mining education already existed in early eighteenth-century Europe, and by the 1760s three early mining schools were established in Prague (now in the Czech Republic), Freiberg (in Saxony, Germany) and Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia).27 As Hans Ulrich Vogel points out, one significant factor in European mining was the emergence of mining experts while in general, there was little evidence of professional or academic technical knowledge in early modern China.28 In general, there were few written texts on Chinese mining and metallurgical processes before the late nineteenth century.29 The well-known technical writings that provide illustrated descriptions of mining and metallurgical operations are the Tiangong kaiwu (Exploitation of the works of nature) (published in 1637) and the Diannan kuangchang tulüe (Illustrated account 23

24 25

26

27

28

29

Peter Lundgreen, ‘Engineering Education in Europe and the U.S.A., 1750–1930: The Rise to Dominance of School Culture and the Engineering Professions’, in Annals of Science 47, no. 1, 1990, pp. 33–75. Elman, On Their Own Terms, pp. 321–323. Marcus Popplow, ‘Two cultures speaking with one voice? Invention, ingenuity, and agricultural innovation in pre-industrial European and Chinese discourse’, in Dagmar Schäfer (eds), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History, pp. 327–343. Pamela O. Long, Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, pp. 175–191. Hans Ulrich Vogel, ‘The Mining Industry in Traditional China: Intra- and Intercultural Comparisons’, in Helga Nowotny (ed.), Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation, New York: Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 173–174; and Hans Ulrich Vogel, ‘The Transfer of Mining and Smelting Technology between Asia and Europe in the Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in Journal of the Japan-Netherlands Institute 3, 1991, pp. 80–81. Vogel, ‘The Mining Industry’, pp. 170–173; and Vogel, ‘The Transfer of Mining’, pp. 75–80. Cf. Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, pp. 395–400.

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of the mines and smelters in Yunnan) (published in 1844). The former was written in a rather brief style by Song Yingxing (1587–1666?), who was a minor regional official born in Jiangxi. The latter work was written by Wu Qijun (1789–1847), who was an influential Qing governor born in Henan. Neither of these writings on mining provide inside knowledge from the perspective of technical experts.30 As both Francesca Bray and Peter Golas have pointed out, the so-called technological texts and graphics in imperial China were aimed more at the rulers and the elites than at general readers; their emphases were on conveying messages for administrative purposes rather than technical details.31 However, those books on mining were indeed important handbooks or manuals for Chinese scholar-officials to learn about mining (though often about mining administration), and hence could be treated as textbooks for building their mining literacy. Similarly, the later translated works on mining were also textbooks for scholarly learning, because no formal mining or science education existed in the late Qing era before 1895. 3. NEW SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE FROM THE WEST: JOHN FRYER AND THE JIANGNAN ARSENAL SERIES

Although a few sporadic cases did exist, in general there was little indigenous desire among Chinese intellectuals to develop a genuine technical interest in learning about mining. Another window of opportunity for learning about mining-related subjects opened up for Chinese intellectuals when they encountered Western missionaries in the Ming period. Around 1640, when Ming China was in crisis, the Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) translated Georgius Agricola’s renowned De Re Metallica (1556) into Chinese, entitling it Kunyu gezhi. That translation aimed to ease the late-Ming fiscal crises through introducing new mining knowledge and techniques in China. However, the manuscript was not widely disseminated and did not survive32 because the dynasty 30 31

32

See Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, pp. 400, 405–406. Francesca Bray, ‘Introduction: The Powers of Tu’, in Francesca Bray, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, and Georges Métailié (eds), Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China: The Warp and the Weft, Leiden: Brill, 2007, pp. 1–78; and Peter J. Golas, Picturing Technology in China: From Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015. So far, only one hand-copied manuscript has been re-discovered in the Nanjing University Library, in 2015. See Han Fengran, ‘Nantu cang Yan Jie jiaoben –

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collapsed four years after it was completed, and also because the Chinese officials held a general anti-Jesuit attitude at that time.33 Thus the translation failed to arouse as much intellectual interest as might be expected. As mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, the next wave of Western mining works occurred when the Qing dynasty was in severe crisis after 1860. At that time, the missionaries, as well as non-missionaries and their Chinese collaborators, engaged actively in numerous translation projects. Normally, ‘the foreigner translator, having first mastered his subject, sits down with the Chinese writer and dictates to him sentence by sentence’.34 Their Chinese partners would then draft and revise the text in a literary style (i.e., in classical Chinese). John Fryer (1839–1928) was the most productive translator. This Englishman, who had first taught at the missionary Anglo-Chinese school, translated, at least 157 works,35 especially from 1868 to 1896 when he worked at the Translation Bureau in the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai. After 1896, he left China for the University of California at Berkeley, where he was the first Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literatures, and where his translating continued. This man, who used to introduce himself as ‘Translator of scientific books’,36 contributed extensively to the early translations of scientific and technical textbooks, in particular, to the formation and standardization of early terminologies.37

33 34

35

36

37

Tang Ruowang Kunyu gezhi chukao’ (A manuscript collated by Yan Jie and stored in the Nanjing Library: a first investigation into Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s Kunyu gezhi), in Zhongguo dianji yu wenhua (Chinese Classics and Culture), vol. 95, no. 4, 2015, pp. 58–64; and Hans Ulrich Vogel, ‘“Das wird gewiss die Staatskasse füllen!” Johann Adam Schall von Bells chinesische Übertragung von Agricolas De re metallica libri XII im Jahre 1640’, in 27. Rundbrief: AgricolaForschungszentrum Chemnitz (2019), pp. 55–82. Vogel, ‘The Transfer of Mining’, pp. 82–84. John Fryer, ‘An Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Kiangnan Arsenal’, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (Jan. 29, 1880), p. 80. For a list of John Fryer’s Chinese translations including published and unpublished works, see Ferdinand Dagenais et al. (compiled and annotated), Fu Lanya dang’an (The John Fryer Papers), Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2010, vol. 2 (Years in Shanghai Jiangnan Arsenal, 1872–1896), pp. 639–644; see also Wang Yangzong, Fu Lanya yu jindai Zhongguo de kexue qimeng (John Fryer and scientific enlightenment in modern China), Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2000, pp. 126–133. See, for example, Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1 (The First Decade in China, 1861–1871), p. 360. See, for example, Bennett, John Fryer; Wang, Fu Lanya; and Xiong, Xixue dongjian, pp. 567–586.

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In initiating the translating projects at the Jiangnan Arsenal, Fryer made great efforts in ordering and purchasing from England various apparatus and books. Not surprisingly, Western works on coal, iron, the steam engine, and shipbuilding, including those mining and metallurgic processes for the purposes of manufacturing ships, weapons, machinery, etc. were the topics most in demand by the Arsenal, and hence were given the highest priority to be translated. In one of his earliest (if not the earliest) orders sent to Smith Elder Co. in March of 1868, John Fryer lists more than 60 book items. Among the listed book titles, 16 are on the subjects of mineralogy, geology, mining, and metallurgy.38 In particular, Fryer twice mentions coal mining and stresses that the books purchased on coal and coal mining should be ‘The Newest and Most Complete Work’.39 In June of 1869, Fryer again sent a long list to Henry S. King Co. requesting more than 120 items, including books, apparatus, and other materials for the Jiangnan Arsenal. Books on iron or steel foundries as well as on mineralogy were also on the list, and some were even ‘wanted immediately’.40 Reading John Fryer’s correspondence one is much affected by his enthusiasm in seeking for the ‘sources’ of knowledge through asking for book catalogues from different book traders. Indeed, those books laid a solid ‘Western source’ foundation for the entire translating project. It remains an open question whether Fryer obtained all the books he wished. Examining his order list, it became obvious that John Weale’s Series of Rudimentary Works must have caught Fryer’s attention.41 John Weale was a bookseller well known for publishing treatises on practical arts (including engineering) and sciences beginning in the 1840s.42 With over one hundred volumes planned through 1861, his Series of Rudimentary Works had a target readership of beginning students in schools. John 38 39 40 41

42

Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, p. 350. Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, p. 350. Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, pp. 392–399. Evidence suggests that John Fryer had seen at least two versions of the catalogue of Weale’s rudimentary series: (1) ‘Catalogue of Rudimentary, Scientific, Educational, and Classical Works’ as part of ‘A Catalogue of Works’ published by Lockwood and Co. (1859), which was attached to, for example, Alexander Watt’s Electro-metallurgy (John Weale, first edition in 1860) ordered by Fryer in 1868; and (2) ‘Mr. Weale’s Publications for 1861’ (as will be discussed later). For the motivation of John Weale’s series on introducing practical knowledge, see John Weale, Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms, London: John Weale, 1849– 1850, Preface.

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Fryer, born in England in 1839, received his education at St. James School in Bristol and graduated in 1860.43 Weale’s series had been popular in the 1850s when Fryer was a student. Fryer was probably familiar with the publisher, John Weale. Whether he brought some of the works in Weale’s series (such as the educational and classical series) with him upon his arrival in China in August 1861 is unclear. We do not know which publisher’s circulars or catalogues were available to him in early 1868. One advertisement entitled ‘Mr. Weale’s Publications for 1861’44 announced seven volumes of the rudimentary series on mines, smelting works, and the manufacture of metals. So far, this 1861 catalogue is the only version that specifies the names of the seven volumes. These included treatises on the metallurgy of copper, silver, lead, and iron; treatises on the mining of coal, gold, zinc, tin, nickel, cobalt, etc.; and a treatise on electro-metallurgy.45 Fryer ordered exactly seven volumes in his first order of 1868, including listing the book titles in the order as advertised in the catalogue and estimating the same price (2 shillings) for books not yet published.46 Translating a whole set of Weale’s series on mining and metallurgy could have provided Chinese readers with a systematic set of elementary textbooks. Unfortunately, after Weale’s death in 1862, only three volumes of his series on mines and metals were published: metallurgy of copper (vol. 1); metallurgy of silver and lead (vol. 2); and electro-metallurgy (vol. 7). The treatise on coal mining (vol. 6) was published by Virtue Brothers & Co in 1867.47 It is possible that Fryer failed to receive all the books on mining that he ordered in 1868. After noticing that Weale’s series was being continued by the publisher Virtue Brothers & Co, Fryer was still keen on purchas43 44

45

46 47

Bennett, John Fryer, pp. 4–5. Examining the available digitized books, I discovered that the advertisement ‘Mr. Weale’s Publications for 1861’ was often attached to John Weale’s own publications, for example, to Robert H. Lamborn, A Rudimentary Treatise on the Metallurgy of Silver and Lead (London: John Weale, 1861). Since the catalogue ‘Mr. Weale’s Publications for 1861’ also contains educational and classical series, it would be possible to find this catalogue in John Weale’s other classical or educational works. Possibly, Fryer had seen the 1861 catalogue in Weale’s classical or educational series. This requires further investigation. See ‘Mr. Weale’s Publications for 1861’, p. 9. This catalogue only specifies the published vol. 1 (On metallurgy of copper, price of 2 s.) and vol. 7 (Electrometallurgy, price of 1s. 6d.). Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, p. 350. Hilary Bauerman’s treatise on the metallurgy of iron (possibly vol. 3) was also published by Virtue & Co in 1868.

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ing volumes in the series on other technical subjects and told a later bookseller that the series could be obtained from the publishing house Virtue & Co.48 In the end, it appears that only the treatises on coal mining and electro-metallurgy were obtained by Fryer and finally translated into Chinese.This made the translations on mining appear unsystematic and poorly arranged. However, starting with translating the works on coal mining was perhaps fortuitous, since coal was a new resource much in demand in China at that time. Later, becoming familiar with the works on mining and metallurgy, Fryer also chose books or textbooks by US publishers for translation.49 The first translation on mining (in its narrow sense) was on coal mining. For example, in one letter written on the 11 July 1868, Fryer mentioned that he was then ‘studying and translating three subjects at once’. Coal and coal mining were his subjects in the morning, chemistry in the afternoon, and acoustics in the evening.50 The coal and mining translation seemed to go rather quickly, since he mentioned in another letter on the 28th of July that he was concluding the coal translation.51 The original source was W.W. Smyth’s A Treatise on Coal and Coal Mining (1867), which had just come into Fryer’s hands that May. The outcome of that translation, in Chinese Kaimei yaofa (lit. ‘essentials to opening coal mines’), was published by the Arsenal in 1871 together with three other translations started in 1868. These include another pioneering translation on mining (in a broad sense), or more precisely, mineralogy: Jinshi shibie (lit. ‘metal-stone identification’), with the oral translator Daniel Jerome Macgowan and Chinese writer Hua Hengfang. In general, the translations on mining published by the Jiangnan Arsenal accounted for less than 10% (depending on how the publications were categorized) of the total Jiangnan Arsenal series.52 48 49

50 51 52

Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, pp. 458–459. As shown in his correspondence, Fryer also welcomed the booksellers to provide him with relevant circulars. See, for example, Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, p. 377. Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, p. 368. Dagenais et al., Fu Lanya dang’an, vol. 1, pp. 373–374. According to Chen Zhu’s brief summary of the series of the Jiangnan Arsenal in 1909, books on mining (10 out of 160 works in total) account for 6% of the entire series. Wang Yangzong suggests the percentage was about 8% (15 out of 193 works in total). For different categorizations and statistics, see Shanghai tushuguan (comp.), Jiangnan zhizaoju fanyiguan tuzhi (Illustrated account of the Translation Bureau in the Jiangnan Arsenal), Shanghai: Shanghai Kexuejishu Wenxian Chubanshe, 2011, pp. 79–82.

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In the first decade, from 1870 to 1880, five major translations published by the Jiangnan Arsenal series covered topics on mineralogy, geology, coal mining, metallurgy, and mining engineering, respectively (Table 1). In the following two decades, from 1880 to 1911, more than ten works on prospecting for minerals (especially for silver ores), mining techniques, mining machinery and tools, and metallurgy, as well as metal working in general, were published by the Jiangnan Arsenal or other missionary or private publishers (also listed in Table 1). Table 1: Selected works on mining, metallurgy and mineralogy and their reprints in the late Qing compendium, 1871–1911

Year

Chinese title (author’s own English translation of title)

Original work

Oral translator /compiler

Chinese writer

1871

Jinshi shibie䠁⸣䆈ࡕ (The identification of minerals)

Dana, J. Manual of Mineralogy (1857)

Daniel J. Macgowan

Hua Hengfang

1871

Kaimei yaofa 䮻➔ 㾱⌅ (Essentials to opening coal mines)

Smyth, W.W. A Treatise on Coal and Coal Mining (1867)

John Fryer

Wang Dejun

1873

Yejin lu ߦ䠁 䤴 (Records of metallurgy)

Overman, F. The Moulder’s and Founder’s Pocket Guide (1851)

John Fryer

Zhao Yuanyi

1873

Dixue qianshi ൠ ᆨ␪䟻(Simple explanations of the study of earth)

Lyell, C. Elements of Geology (1865)

Daniel J. Macgowan

Hua Hengfang

1879

Jingkuang gongcheng Ӆ⽖ᐕ〻 (Wells and mining engineering)

Byrne, O. “Artesian Well” and “Boring and Blasting.” In Spon’s Dictionary of Engineering (1869–70)

John Fryer

Zhao Yuanyi

1883

Jinshi Zhongxi mingmu biao 䠁⸣ѝ㾯਽ⴞ 㺘 (Vocabulary of mineralogical terms: Chinese-English)

Vocabulary of Mineralogical Terms Occurring in the Manual by J.D. Dana, A.M.

John Fryer (author and compiler)

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Year

Chinese title (author’s own English translation of title)

Original work

Oral translator /compiler

Chinese writer

Baozang xingyan ሦ㯿㠸✹ (The treasure [of the earth/mountain] that flourishes)

Crookes, W. A Practical Treatise on Metallurgy, Adapted from the Last German Edition of Professor Kerl’s Metallurgy (1868–1870)

John Fryer

Xu Shou

Chapter six of Baozang xingyan, is also published as Zaotie quanfa 䙐䩥 ‫( ⌅ޘ‬Complete methods of ironmaking) (1874)

Fairbain, W. Iron: Its History, Properties, and Processes of Manufacture (1869)

John Fryer

Xu Jianyin

1884

Kuangshi tushuo ⽖⸣െ䃚53 (An illustrated account of mineralogy)

-

John Fryer (author and compiler)

1891

Yinkuang zhinan 䢰 ⽖ᤷই (Guide to silver ores)

Aaron, C. H. A Practical Treatise on Testing and Working Silver Ores (1876)

John Fryer

1893

Kuangxue xuzhi ⽖ᆨ 丸⸕54 (Mineralogy)

-

John Fryer (author and compiler)

1896

Lian’gang yaoyan 䥜 䤬㾱䀰 (Essential words on refining steel)

(unknown)

Xu Jiabao

1899

Kaikuang qi fa tushuo 䮻⽖ಘ⌅െ䃚 (Illustrated account of tools and methods of opening mines)

André, G. G. A Descriptive Treatise on Mining Machinery, Tools, and Other Appliances Used in Mining (2 vols., 1877–78)

John Fryer

1899

Qiukuang zhinan ≲ ⽖ᤷই (Guide to prospecting ores)

Anderson, J. W. The Prospector’s Handbook (1897)

John Fryer; Pan Song

1884

53 54

In the Gezhi tushuo series (Science handbook series). In the Gezhi xuzhi series (Science outline series).

Ying Zuxi

Wang Shushan

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Year

Chinese title (author’s own English translation of title)

Original work

Oral translator /compiler

51

Chinese writer

1903

Xiangdi tanjinshi fa ⴨ൠ᧒䠁⸣ ⌅ (Methods of inspecting the earth and prospecting for minerals)

1904

Tankuang qujin ᧒⽖ (unknown) ਆ䠁 (Prospecting for ores and extracting metals from ores)

Shu Gaodi

Wang Zhensheng

1907

Kuangxue kaozhi ⽖ ᆨ㘳䌚 (An inquiry into the study of mining)

Shu Gaodi

Shen Taozhang; Chen Zhu

Cox, S. H. Prospecting for Minerals (1899)

Osborn, H. S. A Practical Manual of Minerals, Mines, and Mining (1895)

Wang Ruran

Sources: The information on all of the Chinese titles and their original works is based on the following major secondary literature: Wang Genyuan, and Cui Yunhao, ‘Guanyu Jin Shi Shi Bie de fanyi, chuban he diben’ (Some problems with regard to Jin Shi Shi Bie), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China historical materials of science and technology), vol. 11, no. 1, 1990, pp. 89–96;Wang Yangzong, ‘Jiangnan zhizaoju fanyi shumu xin kao’ (A new catalogue of translated books of Jiangnan Arsenal, 1868–1912)’ in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China historical materials of science and technology), vol. 16, no. 2, 1995, pp. 8–9; Deng Liang, ‘Jiangnan zhizaoju keji yizhu diben xin kao’ (New study on the original versions on the science and technology translations of the Jiangnan Arsenal), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the history of natural sciences), vol. 35, no. 3, 2016, pp. 292–293.

An outstanding feature of all the translations on mining in the late Qing period was John Fryer’s unique contribution. He translated and compiled almost all of the works (except, in the beginning, those by D.J. Macgowan on geology and mineralogy) before leaving the Jiangnan Arsenal (see Table 1). Fryer’s co-translators or Chinese writers on the mining-related works involved the famous and productive Chinese scholars Xu Shou (1818–1884), his son Xu Jianyin (1845–1901), and Zhao Yuanyi (1840–1902) (Table 1).55 After Fryer’s departure, Chinese translators took over the oral-translating role in the field of mining. As shown in Table 1, Xu Jiabao and Wang Ruran56 had each independently translated a work on mining. Xu Jiabao was a son of Xu Jianyin, grand55 56

See Shanghai tushuguan, Jiangnan zhizaoju, pp. 57–64, 72. For some brief information on Wang Ruran, see Shanghai tushuguan, Jiangnan zhizaoju, p. 72.

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son of Xu Shou. The Xu family, as practitioners in the arsenals, contributed extensively to the translation of works on chemistry and industrial arts, including iron, steel, and general metal-working industries.57 The best known Chinese oral-translator was Shu Gaodi (1844–1919). He came from a poor Chinese family, received his first education in missionary schools, and went to the USA, where he graduated from a medical college in 1867 and obtained a PhD in theology in 1873. From 1878 to 1912, he worked as one of the few Chinese oral-translators in the Jiangnan Arsenal. His translations cover several fields such as medicine, agriculture, military engineering and law, as well as mining. Nevertheless, he was not proficient enough to write in a literary style, because of insufficient training in classical Chinese.58 As will be discussed later, Shu Gaodi’s lack of classical Chinese was typical in late Qing technical education (including mining) and hindered producing textbooks in Chinese. In evaluating the late Qing translations on science and technology, previous studies have generally raised or criticized such issues as innovations in creating new terms, the selection of (outdated) original Western works by non-professionals, partial translation of one work, or pastiches of translations mixing up several works for the same topic.59 All of these issues are reflected in the translations on mining to some extent. For example, both Grace Shen and Shellen Wu have briefly reviewed or given some critical comments on the translations on geology and coal as well as mining.60 Based upon evidence on John Fryer’s purchasing of Weale’s rudimentary series on mining and metallurgy, we should not overlook that John Fryer himself, and all the other missionaries, had almost no technical training background (some, like D.J. Macgowan, had only received medical training). As mentioned earlier, engineering education did not become widely accepted among Western intellectuals until 1870. Most of the missionaries active in China 57

58 59

60

For an introduction to the Xu Family, see, for example, David Wright, Translating Science: The Transmission of Western Chemistry into Late Imperial China, 1840–1900, Leiden: Brill, 2000, pp. 31–65. Shanghai tushuguan, Jiangnan zhizaoju, pp. 64–65. See, for example, Wright, Translating Science, Chapter VII; and Fu Liangyu, ‘Found in Translation: Western Science Books, Maps, and Music in China, 1860s–1920s’, PhD Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 2013, Chapter 3. See Grace Yen Shen, Unearthing the Nation: Modern Geology and Nationalism in Republican China, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014, pp. 38–39; and Shellen X. Wu, Empires of Coal: Fueling China’s Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860–1920, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015, pp. 81–88.

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during the 1860s did not experience the dramatic changes or upgrades of engineering subjects occurred in Western society. Fryer and his foreign fellows had to update their own knowledge through learning and reading the available Western sources. Since none of their Chinese collaborators was an expert on mining or engineering, either, translating Western works into Chinese was a joint discovery process for both sides. At the same time, or even more importantly, the translators had to transmit effectual knowledge in an acceptable manner, in order to meet the demand by the Arsenal or the Qing government. In this respect, mining was a problematic field, because no direct theoretical knowledge in a single book could make a mine run efficiently and successfully. China had neither technical education nor an elementary science education system at that time. The Western works on mining after 1860, mostly for students at colleges, were not suitable for Chinese readers without any knowledge of basic sciences. Therefore, science handbooks or outlines series, as proposed by the School and Textbook Series Committee after 1877, pioneered the way in popularizing elementary science education, to which John Fryer was a major and influential contributor. Fryer might have taken direct inspiration from John Weale’s rudimentary or educational series to promote elementary textbooks in China. Such textbook ideas became possible only after several fundamental translations on mathematics, physics and chemistry were finished. As shown in Table 1, Fryer’s Kuangshi tushuo and Kuangxue xuzhi, as elementary textbooks on mineralogy, were specially tailored to Chinese readers’ backgrounds and interests. A major difficulty for Chinese readers was encountering thousands of new terms from various translations.The existing Chinese mining literature at that time, as mentioned earlier, was too poor to provide sufficient terminologies. New mineralogical terms were often created or expressed by using modern chemical elements which were novel terminologies for the Chinese at that time. Fryer popularized the method of naming chemical elements through creating new Chinese characters which bore similar pronunciations to their English equivalents.61 But the inconsistency in using terms coined by Fryer and other translators also caused confusion among readers. Take ‘zinc’ for example. The traditional Chinese term for zinc was baiqian ⲭ䢋 (lit. ‘white-lead’). In Jinshi shibie (1871), Hua Hengfang and Macgowan chose to use the term 61

See Wright, Translating Science, pp. 201–227.

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baiqian for zinc. While in Fryer’s translations, he and Xu Shou tended to use xin 䣵, the invented chemical term for zinc, which appeared in their translations on chemistry, for example, in Huaxue jianyuan (Mirror of the origins of chemistry, 1871), as well as in the Baozang xingyan on metallurgy. Also, for translating the zinc ore calamine, Hua and Macgowan used the term ‘kai-lai-man’ 䮻 ֶ㹫,62 while in Baozang xingyan, Xu Shou and Fryer call it ‘kala-mi-ni’ ঑᣹㊣ቬ.63 Chinese readers, almost exclusively without knowledge of English or other Western languages, could hardly put the two terms ‘kai-lai-man’ and ‘ka-la-mi-ni’ together. Moreover, neither translation refers the term calamine to a more common Chinese term, that is luganshi ⡀⭈⸣. To translate calamine as luganshi is only possible when the Chinese translator/writer possesses sufficient knowledge of mining and knows the ores in practice as well as in local culture. Referring to calamine as luganshi appears, for example, in Wang Ruhuai’s textbook Kuangxue zhenquan (Genuine annotation for the studies of mining, 1918), as will be discussed later. 4. CIRCULATING TEXT-BASED MINING KNOWLEDGE IN THE 1870S

The extent to which those books discussed above were circulated as textbooks for self-learning or education in missionary, and later, government technical schools, has hitherto remained unknown or has been only very briefly touched upon. The generally wellcited examples are about the sale and circulation of Kaimei yaofa – the first translation on coal mining. According to one of John Fryer’s reports, Kaimei yaofa sold 840 copies from 1871 to 1880. This number was relatively small compared with the total population of China. At that time, without effective advertisements or regular means of communication, the circulation of those books was limited by their areal scope to ports or cities like Shanghai and Beijing.64 In fact, as the earliest books in the Jiangnan Arsenal series were published, advertisements for the sale of books and book reviews began to appear in periodicals, for example, in Shenbao (Shanghai

62 63 64

Jinshi shibie, juan 7. Baozang xingyan, 8 ce. See Bennett, John Fryer, p. 42. Also cited in Elman, On Their Own Terms, p. 387; Wu, Empires of Coal, p. 88.

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Journal, 1872–1949), the leading newspaper in Shanghai,65 and in the Jiaohui xinbao (Church News, 1872–74).66 After founding China’s first scientific journal Gezhi huibian (Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine, 1876–92),67 John Fryer himself was an active author and editor of many essays to introduce Western knowledge. In particular, he opened a question-and-answer section in the magazine to interact with readers, who sent questions to him in advance. Altogether 320 brief questions and answers were published in the 60 volumes of Gezhi huibian from 1876 to 1892.68 Among them, nine questions were related to assaying ores sent by readers,69 and eleven related to such technical issues as extracting silver from lead ores, evaluating iron ores, and mining coal.70 Remarkably, the topic of coal mining had aroused much reader interest in 1876. Several readers wanted to know about the methods or tools for mining coal, or the principle of safety lamps in mines,71 or even what mine shafts and working-faces looked like.72 To answer them, Fryer recommended that the readers investigate the published Kaimei yaofa, and provided additional essays.73 When we investigate mining practices in China, we see that the years from 1874 to 1876 were indeed a period in which local Chinese coal mines began to be exploited more intensively. Coal was used locally by traditional households for heating and cooking purposes, and by the iron and zinc industries for smelting.74 But 65

66

67

68

69 70

71 72 73

74

See Anonymous, ‘Ni zhizaoju xinke xixue shu shisanzhong zongju’ (A general preface to the 13 books on Western Learning published by the Jiangnan Arsenal), in Shenbao (Shanghai Journal) (1 August 1872). See Zhu Fengjia, ‘Kaimei yaofa tiyao’ (Review of a Work on Coal Mining recently translated at the Kiang Nan Arsenal, Shanghai), in Jiaohui xinbao (Church News) (6 April 1872). Gezhi huibian, located in Shanghai, was a continuation of the former Zhongxi wenjian lu (Peking Magazine, 1872–76). For an overview of the questions, see the question list in Xiong, Xixue dongjian, pp. 434–455. See questions No. 29, 84, 90, 108, 109, 128, 140, 253, and 276 in Gezhi huibian. See questions No. 62, 84, 85, 96, 97, 117, 123, 212, 244, 259, and 286 in Gezhi huibian. See question No. 31 in Gezhi huibian (May 1876). See question No. 62 in Gezhi huibian (September 1876). See, for example John Fryer, ‘Lun zuandi mimei fa’ (Drilling methods of prospecting for coal), in Gezhi huibian (May 1876); and John Fryer, ‘Xiguo kaimei lüefa’ (Simplified methods of mining coal in Western countries), in Gezhi huibian (October 1876). See Chen Hailian, ‘Fueling the Boom: Coal as the Primary Source of Energy for Processing Zinc in China and Comparison with Europe, ca. 1720–1820’, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57, 1 (2014), pp. 76–111; and Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, Chapter 10, Energy.

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the large-scale demand for coal worldwide was a phenomenon fuelled by Western industrialization in the nineteenth century. From 1860 to 1875, China relied on coal imported from England, the United States, Australia, and Japan.75 Taiwan coal, mined with native methods until 1874, was an important source of supply for mainland markets.76 Around 1873, Chinese officials began to debate the possibility of opening coal mines in the mainland. During 1873–1874, J. Henderson, an English merchant, was commissioned by the Qing government to purchase mining machines in England. Nevertheless, his final price bid, estimated at more than 45,000 pounds, was too high to make the plan of opening coal mines in Zhili (modern Hebei) Province practicable.77 At almost the same time, at the end of 1874, another influential merchant-official of the late Qing period, Sheng Xuanhuai (1844–1928), was appointed to supervise coal mining affairs in Hubei Province. Sheng commissioned local officials to send him regular survey reports on the coal mines in Guangji County. According to the subsequent reports in 1875, the local officials had studied the book Kaimei yaofa carefully, and thus knew the advantage of using Western tools and machinery for excavating mines. But after reading the news about Henderson in Shenbao on April 6, 1875, they knew that Western machinery cost too much. Instead of using labour-saving devices for drilling, the local officials planned to hire miners so that the local poor could make a livelihood through mining.78 Nevertheless, they decided to use Western-style pipes made of copper alloy, instead of the traditional bamboo pipes, for lifting water in mines.79 Here, a brief comment on text-based mining knowledge and the re-building of mining literacy around 1875 is necessary. The translations of books on mining, especially Kaimei yaofa on coal min75

76

77

78

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Shannon R. Brown and Tim Wright, ‘Technology, Economics, and Politics in the Modernization of China’s Coal-Mining Industry, 1850–1895’, in Explorations in Economic History 18 (1981), pp. 62–65. Brown and Wright, ‘Technology, Economics, and Politics’, pp. 62–69. See also Wu, Empires of Coal, pp. 72, 131. See the news in Shenbao (April 6, 1875). See also Fang, ‘Kuangchan xin zhishi’, pp. 188–204. Xu Yuanji et al. (compiled; with chief-editor Chen Xulu et al.), Sheng Xuanhuai dang’an ziliao, di wu juan: Hubei kaicai meitie zongju, Jingmen kuangwu zongju (Collection of materials on Sheng Xuanhuai, vol. 5: Hubei General Bureau of Coal and Iron Mining and Jingmen Mining Bureau), Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2016, pp. 14–15, 29. Xu et al., Sheng Xuanhuai, pp. 15–17.

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ing, became timely textbooks for those literati-officials who had no mining education.The above case of the Hubei coal mines demonstrates that the local officials had generally shown interest in learning Western mining knowledge from the book Kaimei yaofa. One local official even asked Sheng to help him purchase three other books from the Jiangnan Arsenal: Dixue qianshi, Jinshi shibie, and Yejin lu (Table 1), in addition to two other books on geography.80 5. MINING EDUCATION AND THE LANGUAGES OF TEXTBOOKS

After 1875, foreign mining engineers began to be hired in China. This foreign aid marked a new age for mining in Chinese history. The involvement of foreign experts soon made Chinese governors, such as Sheng Xuanhuai, aware of the necessity of educating China’s own mining experts. Sheng himself, as a founder of several telegraph and railway schools, was also a pioneer in initiating China’s first engineering university (Beiyang University) in Tianjin in 1895, where he established mining engineering as one of the four major subjects. In general, mining schools are poorly documented in the Qing sources and remain little examined in the current literature.81 One remarkable feature of late Qing technical education was that almost all the technical subjects at engineering universities or schools in China were taught by foreign teachers,82 often in English, German, or French. Therefore, the students had to learn these foreign languages. They took notes and often had to read several references for one course.This pattern continued in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, at the Universities of Pei-Yang (i.e., Beiyang) and Shanxi, almost all the references were English works.83 The use of foreign textbooks made the progress of producing Chinese textbooks in engineering subjects rather slow. Take 80 81

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Xu et al., Sheng Xuanhuai, pp. 20–21. According to Biggerstaff, one laboratory, opened in Wuchang in 1890 for analyzing coal and ores, was developed into a mining college in 1892 (with about 20 students in 1895). See Biggerstaff, The Earliest Modern Government Schools, pp. 69–70. For example, in the well-known Fuzhou Navy Yard during the 1860s and 1870s, French as well as English instructors were hired for teaching Chinese students naval construction and navigation. Their curriculum adopted original French or English textbooks. See Biggerstaff, The Earliest Modern Government Schools, pp. 214–219. See, for example Catalogue of the Pei-Yang University, Tientsin, 1924, pp. 63–64. Shanxi daxue gongxue yuan kecheng yilan (Curriculum of engineering school at Shanxi University), Taiyuan: Shanxi daxue chuban weiyuanhui, 1937, p. 10.

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Shanxi University for example. Founded in 1902, this university sent 25 students to England in 1906 to study railway and mining engineering. The first president of Shanxi university, Timothy Richard (1845–1919), who was also an active missionary member in the above-mentioned School and Textbook Series Committee, claimed that textbooks for engineering training should still be written or translated. For that purpose, he established a translation department in Shanghai. The department’s translations covered both Western and Japanese sources (e.g., the To-kyo- Normal School Textbook Series), including books on mineralogy.84 At that time, Zhang Zhidong, an advocate of educational reform, revealed the textbook problem from another perspective, as Richard noted in his reminiscences: although the Chinese students who received engineering education abroad (in Europe, the United States, and even more, in Japan) after 1895 ‘might be very well advanced in foreign languages, they did not know Chinese well enough to write books in proper style’.85 This echoes the example of Shu Gaodi, as discussed earlier. At this point, John Fryer’s other contribution of designing a set of engineering curricula for the Shanghai Polytechnic Institutes (officially opened in 1876) in May 1895, is also worth attention. On the subject of mining (kuangwu), he planned one general course and three courses of special fields in the study of mining: (1) mining affairs in 17 lessons; (2) opening coal mines in 22 lessons; (3) opening metal-related mines in 21 lessons; and (4) mining machinery in 16 lessons.86 How these courses were carried out, especially after Fryer’s departure in 1896, remains unclear. To list mining as the first subject in the entire curriculum, and to give the courses in Chinese one month after China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese war, are of special significance in renewing the call for Western learning. 6. SHORTCUT TO TRANSLATIONS: JAPANESESOURCED TEXTBOOKS ON MINERALOGY (1895–1911)

After 1895, Japan became a new source of learning for Chinese intellectuals. The East–East transfer of knowledge through 84

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Timothy Richard, Forty-Five Years in China, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers, 1916, pp. 302–304. Richard, Forty-Five Years, pp. 304–305. Fu Lanya (John Fryer), Xixue kecheng (Curriculum on Western Learning), published in 1895.

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translations rose sharply. From 1900 to 1911, the entire number of translated works amounts to more than 1,500, which is almost triple the number of books translated from 1860 to 1900.Although a majority of the post-1895 translations were sourced from Japanese works, those translations concentrated on humanities or social science. Translations on engineering or applied science accounted for only 9% of the total Japanese-sourced translations (another 9% were on scientific subjects).87 A distinguishing feature of the translations was that from 1902 onwards, many Japanese textbooks were translated into Chinese for use as school textbooks. This was also the case for mineralogy as well as geology.88 In the 1870s, mineralogy had been incorporated into the science and engineering education curriculum at universities as well as in elementary education in Japan.89 Being part of the Natural Studies (jap. hakubutsu, chin. bowu) (see also the chapter by Okiharu Fumiko in this volume), textbooks on minerals (as well as on zoology and botany) were essential to make pupils in the middle schools aware of their own country’s natural resources. This was also desired by the late Qing government, and the translations on mineralogy were strongly associated with patriotic sentiments and nationalist ideology at that time. According to Yang Lijuan’s statistics, at least, 48 school textbooks on mineralogy were published from 1902 to 1911. Among them, more than 20 works were translated directly from Japanese, and the rest were compiled by Chinese authors based on various (primarily Japanese) sources.90 The authors of the original Japanese works included well-known Japanese geologists or mining engineers, such as Yokoyama Matajiro- (1860–1942), 87 88

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Xiong, Xixue dongjian, pp. 640–641. For an overview of the Chinese translations on modern geology as well as mineralogy in the late Qing period, see Ai Suzhen, ‘Qingdai chuban de dizhixue yizhu ji tedian’ (Characteristics and a list of books on geology translated in late Qing dynasty), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 19, no. 1 (1998), pp. 11–25; and Yang Lijuan, ‘Cong fanyi yinjin dao tansuo fansi: kuangwuxue jiaokeshu zai Hua yanbian yanjiu (1902– 1937)’ (From translation and introduction to exploration and reflection: The development of the textbooks of mineralogy in China (1902–1937)), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), vol. 39, no. 1, 2020, pp. 81–97. See, for example, the curriculum at the To-kyo- University in the 1880s in Kikuchi Yoshiyuki, Anglo-American Connections in Japanese Chemistry: The Lab as Contact Zone, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 86, 95. See Yang, ‘Cong fanyi yinjin’, pp. 94–95; see also Bi, Jianzao changshi, pp. 276–277.

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Jinbo- Kotora (1867–1924), Yamada Kunihiko (1871–1925), and Ishikawa Seisho- (1872–1945). Compared to translating from the Western languages, the Japanese sources provided Chinese translators with a shortcut because of the similarities in writing between the two eastern languages. Loanwords from Japanese are commonly seen in modern Chinese. This is also reflected in the Chinese terms used for the word mineral itself, which was traditionally rendered as jinshi 䠁⸣ (lit. ‘metal-stone’) and gradually came to be replaced by the modern term kuangwu ⽖⢙ (lit. ‘mineral-thing’) after 1900. Some scholars hold the view that the Chinese term kuangwu ⽖⢙, for mineral, was rarely used before 1895 but that post1895 translations from Japanese sources frequently began to use the term, a loanword from Japanese ko-butsu 䢡⢙, making the new term a popular one.91 Some recent studies point out that the term kuangwu had already appeared in the above-mentioned Kunyu gezhi in the late Ming period.92 An etymological enquiry of the term ‘mineralogy’ in Chinese and Japanese is beyond the focus of this paper. A preliminary survey of publications in the catalogues of Japanese libraries shows that both the terms kinseki 䠁⸣ (a loanword from classical Chinese) and ko-butsu 䢡⢙ (the frequently used term after 1870) were in use in Japan even during the 1890s. Therefore, the contemporary Chinese translators had apparently been influenced by the trendy Japanese term for mineralogy. Beyond the school textbooks, very few translations regarding mining were sourced from Japanese works after 1895. The Jiangnan Arsenal series, for example, published one major Japanese translation, but on metal-working.93 The Japanese translation ‘fever’ cooled down after the 1920s, when many Chinese students from the United States returned. They began to favour English textbooks again, either for translation, or directly as textbooks (see the examples in the universities of Pei-Yang and Shanxi during the 1920s–1930s as mentioned earlier).

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See Cui Yunhao, and Chen Yunyan, ‘“Kuangwu” ciyuan zai kao’ (A further investigation into the origin of the word ‘mineral’), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 14, no. 3, 1993, pp. 76–84. See Han, ‘Nantu cang Yan Jie jiaoben’, pp. 62–63. It is entitled Zhi chanjin fa (Methods of making alloys), published in 1902, translated by Wang Jidian from Hashimoto Kisaku’s Go-seikin seizo- -ho- (Methods of manufacturing alloys), To-kyo-: Hakubunkan, 1897.

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7. LAST EFFORTS IN THE LATE QING PERIOD: KUANGXUE XINYAO XINBIAN (1902) AND KUANGXUE ZHENQUAN (1918)

Concurrent with the translation of school textbooks on mineralogy, the first generation of Chinese mining engineers were born after 1900. As mentioned earlier, they were trained in foreign languages, and their mining literacy had been built upon formal education (either in China by foreign teachers, or in Japan, Europe, or the United States), which was much beyond the level of translations by John Fryer et al. and the school textbooks. But these new technical elites had certain difficulties in producing textbooks in Chinese. Despite this dilemma, two outstanding but rarely investigated works are worth mentioning: Kuangxue xinyao xinbian (New edition of the core essentials on mining studies, published in 1902) authored by Song Gengping, and Kuangxue zhenquan (Genuine annotation for the studies of mining, published in 1918) authored by Wang Ruhuai. Song Gengping is a mysterious figure. There obviously is not much information about him in the official biographical records. For the mining monograph, five others wrote forewords for him. According to the forewords and preface, Song was a native of Sichuan and held the title of vice-general. Song seems to have been very famous at that time as a mining expert. For over twenty years, he travelled within China, from Taiwan to India via Tibet, then to Europe, and to America, where he surveyed the mining fields and met other mining experts. In particular, he made mining surveys in Sichuan. His activities also included giving lectures at the Sichuan mining school, which was founded in 1896. Therefore, it appears that his book Kuangxue xinyao xinbian was written for teaching purposes.94 Kuangxue xinyao xinbian contains three volumes. Only the first volume was systematically organized. The other two volumes are merely a collection of his short texts on different topics or on certain mining-related regulations. Song’s text bears strong traditional elements in terms of writing styles. It is similar to the above-mentioned renowned work Diannan kuangchang tulüe by Wu Qijun. For example, besides similarities in structuring the contents of his first volume, Song Gengping copied Wu’s illustrations with new anno94

See the forewords and preface in Song Gengping, Kuangxue xinyao xinbian (New edition of the core essentials on mining studies), published in 1902.

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tations. But Song also introduced new mineralogical knowledge and provided much insight into mining from his own practice. For example, he used a good deal of colloquial language to express technical terms, which is a step further than in John Fryer’s era. As a textbook, Kuangxue xinyao xinbian alone could not meet the demand for formal mining training at that time, but it was an updated reference for Chinese students, especially for those without any foreign language skill. In general, Song’s book echoes the common debate about the principles of Western learning, such as Zhongti xiyong (lit. ‘Chinese essence, Western application’). Another book, Kuangxue zhenquan (1918) by Wang Ruhuai (1870–?) is, strictly speaking, outside of the scope of the period examined in this article. Nevertheless, starting with the writing of the book in the last year of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Wang Ruhuai was, so far as is known, the only writer who attempted to produce a formal textbook on mining in Chinese in the Qing period. After receiving a formal mining education in London (1896–1898) and having investigated mining industries in Europe for several years, Wang returned to China in 1906. He taught courses in technical schools in Beijing until 1911, when he and his students went to the Hanyeping Iron and Steel Company in Hubei Province for field surveys. Then, the Xinhai Revolution occurred, and he returned to Tianjin, where he took refuge and wrote the book.95 In 13 volumes, with 904 illustrations and 45 tables, Wang Ruhuai compiled a comprehensive account of the entire procedure of mining, covering prospecting, drilling, constructing mine shafts, lightning, ventilation, drainage, ore transporting and lifting devices, ore-dressing, etc. His book is a genuine professional work on the topic of mining. In 1915,Wang had already sent the manuscript to Sheng Xuanhuai (then the Director of the Hanyeping Company). Sheng and four other industrialists or educators wrote forewords for the book. Being a useful and highly praised 95

Very little is known about Wang Ruhuai and his book. For a preliminary study of the topic, see Zhang Yicheng and Hu Hongshuan, ‘Zhongguo jindai kuangxue zhi fu he Zhongguo jindai kuangxue de kaishan zhi zuo: guanyu Wang Ruhuai ji qi suo zhu Kuangxue zhenquan de pinglun’ (Father of “The Study of Mining” in modern China and pioneer of studying modern Chinese mining engineering: Comments on Wang Ruhuai and his Kuangxue zhenquan), in the proceedings of the conference ‘Zhongguo quyu dizhi diaocha lishi de huigu ji jinian Ding Wenjiang xiansheng danchen 120 zhounian xueshu yantaohui‘(A review of the history of regional geological surveys in China & the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Doctor V.K. Ting), 2007, pp. 185–194.

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book, Kuangxue zhenquan was recommended as the textbook for colleges and universities. Nevertheless, after the Qing dynasty fell, mining education was re-organized by the new republican government. Kuangxue zhenquan would probably still have been read by Chinese students, but so far, we know little about this. Wang’s story mirrored the last efforts of producing textbooks in the late Qing period by China’s own mining engineers. 8. CONCLUDING REMARKS

Technical textbooks created an intellectual space for transferring knowledge from the West to China and Japan, and from Japan to China (primarily after 1895). This knowledge transfer was much more than a translation of ideas or a coining of new terms in Chinese, although new terms provided the intellectual foundation for transfer. The practicability of particular technologies, which could bring about an instant or rapid effect on the economy, was of much concern in the late Qing period. This was particularly the case with mining: the contemporary Qing reformists desired a ‘quick fix’, in order to revitalize the empire. Under these circumstances, the mining industry had called for urgent reforms by introducing new technology and knowledge. ‘The study of mining’ (kuangxue) opened an intellectual learning field for re-building and enhancing mining literacy. The concept of mining literacy grew out of traditional mining administration and evolved into global mining literacy, which allowed Chinese mining engineers to stand on their own feet. As I have examined in this article, most of the earlier translations on mining into Chinese appeared in temporary stages, and represent the ideas of intellectual thinking toward mining. They showcase how the educated Chinese intellectuals and their foreign helpers (especially John Fryer and other missionaries) – those without hands-on practice in mining at all – adapted Western mining technology, as well as knowledge of mineralogy, for a native audience by making selective translations and compilations. The Jiangnan Arsenal series discussed above provided contemporary Chinese readers (officials, literati-scholars, merchants, and students) with the most direct approach to ‘the study of mining’ (kuangxue), and for obtaining practical knowledge of mining for administrative, commercial, or purely scholarly learning purposes. A few works (such as Kuangxue xinyao xinbian and Kuangxue zhenquan) written by later generations of intellectuals, who had onsite practice or

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technical training, provide a more useful or practical orientation to the subject. These works also bear the general ‘nationalism’ sentiment and show how their authors reacted to the mining crisis, or to the general national threats of their own time. In the future the author aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of these textbooks, such as the standardization of terminologies and the receptions of the textbooks in intellectual discourse and mining practices. REFERENCES Ai Suzhen, ‘Qingdai chuban de dizhixue yizhu ji tedian’ (Characteristics and a list of books on geology translated in late Qing dynasty), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 19, no. 1, 1998, pp. 11–25. Anonymous, ‘Ni zhizaoju xinke xixue shu shisanzhong zongju’ (A general preface to the thirteen books on Western Learning published by the Jiangnan Arsenal), in Shenbao (Shanghai Journal) (August 1, 1872). Bennett, Adrian Arthur, John Fryer: The Introduction of Western Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century China, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. Bi Yuan, Jianzao changshi: Jiaokeshu yu jindai Zhongguo wenhua zhuanxing (Making common sense: Textbooks and the transformation of modern Chinese culture), Fuzhou: Fujian Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 2010. Biggerstaff, Knight, The Earliest Modern Government Schools in China, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1961. Bray, Francesca, ‘Chinese Literati and the Transmission of Technological Knowledge: The Case of Agriculture’, in Dagmar Schäfer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 299–325. Bray, Francesca, ‘Introduction: The Powers of Tu’, in Francesca Bray, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, and Georges Métailié (eds), Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China: The Warp and the Weft, Leiden: Brill, 2007, pp. 1–78. Brown, Shannon R., and Tim Wright, ‘Technology, Economics, and Politics in the Modernization of China’s Coal-Mining Industry, 1850–1895’, in Explorations in Economic History 18, 1981, pp. 60–83. Catalogue of the Pei-Yang University, Tientsin, 1924. Chen Hailian, ‘Fueling the Boom: Coal as the Primary Source of Energy for Processing Zinc in China and Comparison with Europe, ca. 1720–1820’, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57, 1, 2014, pp. 76–111. Chen Hailian, Zinc for Coin and Brass: Bureaucrats, Merchants, Artisans, and Mining Laborers in Qing China, ca. 1680s–1830s, Leiden: Brill, 2019. Chen Hailian, ‘Technology for Re-engineering the Qing Empire in an Age of Crisis: The Concept of “Arts” and the Emergence of Modern

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Technical Education in China, 1840–1895’, in ICON – Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology vol. 26, no. 1, 2021, 10–43. Cong Xiaoping, Teachers’ Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State, 1897–1937, Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2007. Cui Yunhao, and Chen Yunyan, ‘“Kuangwu” ciyuan zai kao (A further investigation into the origin of the word ‘mineral’)’, in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 14, no. 3, 1993, pp. 76–84. Dagenais, Ferdinand, Peter X. Zhou, Jean C. Han, and Hong Xia (compiled and annotated), Fu Lanya dang’an (The John Fryer Papers), 3 vols., Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2010. Deng Liang, ‘Jiangnan zhizaoju keji yizhu diben xin kao’ (New study on the original versions on the science and technology translations of the Jiangnan Arsenal), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), vol. 35, no. 3, 2016, pp. 285–296. Elman, Benjamin A, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. Fang Yibing, ‘Kuangchan xin zhishi de xingcheng, chuanbo yu jindai Zhili meitiekuang kaifa de zhaoshi (1863–1874)’ (From discourse to action: The commencement of the first modern mining project in China (1863–1874)), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), vol. 37, no. 2, 2018, pp. 188–204. Fryer, John, ‘Lun zuandi mimei fa’ (Drilling methods of prospecting for coal), in Gezhi huibian (Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine), May 1876. Fryer, John, ‘Xiguo kaimei lüefa’ (Simplified methods of mining coal in Western countries), in Gezhi huibian (Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine), October 1876. Fryer, John, ‘An Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Kiangnan Arsenal’, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, Jan. 29, 1880, pp. 77–81. Fryer, John. (i.e., Fu Lanya), Xixue kecheng (Curriculum on Western Learning), 1895. Fryer, John, and Wang Dejun (trans.), Kaimei yaofa (Essentials to opening coal mines), 1871. Fryer, John, and Xu Shou (trans.), Baozang xingyan (The treasure [of the earth/mountain] that flourishes), 1884. Fu Liangyu, ‘Found in Translation: Western Science Books, Maps, and Music in China, 1860s–1920s’, PhD Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 2013. Golas, Peter J., Science and Civilisation in China. vol. 5: Chemistry and chemical technology. Part 13: Mining, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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Shanghai tushuguan (comp.), Jiangnan zhizaoju fanyiguan tuzhi (Illustrated account of the Translation Bureau in the Jiangnan Arsenal), Shanghai: Shanghai Kexuejishu Wenxian Chubanshe, 2011. Shanxi daxue gongxue yuan kecheng yilan (Curriculum of engineering school at Shanxi University), Taiyuan: Shanxi Daxue Chuban Weiyuanhui, 1937. Shen, Grace Yen, Unearthing the Nation: Modern Geology and Nationalism in Republican China, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Shen Guowei, Jindai Zhong Ri cihui jiaoliu yanjiu: hanzi xinci de chuangzhi, rongshou yu gongxiang (A study of modern Sino-Japanese lexical exchanges: creation, acceptance, and sharing of Chinese new words), Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2010. Simon, Josef, ‘Textbooks’, in Bernard Lightman (ed.), Companion to the History of Science, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016, pp. 400–413. Song Gengping, Kuangxue xinyao xinbian (New edition of the core essentials on mining studies), 1902. Vogel, Ezra F., China and Japan: Facing History, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Vogel, Hans Ulrich, ‘The Transfer of Mining and Smelting Technology between Asia and Europe in the Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in Journal of the Japan-Netherlands Institute (Papers of the First Conference on the Transfer of Science and Technology between Europe and Asia since Vasco da Gama (1498–1998), (Amsterdam & Leiden, June 5–7, 1991), 3, 1991, pp. 74–101. Vogel, Hans Ulrich, ‘The Mining Industry in Traditional China: Intraand Intercultural Comparisons’, in Helga Nowotny (ed.), Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation, New York: Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 167–188. Vogel, Hans Ulrich, ‘“Das wird gewiss die Staatskasse füllen!” Johann Adam Schall von Bells chinesische Übertragung von Agricolas De re metallica libri XII im Jahre 1640’, 27. Rundbrief: AgricolaForschungszentrum Chemnitz, 2019, pp. 55–82. Wang Yangzong, Fu Lanya yu jindai Zhongguo de kexue qimeng (John Fryer and scientific enlightenment in modern China), Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2000. Wang Genyuan, and Cui Yunhao, ‘Guanyu Jin Shi Shi Bie de fanyi, chuban he diben’ (Some problems with regard to Jin Shi Shi Bie), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 11, no. 1, 1990, pp. 89–96. Wang Jidian (trans.), Zhi chanjin fa (Methods of making alloys) (1902), translated from Hashimoto Kisaku’s Go-seikin seizo-ho- (Methods of manufacturing alloys) (Hakubunkan, 1897). Wang Ruhuai, Kuangxue zhenquan (Genuine annotation for the studies of mining), 1918. Wang Xiaoqiu, ‘Hanyi xifang keji shuji dui Riben de yingxiang’ (The Chinese translations of Western works and their influences on Japan),

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in Li Tingju and Yoshida Tadashi (eds), ZhongRi wenhua jiaoliu shi daxi: kejijuan (Compendium on the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange: Volume on science and technology), Hangzhou: Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1996, pp. 248–262. Wang Yangzong, ‘Jiangnan zhizaoju fanyi shumu xin kao’ (A new catalogue of translated books of Jiangnan Arsenal, 1868–1912), in Zhongguo keji shiliao (China Historical Materials of Science and Technology), vol. 16, no. 2, 1995, pp. 3–18. Weale, John, Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms, London: John Weale, 1849–50. Wright, David, Translating Science: The Transmission of Western Chemistry into Late Imperial China, 1840–1900, Leiden: Brill, 2000. Wu, Shellen X., Empires of Coal: Fueling China’s Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860–1920, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015. Xiong Yuezhi, Xixue dongjian yu wan Qing shehui (The dissemination of Western learning and the late Qing society), Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1994. Xu Yuanji et al. (compiled, with chief-editor Chen Xulu et al.), Sheng Xuanhuai dang’an ziliao, di wu juan: Hubei kaicai meitie zongju, Jingmen kuangwu zongju (Collection of materials on Sheng Xuanhuai, vol. 5: Hubei General Bureau of Coal and Iron Mining and Jingmen Mining Bureau), Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2016. Yang Lijuan, ‘Cong fanyi yinjin dao tansuo fansi: kuangwuxue jiaokeshu zai Hua yanbian yanjiu (1902–1937)’ (From translation and introduction to exploration and reflection: the development of the textbooks of mineralogy in China (1902–1937)), in Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), vol. 39, no. 1, 2020, pp. 81–97. Zarrow, Peter G., Educating China: Knowledge, Society and Textbooks in a Modernizing World, 1902–1937, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Zhang Yicheng, and Hu Hongshuan, ‘Zhongguo jindai kuangxue zhi fu he Zhongguo jindai kuangxue de kaishan zhi zuo: guanyu Wang Ruhuai ji qi suo zhu Kuangxue zhenquan de pinglun’ (Father of ‘The Study of Mining’ in Modern China and Pioneer of Studying Modern Chinese Mining Engineering: Comments on Wang Ruhuai and His Kuangxue zhenquan), in the proceedings of the conference ‘Zhongguo quyu dizhi diaocha lishi de huigu ji jinian Ding Wenjiang xiansheng danchen 120 zhounian xueshu yantaohui (A review of the history of regional geological surveys in China & the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Doctor V. K. Ting)’, 2007, pp. 185–94.

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Zhu Fengjia, ‘Kaimei yaofa tiyao’ (Review of a Work on Coal Mining recently translated at the Kiang Nan Arsenal, Shanghai), in Jiaohui xinbao (Church News) (6 April, 1872). INTERNET SOURCES: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/textbook (last accessed 20 November 2020).

4

François Léonce Verny and the Beginning of ‘Modern’ Technical Education in Japan NISHIYAMA Takahiro

–

1. INTRODUCTION

FRANÇOIS LÉONCE VERNY (1837–1908) was a French naval engineer who was ordered to establish a ‘modern’ arsenal in Yokosuka, equipped with dockyards, ironworks and a school of vocational education and training for technical personnel.1 It was ‘modern’ because the machine tools, such as grinding machines, circular saws, drills, steam engines and steam hammers brought from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France, were of the highest technical standard. Verny, however, brought not only technical equipment, but also the operating personnel who gave lessons to Japanese learners in a technical school housed in a building named Ko-sha (lit. school building, which soon became the official name for the school) at the shipyard developed by Verny. Between 1865 and 1907 this school educated and trained nearly 300 engineers and technical foremen. Some of its first students went on to become specialized engineers, technicians, foremen, and administrators at other shipyards, naval arsenals, and factories in Nagasaki, Ishikawajima and Kure, or teachers at technical institutions. A second school, for foremen, was established in 1872. 1

For a comprehensive view of the early years of the Yokosuka Dockyard see HashimotoTakehiko,‘Introducing a French Technological System: The Origin and Early History of the Yokosuka Dockyard’, in East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine, no. 16, 1999, pp. 53–73. See also Ko-zo- Yamamura, ‘Success illgotten? The role of Meiji militarism in Japan’s technological progress’, in Journal of Economic History, no. 37, 1977, pp. 113–135.

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71

According to human capital theory, a country can develop only if its citizens can benefit from education and the vocational training system. Human resources such as ‘engineers’2 are the result of higher education and therefore constitute a core factor in a country’s development. In this sense, Japan owes much to the contribution of French professionals in the training of the first generation of engineers at the beginning of Japan’s modernization. Verny transplanted the concepts and curricula of schools he had attended in France – the École Polytechnique and the École d’Application du Génie Maritime – into the technical school at the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard. But how far were the concepts from these schools in France transferred into the technical education and training system in the Yokosuka school? This chapter addresses the following questions: First, who was Verny, and how can his concept of technical education at the Yokosuka Dockyard be characterized? Second, how were the technical schools at the dockyard organized? In addition, why were these technical schools the beginning of ‘modern’ technical education in Japan? Third, to what extent did technical knowledge acquired in the Yokosuka Dockyard have an impact on Japanese industrialization? This chapter aims to elucidate the influences of French polytechnic education systems on the concepts of the Ko-sha technical school and to show how Verny managed the training of the first engineers at the start of Japan’s modernization. A brief outline of Verny and his concept for the technical schools in the Yokosuka Dockyard is followed by an analysis of the curricula of these schools. The chapter then describes the results of this ‘modern’ technical education and the dissemination of technical knowledge in Japan. 2. VERNY AND HIS CONCEPT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the interests of the Tokugawa government, which wanted to remain in power, clashed 2

The word ‘engineer’, the modern term for highly educated technical personnel, is derived from the French word génie. This word was originally used in the eighteenth century to refer to the academic discipline of the military technology school in France; see Horiuchi Tatsuo, Furansu gijutsu kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu(Research on the history of the establishment of French technical education), To-kyo-: Taga Shuppan, 1997, p. 25.

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with those of the anti-Tokugawa domains, especially Cho-shu- and Satsuma in south and southwest Japan. These domains demanded the abolition of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial rule. Since the installation of the British Consul General Harry Smith Parkes (1828–1885) in 1865, the two domains had been in close contact with England. England helped arm these anti-Tokugawa domains and advised them on political strategy for their revolution against the Tokugawa government.3 Spurred by military conflicts with the anti-Tokugawa domains, the government felt a need to increase its own military strength and pursued a strategy of adopting the knowledge of the Western powers. This domestic problem ran parallel to the conflict between France and England. England wanted to monopolize the silk trade with Japan, whereas France, a latecomer to the Japanese market, sought to catch up with the other Western powers.4 For this reason, the Consul General of Napoleon III, Léon Roches (1809–1901), was commissioned to negotiate a friendship agreement with Japan. This diplomatic strategy on the part of France led to the formation of a group of advocates in the Tokugawa government who lobbied for the acquisition of French technical and military knowledge. Oguri Ko-zukenosuke Tadamasa (1827–1868), an official of the Tokugawa shogunate and one of the eight commissioners of the ‘iron committee’ founded in 1864, argued that there was an urgent need to promote the development of independent shipbuilders and armament producers in order to secure future independence from imports.5 He suggested that Japan use France in the role of an instructor in Western technology. The most critical task of the Tokugawa government was to get knowledge of the technology related to shipbuilding and military matters from France. On 7 October 1865, Napoléon III issued an imperial decision entrusting the naval engineer Verny to the Japanese government to establish a naval dockyard in Japan. At that time,Verny was already in Ningbo (a port city in the Zhèjia-ng province in China). 3

4

5

Nishinarita Yutaka, Keiei to ro-do- no Meiji ishin. Yokosuka seitetsujo/zo-sen-jo wo chu--shin ni (Management and labour in the Meiji Restoration. Mainly on the Yokosuka Ironworks and the Yokosuka Dockyard), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 2004, p. 27. Ienaga Saburo- and Kurobane Kiyotaka, Shinko- Nihon-shi (New lecture on Japanese history), To-kyo-: Sanseido-, 1986, p. 407. Nagahama Tsuguo, Tokugawa bakufu no o-i-naru isan: Yokosuka Zo-sen-jo (The great heritage of the Tokugawa shogunate: The Yokosuka Dockyard). Yokosuka: Yokosuka no bunka isan wo kangaeru-kai, 2004, p. 25.

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On behalf of the French government, he had been tasked with building four ships in Ningbo in only 18 months. Verny was just 25 years old. The selection of this engineer to build a dockyard in Japan was no coincidence, as his biography shows. Rather, it can be attributed to Verny’s accumulated educational and professional experiences, and thus his cultural capital. François Léonce Verny was born on 2 December 1837 and raised in the small town of Pont d’Aubenas in the Ardèche département in southern France. He studied at the École Polytechnique between 1856 and 1858 and at the École d’Application du Génie Maritime between 1858 and 1860. After graduating in 1860, he became an engineer at the Naval Arsenal in Brest. He oversaw various tasks related to shipbuilding, including bookkeeping in ironworks and sawmills, the construction of steam engines, and the repair of docks for warships. To lay the groundwork for building the new shipyard, a delegation from Japan was sent to France to recruit engineers and technical workers from France, procure equipment and machinery for the dockyard, and visit the naval shipyard in Toulon for reference.6 On 27 June 1865, Shibata Takenaka (1823–1877), commissioner of foreign affairs (gaikoku bugyo-) of the Tokugawa government, was sent to France as the head of the delegation from Japan (Nippon rijikan). During his stay he was accompanied by two interpreters and three other officials as well as by Verny. From the very beginning of the construction of the Yokosuka Dockyard, Verny was preoccupied with setting up technical schools for Japanese citizens to ensure that they would be able to operate the dockyard themselves after the French staff had left.7 At the beginning of 1866, in the early stages of the dockyard’s construction, Verny sent a letter to the construction supervisor Lygner,8 a civil engineer, detailing priorities for the order of building. Specifically, Verny demanded that the school building and the rigging workshop should be built first. He justified this by 6

7

8

Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 2, To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-, 1973, pp. 17–18; Kurasawa Takashi, Bakumatsu kyo-iku-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the educational history at the end of the Edo period), vol. 2, To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 1984, p. 699. Tanaka Sadao, Les débuts de l’étude du français au Japon (The beginnings of French studies in Japan), To-kyo-: Editions France Tosho, 1983, p. 199. His full name, the birth and death records are not clear. It is said that he died shortly after his arrival in Japan in 1866.

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arguing that the already employed workers should first familiarize themselves with the European machines in the rigging workshop. They would receive instructions on the operation of the machines in the school building. Consequently, the school building was one of the first structures built in the dockyard (Figure 1).

Fig. 1: The wire rope factory and the ‘Ko-sha’ 1873 (The two-storey building at the top right). Source: Nishibori Akira, Album-souvenir des relations culturelles entre la France et le Japon. Modernisation du Japon et Techniques industrielles françaises. Arsenal de Yokosuka, Atelier de Yokohama, Mines d’Ikuno, Filature de Tomioka, To-kyo-: Surugadai Shuppansha, 1986, p. 20.

According to ideas in his letter, the training of the technical staff was to be divided into three levels: 1. 2. 3.

Top level, for engineers Middle level, for foremen Lowest level, for workers

Verny also recommended his concept of technical education in Yokosuka to the French ambassador, Léon Roches. Verny wrote that he had a great interest in the urgent organization of a school of manufacturing. This school should be an institution to educate young engineers who would be able to build machines and ships in the future, when the Japanese government would eventually take over the shipyard. Moreover, the school should teach all disciplines

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of the art of engineering related to construction according to the curriculum of the École Polytechnique on metallurgy, military fortification, and artillery, and of the École Centrale on metallurgy and other industrial applications.9 Verny strongly recommended that the school offer a three-year course. He further suggested introducing a salary for the students during their studies at the Yokosuka dockyard. Such a salary could motivate future workers and give them an incentive to study Western technology. He also proposed sending two graduates of the technical school to Europe each year to advance their knowledge. As his school concept shows,Verny took technical education at the Yokosuka Dockyard seriously, but it also reveals a kind of philanthropic attitude and a sense of responsibility for the technological future of Japan. One month later (on 13 March 1867), he wrote a letter to the Japanese government outlining his teaching ideas. He incorporated ‘modern’ European technical knowledge into his curriculum. The level of technical education in Verny’s proposals was the highest ever in Japan and almost as high as that of the École Polytechnique, which was in the nineteenth century regarded as the most respected technical school in the world. A dockyard was, and is, a conglomeration of various workshops: foundries, joineries, locksmiths, and (boiler) forges, as well as repairing and docking operations. The construction of a ‘modern’ European-standard dockyard required not only European machinery but also workers who could operate, maintain, and repair it. Thus, in the first phase of this industrialization, the machines and equipment determined the competence required for the workforce in the Yokosuka Dockyard. The traditional knowledge and skills of the craftsmen who were first hired had to be adapted to the new challenges. French specialists were indispensable in teaching how to operate the machines. By 1866, a total of 43 French professionals were working at the dockyard (Table 1). 9

‘Among the improvements, I have a great interest in the urgent organization of a school of manufacturing. Its purpose would be to ensure that young people will be able to continue performing the main tasks that the Japanese government will eventually take over. This school must be located in Yokosuka, the only place in the country where there will be enough professionals and where most of the engineering work will be done. These sciences to be taught include all branches of the art of engineering related to construction; I have left out those disciplines taught at schools belonging to the École Polytechnique on metallurgy, military fortification, and artillery and some of those taught at the École Centrale on metallurgy and other industrial applications – the textile arts, for example.’ Tanaka Sadao, Les débuts, pp. 200–201, translated by the author.

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Table 1: The first French professionals in the Yokosuka Marine Shipyard 1866 (Compiled from Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-shc (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi

(History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 1, To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-, 1973, p. 75–77 (Reprint of the 1915 edition).

Profession

Persons

Boiler engineer

6

Grinder

4

Bricklayer

4

Blacksmith

4

Castor

3

Machinist

3

Ship’s carpenter

3

Draftsman

3

Bookkeeper (accountant)

2

Rigging maker

2

Carpenter

2

Chemist

1

Assistant

1

Naval engineer

1

Pattern maker

1

Stonemason

1

Caulker

1

Decorator

1

Total

43

At first, the technology transfer seemed to proceed relatively smoothly because of the highly skilled craftsmanship of the To-kyoand Yokosuka area. But it soon became clear that the existing skills of Japanese recruits, often traditional craftsmen, were insufficient for the requirements of the new machines from Europe. Based on Verny’s concept, the engineering school accepted students from 1866 on, and was officially opened on 16 April 1870.10 The official name of the school was Ko-sha. However, according to 10

Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun ko-sho-, gijutsu-kan oyobi shokkokyo-iku enkaku-shi (Yokosuka Marine Arsenal – The educational history of technical officers and technical workers), To-kyo-: Ho-bunkaku, 1984, p. 6 (Reprint of the 1937 edition).

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the memoir of its first graduate, Sawa Ichiro- (1854–1937, graduated in 1870), the French employees called the Ko-sha the ‘École Polytechnique de Yokosuka’.11 A school for foremen was officially founded on 6 February 1872 and was called Shokko--gakko- (foremen’s school). Verny’s concept of a three-track education system was thus not fully realized, but at least a two-track system for higher technical personnel was put in place. 3. CURRICULA OF THE TECHNICAL SCHOOLS IN THE YOKOSUKA DOCKYARD

Two curricula from the Ko-sha between 1867 and 1875 were included as historical sources in the Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard).12 They were obviously based on Verny’s earlier experience at these two schools. The engineering education program at Yokosuka from 1867 lasted three years (Table 2). The first year focused on the basics of mathematics. In order to improve French language proficiency, a significant proportion of first-year lessons were also allocated to French language education. In the second year, lessons on mechanics, chemistry, and ‘descriptive geometry’ were added. These subjects also constituted essentially the core of the engineering education in the École Polytechnique. The aim of the École Polytechnique, founded in 1794 in Paris, was to train engineers, architects, and officers in all areas of civil service. The discipline of ‘descriptive geometry’, developed by its founder, Gaspard Monge (1746–1818), represented the quintessence of the school’s curriculum. Descriptive geometry was a methodical procedure for capturing static or dynamic geometric processes by mapping snapshots of the affected space. All lines and corners as well as shadows were drawn as parts of a whole in such a way that a three-dimensional image was created on paper. Based on this three-dimensional representation and the resulting analysis, solutions for construction problems could be calculated mathematically.13 11 12

13

Tanaka Sadao, Les débuts, p. 203. Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 2, To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-, 1973 (Reprint of the 1915 edition). Ulrich Pfammatter, Die Erfindung des modernen Architekten: Ursprung und Entwicklung seiner wissenschaftlich-industriellen Ausbildung (The invention of the modern architect. The origin and the development of its scientific industrial education), Berlin: Birkhäuser, 1997, p. 40–41.

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Table 2: Curriculum of the Engineering School at the Yokosuka Marine Shipyard in 1867 (hours/academic year) Compiled from Verny’s letter cited in Tanaka Sadao, Les débuts de l’étude du français au Japon (The beginnings of French studies in Japan),To-kyo-: Editions France Tosho, 1983, pp. 203–204. First year Arithmetic (46) Geometry (40) Drawing (10) Physics (30) Cosmography (10) French (46) Drawing (figures and landscapes) (48)

Second year Applied arithmetic and trigonometry (30) Descriptive geometry (40) Mechanics 1(40) Physics (20) Chemistry (20) Zoology and botany (15) French (25) Drawing (figures and landscape) (48)

Third year Applied mechanics and material resistance (40) Stereotomy (20) Chemistry (40) Civil engineering (40) Shipbuilding (40) Mechanical engineering (40)

In the third year of the engineering school at the dockyard, the students learned more applied subjects. These comprised elements from the École d’Application du Génie Maritime that were indispensable factors in shipbuilding, such as material resistance (résistance des matériaux), and the theory of mechanical engineering as taught at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. It is noteworthy that the teaching program did not focus exclusively on the subjects of shipbuilding engineering. In addition, zoology and botany demonstrated that shipbuilding with wooden materials was also an interaction with the natural environment. In fact, securing the proper timber for shipbuilding was so difficult that the Meiji government regulated the deforestation of privately owned land by law.14 Verny thus required a high level of knowledge from the students in the engineering school. It should be noted that his concept lacked a significant connection between theory and practice. This was in line with the theory-laden education of the French technical schools, but it also reflects Verny’s idea that the most urgent aim of engineering education in the dockyard was the acquisition of basic European technical knowledge of shipbuilding. Yokosuka kaigun sensho-shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard) reports that the curriculum of the Ko-sha was expanded into a four-year program in 1875 (Table 3).The teaching in the engineering education program had become more systematically organized to increase the level of knowledge from basic to advanced. The French engineers enabled this high-level engineering education. A total of 13 French engineers were employed as teachers at the school from 1865 to 1878. 14

Nishinarita Yutaka, Keiei to ro-do-, p. 104–105.

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Table 3: Curriculum of the ‘Ko-sha’ 1875 at the Yokosuka Dockyard

Compiled from Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 2, To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-, 1973, p. 30 (Reprint of the 1915 edition).

First year

Second year

Third year

Fourth year

Mathematics Algebra Geometry Chemistry Geography of Japan Drawing French studies Japanese studies Translation studies

Mathematics Algebra Geometry Chemistry Geography of Japan Drawing French studies Japanese studies Translation studies

Mathematics Algebra Descriptive geometry Trigonometry Physics Chemistry Geography of Japan Drawing French studies Japanese studies Translation studies

Applied algebra Applied geometry Applied descriptive geometry Physics Chemistry Drawing French studies Japanese studies Translation studies

Noteworthy are the teaching activities of Pierre Paul Sarda (1844– 1905) and Adolphe François Eugene Dupont (1840–1907). Sarda had graduated from the École Polytechnique after completing his secondary education at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures.The latter institution is known as the origin of the ‘industrial sciences’. Sarda stayed in Yokosuka from 17 October 1873 to 8 November 1876, and taught mainly mathematics such as analysis, algebra, as well as descriptive geometry, trigonometry, and physics. After the end of his contract with the Yokosuka dockyard, Sarda was hired for a half year (until the end of 1877) as a teacher of mathematics at the University of To-kyo- (established shortly before in April 1877).15 He stayed in Japan for the rest of his life. Adolphe Dupont was a graduate of the naval school École d’Application du Génie Maritime. He was engaged in the Yokosuka Dockyard from September 1874 to September 1877, primarily teaching material sciences, such as the course on material resistance (Cours de résistance des matériaux), as well as courses on the balancing and stability of floating bodies (Cours de déplacement et stabilité) (Fig. 5) and ship construction (Cours de construction navale).16 Owing to these two excellent teachers of mathematics, particularly in instruction of the mathematical analysis, the quality 15

16

Sawa Mamoru, ‘Yokohama/Yokosuka seitetsu-jo no Furansu-jin gishi’ (French engineers in the Yokohama/Yokosuka Ironworks), in Keiai Daigaku kenkyuronshu-, vol. 21, 1982, p. 105. Ono Yu-ji, Nihonjin saisho no sentan gijutsu-sha Tatsumi Hajime zo-sen taikan – su-gaku to kindai zo-sen-gaku (The first Japanese advanced engineer Tatsumi Hajime, the chief naval architect of the Japanese Navy: Mathematics and modern shipbuilding sciences), To-kyo-: Kenseisha, 2009, pp. 79–82.

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of the Ko-sha engineering school greatly improved, as we can infer from the graduates who later obtained doctoral titles after studying abroad in France. Because of the introduction of mathematical analysis for the first time in Japan, one could define the Ko-sha engineering school as the first ‘modern’ technical school in Japan. In particular, the analysis of floating was regarded as one of the most important subjects in shipbuilding studies because of its importance in avoiding shipwrecks. This subject was based on the integral and differential analysis. The almost complete lecture notes of the scholar Tatsumi Hajime (1857–1931, graduated in 1873), reveal the high standard of the engineering study program at the Yokosuka Dockyard. Tatsumi’s notebooks show that he was instructed on conic curves (circle, ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola), orthogonal coordinates, affine coordinates, and so on (see examples of his notes in Figures 2–5).

Fig. 2: Tatsumi Hajime’s notes from April 1875: Descriptive geometry (Teacher: Sarda). Source: To- kyo- Daigaku Ho- gakubu fuzoku kindai Nihon ho- sei shiryo- sentan genshiryo- -bu (Center for Modern Japanese Legal and Political Documents at the University of To- kyo- Graduate Schools for Law and Politics/Faculty of Law) (Copy courtesy by Ono Yu- ji); see also Ono Yu- ji, ‘Yokosuka seitetsujo fusetsu ko- sha kagaku gijutsu riko- kyo- iku to kindai zo- sen-gaku: Nihon-jin saisho no sentan gijutsu-sha Tatsumi Hajime ni tsuite’ (Science and technology education of the ‘Ko- sha’, the school attached to Yokosuka Ironworks and the modern shipbuilding science. On the first Japanese advanced engineer Tatsumi Hajime), in Techno marine Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, no. 870, 2002, pp. 74–84.

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Fig. 3: Tatsumi Hajime’s notes from April 1875:Analytic geometry, conic curves, Cartesian and oblique coordinates by affine transformation (Teacher: Sarda). (Source: See figure 2).

The level of the teaching program was comparable to that of the École Polytechnique. The students who took seminars from Sarda and Dupont reached a level of engineering knowledge that enabled them after their graduation to continue their studies in France at the École d’Application du Genie Maritime and the École Polytechnique. In July 1876 the first student was sent to France to

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Fig. 4: Tatsumi Hajime’s notes from September 1876: Derivé d’une fonction implicite (Analytics and differential geometry, derivative of implicit function) (Teacher: Dupont). Source: see figure 2.

Fig. 5: Tatsumi Hajime’s Notes (from 1876): Déplacement et de stabilité (Displacement and stability), (Teacher: Dupont). Source: see figure 2.

expand his knowledge:Yamaguchi Tatsuya (1856–1927, graduated in 1870). Between 1877 and 1879, six more students were sent to France to enrol in postgraduate studies (Table 3). First, on 26 June 1877, four students from the engineering school received an official secondment to study at the École d’Application du Génie Maritime in Cherbourg.17 These were Wakayama Genkichi (1856–1901, graduated in 1875), Sakurai Sho-zo- (1854–?, graduated in 1875), Tatsumi Hajime (graduated in 1873), and Ko-no Seiichiro- (?–?, graduated in 1873). Kurokawa Yu-kuma (1852– ?, graduated in 1875) followed in March 1878, and Takayama Yasutsuna (graduated in 1875) in July 1879.18 When we look at the second track of the technical education, we can identify the foundation of the so-called ‘dual education system’. The Foremen’s School was officially founded on 6 February 1872 (Meiji 4.12.28).19 In contrast to the technical school Ko-sha, its curriculum was designed such that the students worked half a day at the dockyard and studied for the rest of the day in school (for the syllabus see Table 4). 17 18 19

Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho-, vol. 2, p. 98. Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho-, vol. 2, p. 108, 134. Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (eds), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 2, To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-,1973, p. 30 (Reprint of the 1915 edition).

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Table 4: Curriculum of the Foremen’s School (Shokko- -ko-sha) in the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard 1876. Source: See figure 2, p. 80. First year Arithmetic Algebra Geometry Drawing French

Second year Descriptive geometry Trigonometry Curve theory Basic physics Basic chemistry Drawing French

Third year

Fourth year

Dynamics Machine elements Applied physics Applied chemistry Drawing French

Naval engineering (as major) Steam mechanics (as major) Sailmaking (as major) Hygiene and Sanitation science Drawing French

This dual technical training program of the Foremen’s School was influenced by the teaching guidelines of the Écoles de Maistrance, which were located in the three French ports of Brest,Toulon, and Rochefort in order to educate naval officers.20 By 1876, about 50 out of a total of 1,505 workers at theYokosuka Dockyard had attended this ‘dual education system’.The relatively small number of attendees in comparison to the total number of employees is due to the fact that this school sought to train future production managers for the shop floors. 4. RESULTS OF THE ‘MODERN’ ENGINEERING SCHOOL AT THE YOKOSUKA DOCKYARD

The engineering education in the Ko-sha evidently served to provide Japanese students with a high-level engineering knowledge. The opportunity to study in France enhanced the scope of knowledge and enabled them to become transmitters and disseminators of the European technical knowledge in Japan. Of the seven graduates who were sent to France, four obtained qualifications as shipbuilding engineers in France, and four in addition later earned their doctorates (Table 5).21

20

21

Horiuchi Tatsuo, Furansu gijutsu kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu- (Research on the history of establishment of French technical education), To-kyo-: Taga Shuppan, 1997, p. 249. Horiuchi, Furansu gijutsu kyo-iku, p. 248.

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Table 5: Final qualification and career of selected scholars from ‘Ko- sha’ Compiled from Yokosuka Kaigun Ko- sho- (ed.), Yokosuka

kaigun sensho--shi (Source: See figure 2); Horiuchi Tatsuo, Furansu gijutsu kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the history of establishment of French technical education), To- kyo - : Taga Shuppan,1997; Nagahama Tsuguo, Tokugawa bakufu no O i-naru isan: Yokosuka Zo-sen-jo (The great heritage of the Tokugawa sho- gunate: The Yokosuka Marine Shipyard), Yokosuka: Yokosuka no bunka isan wo kangaeru-kai, 2004; Nishibori Akira, Nichi-futsu bunka ko-ryu- -shi no kenkyu- (Research on the history of cultural exchange between Japan and France), To- kyo- : Surugadai Shuppansha 1988; Yokosuka Kaigun Ko- sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho-shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), vol. 2, To- kyo- : Hara Shobo- , 1973, p. 30, (Reprint of the 1915 edition).

Name

Period

School attended in France

Final qualification

Profession after qualification as engineer

Yamaguchi July 1876 – Tatsuya Apr. 1880 (1856–1927)

École d’application du génie maritime, Cherbourg

Naval engineer (Dr. Ing., 1899)

Lecturer, Foremen’s School, Yokosuka Marine Shipyard

Wakayama Genkichi

July 1877 – Jan. 1881

École d’application du génie maritime, Cherbourg

unknown

Lecturer, Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu dai-gakko-)

Sakurai Sho-zo-

July 1877 – June 1881

École d’application du génie maritime, Cherbourg

Naval engineer (Dr. Ing., 1901)

Lecturer, Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu dai-gakko-)

Tatsumi July 1877 – Hajime Jan. 1881 (1857–1931)

École d’application du génie maritime, Cherbourg

Naval engineer (Dr. Ing., 1901)

Lecturer, Foremen’s School, Yokosuka Marine Shipyard

Ko-no Seiichiro-

July 1877 – unknown

unknown

unknown

Unknown

Kurokawa Yu-kuma

Feb. 1878 – unknown

unknown

Naval engineer (Dr. Ing., 1899)

Lecturer, Foremen’s School, Yokosuka Marine Shipyard

Takayama Yasutsuna

July 1879 – Nov. 1882

unknown

unknown

Lecturer, Naval Engineering School (Kaigun zo-sen-ko- gakko-), Yokosuka Maritime Shipyard

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The high-level graduate studies in France completed the technical knowledge accumulation of these engineers, who were then able to develop and organize products and production processes independently. As demonstrated above, Verny’s ‘modern’ engineering education system worked well for the formation of such ‘initial engineers’ who disseminated the engineering knowledge gained in France in the take-off phase of Japanese modernization. Some of them were later employed as teachers at the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-). They disseminated their technical knowledge through their profession and contributed greatly to the industrialization of Japan. However, the real goal of the Tokugawa government’s industrialization program – the independent production and development of machine tools and steel-hulled ships – was not yet achieved during Verny’s stay in Japan (1866–1876). For this endeavour the number of the initial engineers was still too small. The technical education program designed by Verny quickly reached its limits due to the high demand. To ensure more efficient and well-structured technical education, the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) had to assume its proper role. Nevertheless, by the time of Verny’s dismissal in 1876, the Ko-sha engineering school had introduced 55 highly qualified technical graduates, the ‘first ‘modern-trained’ engineers, into the Japanese society. After Verny’s dismissal, a further 104 engineers had graduated by 1888. 5. CONCLUSION

At the beginning of Japan’s industrialization, Verny introduced the two-track technical education system: for engineers and for foremen. The Foremen’s School was based on the dual system of the vocational school for naval officers in France. The curriculum of the Ko-sha engineer school was similar to those of the École polytechnique, the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, and the École d’Application du Génie Maritime (1872), where Verny, Sarda and Dupont had studied. The contribution of the two mathematical teachers, Sarda and Dupont, played quite a significant role in the development of Japan’s technical education and for the formation of the ‘initial engineers’. They were the first to introduce mathematical analysis to Japan, a mathematical method that was crucial for the calculation of the stability of floating bodies. In this context, the technical

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schools in the Yokosuka Dockyard were the first institutions of ‘modern’ technical education in Japan. In 1911 the Shipbuilding Association (Zo-sen Kyo-kai) indicated that the origin of the school specialized in naval technical education in Japan was the Ko-sha at the Yokosuka Dockyard. In 1937, the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal (Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho-), part of the Navy Ministry (Kaigunsho-), did the same.22 Verny’s contribution to the establishment of the ‘modern’ technical education in Japan was in this sense quite remarkable. REFERENCES: Hashimoto Takehiko, ‘Introducing a French Technological System: The Origin and Early History of the Yokosuka Dockyard’, in East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine, no. 16, 1999, pp. 53–73. Horiuchi Tatsuo, Furansu gijutsu kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the history of the establishment of French technical education), To-kyo-: Taga Shuppan, 1997. Ienaga Saburo- and Kurobane Kiyotaka, Shinko- Nihon-shi (New lecture on Japanese history), To-kyo-: Sanseido-, 1986. Kurasawa Takashi, Bakumatsu kyo-iku-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the educational history in the Edo period), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 1984. Nagahama Tsuguo, Tokugawa bakufu no o-i-naru isan: Yokosuka zo-sen-jo (The great heritage of the Tokugawa shogunate: The Yokosuka Dockyard), Yokosuka: Yokosuka no bunka isan wo kangaeru-kai, 2004. Nishibori Akira, Album-souvenir des relations culturelles entre la France et le Japon. Modernisation du Japon et Techniques industrielles françaises. Arsenal de Yokosuka, Atelier de Yokohama, Mines d’Ikuno, Filature de Tomioka, To-kyo-: Surugadai Shuppansha, 1986. Nishibori Akira, Nichi-Futsu bunka ko-ryu--shi no kenkyu- (A study on the history of cultural exchange between Japan and France), To-kyo-: Surugadai Shuppansha, 1988. Nishinarita Yutaka, Keiei to r o-do- no Meiji ishin. Yokosuka seitetsujo/ zo-sen-jo wo chu-shin ni (The Meiji-Restauration of management and labour. Focussing on the Yokosuka Iron Works and the Yokosuka Dockyard), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 2004.

22

Nihon Zo-sen Kyo-kai (ed.), Nihon kinsei zo-sen-shi (Japanese early modern shipbuilding history). To-kyo-: Ko-do-kan, 1911, pp. 909, 918; Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho-, gijutsu-kan oyobi shokko- kyo-iku enkaku-shi (Yokosuka Marine Arsenal – The educational history of technical officers and technical workers), To-kyo-: Ho-bunkaku, 1984, p. 1 (Reprint of the 1937 edition).

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Ono Yu-ji, ‘Yokosuka seitetsujo fusetsu ko-sha kagaku gijutsu riko- kyo-iku to kindai zo-sen-gaku: Nihon-jin saisho no sentan gijutsu-sha Tatsumi Hajime ni tsuite’ (Science and technology education of the Ko-sha, the attached school to Yokosuka Ironworks and the modern shipbuilding science. On the first Japanese advanced engineer Tatsumi Hajime), in Techno Marine Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, no. 870, 2002, pp. 74–84. Ono Yu-ji, Nihonjin saisho no sentan gijutsu-sha Tatsumi Hajime zo-sen taikan: su-gaku to kindai zo-sengaku (The first advanced Japanese engineer Tatsumi Hajime, the Chief Naval Architect of the Japanese Navy: Mathematics and modern shipbuilding sciences), To-kyo-: Kenseisha, 2009. Pfammatter, Ulrich, Die Erfindung des modernen Architekten: Ursprung und Entwicklung seiner wissenschaftlich-industriellen Ausbildung (The invention of the modern architect. The origin and the development of its scientific industrial education), Berlin: Birkhäuser, 1997. Sawa, Mamoru, ‘Yokohama/Yokosuka seitetsu-jo no Furansu-jin gishi’ (French Engineers in the Yokohama/Yokosuka Ironworks), in Keiai Daigaku kenkyu- ronshu-, vol. 21, 1982, pp. 95–125. Tanaka Sadao, Les débuts de l’étude du français au Japon (The beginnings of French studies in Japan), To-kyo-: Editions France Tosho, 1983. Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun sensho--shi (History of the Yokosuka Navy Dockyard), To-kyo-: Hara Shobo-, 1973 (Reprint of the 1915 edition). Yokosuka Kaigun Ko-sho- (ed.), Yokosuka kaigun ko-sho-: gijutsu-kan oyobi shokko- kyo-iku enkaku-shi (Yokosuka Marine Arsenal: The educational history of technical officers and technical workers), To-kyo-: Ho-bunkaku, 1984 (Reprint of the 1937 edition). Yamamura, Ko-zo-, ‘Success ill-gotten? The role of Meiji militarism in Japan’s technological progress’, in Journal of Economic History, no. 37, 1.77, pp. 113-135.

5

The Role of the Ministry of Public Works in Designing Engineering Education in Meiji Japan: Reconsidering the Foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-)1 WADA Masanori

–

1. INTRODUCTION

A N EDUCATIONAL ENGINEERING institution named Ko-gaku-ryowas founded in 1871 by the Ko-busho- (Ministry of Public Works).2 The institution was opened to prospective students in 1873 and changed its name to Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Imperial College of Engineering, abbr. ICE)3 as part of a reform of the administration in January 1877. In December 1885, the college was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. With the promulgation 1

2

3

This spelling of the name corresponds to the contemporary spelling used by the college itself. This chapter is a translation of a previously published paper in Japanese: Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gaku-ryo- ko-so- to sono jisshi’ (The role of the Ministry of Public Works in Meiji Japan in designing engineering education: Reconsidering the foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96. The term ICE refers to this educational institution from the establishment of Ko-gaku-ryo- to the abolition of Ko-bu-dai-gakko-. Ko-gaku-ryo-, as an administrative organization, was established in August 1871; at the stage of planning, however, the educational institution was called Ko-bu-gakko- (engineering board school) or Ko--gakko- (engineering school). The Ministry of Public Works first used the name Ko-gaku-ryo- for the school in the Declaration of the Ministry of Public Works no. 6 in July 1873. 88

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of the Imperial University Ordinance in March 1886, ICE was annexed to the Faculty of Arts and Crafts of the University of To-kyo- and taken over by the College of Engineering at the Imperial University. During its operation from 1871 to 1886, a total of 211 students graduated from ICE. Students and faculty members at the ICE recognized that the facilities – the drawing office, experiment laboratories and museum, along with the classrooms – were reputed to be the finest in Asia. The ICE also maintained close relations with the boards of the Ministry of Public Works since it was under its direct control, and its students were allowed to visit each board.4 ICE represents the prehistory of the College of Engineering at the Imperial University, so is key to the history of higher technical education in Japan. Furthermore, the history of ICE can help elucidate the relationship between industrialization and education, overseas exchange, and the modernization and industrialization of Japan. Many studies on ICE have been conducted, mainly in the fields of history of education and history of technology – for example, searching for the history of the college itself,5 focusing on people 4

5

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Historical Materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering, Supplement), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, contains recollections of graduates of ICE. The following article is an example, which briefly states features of ICE in the recollections: Sugawara Tsunemi, ‘Monbu daijin Mori Arinori ko- ni ageru no sho’ (A document sent to the Minister of Education Mori Arinori), pp. 120–126. This text was submitted to the Minister by Sugawara on behalf of the students as a protest in January 1886, during the merger of ICE with the Faculty of Arts and Crafts, University of To-kyo- in March of the same year. Sugawara Tsunemi (1859–1940) was from the Ichinoseki domain (present day Iwate prefecture) and was an eighth-year graduate from ICE. The college closed during his sixth year, and he became the first graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering at the Imperial University. In addition to the notes below, I wish to mention one pioneering and three representative studies: Saigusa Hiroto, Gijutsu-shi (History of technology), Gendai Nihon bunmei-shi (History of modern Japanese civilization) vol. 14, To-kyo-: To-yo- Keizai Shinpo-sha, 1940; Tachi Akira, ‘Nihon ni okeru ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku no keisei: Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no seiritsu to tenkai’ (The formation of higher technology education in Japan. The establishment and development of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kyo-iku-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 43, no. 1, 1976, pp. 13–23; Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsushi no kenkyu-: Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to kyo-iku (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan: Industrialization and education in modern Japan), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979; and Kakihara Yasushi, ‘Ko-busho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’ (Training of engineers in the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono

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involved in the college,6 such as founder Yamao Yo-zo- (1837–1917) and principal Henry Dyer (1848–1918), and considering the college the origin of education in each engineering field.7 Furthermore, as described below, other studies explore the model and origin of the unique educational system of ICE. Despite these numerous studies, it seems that research on ICE has not progressed further. Previous research has tended to praise the college as Japan’s first modern advanced institution for technical education. But the practice of the college has still not been sufficiently revealed. To evaluate it fairly, it is necessary to focus on negative aspects, such as contradictions and difficulties related to the establishment and operation of ICE, that have been neglected in previous studies. From this point of view, it is possible to reinterpret ICE using the historical materials available. In addition, it is possible to point out limitations in previous studies on Dyer, one of the main characters related to ICE. The scope of the authority vested in Dyer by the Meiji government was said to be ‘quite exceptional’,8 and the previous studies

6

7

8

jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 57–82. Many works about the persons involved in the college take the form of biographies. Among them, the following studies emphasise the relationship between Yamao Yo-zo- and Henry Dyer, and ICE: Haga Namio, ‘Ko-bu no seishin to Yamao Yo-zo-’ (The spirit of industry and Yamao Yo-zo-), in Shizen, vol. 35, no. 10, 1980, pp. 94–97; ‘Gijutsu seisaku shiwa (1 and 2)’ (Historical episode of technology policy), in Ko-gyo- Gijutsu, vol. 27, no. 1 and 2 (1986); Kato- Sho-ji, O-yatoi kyo-shi Henrii Daiaa wo kaishita Nihon-Sukottorando-kan no kyo-iku rensa no kenkyu- (Chain of education between Japan and Scotland fostered by Henry Dyer) (Final Research Report for Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KAKENHI, for FY Heisei 17–19, 2005–2007, 2008). These studies analyse the education at ICE as part of the historical research of each specialised field of engineering, especially in architecture and telegraphy. The following are representative studies: Shimizu Keiichi, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo-, Ko-bu-daigakko- ni okeru kenchiku kyo-iku ni tsuite’ (A historical study on the architectural education of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kokuritsu Kagakuhakubutsukan kenkyu- ho-koku: E rui (Bulletin of the National Science Museum. Series E), vol. 8, 1985, pp. 25–35; Maejima Masahiro, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo-, Ko-bu-daigakko-, Ko-ka-Daigaku no denki kyo-iku ni kansuru ichi ko-satsu: Jisshu- ho-koku ni tsuite’ (Teaching on electricity at the Imperial College of Engineering and the College of Engineering in the Meiji era: A survey of the practical report), in Kokuritsu Kagaku-hakubutsukan kenkyu- ho-koku: E rui (Bulletin of the National Science Museum. Series E), vol. 14, 1991, pp. 31–42. Divers, Edward, ‘The Training of Engineers in Japan’, in The Engineer, vol. 85, 6 May 1898, p. 434. Edward Divers (1837–1912) was a professor of chemistry and became Principal of ICE on Dyer’s return to the UK in 1882.

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detailed below describe him as being given complete authority for establishing ICE.9 However, if we take into account a current view that foreign employees were ‘advisers’ and ‘supporters’ of the modernization policy,10 we must re-evaluate the relationship between Dyer and the Japanese officials in the Ministry of Public Works. This chapter focuses on the establishment of ICE from the perspective of the conflicting plans involved, including Dyer’s famous educational programme. It argues that the outline of the college plan had already been decided by the Ministry of Public Works before Dyer, clarifies the gaps in Dyer’s ideas, and revises previous understanding regarding the establishment of ICE. 2. PLANS FOR ICE BEFORE DYER

Many studies have been conducted to find models of unique curricula in ICE.11 However, previous studies have focused only on the contribution of the British side, such as Dyer’s idea with regard to drafting a basic plan for ICE. The contribution of the Japanese side, such as the ideas by Ito- Hirobumi and Yamao Yo-zo-, which existed before Dyer’s, has not been appreciated. Dyer lists having had ‘the advantage of beginning with a clean sheet’ at the top of the five factors that made ICE successful.12 In 9

10

11

12

Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan, 1989, p. 50. Umetani Noboru, O-yatoi gaikokujin: Meiji Nihon no wakiyaku-tachi (Foreign employees: Supporters in Meiji Japan), To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 2007, pp. 248–249. Many studies focus on the models of Japanese universities, and the following refer to ICE specifically: Nakayama Shigeru, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no genryu-: Suisu renpoKo-ka-gakuin ni tsuite’ (Headstream of the Imperial College of Engineering: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), in Butsurigaku-shi kenkyu-, vol. 3, no. 1, 1966, pp. 1–5; Miyoshi Nobuhiro, ‘Senmon kyo-iku ni kansuru seiyo- moderu no juyo- keitai: Ko-gyo- to no-gyo- no hikaku’ (The patterns of selection and acceptance of Western educational models for engineering and agriculture), in Daigaku ronshu-, no. 8, 1980, pp. 1–28; Kato- Sho-ji, ‘‘Sandoitchi shisutemu” no kigen’ (Origin of the “Sandwich system”), in Kansai Kyo-iku Gakkai nenpo-, no. 18, 1994, pp. 78–82; Silvana De Maio, ‘The development of an educational system at the beginning of the Meiji era: Reference models from Western countries’, in Historia Scientiarum, vol. 12, no. 3, 2003, pp. 183–199. Henry Dyer, Introductory Address on the Training and Works of Engineers in Their Wider Aspects, Glasgow: The Glasgow Technical College, 1905, p. 7. This booklet is the transcript of a lecture by Dyer at the Glasgow Technical College Scientific Society to speak out for the reformation of technical education in Britain. He mentions the other four factors that could lead to establishing a ‘most

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addition, he states, in Dai-Nippon, that he finished the educational plan (commonly known as Calendar)13 on his way to Japan, that he presented it to Vice Minister Yamao Yo-zo- after his arrival, and that ‘it was accepted by the Government without change of any kind’.14 Hugh M. Matheson (1821–1898), who received a request from Ito- for the selection of teachers, testifies that the British side prepared for the establishment of the college. He states, ‘I was to select the professors, fix the scale of their salaries, arrange a programme of studies, and procure all the necessary books and materials required for an institution which was designed to train a large body of Japanese youths for the service of their country in connection with public works’.15 These recollections by Dyer and Matheson, well known among historians, contribute to the formation of the prevailing theory that the unique curriculum came from Britain. For example, the historian of education, Tachi Akira, states that the ‘the educational organization of the Imperial College of Engineering was formed from the combination of the originality of Dyer and the necessity for the projects in the Ministry of Public Works’.16 Tachi emphasizes Dyer’s originality but does not mention a basic plan by the Ministry. Another historian of education, Miyoshi Nobuhiro, argues that ‘a plan (by Yamao) was largely revised’, and ‘full-fledged industrial education begins, far beyond Yamao’s basic plan’ after Dyer’s arrival in Japan.17 Miyoshi, in his

13

14

15

16 17

complete and well-equipped’ college in Meiji Japan: (1) ‘we had no personal or vested interests to contend with’, (2) ‘the Japanese government gave a most hearty support to all my proposals’, (3) ‘the professors were enthusiastic in their work’, and (4) ‘the students were diligent and intelligent’. This educational plan was later printed as Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Calendar. Session MDCCCLXXIII–LXXIV, Tokei: Printed at the College, 1873. Calendar, which corresponds to the course information, was printed every year until 1885. Only the one printed right after Dyer’s arrival and brought to Japan in 1873 is considered in this chapter and hereinafter referred to as Calendar. Henry Dyer, Dai Nippon: The Britain of the East, A Study in National Evolution, London: Blackie & Son, 1904, p. 2. ‘Letter from Mr. Matheson’, 20 January 1877, in David Stevenson and Thomas Constable, Memoir of Lewis D B Gordon F.R.S.E.: Late Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of Glasgow, Edinburgh, 1877, pp. 186– 190. This recollection was stated in a letter sent from Matheson to Mrs. Gordon after the death of the first engineering professor at the University of Glasgow, Lewis D. B. Gordon (1815–1876), who was consulted by Matheson for the selection of teachers. Tachi, ‘Nihon ni okeru ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku no keisei’, p. 15. Miyoshi, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsushi no kenkyu-, p. 266.

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later work, describes that ‘Ito- entrusted Matheson all the authority to establish a school from education planning to procurement of books and tools’, concluding that Yamao’s report was ‘unclear such as “one principal for the College, six teachers for the school”, and “officials of the Ministry of Public Works did not have a distinct plan” and not acknowledging the contribution of the Ministry of Public Works to the planning of the college.18 In addition, Kanekiyo Masanori, a biographer of Yamao, takes the position that the plans in the Ministry of Public Works were abandoned after Dyer arrived in Japan. He states that Dyer’s educational plan, finished on the way to Japan, was a ‘larger scale far beyond Yamao’s plan’, and that ‘Yamao easily withdrew his plan’.19 In her dissertation submitted to the To-kyo- Institute of Technology, Silvana De Maio raises the issue that we should clarify the intention of the Japanese side when the college was established; however, she has not conducted such an examination herself.20 Nevertheless, even if there were testimonies, it is doubtful to conclude that all the actions implemented by the Ministry of Public Works for founding ICE came from the British plan. For example, why did Dyer include only specialized subjects in the Calendar, and did not mention non-specialized subjects, the importance of which he always emphasized?21 Can it be said that Dyer knew the intention of the Japanese side in advance? Despite Dyer’s plan, which was actually adopted by the college, can it be said that Yamao fully supported him because his plan was in line with Yamao’s own expectations?22 The later description by Dyer that he had begun with a ‘clean sheet’ was clearly a stretch. 18 19

20

21

22

Miyoshi, Daiaa no Nihon, p. 49–50. Kanekiyo Masanori, Yamao Yo-zo- den: Meiji ko-gyo- rikkoku no chichi (Yamao Yo-zo-: The founding father of the Meiji industrial nation), Yamaguchi: Yamao Yo-zoKensho--kai, 2003, p. 65. Silvana De Maio, Bakumatsu Meiji shoki Nihon ko-gaku kyo-iku no tenkai ni kansuru kenkyu- (Development of engineering education in late Edo and early Meiji Japan), Dissertation at To-kyo- Institute of Technology, 1998, especially pp. 83–92. Henry Dyer, The Education of Engineers, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1879. He explains in this book the importance of non-specialized subjects to graduates aiming to occupy leadership positions. The official history of the University of To-kyo- also speculates that the Calendar was accepted without change because Dyer had sufficient information about the concept of the college in advance, but this aspect has not been examined in detail (To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi hensan iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu--shi 1 (100-year history of the University of To-kyo-, vol. 1, Complete history), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1984, p. 658).

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In Japan, prior to Dyer’s invitation, several ideas had been the foundation of the establishment of ICE, and their existence has already been clarified by previous studies. These were included in a report by Edmund Morel (1840–1871), a British railway- engineer who went to Japan, to Ito- Hirobumi; a proposal by Oshima Takato-, a mining engineer for the Ministry of Civil Affairs (Minbusho-); and a proposal by Ito- Hirobumi and Yamao Yo-zo-.23 However, previous studies have emphasized Dyer’s Calendar, and the role of the ideas preceding it has not been fully considered. The following section examines the contents of each of these plans and compares them with the Calendar submitted by Dyer to Yamao. 2.1 A plan by Edmund Morel

Edmund Morel (1840–1871), the first engineer-in-chief of the Meiji government, made a proposal to establish a ‘Bureau for Industry’ to Ito- Hirobumi, Deputy Vice Minister of Finance, on 28 May 1870, and partially mentioned education.24 The proposal on education by Morel extends to the general theory of science – including economics – to escape foreign aggression. Below we focus on the draft on technical education. Morel first shows a general way to train engineers – a ‘general rule’ that allows 17- to 18-year-old boys who have mastered ‘science, mathematics and foreign languages’ to enter the ‘academic school’ and take a course of five to six years.25 Once completed, students have the ability to take a ‘comprehensive test’. Next, in the 23

24

25

The following studies mention the existence of the plans of ICE before Dyer: by Yamao in Miyoshi, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu-, pp. 264–266; by Morel in Kakihara, ‘Ko-bu-sho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’, pp. 58–60; and by Morel and Oshima in Oyodo Sho-ichi, Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo- rikkoku-ka to kokumin keisei (Industrialisation of modern Japan and the formation of nation), Kawagoe: Suzusawa Shoten, 2009, pp. 44–45. However, none adequately consider how these plans related to the subsequent construction of ICE. Ito- Hirobumi, ‘Tetsudo- so-gyo- no jireki’ (History of the foundation of railways), in Tetsudo- Jiho--kyoku (ed.), Ju-nen kinen. Nihon no tetsudo--ron (Ten years anniversary. Railways in Japan), To-kyo-: Tetsudo- Jiho--kyoku, 1909, pp. 6–9. Regarding the timing of submission of Morel’s proposal, it was dated in the Christian era, but in the old calendar it corresponds to 28 April 1870. Morel’s proposal was only translated, and the original text has not yet been found. The ‘general rule’ seems to have referred to the technical education system at that time in Europe (Ito-, ‘Tetsudo- so-gyo- no jireki’, p. 7). Although the translation states ‘to send students study abroad for five or six years’, the context suggests keeping them in school, instead of sending them abroad.

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concrete plan, he states -that it is necessary to establish ‘engineering school[s]’ in To-kyo- or Osaka, with two Europeans and three Japanese as teachers. Among them, one European is in charge of ‘academic teaching’ and the other one is in charge of ‘professional matters’ (practical training), with the three Japanese teaching such professional matters; therefore, according to Morel’s proposal, only one teacher is in charge of teaching science. If the ratio of teachers directly reflected the contents of the curriculum, one-fifth would be allocated to learning and the majority to practical training.This proposal is similar to the shu-giko-, the training institutions, which had existed in the Ministry of Public Works before ICE, where lectures were given as needed while practising on site.26 Morel’s proposal is not very similar to the educational organization of the later ICE, so is unlikely to have been a direct model for it. 2.2 A plan by Oshima Takato-

On 25 September 1870 - (Meiji 3), five months after Morel’s proposal was submitted, Oshima Takato- (1826–1901), then secretary of the Mining Board in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, submitted a ‘Statement of Opinion on the Establishment of a Mining School’ to Vice Minister of Popular Affairs Oki Takato- (1832–1899) and Deputy Vice Minister of Popular Affairs Yoshii Tomozane (1828– 1891).27 The school appearing in this proposal was referred to as 26

27

Shu-giko- were the training institutions established in the era of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and then by the Ministry of Public Works (Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakkoshiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Historical materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, pp. 2–3). The Ministry of Public Works was developing the infrastructure under the advisory of the so-called ‘hired foreigners’, the o-yatoi, while at the same time conducting education by using them as teachers. Shu-giko- in each board were abolished due to the establishment of Ko-gaku-ryo- (ICE), but the one at the Telegraphy Board continued to exist and produced more than 1,200 graduates (see Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Ministry of Public Works history report), To-kyo-: Okurasho-, 1889, pp. 601–603). Oshima Takato-, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo- shinsetsu ni kansuru iken-sho’ (Statement of Opinion on the Establishment of a Mining School), in Oshima Shinzo- (ed.), O shima Takato- gyo-jitsu (Achievements of Oshima Takato-), Seido--mura (Hyo-go): Oshima Shinzo-, 1938, pp. 683–686. This statement is also contained in Iida Kenichi (ed.), Kagaku to gijutsu (Science and technology), Nihon kindai shiso- taikei, vol. 14, To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten 1989, pp. 189–191. Oshima Takato was from the Morioka domain (present day Iwate prefecture). He had served as Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Public Works, Secretary General at the Mining Bureau Branch Office (at Sado Island) and as President of Nihon

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Ko-gaku-ryo- (‘Ko-’ written here in Japanese ඁᆖ mining, and not ᐕᆖ industry), in which students would learn the theory and technology required for mine development.This plan corresponds to the Branch of Mining and the Branch of Metallurgy at ICE and presents a curriculum for surveying, instruments of mining, and geology. Therefore, a historian of technology has concluded that ‘ICE, established in the Ministry - of Public Works in August 1871, was based on this proposal by Oshima Takato-’.28 In this proposal, staff members would consist of seven Westerners as teachers as well as several interpreters and clerks. Although it does not mention the number of students, it indicates that the school would send graduates from the prefectural governments to 60 provinces and have them explore the mines; it is also assumed that the school would recruit several dozens of them. Regarding the course length, the proposal states that it would take three to four years for excellent students, and five to six years for ordinary students. Although excellent students could be exceptional, however, the general - period of the course would be closer to the latter. In addition, Oshima does not specify tuition fees but states that ‘the school widely gathers students from prefectural governments and takes care of them in the dormitory’, seemingly referring to the system of ko-shin-sei (government-supported students) adopted at Daigaku Nanko-, one of the former schools of the University of To-kyo-.29 This remark also indicates his intention to gather human resources from all over the country regardless of their affiliation to specific domains. He states that the development of the mines could bring huge revenue and repay the costs of construction of

28

29

Ko-gyo--kai (Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Japan). Oshima had been also involved in the following educational activities before submitting the proposal (and his experience must have been utilized in the formation of his plan): the establishment of a Western school Nisshindo- in the Morioka domain in 1861; the establishment of a mining school in Hakodate, where the Morioka domain was in charge of northern security, in 1862; advising the Morioka domain on the importance of human resource development through school education in 1863; employment at Western learning college Kaisei-gakko- in 1869 (O shima Takato- gyo-jitsu, pp. 15–27). Oshima Takato- gyo-jitsu, p. 686. Further, Iida states that this proposal ‘will lead to the establishment of Ko-gaku-ryo- in the Ministry of Public Works’, in Iida Kenichi (ed.), Kagaku to gijutsu (Science and technology), Nihon kindai shiso- taikei, vol. 14, To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten 1989, p. 189. The system of ko-shin-sei started at Daigaku Nanko- to collect human resources in To-kyo-, while each fief as a dispatcher paid tuition fees. See Karasawa Tomitaro-, Ko-shin-sei: Bakumatsu ishin-ki no eriito (Government-supported students: The elite of the Bakumatsu- and Restauration period), To-kyo-: Gyo-sei, 1974, pp. 3–9.

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the school in a few years. He also planned to have a clerk record and publish the contents of the lecture, meaning that he intended to spread knowledge beyond the school in addition to establishing it among students. Oshima also refers to the system of practical education in this proposal, that is,‘as required, the school has students travel to mines in turn, change the ways of developing mines and the old habits on site, then apply this method to each area’30. In other words, Oshima considered practical education as a means to introduce science from the West as soon as possible. In 1870 (Meiji 3), Ito- Hirobumi- was Deputy-Vice Minister of Popular Affairs and a superior of Oshima, and Oshima also took part in the Iwakura Mission, the diplomatic journey of several high-ranking officers to the USA and Europe between 1871 and 1873. Ito- -joined this mission. Naturally, one can assume that Itoknew of Oshima’s ideas when he met Matheson in London as a member of the Iwakura Mission; however, to date, no historical documents have been found to support this possibility. 2.3 A plan by the Ministry of Public Works

In 1870 (Meiji 3), the Ministry of Public Works was established, but the Minister was absent at first;Yamao Yo-zo- was then in charge of administration.31 Ito- Hirobumi became Vice Minister of the Ministry in September 1871, when Goto- Motoharu (Sho-jiro-) (1838–1897), who had been in the position since June, left office. Ito- was then inaugurated as the first Minister of Public Works in 1873.32 The Ministry of Public Works presented the plan for ICE, most likely drafted by Yamao, in the ‘Proposition of Construction of the School of Engineering’ submitted to the Council of State in April 30 31

32

Oshima Takato- gyo-jitsu, p. 685. Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku, pp. 2–3. Yamao was then promoted at a fast pace – to ko-bu-daijo- on 23 July of the following year, ko-gaku-no-kami on 17 August, and ko-bu-sho-fu on 7 December (pp. 2–10) (see also the following footnote). Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku, pp. 2–30. The positions in each ministry in the Meiji government were as follows from the top: kyo- (Minister), taifu (Vice Minister) and sho-fu (Deputy Vice Minister) as chokunin-kan (officials appointed by Emperor); and daijo-, gon-daijo-, sho-jo- and gon-sho-jo- as so-nin-kan (officials appointed by Prime Minister). In each ryo- (board), kami (head) was the responsible person; see Naikaku Kiroku-kyoku (ed.), Ho-ki bunrui taizen, dai 1 hen, book, no. 10 (Classification of laws and regulations), To-kyo-: Naikaku Kiroku-kyoku, 1889–1891, pp. 34–47.

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1871.33 After stating that the projects in the Ministry of Public Works aimed to ‘compete with other nations and keep our wealth and military power’, Yamao mentioned that these projects were currently promoted with the help of foreigners, insisting that the government should ‘educate talented persons’ because Japanese people could not rely on ‘eternal prosperity and military power’ in this situation.34 In other words, the construction of ICE was based on the spirit of self-reliance of Japanese people without the help of foreigners. The ‘Learning Students’ system (shitsumon oyobi denshu- sei), means a system for studying abroad that included theory and practice. The ‘Outline of Construction of an Engineering School’, which explained the size, course and budget of the school, followed this proposal in April of the same year.35 In addition, the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’, the educational policy of the school, was proclaimed on 2 March 1872, after an enquiry to the Council of State in November 1871.36 Below we analyse the contents of the ‘Outline of Construction of an Engineering School’ and the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’. The former consists of six articles: (1) Sho-gakko- (lit. primary school37; corresponding English term transcribed in Katakana as sukuuru) and (2) Daigakko- (lit. grand school; corresponding English term transcribed in Katakana a koureeji (college)), (3) admission qualifications and capacity for the primary school, (4) the programme of the primary school and all the way to the college, (5) programme of the college, and (6) notification of later submission of drawings of the buildings with an attached sheet as well as a budget outline for buildings and hiring teachers. 33

34 35

36

37

There was no evidence that Ito- was involved in the planning, although there is a description as ‘Ito- and Yamao made a statement because they had no choice but to build a school and raise a large number of human resources’ in Kyu-Ko-bu-daigakko- shiryo- hensankai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- (Historical materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, p. 4. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 4–5. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 5–10. Here, the Ko-bu-gakko- (later ICE) was for ‘the success of the later years’, while the ‘Learning Students’ system was for a ‘rapid way to fulfill immediate demand’ (p. 6). Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 18–20. While the date of its submission to the Council of State was 8 November of Meiji 4 (1871) in Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo(p. 7), ‘Ko--gakko- teisoku gairyaku ukagai’ (Inquiry in the Outline of the Regular Rule), in Ko-bun-roku (Publicizing materials) indicates that it was 4 November. The term sho-gakko- (or English primary school) here is not to be confused with the identically written later term used for the first stage of general school education after the promulgation of the Government Order of Education in August 1872.

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Subsequently, although there were no major changes from the ‘Outline of Construction of an Engineering School’, the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’ indicated the concept for the college and primary school with 18 articles;38 of these, seven were for the primary school, two were for the college, and the remaining nine were for both. As 16 of the 18 articles were related to the primary school, we can say that the purpose of this outline was to declare the opening of the primary school. Since the outline states that students would have to finish a two-year preparatory course in the primary school before entering the college,Yamao must have intended to redesign the contents of the college after starting the primary school.39 Substantial work related to the engineering school was carried out by Yamao, who was appointed as Head of the Engineering Board in August 1871. Ito-, who left To-kyo- on 10 November in the same year as a deputy with the Iwakura Mission, was also involved with Yamao in the formulation of the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’. This was submitted on 4 November, just before his departure. The Ministry of Public Works submitted ‘Hiring Principal and Teachers’ and requested a total of 16 foreigners – including one person as the principal of the college, six teachers for the primary school, and engineers for the Engineering Promotion Board – to the Council of State on 12 February 1872, and the plan was immediately approved.40 According to the Iwakura Mission’s original plan, the travel period was ten months, and it seems that Yamao sent the plan to London by Ito-’s arrival in March 1872.41 However, it was pointed out by the United States in Washington that ambassador Iwakura Tomomi did not have the authority to amend the so-called unequal treaties; deputies Ito- and Okubo Toshimichi suddenly returned to To-kyo- to obtain authority from the Japanese government. Ito- left Washington on 13 February 1872; on 30 April of the same year, the Ministry of Public Works 38

39

40 41

The material uses the words sho-gaku (ሿᆖ) and daigaku (བྷᆖ) instead of sho-gakko(ሿᆖṑ) and daigakko- (བྷᆨṑ). Sho-gaku described in these concepts was realized as the (preparatory) general and scientific course for the first two years (yoka-katei) at ICE. There also existed the school Aoi-machi Sho-gakko-, which was established by Ko-gaku-ryo- for preparatory education to the college in 1874, but it was not the sho-gaku mentioned in the plan of the Ministry of Public Works (Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- , p. 91). Aoi-machi Sho-gakko- was abolished in June 1877 due to cost reduction (p. 121). Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 42–43. Okubo Toshiaki, Iwakura shisetsu no kenkyu- (Study of the Iwakura Mission), To-kyo-: Munetaka Shobo-, 1976, pp. 104–107.

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submitted a proposal titled ‘Postponing Opening of the Primary School’ to the Council of State – probably having judged that the opening of the school scheduled on 15 July was impossible due to the situation of Ito-, who had returned to Japan temporarily. In this proposal, the primary school was suggested to be opened in November, but on 10 November, it was again requested to postpone the opening of the school.42 In any case, Ito- was able to thoroughly understand the plan for the engineering school when he arrived in London in July 1872, and asked Hugh Matheson to select teachers for the schools; he was therefore able to present the plans formulated by the Ministry to Matheson. It is hard to believe that Ito- ignored the Ministry’s plan when meeting Matheson and inviting teachers who would influence the success of the engineering school – a project that by September 1872 had already consumed a large amount of his Ministry’s funds.43 2.4 Comparison of the Plans

We now compare the characteristics of the plan of the Ministry of Public Works with that by Oshima. Both plans shared common features: prospective teachers were all Westerners – although the numbers were slightly different – trying to actively introduce Western studies and providing on-the-job training besides teaching academic theory.- In particular, both planned to integrate science with practice. Oshima planned science and mine excursions in his proposal, whereas the Ministry of Public Works planned to offer Western studies in the primary school and ‘on-the-job training at the real sites for various technology and engineering fields’ in the engineering school. It is important to note that these basic educational policies, which would later become the main characteristics of ICE, had already appeared in the plans of both Oshima and the Ministry of Public Works. A major difference lay in the programmes for foreign languages in both plans – although that of the Ministry - of Public Works was more specific for educational institutions. Oshima did not assume that the school would teach a foreign language to students; rather, he emphasized focusing on specialized subjects by using interpreters to enable students to learn from foreign teachers. The Ministry plan, on the other hand, required that students learn a lan42 43

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 52–53. Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku, pp. 987–988.

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guage from foreign teachers directly without using an interpreter. Oshima emphasized immediate effectiveness and completeness in education, expecting graduates to play an active role as mining engineers, whereas the Ministry expected continuous education for students and ‘later success’ after leaving school.44 Further, the Ministry proposed a plan to send excellent students abroad to study even after their graduation. Moreover, Article 6 of the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’ states that ‘all students on campus should adopt the Western style in clothing, food and housing’. The Ministry had a strong will to develop human resources familiar with Western science, technology and culture. 3. THE PLAN OF HENRY DYER 3.1 Dyer’s Calendar

After the Iwakura Mission arrived in London in July 1872, ItoHirobumi asked Hugh Matheson to select teachers for the engineering school, and the delegates moved on to France in November. After the intermediation of Lewis Gordon, the first Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Glasgow, Henry Dyer was chosen as the principal of the new school by January of the following year.45 Ito-, deputy of the Iwakura Mission, ordered Hayashi Tadasu (1850–1913), one of the delegates, to accompany the teachers to Japan; then Ito- left Paris for London on 14 January 1873.46 Dyer signed a contract on 2 April of the same year, and he and the other eight teachers from the United Kingdom arrived in Japan in June. As already mentioned above, according to Dyer’s Dai-Nippon, he devoted himself to the preparation of the Calendar, containing a course plan of Ko-gaku-ryo-, on the ship heading for Japan, and Yamao accepted it without any modifications. The 44 45

46

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 6. See “Letter from Mr. Matheson”. The process of selecting teachers is discussed in Sakamoto Kenzo-, Sentan gijutsu no yukue (Whereabouts of advanced technology), To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten, 1987, pp. 105–108; see also Miyoshi, Daiaa no Nihon, pp. 27–72. Hayashi Tadasu, Nochi wa mukashi no ki hoka: Hayashi Tadasu kaikoroku (Memoirs of Hayashi Tadasu), To-kyo-: Heibonsha, 1970, pp. 47–49, 184–185, and 191– 192; and Kido Takayoshi, Kido Takayoshi nikki, vol. 2 (Diary of Kido Takayoshi), To-kyo-: Nihon Shiseki Kyo-kai, 1933, p. 306. Hayashi was appointed as Ko-gaku-jo in June 1873 when he returned to Japan and was in charge of the affairs as head of the Engineering Board (Ko-gaku-ryo-) (Ko-bu-sho- enkaku ho-koku, p. 112).

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currently available version was printed at a later date; it is similar to the ‘Ko-gaku-ryo- Entrance Ceremony and General Rules of the Course’ announced by the Ministry of Public Works in July 1873. The outline can be said to have been completed when Dyer arrived in Japan.47 The Calendar has an 11-page preamble, which contains the annual schedule for 1873–74. The body text consists of 27 pages, 11 of which contain 17 articles presenting a general outline; another 12 pages contain 20 articles on the syllabus of subjects, and the contents of the entrance examination and a list of students are added as an appendix. The end of the preamble presents a list of teachers that includes one principal and eight teachers for the preparatory course in the first two years. Although no teachers of specialized courses are listed, it is explained that these courses would be organized within two years, after August 1873. In order to investigate whether Dyer knew about the plan for Ko-gaku-ryo- by the Ministry of Public Works before coming to Japan, let us consider the contact points between Hayashi and Matheson or Dyer. First, regarding the selection of teachers: after the Iwakura Mission arrived in London in July 1872, it is possible that Hayashi was in charge of the negotiations, as Ito- reports in Kyu- Ko-bu-daigakko- shiryo-: ‘I sent Hayashi Tadasu to commission Jardine, Matheson & Co. to establish a school’ in August 1872.48 However, according to Hayashi’s memoirs, ‘Sir Ito- asked a person named Hugh Mackay Matheson, who had taken care of him [Ito-] when he came to study abroad in England, to choose teachers; and I returned to London from Paris to take care of these matters, and returned to Japan with those teachers; then I began to be involved in the establishment of the college’49 Therefore, rather than Hayashi taking responsibility for the negotiations on behalf of Ito-, we should recognize that Ito- had already completed the request, and Hayashi merely performed his duties. In other words, the Iwakura Mission travelled to England and Scotland after Ito47

48

49

See footnote 13 for Calendar, which has 31 student names attached and was printed after October. Regarding the announcement by the Ministry of Public Works, see Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku (ed.), Ho-rei zensho, Meiji 6 nen (Compendium of laws and regulations, 1873), To-kyo-: Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku, 1889, pp. 1668– 1673. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 48–49. This content was based on an interview conducted in 1900 with Ito- by Tanabe Sakuro- (1861–1944), who graduated in the fifth year from the Civil Engineering Branch. Hayashi, Nochi wa mukashi no ki hoka, p. 191.

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had requested Matheson to select teachers, and arrived in Paris in November 1872, but Ito- ordered Hayashi to return to London to accompany the newly appointed teachers to Japan. Hayashi was chosen because he was good at English, but he could not speak French nor German, meaning that he would not be needed further on the trip. In this respect, Hayashi and Ito-’s memoirs are in agreement.50 For Hayashi, Ito-’s request obviously came as a kind of surprise. He stated that during the stay in Britain, ‘there were no other important affairs’ besides negotiating compensation for the Shimonoseki campaign (battles fought by Western naval forces to control the Shimonoseki Straits in 1863 and 1864), and that he ‘unexpectedly happened to be involved in the establishment of the college’.51 It is considered that Hayashi was fully engaged in the establishment of the college after January 1873, but at that time he seemed to know little about the situation of the Ministry of Public Works and the concept of the college. However, if Ito- had had a document concerning the plan of the college, Hayashi would have received it and taken it on the ship bound for Japan. It is then highly possible that Hayashi translated it for Dyer. Dyer recalls the first contact with Hayashi and states, ‘My first lessons in Japanese history were from Viscount Hayashi when he was my fellow passenger to Japan in 1873, and his accounts were most interesting’.52 Before coming to Japan, Dyer must have been informed of the plan of the college of the Ministry of Public Works from Hayashi, in addition to Matheson and other intermediaries. 3.2 Dyer’s Originality

The basic concept that characterizes Ko-gaku-ryo- already existed in Japan, as mentioned above, although previous studies have assumed that Dyer brought in all the educational policies for the 50

51 52

Hayashi, Nochi wa mukashi no ki hoka, pp. 184–185. Ito-’s testimony is stated in the ambassador’s document Zai-futsu zatsumu shorui, Meiji 5–6 nen (Documents of Miscellaneous Affairs in France, 1872–1873) held in the National Archives of Japan. Ito- appeals to the other leaders of the Iwakura Mission and states that ‘the second secretary, Hayashi Tadasu, was ordered to return to Japan because he did not have a special business anymore. He is proficient in English, and I would like him to accompany British teachers to Japan.’ Ito-’s request is not dated, but it should be between 20 December 1872 (20 November of Meiji 5 in the old calendar) and the first day of 1873 according to previous and subsequent documents. Hayashi, Nochi wa mukashi no ki hoka, pp. 47–48. Dyer, Dai Nippon, p. 116.

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college. However, in comparing Dyer’s Calendar with the plan of the Ministry of Public Works, one finds three points which can be seen as major ideas of Dyer. First, he introduced examinations for admission; second, he decided the course term for six years; third, he increased practical education along with the regular curriculum. Of these, the second and third are closely related, as described below. Dyer developed a system that imposed an examination before admission to Ko-gaku-ryo-, although selection by examination after admission already existed in the plan by the Ministry of Public Works. The Ministry did not show the policy of selection for admission. The ‘Proposition of Construction of the School of Engineering’ submitted in April 1871 described that ‘all willing boys are allowed to enter the school’, and the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’ presented to the Council of State in November of the same year also stated that ‘no limit of status of peerage, warrior or commoner’ would prevent someone to become a student.53 The screening method was not based on the entrance examination but on a promotion system consisting of ‘short tests’ and ‘comprehensive tests’ after admission. The plan of the Ministry of Public Works originally proposed the course last four years; Dyer extended this to six years. He applied an extended period to the practical course, which was equivalent to the fifth and sixth years. According to the Ministry plan, excellent students were supposed to study abroad after graduating, and those who could not complete their studies in five years would go on to practical training in domestic factories. Therefore, Dyer’s policy made two-year domestic practical training mandatory before graduation for excellent students, rather than sending them to study abroad after they had completed their education. Dyer justifies the requirement for practical training, arguing that engineers should be treated the same as medical doctors, while citing the example of medical training, which imposes two years of clinical training for obtaining a degree.54 His policy had the effect of increasing practical education, even if the length of the course had to be increased. Furthermore, in the first two years after enrolment, the emphasis was on practical education, with six months of on-site training 53 54

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 4–5, and 17–18. Henry Dyer, Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei, General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College, 1877, p. 8.

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each year. Dyer sought to implement his philosophy that claimed the importance of students having hands-on experience in the early part of their education.55 On the other hand, the idea of combining science and practice had also appeared in the plans of Oshima and the Ministry of Public Works, as mentioned earlier, and cannot be attributed solely to Dyer. In addition, practice-based education was not an original idea of Dyer because there had been practical training schools (shu-giko-) in each board in the Ministry of Public Works before Ko-gaku-ryo-. The originality of Dyer was that he emphasized practice during the course itself. 3.3 Responding to the plan of the Ministry and the situation in Japan

In his Calendar, Dyer indicates seven branches for technical and practical courses: civil engineering, mechanical engineering, telegraphy, architecture, practical chemistry, mining and metallurgy. However, these were not necessarily a product of his originality, but are likely to have been stipulated at the request of the Ministry of Public Works. First, as Matheson, who with Gordon and the physicist and engineer Sir Kelvin, selected teachers for Ko-gaku-ryo-, recognized ‘to assist the Government to found at Yeddo a College of Civil and Mechanical Engineering’, a gap existed between the British side’s idea and the college’s specialized branches.56 In addition, Dyer pointed out, while staying in Japan, that the word ‘engineer’ was attributed a broader meaning by the Ministry of Public Works, and stated, ‘so that the problem before us practically was to draw out a scheme of technical education to include everything that is required to enable Japan to occupy its proper place among the manufacturing nations of the world’.57 In other words, when he planned the curriculum, he had no choice but to accept the situation in Japan in order to include his own ideas. It can be said that Dyer was fully aware that Ko-gaku-ryo- was operated under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works to educate industrial officers. As of August 1871, the Ministry of Public Works consisted of ten boards and one section: the Engineering Promotion, Mining, Railway, Civil Engineering, Lighthouse, Shipbuilding, 55 56 57

Dyer, General Report, pp. 22–23. ‘Letter from Mr. Matheson’, p. 186. Dyer, General Report, p. 4.

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Telegraphy, Steelmaking, Manufacturing, and Engineering boards (Ko-gaku-ryo-), and the Land Surveying section.58 At a closer look, in this list of designations of boards of the Ko-busho-, the branches at ICE designed by Dyer corresponded to the boards of the Ministry of Public Works. A Division of Building and Repair, equivalent to Dyer’s branch of architecture, existed also in the administrative unit Ko-gaku-ryo-, and a Division for Chemistry existed in the Engineering Promotion and Manufacturing Boards.59 In addition, the content of the proclamation ‘Ko-gaku-ryoEntrance Ceremony and General Rules of the Course’ announced in July 1873 was not a simple translation of Dyer’s Calendar into Japanese.60 Indeed, the proclamation basically follows it, although the syllabus that describes the contents of the classes in the latter half of the Calendar was shortened and summarized in 14 articles; however, comparing the two in detail, some differences may be noted. The following descriptions are not in Dyer’s Calendar : to educate officers who will engage with the Ministry of Public Works all expenses for food, clothing and housing while in school will be at the expense of the government (part of the proclamation Article 1), and, regarding the recruitment of students, 30 of the 50 will receive governmentsponsored boarding and lodging, and 20 will self-fund their places (part of the proclamation Article 4). In addition, the order of articles 3 to 6 of the proclamation differs from the description of the Calendar. In this way, the two are not exactly the same. Provisions for the government-funded system and service obligations at the Ministry of Public Works after graduation are not mentioned in the Ministry plans, discussed in Section 2.3 in this chapter, and they seem to be Dyer’s idea.61 In fact, the provision for collecting ‘tuition for 10 yen for each member and each month’ in the ‘Outline of the Regular Rule’ by the Ministry of Public Works was abolished, and the government-funded system was established 58 59

60

61

Ko-bu-sho- enkaku ho-koku, p. 1. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, 21: Kagaku gijutsu (Outline of science and technology in Japan: Chemical technology), To-kyo-: Daiichi Ho-ki Shuppan, 1964, p. 53. Miyoshi states that the two are ‘in agreement’ and emphasizes that the Calendar, which Dyer drafted on board, was accepted by the Ministry of Public Works without modification (Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu-, pp. 272–273); however, as I discussed above, this is not true. Miyoshi speculates that the Ministry of Public Works changed from the private expense system to the government-funded system after receiving Dyer’s Calendar (Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi no kenkyu-, p. 273).

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on 30 July 1873,62 after Dyer had arrived in Japan. However, the prototype for the government-sponsored system was already in place in March 1872, by the time Yamao drafted ‘How to Learn Apprenticeship of Arts Subjects’ and the ‘Rules’, which regulated the three-year government-sponsored study and the five-year service obligation after graduation for each training school (shu-giko-).63 In addition, Dyer’s Calendar does not mention whether various expenses such as food, clothing and housing would be paid by the government. From the above, Dyer’s testimony that the Calendar submitted to Yamao was accepted without any modifications was not accurate. In fact,Yamao accepted Dyer’s plan and made additional corrections in accordance with the circumstances of the Ministry of Public Works. In particular, regarding the duty of service after graduation, it is appropriate to think that Dyer reflected the original draft of the Ministry in his Calendar. 4. DIFFERENCES OF PURPOSE BETWEEN THE MINISTRY AND DYER FOR ESTABLISHING ICE

Regarding the purpose of establishing Ko-gaku-ryo-, the policy of the Ministry of Public Works was different from Dyer’s.The Ministry intended to build Ko-gaku-ryo-, which emphasized teaching science, while abolishing the training school at each board, which had been conducting practical training under foreign employees. On the other hand, Dyer aimed at rigorous engineering education with an emphasis on the field.64 Their different views on the purpose of ICE were reflected in their attitude toward studying abroad. Article 15 of the ‘Outline of the School Rules’ stipulates the following regarding study abroad: After primary school students advance to college, there are four grades. Students must take an examination every six months.Those 62 63 64

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 75. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 21–25. Previous studies have discussed that ICE, under the guidance of Dyer, emphasized practical education compared to the engineering courses at the University of To-kyo- in the same years and the College of Engineering of Imperial University. In particular, Oyodo Sho-ichi argues that, during the process from the establishment of ICE to the establishment of Imperial University, the ‘highest technical education gradually lost its comprehensiveness’ (Kindai Nihon no ko-gyorikkoku-ka to kokumin keisei, p. 42).

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who advance to the fourth grade after four or five attempts at the examinations will be ordered to go abroad and improve their own academic ability.Those who could not advance to the fourth grade even after six attempts will be ordered to work in a domestic factory and learn practical skills.65

Excellent students would be ordered to engage in further ‘academic activities’ when abroad, and those without a good academic record would be sent to ‘practical’ training to factories in Japan.The Ministry of Public Works had already established a policy to select ‘technicians’ and ‘clerks’ to study abroad from among the government employees who were already engaged in the field, but the Ministry shifted its focus, through the plan for ICE, to the acquisition of science when selecting personnel for studying abroad.66 In addition, ‘On Sending Students of the Imperial College of Engineering to Study Abroad’, which Minister of Public Works Inoue Kaoru submitted to the Council of State in July 1879, just before the first graduation ceremony held in November, shows the Ministry’s policy for study abroad. It states that ‘if a graduate does not have the necessary achievements for studying abroad and gaining practical experience, he is of course unable to fulfill the mission as a college teacher’.67 Here, while mentioning the departure from dependence on foreign employees, it mentions some changes that place importance on practical experience while staying abroad. However, given the statements above, the policy of the Ministry for continuous education was consistent from the beginning. Since studying abroad would be an after-ICE experience, no provisions were included in Dyer’s Calendar. For Dyer, who aimed to provide the best engineering education during the course, study should be conducted domestically; thus he did not consider continuous education abroad after graduation. Dyer addresses the topic in the first issue of an engineering journal edited by the graduates of ICE in 1881. According to the experiment of our graduates studying in England and Scotland, we can say that the education in our college is far superior to that of ordinary universities in England and Scotland. Therefore, it is clear that academic education (except a few special 65 66 67

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 20. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 6–7. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 135–136.

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cases) can be fully undertaken in this country, and the fundamental purpose of going abroad will be to gain practical experience in the industry.68

Here, Dyer expresses a complicated feeling by insisting on the superiority of education at ICE compared to that of universities in England and Scotland. Then, he admonishes students to concentrate on practical training if they still aim to go abroad. Dyer’s distress was not limited to the leaders of the Ministry of Public Works. When he left Japan in 1882, he gave a speech to the students at the college, in which he complained that the true meaning of education was not understood in Japan and pointed out the tendency of students to learn only from books, advising them to learn from the ideas of workers in the field instead.69 In particular, he presented more severe complaints about the students’ attitude regarding studying abroad. The students of this and other colleges who have gone to foreign countries have been able not only to hold their own, but in almost every case to take exceptionally high places in their classes. I hope none of you are unwise enough to infer from this, that the intellectual power of the Japanese is superior or even equal to that of other civilized nations. The students who have gone abroad (at least for some years past) are picked men who have completed a course of study in their own country and have proved themselves to be good students, while their competitors as a rule are only beginning the study of their special subject.70

Dyer implies that some people were too conscious of the opposition to the Western powers; thus, they were proud of the good results obtained by their graduates in Britain, such as Shida Rinzaburo-.71 As discussed so far, the intentions of technical education at ICE between Dyer and leaders at the Ministry and students presented 68

69

70 71

Henry Dyer, ‘Chogen’ (Introduction), Ko-gaku so-shi (Journal of the Society of Engineering), vol. 1 (1881), pp. 9–15, citation is from p. 13. Henry Dyer, Valedictory Address to the Students of the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1882. Dyer, Valedictory Address, p. 3. Shida Rinzaburo- (1855–1892) was a first-year graduate from the Telegraphy Branch and served as a professor of ICE and the Faculty of Engineering of Imperial University. The activities of students who studied abroad, such as Shida, are described in Kita Masami, Kokusai Nihon wo hiraita hitobito: Nihon to Sukottorando no kizuna (People who opened international Japan: Ties between Japan and Scotland), To-kyo-: Do-bunkan, 1984.

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some differences; Dyer emphasized the substance of education, while Japanese officials emphasized to the formality of studying abroad. 5. CONCLUSION

As a result of the comparison of several plans for the establishment of ICE, it has become clear, contrary to previous studies, that the outline of education at the Imperial College of Engineering was already decided before the arrival in Japan of the first principal, Henry Dyer. Dyer did not make his Calendar for the curriculum alone but finished it by accepting the proposal of the Ministry of Public Works. The Ministry of Public Works was involved in technical education independently rather than leaving everything to Dyer.This fact was clearly reflected in its attitude regarding sending graduates to study abroad. Dyer was aiming for a technical education that would be completed in a six-year course at ICE, while the Ministry positioned it as a step for post-college study abroad.The reason for abolishing the practical training schools of each board in the Ministry and establishing a new college was to educate technical officers for the Ministry with an emphasis on science and study abroad. The Ministry entrusted Dyer with the management of ICE; however, they were not satisfied with the course in the end. They selected 11 students with excellent results among first-year graduates and sent them to Britain in February 1880. The first graduating cohort was the first and last to have so many graduates studying abroad from ICE. In the following years, those who qualified as teachers from ICE without studying in other countries were allowed to go abroad after being employed. In other words, the Ministry was still dissatisfied with the six-year course education at ICE that Dyer considered complete. In this way, the design and operation of the Imperial College of Engineering was not implemented under the leadership of Principal Dyer alone, but its basic outline was rather prescribed by the Ministry of Public Works. REFERENCES De Maio, Silvana, Bakumatsu Meiji shoki Nihon ko-gaku kyo-iku no tenkai ni kansuru kenkyu- (Development of engineering education in late Edo and early Meiji Japan), Dissertation at To-kyo- Institute of Technology, 1998.

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De Maio, Silvana, ‘The development of an educational system at the beginning of the Meiji era: Reference models from Western countries’, in Historia Scientiarum, vol. 12, no. 3, 2003, pp. 183–199. Divers, Edward, ‘The Training of Engineers in Japan’, in The Engineer, vol. 85, 6 May 1898, p. 434. Dyer, Henry, Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei, General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College, 1877. Dyer, Henry, The Education of Engineers, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1879. Dyer, Henry, ‘Chogen’ (Introduction), Ko-gaku so-shi (Journal of the Society of Engineering), vol. 1 (1881), pp. 9–15. Dyer, Henry, Valedictory Address to the Students of the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1882. Dyer, Henry, Dai Nippon: The Britain of the East, A Study in National Evolution, London: Blackie & Son, 1904. Dyer, Henry, Introductory Address on the Training and Works of Engineers in Their Wider Aspects, Glasgow: The Glasgow Technical College, 1905, p. 7. Haga Namio, ‘Ko-bu no seishin to Yamao Yo-zo-’ (The spirit of industry and Yamao Yo-zo-), in Shizen, vol. 35, no. 10, 1980, pp. 94–97. Haga Namio, ‘Gijutsu seisaku shiwa (1 and 2)’ (Historical episode of technology policy), in Ko-gyo- gijutsu, vol. 27, no. 1 and 2 (1986). Hayashi Tadasu, Nochi wa mukashi no ki hoka: Hayashi Tadasu kaikoroku (Memoirs of Hayashi Tadasu), To-kyo-: Heibonsha, 1970. Iida Kenichi (ed.), Kagaku to gijutsu (Science and technology), Nihon kindai shiso- taikei, vol. 14, To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten 1989. Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Calendar. Session MDCCCLXXIII– LXXIV, Tokei: Printed at the College, 1873. Ito- Hirobumi, ‘Tetsudo- so-gyo- no jireki’ (History of the foundation of railways), in Tetsudo- Jiho--kyoku (ed.), Ju-nen kinen. Nihon no tetsudo-ron (Ten years anniversary. Railways in Japan), To-kyo-: TetsudoJiho--kyoku, 1909. Kakihara Yasushi, ‘Ko-busho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’ (Training of engineers in the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 57–82. Kanekiyo Masanori, Yamao Yo-zo- den: Meiji ko-gyo- rikkoku no chichi (Yamao Yo-zo-: The founding father of the Meiji industrial nation),Yamaguchi: Yamao Yo-zo- Kensho--kai, 2003. Karasawa Tomitaro-, Ko-shin-sei: Bakumatsu ishin-ki no eriito (Governmentsupported students: The elite of the Bakumatsu- and Restauration period), To-kyo-: Gyo-sei, 1974. Kato- Sho-ji, ‘“Sandoitchi shisutemu” no kigen’ (Origin of the “Sandwich system”), in Kansai Kyo-iku Gakkai nenpo-, no. 18, 1994, pp. 78–82. Kato- Sho-ji, O-yatoi kyo-shi Henrii Daiaa wo kaishita Nihon-Sukottorandokan no kyo-iku rensa no kenkyu- (Chain of education between Japan

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and Scotland fostered by Henry Dyer), Final Research Report for Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KAKENHI, for FY Heisei 17–19, 2005–2007, 2008. Kido Takayoshi, Kido Takayoshi nikki, vol. 2 (Diary of Kido Takayoshi), To-kyo-: Nihon Shiseki Kyo-kai, 1933. Kita Masami, Kokusai Nihon wo hiraita hitobito: Nihon to Sukottorando no kizuna (People who opened international Japan: Ties between Japan and Scotland), To-kyo-: Do-bunkan, 1984. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakkoshiryo-, furoku (Historical Materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering, Supplement), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931. Maejima Masahiro, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo-, Ko-bu-dai-gakko-, Ko-ka-Daigaku no denki kyo-iku ni kansuru ichi ko-satsu: Jisshu- ho-koku ni tsuite’ (Teaching on electricity at the Imperial College of Engineering and the College of Engineering in the Meiji era: A survey of the practical report), in Kokuritsu Kagaku-hakubutsukan kenkyu- ho-koku: E rui (Bulletin of the National Science Museum. Series E), vol. 14, 1991, pp. 31–42. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsushi no kenkyu-: Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to kyo-iku (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan: Industrialization and education in modern Japan), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, ‘Senmon kyo-iku ni kansuru seiyo- moderu no juyo- keitai: Ko-gyo- to no-gyo- no hikaku’ (The patterns of selection and acceptance of Western educational models for engineering and agriculture), in Daigaku ronshu-, no. 8, 1980, pp. 1–28. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan, 1989. Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku (ed.), Ho-rei zensho, Meiji 6 nen (Compendium of laws and regulations, 1873), To-kyo-: Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku, 1889. Naikaku Kiroku-kyoku (ed.), Ho-ki bunrui taizen, dai 1 hen, book, no. 10 (Classification of laws and regulations), To-kyo-: Naikaku Kirokukyoku, 1889–1891. Nakayama Shigeru, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no genryu-: Suisu renpoKo-ka-gakuin ni tsuite’ (Headstream of the Imperial College of Engineering: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), in Butsurigakushi kenkyu-, vol. 3, no. 1, 1966, pp. 1–5. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, 21: Kagaku gijutsu (Outline of science and technology in Japan: Chemical - 1964. - technology), Tokyo: Daiichi Hoki Shuppan, Okubo Toshiaki, Iwakura shisetsu no kenkyu- (Study of the Iwakura - - , 1976. - Mission), Tokyo: Munetaka Shobo -koku (Ministry of Public Works Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho To-kyo-: Okurasho-, 1889. - history report), - of Oshima Oshima Shinzo- (ed.), O shima Takato - gyo jitsu (Achievements Takato), Seido-mura (Hyogo): Oshima Shinzo, 1938.

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Oyodo Sho-ichi, Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo- rikkoku-ka to kokumin keisei (Industrialisation of modern Japan and the formation of nation), Kawagoe: Suzusawa Shoten, 2009. Saigusa Hiroto, Gijutsu-shi (History of technology), Gendai Nihon bunmei-shi (History of modern Japanese civilization) vol. 14, To-kyo-: To-yo- Keizai Shinpo-sha, 1940. Sakamoto Kenzo-, Sentan gijutsu no yukue (Whereabouts of advanced technology), To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten, 1987. Shimizu Keiichi, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo-, Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kenchiku kyo-iku ni tsuite’ (A historical study on the architectural education of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kokuritsu Kagakuhakubutsukan kenkyu- ho-koku: E rui (Bulletin of the National Science Museum. Series E), vol. 8, 1985, pp. 25–35. Stevenson, David and Thomas Constable, Memoir of Lewis D B Gordon F.R.S.E.: Late Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of Glasgow, Edinburgh, 1877, pp. 186–190. Tachi Akira, ‘Nihon ni okeru ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku no keisei: Ko-bu-daigakko- no seiritsu to tenkai’ (The formation of higher technology education in Japan. The establishment and development of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kyo-iku-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 43, no. 1, 1976, pp. 13–23. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi hensan iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1 (100-year history of the University of To-kyo-, vol. 1, Complete history), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1984. Umetani Noboru, O-yatoi gaikokujin: Meiji Nihon no wakiyaku-tachi (Foreign employees: Supporters in Meiji Japan), To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 2007. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gaku-ryo- ko-so- to sono jisshi’ (The role of the Ministry of Public Works in Meiji Japan in designing engineering education: Reconsidering the foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96.

6

From Student of Confucianism to Hands-on Engineer: The Case of Ohara Junnosuke, Mining Engineer Erich PAUER

–

There seems to be a popular impression that an engineer is necessarily a man connected with a steam engine and that the title ‘engineer’ is derived from ‘engine’.The reverse is however the case and ‘engineer’ is derived from a word which implies the employment of one’s ingenuity in the solution of any problem whatsoever so that its application might be made very extensive. Henry Dyer1 1. INTRODUCTION

IN THE WORK of the historian, besides systematic research based on sources, chance often plays a role that should not be underestimated. Many years ago, such a coincidence brought a bundle of source materials into my hands, which very quickly proved to be ground-breaking. These are notes and lecture notes, internship reports and diaries of a young Japanese engineer, named Ohara Junnosuke. Born into a samurai family five years after - the opening of the country by Commodore Perry in 1854, Ohara in many 1

Henry Dyer, ‘Professional Education’, in The Education of Engineers, Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei 1879, p. 7 (reprinted in Miyoshi Nobuhiro (ed.), The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, (5 vols.), Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2006, vol. 1, pp. 125–139). 114

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ways represents the group of early engineers whose education was still rooted in the feudal era, who continued their education through different routes, and who belonged to the first generation to end up with a formalized education at a modern, Western educational institution. His personal papers provide invaluable insights into this process, which bridges the seemingly incompatible systems of traditional education in the Edo period and a modern Western-style technical education. The following reconstruction of his biography during this transitional phase proves his career to be a typical example of the possibilities and problems at the beginning of the introduction of a technical education in Japan. How his career unfolded, how the gaps and ruptures between the school of a feudal domain and modern technical higher education at the renowned Ko-bu-dai-gakko- were filled, and how he achieved the requirements to graduate from the technical college, are quite characteristic of many careers in the technical sciences at that time. The questions to be considered in a deeper analysis of Ohara and his work in this transitional period around the Meiji Restoration are: Who was this man? What do we know about him? Was he famous? What did he learn? How did he study? What achievement can be ascribed to him that is significant enough to be the subject of an academic writing? 2. THE MAN, THE ENGINEER AND THE ELITE

In May 1897, Ko-gakkai-shi, the journal of the first Japanese engineering organization, Ko-gakkai, published an obituary for one of its members, Ohara Junnosuke (Figure 1).2 Founded in 1879 by the first graduates of the Imperial College of Engineering in To-- kyo-, Ko-gakkai saw itself as a union of the engineering elite. The Ohara Junnosuke commemorated in the obituary was a founding member of the organization. Based on the few sources found so far, we must note that Ohara Junnosuke does not rank among the well-known celebrities of Japan’s engineering elite. Unlike some members of the technical elite, he did not rise to the level of a decision maker within the government or any other institution. One reason was that he died before he could make a major contribution in his field of mining 2

For the ‘Obituary’ see Ko-gakkai-shi, no. 185, 1897 (May, Meiji 30), pp. 390–391.

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Fig. 1: Obituary of Ohara Junnosuke Source: ‘Ko-ko-gakushi Ohara Junnosuke-kun sho-den’ in Ko-gakkai-shi, no. 185 (May, Meiji 30/1897), pp. 390–391.

that might have earned him a place in history. But what we know about his life and especially his education and professional achievements surely makes him a representative of the Meiji period’s engineering elite. Moreover, his importance as a historical figure also lies in the fact that his legacy includes invaluable documents which offer a rare insight into the making of such an early engineer’s career. - The obituary of May 1897 provides some initial clues about Ohara’s life that one could use as a starting point to search for information elsewhere. However, this proves to be difficult as there is only piecemeal information on his personal and/or professional life scattered in different sources. Drawing on the above-mentioned documents, however, we can obtain a much clearer picture

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of him and his career. Besides his study notes, internship reports and diaries, there are also his publications as a researcher at the Ministry of Public Works from 1878 until 1886. By analysing all of them we can reconstruct step by step the framework of and stages in his education and later career, through which he became a member of the new technical elite in the Meiji period. 3.YOUTH – THE EARLY YEARS

Ohara Junnosuke was born in Sasayama domain, a small domain west of Kyo-to, north of Ko-be (present Tamba-Sasayama, Hyo-go prefecture). Its daimyo- family Aoyama had since the mid-eighteenth century had close ties to the Tokugawa shogunate.Although Sasayama did not have a castle, the domain had a certain strategic position: together with other smaller - domains nearby, it was supposed to form a barricade before Osaka against the hostile domains in the west of the country. Ohara’s year of birth is not mentioned in the obituary, - but it is likely to be 1859. He was born as the eldest son of Ohara Gen’emon, head of a samurai family, a senior administrative officer of this small domain. With an income of 200 koku3 he must be considered as wealthy. His high rank is also revealed by his relatively large house, which was located close to the castle.4 The lords of the Sasayama domain had a great interest in school education, and the domain school Shintoku-do-, erected in 1766, is quite a rare example among schools of the feudal period. It was explicitly not limited to the education of sons of the samurai class, but was also open for commoners. Siblings of pupils were also accepted without additional school fees. Moreover – another distinctive feature – Shintoku-do- also accepted pupils from other feudal domains. Education began at the age of eight. As was common for members of the samurai class, education was in two areas: in the martial arts and literature. 3

4

Koku or kokudaka was a unit volume equivalent to approximately 180 litres, used during the Edo period to measure the amount of rice production of a domain. Samurai were paid in rice, which was the basic currency, supplemented by a trimetallic currency. One koku was equivalent to the amount of rice needed for one person for one year. Okuda Rakurakusai, Taki kyo-do-shi-ko- (A local history of Taki), vol. 1, 1958, p. 372. The location of the house is clearly seen in a map Tanba-zu Sasayama go-jo- zu (reprint) 1931. This information was kindly provided by Ms Hosomi Naomi of the Sasayama Library (Sasayama-shiritsu Chu-o--toshokan).

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Ohara Junnosuke initially received a traditional education in the Chinese classics (kangaku), in his particular case from a Confucian teacher. This Confucian education – for which Sasayama was especially well-known – initially seemed to pave the way for him to become, like his father, an official in the fief administration. Such training was completed with martial arts, i.e., swordsmanship (kenjutsu), spearmanship (so-jutsu) and dressage (bajutsu). That also guaranteed a place among the traditional elite. But then suddenly the situation in Japan changed. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 brought radical changes in nearly all areas, especially in politics and economics. With it the influence of Western elements and thought seems to have grown, even in this remote domain far away from the political centre of the country. The foreign influence from Ko-be, the major port city with a growing Western population not too - far from Sasayama, might have been a reason the education of Ohara Junnosuke, who at the time was 13 years old, took a sudden turn. As the obituary says, in 1872 he started to learn English in the Meishin-kan at Ko-be (then called Hyo-go). His teacher was a Frenchman named De Tronquois, who was employed to teach the English language, not least because even the local authorities promoted English teaching to train a new generation of promising young men for the tasks ahead.5 In spring 1874, Ohara changed schools, possibly to further improve his knowledge - of English at the renowned state-run Osaka Eigo-gakko- (Osaka English School), which had been opened in 1873.6 Secondary schools in Japan in the early Meiji period could be attended only after passing an entrance examination. English was often an examination subject, as was the case at the Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Imperial College 5

6

Only very little is known about this Frenchman, possibly named De Tronquois. Even his family name is spelled differently in the Japanese sources. There is a “Dutronquoye” or a “Dutronquay” and others and his first name is given as “S.” or “D.”. It is only known that he worked for private schools in Japan between 1872 and 1875, first at the Meishin-kan at Hyo-go, then at the Ogaku-sha at Ogaki. His whereabouts cannot be traced after 1875. For more details see KatoSho-ji, ‘O-yatoi furansu-jin eigo-kyo-shi D. Toronkuwa’, in Gakuto-, vol. 87, no. 4, 1990, pp. 34–74; see also Kato- Sho-ji, ‘Meishin-kan o-yatoi Furansu-jin eigaku kyo-shi D. Toronkuwa’, in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 35, 2002, pp. 31–48. In 1873, the Kaimei gakko- in Osaka was founded as the first school for foreign languages. It changed its name to Osaka Eigo-gakko- in 1874. The goal for learning English there was not as an ‘language as an end’ but ‘a language as a means’, that e. g. students needed if they wanted to enter one of the newly established institutions for a higher education.

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of Engineering). Ohara may have attended the Osaka English School with a view to being admitted to the Kobu-dai-gakko-. Meanwhile the former lord of the Sasayama domain, Aoyama Tadashige, who was especially keen to boost education because he foresaw that the country would need talented men, launched an interesting programme in 1874. He decided to award scholarships to a number of descendants of his former vassals and send them to secondary schools, preferably in the new capital, To-kyo-. Only students who had demonstrated outstanding achievements were to be considered. The aim was to provide promising youngsters with appropriate training in order to employ them for developing Japan in the near future. More than 20 students seem to have been sent from Sasayama to To-kyo- in the following years: young people whose interest focused on various fields such as science, the military and business. Ohara Junnosuke had obviously attracted the attention of the former lord of Sasayama or his advisers quite early, as he was among the first group of selected students. 7 4. LEARNING – THE TURNING POINT

Supported by the scholarship and living on the private estate of his former lord, the Sasayama residence, in Akasaka Shin-machi in the midst of To-kyo-, Ohara Junnosuke first attended the private school Do-jin-sha, established 1873, managed by the educator Nakamura Masanao (1832–1891).8 The school, which focused on English language teaching, was to provide gifted young men with a high level of proficiency in English and equip them for the challenges soon to be faced. In retrospect, this (eventually successful) attempt was a step in the right direction. The Japanese government had already begun to develop modern, western-style industries. They were to be mainly run under the government’s guidance because they were to meet its requirements.To manage the various industries, appropriately qualified professionals were needed, and in the long run these leaders 7

8

Hyo-go-ken kyo-iku-iinkai (ed.), Kyo-do hyakunin no senkaku-sha (One hundred local pioneers), 1967, p. 461. See the obituary for Nakamura Masanao in Ko-gakkai-shi, no. 185, 1897 (Meiji 30.9), p. 390. Formerly a Confucian scholar, he was sent to England in 1866 to supervise Japanese students there. After the Meiji Restauration he became known by his translation of Samuel Smiles’ Self Help and supported students by teaching English.

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were not to -be ‘hired foreigners’ (o-yatoi), but Japanese. So, if young people like Ohara wanted to play a role in this new era ushered in by the Meiji Restoration, education promised a way for them to do so. After 1877 Ohara attended the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) (Fig. 2). This was founded in 1873; its precursor had already been established in 1871 under the name of Ko-gaku-ryo-. The name Imperial College of Engineering was used only from 1877 onwards. This early higher institution of technical education in Japan offered technical training in line with Western standards. The aim of the College was to train students in six (until 1885/86 extended to eight) ‘branches’ (‘technical courses’): civil engineering, mechanical engineering, telegraphy (electrical engineering), architecture, practical (applied) chemistry, metallurgy and mining, followed later by shipbuilding (naval architecture).9 9

The Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) had received only little attention in research on technical education until a few years ago. One reason may have been be that the ICE was disbanded in 1886 and integrated in the Imperial University of To-kyo- (To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku) as its engineering faculty, thereby losing its original characteristic of offering practical education on an equal footing with technical theoretical education. The great weight of theory-based education in various subjects at the University of To-kyo- was already regretfully noted by contemporaries. During the process of ‘transfer’, large parts of the documents of the ICE that were still available were evidently not transferred to an archive at the new site, and the special character of the Imperial College of Engineering was forgotten. The few documents that could still be collected were published in a separate volume entitled Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- in 1932. Only a few documents were preserved in the archives of To-kyo- University; these can now be viewed on the internet. These are mainly certain reports (General Report, Class Report, Library Holdings, Mineral Collection) and the annual Calendars. (Reprint publications of some of these sources are available through various publishers to be found in the internet). Such administrative changes as well as the then prevailing tendency to regard technical faculties in general as less prestigious than the traditional faculties – an attitude which can be found in many European countries, too – may have led to the discarding of most materials rather than preserving them. Researchers have consistently complained about the lack of primary sources. Due to the lack of sources, current studies on the Imperial College of Engineering are limited. In Japan itself, Uemura Sho-ji has recently taken up the topic of mechanical engineering education in the early Meiji period and has published several articles on this including cases of the Ko-bu-dai-gakko- during the last decade (especially in the journal Shakai kagaku of Do-shisha Daigaku Jinbunkenkyu-sho). The situation in Western countries is different, as only minor reference was given so far to the ICE at all, until the master’s thesis of Wada Masanori entitled ‘Engineering Education and the Spirit of Samurai at the Imperial College

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Fig. 2: The Ko-bu-dai-gakko- in a Dictionary (Setsuyo-shu-, lit. Collection [of terms] for Everyday Use) without title page or imprint and badly riddled by bookworm damage. According to the preserved preface, the Dictionary was published in May 1881; further details are unknown. (Book in the author’s possession.)

For a member of the former samurai class, the transition from a classical Chinese education via the acquisition of English to a technical discipline was still rare and certainly not easy. Hard physical work was thought to be incompatible with a samurai’s rank – samurais - did not get their hands dirty. And particularly in the discipline Ohara Junnosuke had chosen, mining, his hands would surely get dirty. This kind of technical education led to the emergence of a new professional elite. Members of the new technical elite, even though mostly descendants of the former samurai class, owed their status less to their origin and more to their training, specifically of Engineering in To-kyo-, 1871–1886’ (Virginia Tech, 2007). (https://vtechworks. lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/9291/browse?type=author&value=Wada%2C+Masan ori). Further publications by this author, two of which are presented in translations in this volume, and only a few other detailed accounts, can be mentioned. See, for example, Erich Pauer, ‘Japan’s Industrialization and the Role of the Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) for Technical Human Capital Formation’, in Ferrum - Nachrichten aus der Eisenbibliothek, no. 82, 2010, pp. 25–40. Important insights into ICE in English are provided in the publications on Henry Dyer, the first principal of the ICE, e.g., in Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Henry Dyer - Pioneer of Engineering Education in Japan, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2004; and in Miyoshi, The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, 2006.

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their technical training, and to their personal achievements. The starting point of this development in many cases was the ICE. 5. A STUDENT’S LIFE

We do not know why Ohara Junnosuke, who stemmed from a traditional samurai family, chose to study at a technical school like the state-run Imperial College of Engineering. It is also not clear why he selected mining as his major subject there. Within the Sasayama fief no activities in the field of mining are identifiable, and there are also no -connections to mining or the mining profession to be found in Ohara’s family. Only a few students who wanted to attend ICE already had the necessary prerequisites from their previous school education. Therefore, applicants usually had to attend preparatory courses to acquire the necessary level -of knowledge. Preparatory classes were also offered at ICE, and Ohara Junnosuke appears by name in the First Class, Second Section. The place of residence is given as Toyooka (in the north of his home province Hyo-go).10 According to the ICE’s annual Calendar, subjects taught in the preparatory classes were as follows (orthography according the original source): • The Japanese Language written to dictation and translated into English • The English Language translated into Japanese • Japanese composition • The English Language; comprising Spelling, Reading,Writing to Dictation, English Grammar, English composition • Geography: a brief outline well mastered • Arithmetic; including a knowledge of the square and the cube roots • Elementary Algebra; including quadratic equations • Geometry; the first three books of Euclid’s Elements11

After the students had fulfilled these ambitious requirements, the hurdles that followed were no less demanding. Because the language of instruction in the College was English without an interpreter or a 10

11

Calendar Imperial College of Engineering 1866–77 (Meiji 9), p. CXX. The number of regular students in this year was 178, the number of students in the Preparatory Classes numbered 165. The Calendar was a yearbook published in English and Japanese. In the following parts all quotes from the Calendars are based on the original terms and their spelling. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877–1878, p. 38.

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translator, applicants were required to pass an entrance examination, which placed emphasis on a very good command of the English language. The Calendar.Session 1877-1878 of the College of Engineering refers to admission procedure as follows (original orthography): Admission to the College is obtained by competitive examination for which all Japanese subjects under the age of 20 and of sound constitution who can produce satisfactory testimonials of good moral character, are eligible. A preliminary examination in Arithmetic, Geography,Writing to Dictation, and Translation from Japanese to English and from English to Japanese will be held, by which the best hundred or so of the candidates will be selected. These selected candidates will be submitted to a second examination and the best fifty chosen as candidates. This second examination, or entrance examination proper, embrace the following subjects: • • • • • • • •

Translation from Japanese to English Translation from English to Japanese Writing to Dictation English Grammar and Composition Arithmetic Geography Elementary Geometry Elementary Algebra12

Looking at these requirements it is clear that this - examination could be passed only after intensive preparation. Ohara had obviously applied, was accepted, passed the examination and was accordingly listed as mentioned above in the list of students in the preparatory classes in the ‘First Class, Second Section’.13 He presumably also passed the following entrance examination for a regular study, which comprised subjects (corresponding to the subjects taught in the preparatory classes) like geometry, algebra, arithmetic, geography, a dictation and translations (English–Japanese as well as Japanese–English), in April 1878 (for details of the entrance examination forms, see Figures 3 and 4).14 Ohara started his life as a freshman by being enlisted as a ‘First Year Cadet’,15 thereby becoming a full-fledged ‘student’. 12

13

14

15

Imperial College of Engineering 1878, pp. 17–18. Imperial College of Engineering 1878, p. 70. Imperial College of Engineering 1878, pp. 127–136. Imperial College of Engineering 1878, p. 158.

(Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877– (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877– (Kobu-dai gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877– (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877–

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Fig. 3: First (of ten) pages of the Entrance Examination Paper in April 1878 (Geometry) Source: Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877-78, p. 127.

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Fig. 4: Second (of ten) pages of the Entrance Examination Paper in April 1878 (Algebra) Source: Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877-78, p. 128.

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There are several documents which elucidate the general situation of the ICE at that time. A General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–7716 provides us with an overview of the first years of existence of the ICE.The Class Reports of the Professors17 give us insights into the respective lessons for the same period, and in individual cases the textbooks are also mentioned which the individual professors used for teaching and recommended to the students for reading. A Catalogue of Books18 lists the numerous books (in English) held in the library. A number of the ICE annual Calendars have been preserved, which provide information about the school regulations, branches of technical education, professors, titles of courses taught, students and their living conditions, and graduates. But they contain very little about the teaching itself and the content of the lessons. The curriculum of the ICE was basically divided into three sections: two entry years of a ‘General and Scientific Course’, two years of instruction in individual subject areas, dubbed the ‘Technical Course’, followed by two years of a ‘Practical Course’, during which students had to take up internships in (preferably) state-run facilities. In the case of mining, this was in state-run mines.19 An overall view of studying the subject of mining at the ICE is shown in Table 1. Table 1: Subjects of the mining course Pure science

Practical applications

Work

Applied mathematics

Engineering surveying

Drawing office

Geology

Geological surveying

Technical museum

Mineralogy

Elementary construction

Geological excursions

Mining

Visits to mines

Metallurgy Source: Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, p. 31. See also Miyoshi Nobuhiro (ed.), The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, vol. 1, p. 93. 16

17

18

19

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1877. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Class Reports by the Professors for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1877. Catalogue of Books contained in the Library of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobudai-gakko), Tokei, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1878. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877– 1878, p. 20.

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The more detailed study programme in the mining branch was explained as follows (original orthography): After an introduction, in which will be shown the bearing of the physical sciences upon the art of mining, the course will commence with the nature of mineral deposits and the various disturbances to which they are subject.These indications and operations of use in the searching for mineral deposits will be next discussed. The tools employed in mining and the various methods of blasting and boring will be described. The selection of sites, sinking of shafts and driving levels with the various methods used for their security, will be pointed out. After this will follow a discussion of the principles, involved in the working away of mineral deposits. The conveyance and raising of the extracted material with reference to the various necessary apparatus will be next described. The course will conclude with the drainage and ventilation of mines together with a brief description of the various operations involved in the dressing of ores.20

From all these documents, we learn that Ohara’s next task was to study – including the practical side – for about six years, during which he could expand and consolidate his theoretical and practical knowledge of mining. 6. STUDYING AT ICE

As shown above, there are materials available on the history of ICE, the college itself, the principals during the years, the teachers, the results and especially on its graduates and their various and often successful life work (see for example the two chapters by Wada Masanori in this volume). However, a deeper insight into the concrete content of the lectures and the way students responded to them has remained lacking due to the lack of primary sources. Many documents evidently were lost during the transfer of ICE to the To-kyo- Imperial University as a new Faculty of Engineering in the mid-1880s. And hardly any students keep a lot of notes from their studies over a longer period of time after graduation. Very few lecture notes have been preserved. For these reasons, obtaining knowledge about lecture contents, especially from ICE, has so far been quite complicated and often 20

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1877– 1878, p. 57–58.

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almost impossible.The Calendars tell us only the titles of the courses taught and what books were held in the library, but virtually no primary instructional materials could be examined until now. The survival of Ohara Junnosuke’s primary materials, writings, notes and internship reports from the period 1878–1882 must be considered a stroke of luck that can partly fill the gap in our knowledge. These new sources cover a period in technical education about which we know little. They shed light - on both the contents and the level of teaching at ICE during Ohara’s time there. A total of 23 volumes of notebooks, covering 14 subjects in all and five extensive internship reports (Figs 5a and 5b) have survived. Most notes are from the second section of the study programme, the so-called ‘Technical Course’, where specific subject areas were taught. It is easy to understand why only such ‘professional’ notes have been preserved. They were probably the most relevant ones for the students, who might have kept them as reference for their future work even after graduation. The transcripts of lectures of the ‘General Course’ in the first two years of study, on the other hand, might not have been equally valued and therefore more readily discarded. (a)

(b)

Figs 5a and 5b: Internship reports and lecture notes of Ohara Junnosuke written at ICE between 1878 and 1882. (The original lecture notes and internship reports in the possession of the author.) (Photos: © Erich Pauer).

Table 2 shows more details about Ohara’s notebooks, namely the title of the lecture, teacher and year of the course. Looking first at some of the teachers’ names and their respective lectures, we find a number of people who already were or later would become

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famous. Particularly worth mentioning is Henry Dyer (1848– 1918), a Scot who graduated from Glasgow University in 1873 and was eventually recommended to Japanese officials. Dyer was appointed professor of engineering and also served as first head (principal) of the Imperial College of Engineering for ten years from its start until 1872. He was mainly responsible for shaping the curriculum and thereby contributed a great deal to the success of the College.21 Also famous is John Milne (1850–1913), a British geologist and mining engineer who is known as the ‘father of modern seismology’. Born in Liverpool and educated at King’s College and the Royal School of Mines, he was hired by the Japanese government as a o-yatoi (‘hired foreigner’) in 1876. He was professor of mining and geology, but also gave lectures on mineralogy. Besides his duties at the ICE, he was highly engaged in the study of earthquakes and Table 2: A list of lecture notes of lectures attended by Ohara Junnosuke in the years between 1878 and 1882. Title Natural Philosophy I, II

Teacher

Meiji

Year

Donald H. Marshall

M 11/12

1878/79

?

M 11/12

1878/79

Math. (Trigonometry) Steam Engine & Boiler

Henry Dyer

undated

English

G. Dixon

undated

Mineralogy I, II

John Milne

M 13

1880

Surveying & Practical Astronomy

Arthur W. Thomson

M 13

1880

Japanese Metallurgy I

Edward F. Mondy

Construction I Geology I, II

? John Milne

undated undated M 14

Chemistry II, III

?

undated

Mine surveying & Japanese mines

?

M 14

1881

1881

Applied Mechanics I, II

Thomas Alexander

M 14

1881

Mechanism I, II

Mano Bunji

M 14/15

1881/82

Mining I – V

John Milne

M 14/15

1881/82

21

On Henry Dyer see Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiyaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan 1989; Miyoshi, Henry Dyer, 2004; see also Miyoshi, The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, 2006.

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in developing a suitable instrument, the seismograph. He returned to England in 1896.22 One should also mention Thomas Alexander (1843–1933), another Scot, who was employed by the Japanese government in 1879 and became Professor of Civil Engineering at ICE. Following the abolition of the Ministry of Public Works in 1885, when the College became part of the To-kyo- Imperial University, Alexander resigned in 1886. A number of other names might be mentioned to illustrate the high level of technical knowledge of the teaching staff, but that would go beyond the space of this article.The majority of the ICE staff were teachers from Scotland and England, as these few examples show. But the ICE itself produced some of the successors for the foreign teachers, as the example of Mano Bunji (1861–1946) shows. He studied English and chemistry, then entered ICE and was appointed associate professor after his graduation. He subsequently studied at Glasgow University in 1886–1887. Back in Japan, he became professor at the To-kyo- Imperial University and later took various posts in government organizations. Several other examples of graduates of the ICE who later became members of the teaching staff could be mentioned. All lectures at the College were given in English.23 Ohara’s lecture notes give us a more precise insight into the method of teaching at ICE, the way lectures were held, the details taught and discussed, and how students recorded them in their notes as text, images etc. They not only show how students perceived the content of the lectures, but also permit a comparison with contemporary teaching in Europe. The following examples provide more details. 22

23

For Milne see ‘John Milne’ in Charles Davison, The Founders of Seismology, Cambridge: University Press, 1927, pp. 177–202; see also A.L. Herbert-Gustar & P.A. Nott (eds), John Milne: Father of Modern Seismology, Tenterden: Paul Norbury Publ. Ltd., 1980. A valuable and comprehensive insight into the situation regarding teaching and teaching materials at ICE is given by Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu daigakko- doboku-ka no jitchi-kyo-iku – Ishibashi Ayahiko no kaiso--roku kara’ (Civil engineering education at the Imperial College of Engineering in To-kyo-: An analysis based on Ayahiko Ishibashi’s memoirs), in Kagaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 53 (269), 2014, pp. 49–66. However, Wada does not rely on primary sources, i.e. lecture notes or internship reports, but on the hitherto also rather neglected memoirs of individual graduates. He has a special interest in the question of the practical training of students in state-run industries. Wada indicates certain shortcomings, as the practical training of students in these enterprises was limited to only a few areas of operation. Anyhow, he doubts the effectiveness of the internships.

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With John Milne, ICE had engaged a competent scholar to teach mining subjects. His lectures on mining, held in 1881/82, must have been one - of the essential basic courses in this ‘branch’. Five volumes of Ohara’s notes have survived in chronological sequence (a few pages from the notes on the course are shown in Figure 6). Milne began by explaining the difference between the German and British methods of mining. He frequently cited European and American examples, but also pointed to Japanese examples. He obviously took these from published works by Raphael Pumpelly (1837–1923) and Benjamin Lyman (1835–1920). The former had extensively travelled in Japan between 1861 and 1863 (for Pumpelly see also the chapter on mining schools by Regine Mathias in this volume); the latter had been employed by the Japanese government from 1873 to 1879. Both undertook surveys on natural resources in Japan and published on the geology and mining of Japan.24 Milne recommended his students to consult and study these writings. (a)

24

(b)

An early work by Raphael Pumpelly is Geological Researches in China, Mongolia and Japan during the years 1862 to 1865, New York 1866; see also Across America and Asia, New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1870 and My Reminiscences, vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918. For a list of Lyman’s publications see Hokkaido- Kaitaku Kinenkan (ed.), Raiman korekushon-ten (Exhibition of the Lyman Collection), Sapporo: Historical Museum of Hokkaido-, 1995, pp. 39–41.

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(c)

(d)

Figs 6 a–d: Sample pages from the notes written by Ohara Junnosuke of a lecture on mining by John Milne in 1881/82 (Photo © Erich Pauer).

After his general introduction Milne tried to systematically explain different aspects of-mining to his students (wording and orthography according to Ohara’s notes): Lecture I Lecture II Lecture III Lecture IV Lecture V Lecture VI Lecture VII Lecture VIII Lecture IX Lecture X Lecture XI Lecture XII Lecture XIII Lecture XIV Lecture XV

The art or principle of mining In purchasing land the rent which the government claim … System for royalty Contracts Mining laws How mineral deposits are formed Measurement of dip Regularity of beds The study of faults (1) The study of faults (2) Iron Vein and lodes Depths and contents of lodes Variations in the thickness

In this context, one point concerning Milne’s teaching method becomes clear: He appeared to have used a prepared manuscript for the lecture. Another important point should also be mentioned: it was primarily factual knowledge that he imparted, with no methodological discourse. His lectures included historical analysis, for example. His policy was simply to communicate

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basic facts. He presented to his students a broad spectrum of mining-related subjects, as becomes obvious from the titles of the lectures. (a)

(c)

(b)

(d)

Figs 7 a–d: Cover and sample pages of Ohara’s notes of a lecture on Steam Engines by Henry Dyer written by Ohara Junnosuke (undated) (Photo: © Erich Pauer).

Another impressive example are Ohara’s notes from a lecture given by Henry Dyer. Though recently graduated, Henry Dyer was appointed head (principal) of the ICE not least due to his broad knowledge of the practice and theory of mechanics. For example, he gave lectures on steam engines and boilers (Figure 7), probably based on the writings of William Rankine, an engineer and physicist who taught at the University of Glasgow, where Dyer had studied. He may have - heard lectures by Rankine during his study at the university. In Ohara’s notes of Dyer’s lectures, we can find several references to books from Rankine, for example to his Manual of Steam Engine, of which four copies were kept in the ICE’s library.

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One might wonder how the steam engine is connected to the field of mining, as one would rather assign this topic to a course on mechanical engineering. But in fact, the steam engine played an important role in mining at that time, not so much for the extraction and transport of ores or other mineral resources, but for drainage, pumping and ventilation, which therefore makes such a lecture topic important for future mining engineers. In connection with such operations, in this lesson the students learned for example how to calculate the dimensions for parts of a steam engine for use - in the mines. According to the Notes on Steam Engine written by Ohara (original orthography): The arrangement by studying them (the steam engines) might be adopted as follows: 1 2 3 4 5

Resume of laws of heat so far as they are applied to Heat engines Preliminary theory of steam engines The Laws of Thermodynamics Compound engines Kinematics and Dynamics of mechanism on moving parts of engines 6 Experiments and Calculations to determine the efficiency of engines 7 Design of steam engines and boilers

At this point the high level of technical knowledge taught in ICE becomes evident. Due to this, graduates from the ICE were well equipped to cope with the various demands required of them in their future work. And those traveling to foreign universities for further training were accepted there because of their skills and qualifications acquired -at ICE. These examples of Ohara’s notes not only deepen our understanding of how the foreign teachers transferred their knowledge to Japanese students. The notes also reveal the thorough training and comprehensive knowledge by which students were qualified step by step for their future careers. They also show how demanding this teaching must have been for the Japanese students but also for the professors. The professors taught in English, without an interpreter. It also becomes clear from the contents of the notebooks that the foreign professors made no compromises. In essence, the style of teaching was obviously the same as that practised in England and Scotland.

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With this kind of teaching at ICE (and not only there, but also at other new educational institutions based on Western models), an entirely new form of teaching was introduced. In the traditional educational institutions, emphasis was primarily laid on reading and memorizing classical texts. ICE students had not only to listen to the teacher who spoke in a foreign language, but also to simultaneously take notes, comprehend the contents and take corresponding examinations to complete the courses. One can easily imagine the difficulties the students, the majority of whom came from a traditional milieu, must have encountered in this process. On the other hand, looking at Ohara’s Notes we notice how carefully these pages, both text and drawings, are executed. It seems unlikely that one could take such notes directly in this exact form during a lecture. From a few scraps of paper, half pages that were obviously placed in the notes - as bookmarks, one can figure out how the notes came about. Ohara obviously took notes during the lectures, mostly in pencil on single sheets, and also made rough sketches, which he then rewrote. So, what we are looking at are ‘fair’ or ‘clean copies’ of the lectures. Whether other documents, for instance, from the College library, were used for preparing these copies, is not clear. There are no references in the notes to additional reading. 7. GROWING SUCCESS: FROM A MEDIOCRE STUDENT TO THE TOP RUNNER

The ICE Calendar gives the course achievement of the individual students in so called ‘Placed Lists’ for the respective years. For selected subjects these give the rank of the student (out of the total number of students who had participated in the course and taken an examination), the results and the performance in percent.These data based on frequent examinations,25 provide an insight into the students’ progress during their years of study. The number of lectures used for this list was, however, limited to four (later to five), namely English, drawing, mathematics and natu25

An example will illustrate this: In the Notes (two volumes of 92 pages each) to Prof. Alexander’s lecture on ‘Applied Mechanics’ from April to June 1881, the examination problems that had to be solved during the semester have been preserved in special sheets and pasted by Ohara at the respective places. This shows that in the period from April to June a total of six examinations had to be passed i.e. an average of two examinations per month. The duration of the exams varied from two and a half hours to three hours.

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ral philosophy. There should be little ambiguity about the importance of these four subjects for technical studies at the ICE, but a brief explanation seems necessary, as the importance of the subjects English and Drawing in particular may not be immediately clear. In the Calendar of 1873, the year in which the new curriculum was first put into practice, the individual subjects are briefly outlined. There it says of ‘English’: English: Although it is expected that the students will be able to speak and write English fairly when they enter the college yet instruction in English language and literature will be given as part of the general course. They will commence by reading some English text book, and writing to dictation. After some time they will be required to write short essays on prescribed subjects.26

In his publication The Education of Engineers, the first part of which, entitled ‘Professional Education’, is a speech given on the occasion of the first graduation ceremony at ICE, the principal Henry Dyer addresses the question of the role of poetry in engineering. His remark makes clear the reason for including English in his curriculum, what role this teaching should have and what this teaching should also look like. He writes (original orthography): It is a mistake to suppose that Poetry is simply a luxury and, like all luxuries, to be avoided as much as possible. On the contrary it often exercises a great influence over the national mind and moulds the character of the people. […] Romances and Novels, like poetry, have their uses in cultivating the Imagination….27

Dyer saw literature as a source of imagination that can - fertilize technology, perhaps even increase innovation. When Ohara began his studies at ICE, for example, Oliver Goldsmith’s seventeenth-century novel The Vicar of Wakefield, a family story about the rise, fall and rise again of a family, was read in a course by Prof Dr G. Dixon. In the notes to this course, one will find information about the characters in the plot, the style, explanations and vocabulary, references to English literary history, etc. In addition, The Lady of the Lake, a play that introduces the ancient saga world from the environment of 26

27

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1873– 1874, p. 13. Henry Dyer, The Education of Engineers, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1879, p. 55.

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Arthurian legend in England, is also treated in the version by Walter Scott, in a similar analytical form as described above. And one wanted to go one step further and make the students more and more familiar with the language in which they were taught by organizing a kind of a ‘club’ (original orthography): Accordingly, a society entitled the “English Dialectic Society” has been founded for the prosecution in the English Language of literary, philosophical, and scientific composition, criticism, and debate. […]. In addition to the above, there have been instituted two societies for the carrying on of similar discussions in the Japanese language, the one managed by the younger, and the other, by the more advanced students. It is hoped that the institution of these societies will prove beneficial in promoting fluency of speech and a healthy spirit of inquiry among the students.28

Here it also becomes clear that Henry Dyer was not only concerned with teaching technical subjects for becoming an engineer which he also embodied himself, but that for this engineer he had in mind, a broader training beyond the technical side was also required, even if it concerned fluent language or the ability to debate. The fact that drawing appears in the ‘Placed Lists’ before mathematics and natural philosophy also needs some explanation. In the first half of the nineteenth century the training of engineers in most European countries usually emphasized mathematics and physics (natural philosophy). It was only at the École Polytechnique in Paris where the necessity of practical training seems to have changed the education of engineers.There more emphasis was laid on ‘drawing’ as a form of literacy, a kind of nonverbal thinking.29 It seems that education at the Imperial College of Engineering followed a similar approach.30 28

29

30

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1878– 1879, Tokei 1878, p. 39. See: Andrew J. Butriea, ‘The Mind’s Eye - Technical Education, Drawing and Meritocracy in France from 1800 to 1850’, in ICON – Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology, no. 21, 2015, pp. 1–23. See Hara Masatoshi, ‘Meiji shoki no zugaku kyo-iku’ (Education of graphic science in late nineteenth century Japan), in Zugaku kenkyu- (Journal of Graphic Science of Japan), no. 8, 1971, pp. 27–58; see also Hara Masatoshi, ‘Bakumatsu oyobi Meiji-shoki ni okeru zugaku-kyo-iku ni tsuite’ (Introduction of the education of descriptive geometry and engineering drawing in the later Tokugawa regime and early Meiji Japan), in Kagaku-shi kenkyu-, Series II, no. 14 (115), Autumn 1975, pp. 104–117.

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The Calendar 1873 describes the contents of this subject as follows: Drawing: During the first two years the student will be taught the principles of Geometrical Drawing, and its application to elementary examples in general construction. For this purpose he will be required to make enlargements and reductions, to various scales, of examples of works of merit from modern engineering practice. During the third and fourth sessions, he will be required to do such work as he would be expected to do in an engineer’s office, designing works and machines and make drawings from sketches furnished to him, or taken by himself on a visit to the works.31

According to these early plans, the student was to learn the whole range of necessary drawing techniques within the first two years, such as plane geometry, practical solid geometry, perspectives, freehand drawing, engineering drawing, mechanical drawing, architectural drawing and drawing applied to the arts and manufactures. A huge task for students, most of whom had no knowledge whatsoever of Western drawing. This problem was quickly understood by the teacher responsible for this subject in the early years of ICE, who wrote as follows (original orthography): The students at their entry into the college are in nearly every case totally unacquainted with drawing in foreign style or with foreign material, hence, […] they have not become used to working with foreign pencils, drawing instruments, &s. To assist the student in acquiring ability in the use of these instruments, &s., the course of Freehand Drawing is given, extending over a period of two or three months. During this period strict attention is paid to the correct manner of holding the pencils, &c., as well as to the general cleanliness and neatness of the work done.32

The role of the subject Drawing is also emphasized by Henry Dyer in his presentation of the Mining Engineer course, in which he writes (original orthography): 31

32

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1873– 1874, p. 13. Edmond F. Mondy, Professor of Drawing, in ‘Class Report’, in Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, pp. 5–14, esp. p. 8.

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One of the distinguishing features of the method of teaching adopted in this College, is the amount of drawing which the students are expected to do; you will observe from the plan of the main building that we have four drawing offices. 1. The general drawing office, where all the students go through a course of practical geometry and an elementary course of technical drawing.This is a very large room, capable of holding 80 separate drawing tables. 2. The engineering drawing office, where the civil and mechanical engineers go through a course of designing and learn to apply what they have heard in the lecture room, by making working and finished drawings in given condition. 3. The surveying drawing office, where almost all the students plot surveys made by themselves. 4. The architectural drawing office, where the students of architecture make drawings in application of the lectures by the professor. In these offices mere copying is discouraged as far as possible, the drawings being generally made either from notes and sketches furnished by the professor, from models, or from the actual machines and works. Some of the most advanced students make designs of apparatus for original investigations, and carry out these investigations in the engineering laboratory. Even in these branches in which drawing is not usually considered of much importance, such as the chemists, telegraph engineers, &c., all the students go through a special course of designing, to enable them to make working drawings of the apparatus or works on which they may be engaged. I have always considered that the great deficiency in every scheme of engineering education with which I am acquainted is, that the students have not sufficient practice in drawing, to enable them to put their designs clearly on paper, and the course of this College has been arranged to obviate this deficiency, as far as possible. As I have already said, during the technical course, the students spend half the year at College, and half at practical work, and to test their knowledge of what they see and do, a series of questions is set for each subject, and the students are required to take sketches of various works upon which they were engaged, and when they return, an examination is held; so that by this means I hope to train them to habits of observation. Unless the students know that they are expected to describe the details of any machine or work on which they may be engaged, they are apt to pass them over in

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a careless manner, but when their attention is directed to special points, they are impressed upon their memories.33

For students like Ohara, with their background in a school of learning that had emphasized Confucianism, the demands described by Dyer must have been immense. For him, as well as for many of the other students who, until they came to ICE, had never held a technical drawing of European provenance in their hands, nor the tools to produce them, such demands must have been overwhelming. Not least because of the conditions that were demanded - here, the poor results in the subject drawing, as exemplified by Ohara’s scores (see below), are understandable. On the other hand, one can appreciate the results he put down on paper only a few years later in the course of his practical work in the various mines, ranging from simple floor plans of workshops to intricate depictions of technical elements that caught his eye, only after considering the aforementioned demands. A similar problem might have appeared for many freshmen enrolled in ICE when it comes to mathematics. According to the plan, the course was divided into elementary mathematics (comprising geometry, algebra, plane trigonometry, logarithms, spherical trigonometry and geometrical conics), followed by a course on higher mathematics (comprising algebra, trigonometry, co-ordinate geometry, co-ordinate geometry of three dimensions, differentiate calculus, integral calculus and differential equations).Young students who had received a traditional education in their domain schools must have been worried by just reading or hearing such terms, most of which were unknown to them.34 The same happened obviously concerning the topic of natural philosophy (the term used as an equivalent to the Western term ‘physics’), which was included as the fourth subject for ranking. This course comprised lectures on kinematics, or the theory of motion, dynamics (statics, kinetics, hydrostatics, hydrokinetics), pneumatics, heat, magnetism, electricity (static, current electricity, electro magnetism, telegraphy), optics (geometrical), optics (physical, acoustics, astronomy).35 33

34

35

Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, pp. 31–32; see also Miyoshi, The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, vol. 1, pp. 93–94. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1873– 1874, p. 14. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar. Session 1873– 1874, p. 15.

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With this large range of new subjects, one wonders why more students did not give up attending ICE in advance when they read these requirements. On the other hand, the courage of those who - still wanted to start studying is to be admired. This applies to Ohara. In the winter session 1877–78 the name of O hara Junnosuke appears in the ranking lists for the ‘First Year Students’, indicating results for the four important courses he attended during the ‘General and Scientific Course’ (the first-year course) counted for the ranking list. The tables give the title of the respective lesson, and rank his performance in relation to the total number of examinees, followed by the absolute number of examinees on the one hand, and his percentage score. The number of examinees comprises students of all ‘branches’, who attended a certain lecture. The number of students decreased over the years, as students who had performed poorly dropped out during their studies. In the ‘Placed List’ for 1877/78 Ohara ranked 25th out of 48 examinees in English, achieving a score of 64.8%. His achievements in the first preparatory courses were poor, usually below average (Table 3).This is a disappointing result considering that he had completed nearly four years of English language study at different locations and with different teachers. His worst score was in mathematics, where he ranked 50th out of 50, achieving a meagre 19.5%! But his results in other subjects were not much better. In drawing he ranked 47th out of 51, scoring only 31.5%. In natural philosophy he performed only slightly better, coming 37th out of 51 examinees and scoring 28.8%. Table 3: Ohara’s performance in his first year at ICE Compiled on the basis of the information in the ‘Placed Lists’ from the ICE Calendar 1878, pp. 149–151. Subject

Rank

Number of Examinees

%

English

25

48

64.3

Drawing

47

51

31.5

Mathematics

50

50

19.5

Natural Philosophy

37

51

38.8

All things considered, these are clearly not outstanding results. Especially in mathematics his performance was by no means satisfactory.

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One can only speculate about the reasons.36 To some extent it was probably due to the lack of adequate education in Western mathematics. One can assume, that in his youth emphasis was put on classical Confucian education, and it is not known whether he was taught mathematics at all. At that time, it was mostly private educational institutions for commoners like terakoya ( temple schools) that taught children of merchants, shopkeepers, and wealthy farmers, not only reading and writing, and simple counting with the abacus, but also a kind of more sophisticated Japanese mathematics (wazan). However, the teaching of Western mathematics had not yet been introduced to Japan on a broader scale. In the subsequent years, when he was mainly engaged in studying the English language, there was probably also no chance to acquire certain skills in Western mathematics. The same is presumably true for drawing (meaning ‘technical drawing’), a subject which must have been entirely new to him (and to virtually everyone who entered the ICE at the time). This subject confronted the students with new challenges and required different skills - and ways of thinking. Ohara’s results for the following school year, 1878–1879, were no better. Except in English, where he now ranked 20th out of 49, his results in drawing, mathematics, natural philosophy and (listed as a new subject) chemistry all remained below average. Table 4: Ohara’s performance in his second year at ICE Compiled on the basis of the information in the ‘Placed Lists’ from the ICE Calendar 1879, pp. 129–133. Subject

Rank

Number of Examinees

%

English

20

49

74.6

Drawing

31

47

40.0

Mathematics

43

50

25.9

Natural Philosophy

34

51

36.3

Chemistry

30

54

40.5

36

For more information on the teaching of mathematics at the Imperial College of Engineering, see Ko-ta Osamu, ‘Meiji shoki no Ko-bu dai-gakko- ni okeru su-gaku kyo-iku’ (Teaching of mathematics at the Imperial College of Engineering in the early Meiji period), in (Kyo-to Univ.) Su-ri kaiseki kenkyu--sho ko-kyu--roku, no. 1444, 2005, pp. 43–58.

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But things suddenly changed in 1880. Except in mathematics, where he still ranked 22nd out of 28, he was now listed among the top ten in all the other subjects. This is an amazing improvement that propelled Ohara into the top rank of students. This upward trend was to continue in the coming year. Table 5: Ohara’s performance in his third year at ICE Compiled on the basis of the information in the ‘Placed Lists’ from the ICE Calendar 1880, pp. 141–144. Subject

Rank

Number of Examinees

%

English

2

26

83.8

Drawing

3

28

70.3

Mathematics

22

28

33.0

Natural Philosophy

7

26

45.7

Chemistry

5

28

72.2

For the 3rd-year student (winter session 1881), now already in the second section of his studies, namely the two years of instruction in individual subject areas called the ‘Technical Course’, Ohara’s results were even more surprising. He ranked first (!) now in all given subjects: ‘engineering geodesy’, ‘elementary construction and mining surveying, ‘steam engine’, ‘chemistry’, ‘mineralogy’ and ‘lithology & geology’. Table 6: Ohara’s performance as a 3rd Year Student (winter session) Compiled on the basis of the information in the ‘Placed Lists’ from the ICE Calendar 1881, pp. 116–119. Subject

Rank

Number of Examinees

%

Engineering Geodesy

1

17

89.3

Elem. Construction and Mining Surveying

1

9

80.0

Steam Engine (summer course)

1

6

77.5

Chemistry

1

8

78

Mineralogy

1

19

82.3

Lithology & Geology

1

19

87.8

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Ohara had started with virtually none of the basic knowledge required to enter the ICE. That he managed to get ahead of his fellow students and gain the top position within the first two years is quite outstanding. The declining numbers of examinees (from 50 in the first year to around 30 in the second year, further decreasing after the start of the Technical Course to less than 20) shows that many of the students at the College dropped out during their studies – mainly because of language problems but also for other reasons. In contrast to them, Ohara was able to consistently overcome the difficulties he had encountered at the beginning of his studies. This suggests that he was a resilient student who, once he had mastered the basis of the new technical education, excelled in all subjects. Regrettably, the Calendar of the following year, 1882, is missing, so Ohara’s further achievements at - ICE cannot be observed. Moreover, shortly afterwards we find Ohara on his tour of internships in several Japanese mines throughout the country. 8. OHARA EN ROUTE TO BECOMING PROFESSIONAL

Completion of the required courses mentioned above did not mark the end of the student’s education. The two-year Technical Course was followed by the Practical Course.This obliged students to spend an extended period in various (usually state-run) mines and to successfully complete internships there. This was required particularly in view of the fact that ICE graduates were to become members of the skilled personnel in such facilities in the future. The students were also expected to deliver extensive reports on the situation and the circumstances in the various mines to which they were assigned. The Practical Course meant for students like Ohara that they proceeded from theoretical study to the practical implementation of their knowledge. They were for the first time confronted with the real situation in a mine and other enterprises, which were often situated in remote areas, or indeed in the middle of nowhere. For most of the ICE students such a leap in the dark must have been not only a step from theory to practice, but also a big step from living in a rapidly modernizing urban environment like To-kyo- to living in a remote spot, hard to reach and with only few comforts and conveniences of civilization. During such an internship, which was an important part of the preparation for becoming a member of the technical elite,

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the candidates also had to prove their general ability to cope with various situations. They had to prove that they were able to act independently, take responsibility, and precisely observe and analyse a new and unfamiliar environment in order to take appropriate measures. This point has to be emphasized, because such an approach was unfamiliar to the traditional elite, for whom the Confucian ideology had been a formative influence and who usually lacked the necessary practical orientation that a modern engineer needed. By analysing Ohara’s internship reports, we can reconstruct his approach towards the challenges of his new profession. By the way these reports are organized and by the actions they describe we can learn much about O hara’s personal and professional qualities. He had obviously devised a certain scheme for his reports, which he used fairly consistently for all sites. Usually starting with a general description of the particular mining district (e.g., the geography, geology, topography and climate), he often made sketches of the layout of the mine buildings. This is followed by a list of materials used at the mine (e.g., coal, wood, gunpowder, oil, salt, mercury etc.) as well as prices and transportation costs, and the number of officers, workmen, and others. He goes on to describe the nature of the mine, the different tools used, the shafts and levels, and the timbering in the mine for the various levels and shafts, ventilation, underground surveying etc. He also made a large number of different drawings, not only floorplans but detailed illustrations of tools and the machinery, old and new. As other written evidence of - the technical side of the mines at this time is not available, O hara’s references give us a hitherto unknown picture of the situation of the mines he visited. His successful handling of such an unfamiliar situation, where the theoretical knowledge he had acquired at the College was confronted with practice on site, and the careful way in which he implemented what he had learned, show that he was well prepared for his future job. The (mandatory) internship reports,- which were written in English, had to be submitted to ICE. Ohara’s notebooks of the lectures in the Technical Course already reveal quite a good command of English, which is also proved by his excellent performance in the last year of the course. But one must assume that in their lecture notes the students mostly relied on the professor’s words, maybe even wrote their notes by dictation. However, the internship reports were obviously prepared on the spot, presum-

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ably without the help of a native speaker. They clearly show his ability to freely express himself in English and to deliver precise and adequate analyses of the situation. Also, in ‘drawing’ (giving technical details of tools and machines, -etc., as well as sketching features of the respective landscape) Ohara demonstrated his talent.

Figure 8: Map of Japan showing the mines where Ohara Junnosuke stayed for internships in the years 1882/83.

Ohara began his extended programme of internship in spring 1882. He spent about the first five months in the silver mine in Ikuno (Hyo-go prefecture), one of the oldest silver mines in Japan. Then he went on to the Miike coal mine (Fukuoka prefecture), where coal had been mined since the seventeenth century, arriving there, according to his diary, on 25 October (presumably 1882). After a four-month stay in Miike he continued on to the mine on Sado island (Sado, Niigata prefecture), one of the major gold and silver mines of Japan. On the title page of his corresponding report, the date 14 March (presumably 1883) is given. It is not entirely clear how long he stayed there, but

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the last volume of the internship reports concerning his stay in northern Japan is also dated 1883, but no day is given. Thus, he probably spent more than one year moving from one mine to the next (Figure 8). The first and most extensive of the five internship reports left is on the Ikuno silver mine. It consists of two volumes, each with around 100 pages. The next report from Miike is also a volume of about 100 pages. The third report on the gold mine on Sado island is likewise a single volume, whereas the last report contains shorter descriptions of the silver mines at Innai and Ani (both in Akita prefecture), the extraction of iron at Akadani (Niigata prefecture), copper at Arakawa (Akita prefecture) and coal at Aburato (Yamagata prefecture). Ohara often begins his reports with an overall presentation of the mine, i.e. he introduces the mines either with the help of ground plans of the entire site or floorplans of the main buildings or side plans showing smaller units, equipment and machinery (an example for the Ikuno mine in Figure 9).

Fig. 9: Floorplans of buildings housing modern machinery for crushing and sorting ores at Ikuno mine. Based on the internship report and drawings by Ohara Junnosuke. (Photo © Erich Pauer).

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figs 10a–f: Various traditional tools and modern equipment at Ikuno mine. Based on the internship report and drawings by Ohara Junnosuke (Photos © Erich Pauer).

Looking at the various plans, illustrations and technical drawings, e.g., of the Ikuno - silver mine, one can conclude that most of the mines where Ohara studied and worked were in a kind of a transitional or hybrid status. He drafted much of the old, tra-

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ditional equipment on the one hand (obviously rough sketches were directly drawn in his notes), but made also sketches of new, Japanese-made or imported modern machinery on the other (Figure 10). The technical drawings of the latter were probably made in his lodgings, as it required not only thin paper for copying original plans but also other drawing tools like rulers, compasses, ink pens, etc. The -meticulously drawn draft results show very clearly the progress Ohara had made in his drawing lessons. Through such drawings of both the equipment and tools with the exact dimensions and e.g. the arrangement of the machines and devices in the pump room, he documented not only the technical development of the mines – but also, and importantly – the rapid progress of the Japanese machinery industry during the early years of the Meiji period. All the numerous images, drawings and plans in his internship reports reveal Ohara’s intentions. He wanted to give a broad view not only of the current situation at the mine, but also of how it was embedded in history, the environment and society. Moreover, as a mining engineer, he was interested in the technical environment, the traditional devices as well as the new equipment as evidence of modernization. With obvious passion and the technical knowledge and ability he had acquired in his earlier years, he made dozens of detailed drawings and technical sketches of the individual machines and artefacts. A considerable number of drawings on thin tracing paper, folded because of their size, are also pasted into the report. Among them are quite a few that contain remarks in French.These drawings, mostly of machinery and equipment, apparently copies from the time when French engineers and technicians were working on the reconstruction of the Ikuno mine, seem to have been copied by Ohara directly from originals then still in existence. An English–French glossary at the end of the report seems to confirm this. In his reports, Ohara does not slavishly stick to the structure of his internship reports, but responds to particularities, e.g. certain crucial problems facing a mine. In the case of the Miike coal mine this was drainage. Sixteen of the 95 pages of the report are dedicated to this problem. He provides a sketch of a traditional wooden tread wheel and its frame used underground to take the water out of the pit over several levels and via several wheels. The use of waterwheels underground was a novelty in Japanese mining, and Ohara’s drawing is a surprisingly early documentation

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of this use, which can be considered a first step towards a more comprehensive modernization of mining. His notes show that Ohara was a keen observer: For example, during his internship he observed an interesting and rare operation. He describes in an easy-to-understand text and an interesting illustration how a (clearly traditional) headgear was erected. This drawing (Figure 11) is an extremely rare presentation and description of such a process, which is not found anywhere else.

Fig. 11: Erection of a traditional headgear at Miike coal mine; Drawing by Ohara Junnosuke in his internship report on the Miike mine (Photo © Erich Pauer).

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Yet another point deserves - special mention. During his internships at the various mines Ohara’s focus in his writings changed. We can see that he modified his role as a simple (engineer) observer. More and more we find that his interest shifts to an industrial management point of view, looking at costs, wages, prices, etc. Increasingly he is interested in the economic situation and the efficiency of the mines. Consequently, he creates long lists of the various types of workers, their wages and working hours, etc., and records the performance of the mine, i.e., the output at different shafts. He also often states prices for materials, machinery, equipment, routes, transportation fees and suchlike (Figure 12).

Fig. 12: Lists on workmen’s wages, prices of materials etc. Compiled by Ohara Junnosuke in his internship report on the mines in Northern Japan (Photo © Erich Pauer).

Ohara’s academic work and his painstaking research at the various mines were rewarded. His college career was- crowned with a firstclass Diploma in 1884. Looking at this, Ohara Junnosuke may be regarded as an example of an exceptionally qualified person, whose knowledge and achievements, despite quite a difficult beginning, had finally given him an outstanding position within the student body. He was the best of nine graduates in the mining

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branch in his year, and sole recipient of a first-class Diploma – he distinguished himself as an elite graduate (Figure 13). Looking at this outstanding result, one must underline -once more how severe the selection procedure at the ICE was. Ohara had started as one of more than 100 candidates for admission into the College. After two examinations, he was among the 50 students who gained admission. Out of these 50 students, after six years of study, less than half were left. Of these, Ohara qualified alongside four other students of other sections as best graduate with a first-class diploma.

- hara Junnosuke and his 1st class diploma. Fig. 13: The page of the Calendar with reference to O Source: The Calendar of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko) Tokei. 1884-85.

9. ONTO THE MINING WORLD – THE PROFESSIONAL CAREER

The excellent results of his college studies qualified Ohara for a career in the prestigious civil service. Immediately after graduation, in 1884 he joined the Ministry of Public Works. Here, he was assigned to the Bureau of Mines (ko-zan kyoku) as technician (gite).37 The brief outline of his professional career shows that the 37

Shimane-ken kyo-iku-iinkai (ed.), Iwami ginzan kindai shiryo--shu- (Modern materials on Iwami silver mine) vol. 1, Matsue, 2016, p. 102.

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training at ICE had prepared him not only for engineering work in the narrower sense, but also for management tasks. Not surprisingly, his very first activities in the Ministry were thematically and methodologically directly connected to his internship reports. Shortly after joining the Ministry, he seems to have received his first order to investigate the situation in a certain copper mine. The copper deposits in Ashio, Tochigi prefecture, had already been exploited for several centuries. In 1871 the mine was privatized and in 1877 it was transferred into the hands of the industrialist Furukawa Ichibei. Under his management the Ashio copper mine rose in the 1880s to become the largest copper producer in Japan. But in these years considerable environmental problems were also encountered. Therefore, the ministry took action. Ohara, who had only graduated in May 1884, was sent to Ashio just three months later, in August 1884. As a result, he gave a lecture on the Ashio mine in October, and in the same year at the Federation of Engineering Societies (Ko-gakkai), at the time the most influential society of engineers. His report was published in the same month in the Federation’s journal Ko-gakkai-shi.38 A comparison with his internship reports of his last year in the ICE shows quite a lot of similarities (though the scope of the detail is considerably smaller). As always, he started with the history of the mine – in this case, the Ashio mine. This is followed by sections on the location, ore deposits, workforce, working conditions, mine support system, transportation, ore washing, roasting, copper refining, management, freight charges for copper transport, medical facilities, business revenue and expenditures, construction of a new smelter (erecting of a new refinery). etc. Ohara had to undertake similar tasks within a short period. As part of the considerations for a change in the mining law adopted in 1873, the Japanese government assumed the right to the exploitation of mineral resources and to the temporary utilization of individual deposits. Consequently, in the years 1885 and 1886 surveys were undertaken - by mining engineers of the Bureau of Mines. In this context, Ohara conducted - surveys on various deposits in the province of Bingo (now Oita Prefecture). The 38

Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Ashio do-zan genkyo- nado’ (Present condition of the Ashio mine and others), in Ko-gakkai-shi, no. 34, 1884, pp. 382–417; see also Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo--shu- kanko--iinkai (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo--shu-, vol. 16, part 3, Meiji hen (zen), pp. 39–76, To-kyo-: Haku–A Shobo-, 1993.

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focus of the research was first on sulphur deposits, and second on deposits of gold. Initially, a relatively short report describing the position of the deposits and the respective production methods, the number of workers employed, etc. was the result. In a report concerning another mine in the same region, he described in detail the method of alum production used there. As alum was used for tanning,-as medicine to stop bleeding, and also in bleaching, dyeing, etc., Ohara’s findings were regarded as very important.39 In these years Ohara undertook further explorations in other prefectures of Kyu-shu- and delivered reports which were published in the journal of the Nihon Ko-gyo-kai. The reports cover various mines (gold, silver, lead, chrome, coal), and include information on the workforce, income and other aspects.40 After only two years in public administration, Ohara turned to mining practice. However – and this was already apparent in the final parts of his reports – he was not only interested in surveying and exploring ore deposits or studying mining technology. The economic side of mining operations was of great concern to him too, as he had already shown in his earlier internship reports. 10. A PROMISING CAREER CUT SHORT

In 1886, O - hara 41Junnosuke entered the private company Fujita-gumi in Osaka. This company, founded by Fujita Denzaburo from Cho-shu- (present Yamaguchi prefecture), was in its early days a trading company close to important members of the Meiji government whose roots were in Cho-shu-. Along with a broad range of business activities, the company also successfully operated mines in several regions of Japan. 39

40

41

This report was published in the journal of the Nihon Ko-gyo-kai: Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Noda mura myo-ban no ki’ (Notes on alum production in Noda, Bingo etc.), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi, no. 14 (Meiji 19.4/April 1886), pp. 951– 961; see also Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo--shu- kanko--iinkai (eds), Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo-shu- (Collected materials on Japanese industry), vol. 16, part 3, Meiji-hen (go), pp. 103–113, To-kyo-: Haku-A shobo- 1994. Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Hyu-ga kuni ko-zan gaisetsu’ (The general situation of the mines in Hyu-ga), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi, no. 17 (Meiji 19/1886–1887), pp. 1174–1193; also Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Bingo kuni, Naoiri-gun, Yu-shi-mura, Io-ko-, Kariku-ba’ (Sulphur-stones in Yu-shi-village, Naoiri-gun, Bingo province), in Nihon Ko-gyokai-shi, no. 19 (Meiji 19/1886–1887), pp. 1291–1304. One reason for the change might have been the dissolution of the Ministry of Public Work in December 1885.

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Ohara did not stay at the -headquarters of the company in Osaka but was soon sent to the Omori silver mine (Omori-ginzan) in Iwami (Shimane prefecture), in western Japan. The Omori silver mine had been one of Japan’s most important silver mines since the middle of the sixteenth century, but experienced a decline during the late Edo period. In the Meiji period the focus shifted to the recovery of copper.The Fujita-gumi had taken over the former mine from a local owner in 1886, with all its installations - and machinery used so far, as well as the surrounding grounds. Ohara became responsible for the mine development there as a technical director (ko-zan - gicho) and head of the mine. The first preserved documents Ohara signed as a representative of Fujita-gumi date from September 1886.42 By assuming such a high-profile position within the new industries of Japan, Ohara had fulfilled yet another task for which ICE graduates were trained. Then, during the following decade, with changing designations according changes of the company’s structure and different branches, he acted as head manager of Fujita-gumi’s branch office at Omori silver mine.With this rank, he had achieved a position that was expected of future graduates when the ICE was founded in the 1870s: the management of enterprises that were important for building a modern state. But in 1896 (Meiji 29) his career seems to have come to an unexpected end,- when we find him back at the Fujita-gumi’s headquarters in Osaka. The reason for this is not entirely clear. What happened is described in brief. In Iwami there were two ore deposits of different quality. Early mining in the sixteenth century started at the so-called Fukuishi deposit, a disseminated mineral deposit close to the surface. When the easy-to-extract deposits there were exhausted, mining was expanded to the ore veins at the so-called Eikyu- deposit. When the Fujita-gumi took over the mines, they planned to re-mine/re-develop the remnants of the Fukuishi deposit, using a new technology, which seemed promising in view of the character of the disseminated deposit, where the silver is scattered finely throughout the rock. Around the year Meiji 27 (1894), Ohara Junnosuke and Takeda Kyo-saku (1867–1945)43 began appropriate investigations.The results 42 43

See Shimane-ken kyo-iku iinkai (ed.), Iwami ginzan kindai shiryo--shu-, 2016, vol. 1. Takeda Ko-saku graduated from the Section of Mining and Metallurgy of the To-kyo- Imperial University in 1893 and soon afterwards joined the Fujita-gumi

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of the first assays with small quantities of the mined ore were apparently successful. Fujita-gumi decided to mine this less productive deposit and to erect a large plant. It is no longer possible to find out how the decision for a larger investment in new facilities came about. In May1894, allegedly based on plans of Takeda Kyo-saku, a new refinery was planned.44 The costs for the construction of the new plant, called the Shimizudani refinery, with all necessary accoutrements for e.g., large buildings, roads electricity, incline, transport, other facilities etc. amounted to the enormous sum of around 200,000 yen. Production began in April 1895, but further tests using larger quantities of ore revealed that the quality of the mined ore was lower than expected and the performance of the refinery was also insufficient due to construction faults. Accordingly, the refinery soon proved uneconomic and operation was -stopped in October 1896, only one and a half year after it began. Ohara, as the head of the mine, took responsibility for this failure and - apparently had to return to the Head Office of Fujita-gumi in Osaka.45 He was then commissioned with minor works, like exploration work in a gold-mine in Taiwan,46 a kind of work that is more likely to be given to newly hired young graduates from schools like the former ICE or the like, but not to a man who has been already in a leading position for several years. Subsequently with the same task he was sent to Kagoshima prefecture in southern Kyu--shu-. In the course of this last assignment at the Ushio mine (today Oguchi mine), he fell seriously ill. He was brought to Kumamoto but died suddenly of pneumonia induced by cardiac paralysis on 21 November 1896. He was just 37 years old.47 A career that had begun so hopefully was over.

44

45

46

47

as mining engineer. He married into the Fujita family. In 1896 he seemed to have replaced Ohara as Chief Engineer after the latter’s withdrawal from the O mori mine (for more details on Takeda see Iseki K.R. (ed.), Who’s Who in ‘Hakushi’ in Great Japan/Dai Nihon hakushi roku, vol. 5, To- kyo-: Hattensha, 1930, pp. 209-210). Do-wa ko-gyo-, Sha-shi hensan sho--iinkai henshu- (ed.), O mori ko-zan (Iwami ginzan) shiryo--shu- (Collected materials on the Omori-mine (Iwami silver-mine)), 1982, p. 16. Iwaya Saori, ‘Kindai Iwami ginzan – Omori-Ginzan-jidai no keiei-ro-do--seikatsu’ (The Iwami silver mine in the modern period – Business-work-life in the Omorimine period), Shimane-ken kyoikuiinkai (ed.), Iwami ginzan (Iwami Ginzan silver mine site), Matsue 2002, pp. 165–183, esp. pp. 167–168. His destination was the Sankaseki ko-zan in northern Taiwan. No report from this survey is known. See the obituary in Ko-gakkai-shi, no. 185, Meiji 30.5 (May 1897), p. 390.

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11. CONCLUSION: HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE MEIJI PERIOD

Ohara Junnosuke, a largely unknown mining engineer of the early Meiji period, represents in his education and professional career the possibilities and limitations of the engineers who laid the technical and industrial foundations of modern Japan. They were transitional figures who were shaped by both worlds, the feudal world of the late Tokugawa period and the modernizing world of the Meiji period, which was increasingly formed by technical achievements. These engineers were at the very beginning of the establishment of a formalized, science-based technical education, which in many areas replaced the personal - tradition of a more craft-based knowledge. The example of Ohara shows the organizational and mental difficulties that had to be overcome in acquiring this new type of education, but also the successes that could be achieved. The fact that the Meiji government worked from the top down in establishing technical education, i.e., starting with the highest level of education at ICE and the University of To-kyo- and only gradually including education at middle and lower levels, was criticized early on.48 Foreign teachers also voiced criticism of the insufficient qualification of students applying to the first higher technical schools.49 Nevertheless, successful examples such as that of Ohara and others show that these difficulties were surmountable, and that graduates were able to complete the tasks set for them - with flying colours. Ohara’s transcripts provide a unique insight into the subject matter during the first decade at ICE. They show that the level at that time was quite comparable to that of European universities, and that the teachers hardly cut any corners. Ohara’s subsequent professional activity is also proof that he was well prepared for leading - positions in the mining industry. Ohara himself was obviously aware of his role in a transitional phase. In many internship reports, he drew not only the modern machines and equipment but also still-existing traditional devices and tools. Thanks to his excellent training in technical drawing, 48

49

Yokobori Jisaburo-, ‘Ko-gyo- kyo-iku’ (Mining education), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi no.141, 1919, pp. 1–18. See for example Albrecht Wernich, Ueber Ausbreitung und Bedeutung der neuen Culturbestrebungen in Japan (Spread and significance of the new cultural efforts in Japan), Berlin: Carl Habel 1877, esp. pp. 17–18.

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he thus provides us with evidence of the concrete situation in the mines in this key transitional period between 1868 and 1885.This is particularly important because, although we have preserved to a large extent records showing operational or technical details for a number of mines for the pre-1868 period as well as the period after 1885, after the privatization of the mines, the period between 1868 and 1885 is still hardly covered by the records. And it is exactly this period, when the actual technical modernization of mining began under-the auspices of the Meiji government. Another aspect of Ohara’s work is his interest in economic and social issues, which goes far beyond purely technical questions, and which is already reflected in his internship reports, but also characterizes the research in Ashio. This is the key to his later assumption of larger tasks in the management of a company. His example shows very clearly how important this first generation of graduates from the early institutions of higher technical education was for the successful industrialization of Japan.

REFERENCES: Butriea, Andrew J., ‘The Mind’s Eye - Technical Education, Drawing and Meritocracy in France from 1800 to 1850’, in ICON – Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology, no. 21, 2015, pp. 1–23. Catalogue of Books contained in the Library of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1878. Davison, Charles, The Founders of Seismology, Cambridge: University Press, 1927. Dyer, Henry, The Education of Engineers, Tokei: Imperial College of Engineering, 1879. Dyer, Henry, ‘Professional Education’, in The Education of Engineers, Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei 1879. Do-wa ko-gyo-, Sha-shi hensan sho--iinkai henshu- (ed.), O - mori ko zan (Iwami ginzan) shiryo -shu (Collected materials on the Omori-mine (Iwami silver-mine)), 1982. Hara Masatoshi, ‘Meiji shoki no zugaku kyo-iku’ (Education of graphic science in late nineteenth century Japan), in Zugaku kenkyu- (Journal of Graphic Science of Japan), no. 8, 1971, pp. 27–58. Herbert-Gustar, A.L. & P.A. Nott (eds), John Milne: Father of Modern Seismology, Tenterden: Paul Norbury Publ. Ltd., 1980. Hokkaido- Kaitaku Kinenkan (ed.), Raiman korekushon-ten (Exhibition of the Lyman Collection), Sapporo: Historical Museum of Hokkaido-, 1995.

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Hyo-go-ken kyo-iku-iinkai (ed.), Kyo-do hyakunin no senkaku-sha (One hundred local pioneers), 1967. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Calendar (various years). Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1877. Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu-dai-gakko), Tokei. Class Reports by the Professors for the Period 1873–77, Tokei: Printed at the College. 1877. Iseki K.R. (ed.), Who’s Who in ‘Hakushi’ in Great Japan/Dai Nihon hakushi roku, vol. 5, To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930. Iwaya Saori, ‘Kindai Iwami ginzan – Omori-Ginzan-jidai no keiei-rodo-seikatsu’ (The Iwami - silver mine in the modern period – Business-work-life in the Omori-mine period), in Shimane-ken kyo-ikuiinkai (ed.), Iwami ginzan (Iwami Ginzan silver mine site), Matsue 2002, pp. 165–183. Kato- Sho-ji, ‘O-yatoi furansu-jin eigo-kyo-shi D. Toronkuwa’, in Gakuto-, vol. 87, no. 4, 1990, pp. 34–74. Kato- Sho-ji, ‘Meishin-kan o-yatoi Furansu-jin eigaku kyo-shi D. Toronkuwa’, in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 35, 2002, pp. 31–48. Kota Osamu, ‘Meiji shoki no Ko-bu dai-gakko- ni okeru su-gaku kyo-iku’ (Teaching of mathematics at the Imperial College of Engineering in the early Meiji period), in (Kyo-to Univ.) Su-ri kaiseki kenkyu--sho ko-kyu-roku, no. 1444, 2005, pp. 43–58. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiyaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan, 1989. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Henry Dyer - Pioneer of Engineering Education in Japan, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2004. Miyoshi Nobuhiro (ed.), The Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, (5 vols.), Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2006. Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo--shu- kanko--iinkai (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo--shu-, vol. - - 16, part 3, Meiji hen (zen), Tokyo: Haku–A Shobo, 1993. Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Ashio do-zan genkyo- nado’ (Present condition of the - Ashio mine and others), in Ko gakkai-shi, no. 34, 1884, pp. 382–417. Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Hyu-ga kuni ko-zan gaisetsu’ (The general situation of the mines in Hyu-ga), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi, no. 17 (Meiji 19/1886– - 1887), pp. 1174–1193. Ohara Junnosuke, ‘Bingo kuni, Naoiri-gun, Yu-shi-mura, Io-ko-, Kariku-ba’ (Sulphur-stones in Yu-shi-village, Naoiri-gun, Bingo province), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi, no. 19 (Meiji 19/1886–1887), pp. 1291–1304. Okuda Rakurakusai, Taki kyo-do-shi-ko- (A local history of Taki), 1958. Pumpelly, Raphael, Geological Researches in China, Mongolia and Japan during the years 1862 to 1865, New York, 1866. Pumpelly, Raphael, Across America and Asia, New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1870.

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Pumpelly, Raphael, My Reminiscences, vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918. Pauer, Erich, ‘Japan’s Industrialization and the Role of the Imperial College of Engineering (1873–1885) for Technical Human Capital Formation’, in Ferrum - Nachrichten aus der Eisenbibliothek, 82, 2010, pp. 25–40. Shimane-ken kyo-iku-iinkai (ed.), Iwami ginzan kindai shiryo--shu- (Modern materials on Iwami silver mine), vol. 1, Matsue, 2016. Wada Masanori, ‘Engineering Education and the Spirit of Samurai at the Imperial College of Engineering in To-kyo-, 1871–1886’ (Virginia Tech, 2007). (https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/9291/ browse?type=author&value=Wada%2C+Masanori). Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- doboku-ka no jitchi-kyo-iku – Ishibashi Ayahiko no kaiso--roku kara’ (Civil engineering education at the Imperial College of Engineering in To-kyo-: An analysis based on Ayahiko Ishibashi’s memoirs), in Kagaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 53 (269), 2014, pp. 49–66. Wernich, Albrecht, Ueber Ausbreitung und Bedeutung der neuen Culturbestrebungen in Japan (Spread and significance of the new cultural efforts in Japan), Berlin: Carl Habel, 1877. Yokobori Jisaburo-, ‘Ko-gyo- kyo-iku’ (Mining education), in Nihon Ko-gyokai-shi no.141, 1919, pp. 1–18.

7

The Fall of the Imperial College of Engineering: From the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) to the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial University, 1886 WADA Masanori

–

1. INTRODUCTION

IN 1886, THE Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Imperial College of Engineering,

ICE) became part of the newly established Imperial University.1 ICE began as Ko-gaku-ryo- (as already described in Chapter 5 of this volume). It was established under the Ministry of Public Works in 1871 and accepted its first students in 1873. It changed its name to Ko-bu-dai-gakko- in January 1877 following the reform of the government system. In December 1885, together with the abolition of the Ministry of Public Works, the operation of ICE was transferred to the Ministry of Education. Then, as part of the Imperial University Ordinance in March 1886, ICE was merged with the Faculty of Engineering and Design (Ko-gei-gakubu) at the University of To-kyo-, and was transformed into the College of Engineering (Ko-ka Daigaku) of the Imperial University. 1

This chapter is a translation of an article published in 2018 by Wada Masanori, entitled ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no shu-en to Teikoku Daigaku e no iko- wo meguru hyo-ka’ (Closure of the Imperial College of Engineering and Formation of the Imperial University), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 57, no. 287, 2018, pp. 186–200.That paper includes new insights to an original presentation given at the 61st Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society of Japan in May 2014, entitled ‘Ko-budai-gakko- no shu-en ni miru Meiji Nihon no ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku-ron’. 161

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By investigating the developments surrounding the closure in more detail, this chapter reconsiders the significance of ICE in technical education in Japan. ICE lies at a prehistoric crossroads of the Imperial University. As the starting point for the introduction of engineering into Japan, the college was critical in the history of higher education and technology in the country. The fact that ICE has been examined by many researchers underscores its significance.2 Some studies not only describe the historical facts about the college, but also emphasize that its education has traditionally been seen as sophisticated, and consider the college as having been highly successful.3 On the other hand, the college has as yet scarcely been analysed from a critical standpoint, and its historical significance has not been fairly assessed. This chapter revises the conventional view of the college by discussing the Ministry of Public Works’ role in its foundation and the educational situation, which greatly differs depending on the ‘branches’4 involved.5 This chapter re-evaluates the meaning of the college’s closure by scrutinizing its original purpose and achievements. Many researchers have covered ICE’s closure and its transition to the College of Engineering at the Imperial University. Regard2

3

4

5

In addition to the notes below, in recent years, the business historian, Uemura Sho-ji, has been energetically analysing the educational content of ICE and the statistics of engineers, including graduates of the college; for example, Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Ko-gaku-ryo-) ni okeru rigaku shirabasu no hensen’ (The transitions of the natural philosophy syllabus in the Imperial College of Engineering), in Ryu-tsu--kagaku Daigaku ronshu-. Keizai, jo-ho-, seisaku-hen, vol. 23, no. 1, 2014, pp. 19–43; and ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no keireki to to-kei kansatsu’ (Engineers’ careers and their statistical observations in early modern Japan), in Shakai kagaku, vol. 44, no. 4, 2015, pp. 1–48. The word ‘success’ appears in chapter and section headings in the following books: Sakamoto Kenzo-, Sentan gijutsu no yukue (The whereabouts of advanced technology), To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten, 1987; Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan, 1989; Kita Masami, Sukottorando to kindai Nihon (Scotland and modern Japan), To-kyo-: Maruzen Planet, 2001. The term ‘branches of technical education’ was used in the Calendar of 1873 to refer to the different disciplines in technical education at the ICE. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gaku-ryoko-so- to sono jisshi’ (The role of the Ministry of Public Works in Meiji Japan in designing engineering education: Reconsidering the foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96 (see the translation of this article in chapter 2) and ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke’ (Chemistry and practical education at the Imperial College of Engineering in To-kyo-, 1873–1886), in Kagakushi kenkyu- (The Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry), vol. 39, no. 2, 2012, pp. 55–78.

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ing the establishment of the Imperial University, some scholars have taken a positive view of the founding of the College of Engineering from the beginning of a university.6 Since Tachi Akira’s paper in 1976, the negative view that it represented the end of ICE’s original education has become a popular view in the history of higher education.7 However, prior research on ICE’s closure has been concerned with the continuity of practical education, which was proclaimed as the college’s most prominent feature, and has not considered the college’s initial purpose or the actual circumstances. When addressing this issue, there is a problem in that the materials from the time of Imperial University’s inauguration have been lost.8 This chapter, while using materials that have already been uncovered, centres on the difficulties caused by opening and maintaining ICE, and how the Ministry dealt (or did not deal) with these challenges. In doing so, it clarifies the Meiji government’s educational policy and provides a new interpretation for the college’s closure. Section 2 covers the relationship between ICE and Britain, and explores the policy prioritized by the Ministry of Public Works when establishing the college. Section 3 investigates the 6

7

8

The educational sociologist, Nagai Michio, states that at ‘The Imperial University, established in 1886, the Minister of Education Mori Arinori included a College of Engineering ahead of Europe. Besides the four Faculties of Law, Science, Literature and Medicine, he added a graduate school as well, and created an organisation suitable for a university in both name and reality’, in Nihon no daigaku (Universities in Japan), To-kyo-: Chu-o- Ko-ronsha, 1965, p. 31. Tachi Akira, ‘Nihon ni okeru ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku no keisei: Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no seiritsu to tenkai’ (The formation of higher technology education in Japan), in Kyo-iku-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 43, no. 1, 1976, pp. 13–23; Miyoshi Nobuhiro, ‘Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsushi no kenkyu-’ (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979; Oyodo Sho-ichi, Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo- rikkoku-ka to kokumin keisei (Industrialisation of modern Japan and the formation of the nation), Kawagoe: Suzusawa Shoten, 2009; and Kakihara Yasushi, ‘Ko-busho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’ (Training of engineers in the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 57–82. See, Nakano Minoru, ‘Teikoku-daigaku bunka daigaku no jikkyo- no ippan: kaisetsu’ (One part of the actual situation of colleges at the Imperial University: Commentary), in To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (University of To-kyo- Annual Report), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994, pp. 513–525. I have discussed all materials related to ICE in my article ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- doboku-ka no jitchi kyo-iku’ (Civil engineering education at the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 53, no. 269, 2014, pp. 49–66.

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latent purpose of creating the college by focusing on its impact on domestic education. Section 4 re-evaluates the relationship between ICE and the Imperial University by outlining the process through which ICE achieved its original purpose. 2. BACKGROUND OF ESTABLISHMENT

This section delves into the background of ICE’s inauguration, specifically on why principal Henry Dyer (1848–1918) introduced the policy of practical education, which was later proclaimed as the college’s main feature.9 As reported in the author’s previous research, the Ministry of Public Works did not stress practical education when establishing ICE.10 ICE (which played the role to select students to be sent to study abroad) was built, while the Ministry, which recognized the importance of science, closed the technical training schools (shu-giko-) it ran. However, there was a big difference between the Ministry’s initial policy and the curriculum implemented by Dyer, who focused on practice. The question is, why was Dyer, who emphasized practical education, called to come from Britain? 2.1 The selection of Western countries at ICE

If we look at what kind of countries the Ministry referred to when it set up the ICE, we see that the official record at the time of establishment mentions only ‘Western’ and does not specify a particular country. Article 3 of 6 articles from the ‘Outline of Construction of an Engineering School’, which the Ministry of Public Works submitted to the Council of State in April 1871 (Meiji 4) maintains that teachers should ‘completely teach like a primary school does in the West’.11 The ‘Outline of Regular 9

10 11

The curriculum that Dyer brought to Japan when the college opened in 1873 envisioned four years of practical training, which comprised two-thirds of the 6-year course. In reality, the period for practical training was soon shortened, but even in the curriculum, revised in 1877, half of the course was designed to be spent on practical training. See Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- doboku-ka no jitchi kyo-iku’, pp. 52–53). Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-’ (see Chapter 5 in this volume). Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo(Historical materials on the former Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, p. 8.

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Rules’, which was submitted to the Council of State in November of that same year, reveals the decision to found a college and a primary school,12 and institutes the policy of the two schools. Out of 18 articles, two demonstrate a policy based on principles. Article 5 asserts that ‘Only Westerners are to be appointed as teachers for the two schools’, while Article 8 claims that ‘One person, who should also be a Westerner, is appointed as the principal, who supervises the teachers in the two schools’.13 The Naval Engineering School (Ko-sha) in the Yokosuka Naval Shipyard (see Chapter 4), which the Ministry of Public Works inherited from the Ministry of Civil Affairs at the time of its founding in October of 1870 (Meiji 3), had been providing technical education from France since 1867 (Keio- 3). Further, in 1870,Yamao Yo-zo- (1837–1917), who later became involved in the opening of ICE, was in charge of the administration as an officer of the shipyard.14 Given his personal connections to the government, it would have been quite possible to consider introducing the French style when launching ICE. However, there is no record on the style to be introduced, nor an explanation of why the British style was adopted later. 2.2 The adherence to British customs

According to the statistics gathered by the economic historian, Toyohara Jiro-, the Meiji government and the private sector hired 1,021 foreign engineers when the Ministry of Public Works existed, and 566 (60%) were British. Furthermore, of the 608 employees hired by the Ministry of Public Works, 451 (74%) were British.15 What does this ratio imply? For comparison, according to the ‘Survey of Students Studying Abroad’ (Kaku koku ryu- gakusei 12

13 14

15

In this case the ‘primary school’ is designed as a college-level entrance school, not as a school for young children. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 19. Tomita Hitoshi and Nishibori Akira, Yokosuka-seitetsu-jo no hitobito (People at Yokosuka Naval Shipyard), Yokohama: Yu-rindo-, 1989, pp. 141–162 and pp. 187–188. Toyohara Jiro-, ‘Ko-busho- to o-yatoi gaikokujin ni tsuite’ (The Ministry of Public Works and ‘Hired Foreigners’), in (Journal of University of Hyo-go) Sho-dai ronshu-, no. 60, 1964, pp. 35–56. It is necessary to consider the international context of the time, in which it was easy to hire British engineers. A historian of science, Kakihara Yasushi, points out that in the latter half of the nineteenth century, there were too many engineers competing for jobs in Britain, and many tried to find ways out of the country; see Kakihara Yasushi, ‘O-yatoi gaikokujin to Igirisu

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cho-sa) up to September 1871, when the Ministry of Public Works decided to hire foreign teachers, among 153 students supported by government funds, 58 went to Britain (38%), 46 to the USA (30%), 29 to Prussia (19%), 7 to Russia (5%), 7 to the then-Qing Dynasty (i.e. China), 4 to France, and 2 to Belgium.16 Compared to the percentage of those who chose Britain based on this survey, the Ministry of Public Works had a tendency to depend on Britain. The Ministry of Public Works’ connection to Britain began with the clandestine departure of the ‘Cho-shu- Five’,17 including Ito- Shunsuke (Hirobumi) and Yamao Yo-zo- to England. The collection of materials titled Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- describes that the five men escaped from Yokohama to Britain on 13 May 1863 (Bunkyu- 3) with the help of Jardine, Matheson & Co.18 In the new government, Ito-, a native of the Cho-shu- domain, tried to broaden the Cho-shu- domain’s power in the Ministry of Public Works by taking advantage of his relationship with Britain. In 1873, he was appointed as the Vice Minister of Public Works (de facto head of the Ministry at the time) and appointed Yamao Yo-zo- and Inoue Masaru (who were also members of the ‘Cho-shu- Five’) to assistant positions. According to the Japanese historian Suzuki Jun, the Ministry actively hired British engineers, and officers other than those from the Cho-shu- domain moved to other ministries; by the end of 1873, the Cho-shu- domain system was established in the Ministry.19 According to the historian of politics, Nishikawa Makoto, Sasaki Takayuki (who was from the Tosa domain) was about to become the Minister of Public Works in 1878. However, Ito- appealed to the Minister of the Right (Udaijin), Iwakura Tomomi, claiming that the Minister of Public Works should be fluent in various languages, because the

16

17

18 19

teikoku no enjinia’ (‘Hired foreigners’ and engineers of the British Empire), in To-kyo--daigaku-shi kiyo-, no. 18, 2000, pp. 33–44. Watanabe Minoru, Kindai Nihon kaigai ryu-gakusei-shi, jo- (A history of modern Japanese students studying abroad), vol. 1, To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 1977, p. 253. The so-called ‘Cho-shu- Five’ were five young samurai from Cho-shu- (present Yamaguchi prefecture), who travelled to England without permission in 1863 with the aim of acquiring Western knowledge. All five rose to important positions in the following decades and contributed significantly to Japan’s comprehensive modernization in various fields. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 1. Suzuki Jun, ‘Ko-busho- no 15-nen’ (15 years of the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 3–22.

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Ministry hired many foreign engineers, and Inoue Kaoru (who was from the Cho-shu- domain and one of the ‘Cho-shu- Five’ members) succeeded Ito-.20 In other words, the policy of actively hiring British engineers increased the demand for officers with a solid command of English, which resulted in the appointment of Cho-shu- members who were proficient in the language. In this way, the Cho-shu- members used British engineers for political reasons to maintain and expand their influence in the Ministry, and eventually, in the Meiji government. 2.3 Henry Dyer’s role in ICE

As a result, the Ministry invited nine teachers to come from Britain while ICE was being built.21 During the operation of ICE, 41 teachers and clerks (84%) were from Britain out of 49 foreigners hired by ICE.22 The college’s trend was to only follow the Ministry’s political policy, which the Cho-shu- domain controlled to hire as many British as possible. The Ministry of Public Works also led the policy of sending excellent students to study abroad after graduation; this differed from Dyer’s idea, that the quality of the ICE education was equal to universities abroad. When the first students graduated from the college in 1879, Dyer argued that the content of ICE’s education was comparable to that of British universities; however, leaders at the Ministry were not satisfied with the 6-year course at the college and ordered eleven selected students to study abroad.23 Thus, although the curriculum’s details were left up to Dyer, the Ministry of Public Works took the initiative in determining the framework for developing human resources, and did not accept Dyer’s advice in terms of studying abroad. Based on the Ministry of Public Works’ consistent policies, there was no inevitable reason to invite British teachers, who placed importance on practise.

20

21

22 23

Nishikawa Makoto, ‘Sasaki Takayuki to Ko-busho-’ (Sasaki Takayuki and the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai, pp. 229–260. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 73–74. The details of the process of inviting teachers are discussed in Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-’ (see Chapter 2 in this volume). Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 353–356. Regarding Dyer’s dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Public Works’s policy on studying abroad, see Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-’, p. 92.

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To summarize the above, the Ministry of Public Works hired Dyer for political reasons, and did not see the importance of practical education in running ICE. The Ministry was not seeking this educational policy, which was mainly grounded in the practice that Dyer introduced from Britain, and which was touted as a feature of ICE. 3. THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF ICE

There were two concerns when the Meiji government introduced a system of higher technical education:24 (1) a ‘connection problem’ that caused confusion in primary and secondary education; and (2) the fact that intermediate-level technical education received low priority. 3.1 Deviation from primary and secondary education

The first obstacle was the discrepancy between the level of admission to higher education institutions and the level of education below that. A historian of education, Amano Ikuo, discusses the confusion over the system of preliminary education at Imperial University in later years.25 Meanwhile, the confusion surrounding admission started in the days of ICE. The Government Order of Education (Gakusei), promulgated in 1872, declared that the entire country would be divided into eight university districts, each of which would consist of middle school and primary school districts; the aim was to promote a smooth transition from primary education to higher education. However, transplanting science and technology from the West became the highest priority for higher education, and communi24

25

Regarding the challenges of education, the historian of education, Ozaki Mugen, describes the new burden that was placed on people’s lives as ‘unreasonableness or distortion’ and explains that the creation of the primary school system – based on the Government Order of Education (Gakusei), promulgated in 1872 – increased cash spending and reduced family labour for parents who sent their children to primary schools; see Nihon no kyo-iku kaikaku (Educational reformation in Japan), To-kyo-: Chu-o- Ko-ron Shinsha, 1999, p. 19). Ozaki affirms this from the angle of the education system’s impact on society, but this chapter discusses the issues within the education system that originated in the introduction of higher education. Amano Ikuo, Daigaku no tanjo-, jo- (Birth of universities, vol. 1), To-kyo-: Chu-oKo-ron Shinsha, 2009, pp. 110–118.

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cation among different levels of schools was ignored.26 According to the educational sociologist, Nagai Michio, the government set aside 14% of the overall education budget for hiring foreign teachers and 18% for sending students abroad, thereby spending 32% on absorbing Western knowledge.27 This implied a huge expenditure on higher education. Japanese colleges’ high standards were based on European universities so that there would be no differences. Notwithstanding, the lower-level education system was immature. Hence, each college had to create its own preparatory system before teaching its speciality. According to Amano, the preparatory courses at the time became later high schools of the old system (which were considered to represent the origins of liberal arts education in Japan), but this consequence was not intended. The preparatory system’s purpose was to fill the gap between colleges and immature lower education systems in order to maintain the colleges’ high standard.28 The problems caused by colleges’ high standard that emerged in later years actually appeared right after ICE was founded. In a report that Dyer submitted to the Minister of Public Works, Ito- Hirobumi, in 1877 (four years after the ICE opened). He complained that he had assumed (before arriving in Japan) that preparatory education for the new school’s candidates would be substantial in Japan: When I was engaged to come to Japan, I was given to understand that there was a large number of elementary schools in the country which would act as feeders to the College, but I soon found that this was a mistake, as in almost all the schools which had been founded no English was taught, and not even the elements of mathematics or science.29 26

27 28 29

Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 8 (History of science and technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Daiichi Ho-ki Shuppan, 1964, p. 14. This poor connection was not only a problem in Japan, but also in Britain. Matsumoto Miwao argues that from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century, tutors provided individualized education via a system equivalent to a secondary education institution in Britain. In Japan, in-house education played the same role; see ‘Gijutsu iten to kagaku-gijutsu kyo-iku’, in Ito Shuntaro- and Murakami Yo-ichiro- (eds), Ko-za kagaku-shi, 2, Shakai kara yomu kagaku-shi (A course: History of science, 2, History of science read from society), To-kyo-: Baifu-kan, 1989, pp. 127–163, p. 151. Nagai, Nihon no daigaku, pp. 66–67. Amano, Daigaku no tanjo-, jo-, p. 112. Henry Dyer, Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877, p. 21.

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He explained how, as a result, it was difficult to select students for the first year, as well as design lessons for that year, and how greatly the teachers and students alike struggled. Due to Dyer’s petition, the Primary School for ICE was launched in February in 1874, unlike the original plan devised by the Ministry of Public Works.30 However, this school was closed in June of 1877 due to reduced spending by the government, for which Dyer frankly criticised Ito-: The preparatory school was discontinued in May [June] of this year [1877] on account of the general reduction which took place in all the government departments, and also because you were of opinion that there were now sufficient other schools in the country to supply students for the College. I shall be glad to find that this is so, as we only founded the school because we felt its absolute necessity: I am afraid, however, that at next examination we will find that its abolition was somewhat premature.31

There was a story of a student’s hardship around this time. Furukawa Sakajiro- (1858–1941), a sixth-year student who entered ICE in 1878 and studied in the Civil Engineering Branch, described his career until he was allowed to enter to ICE in later years: At that time, those who learned in good order could get into college early. However, it took a long time if your studies were out of order. There was not a place to prepare for colleges. We visited teachers here and there; for example, English was here and mathematics was there. There were a few places to study here and there. Those who were not good at learning did not enter a college easily. We were unable to get in easily. This was because the learning method was bad. We went to Yokohama to study English in 1871, [...] and came back to To-kyo- in 1873 to study arithmetic at Kondo-’s cram school, English at Keio-, and conversation under the British teacher Mr. Maiyaa in Tsukiji. We had to learn Chinese studies, so we went to a night school. Then, I decided to enter the University of To-kyo- or the Imperial College of Engineering. I applied to the University of To-kyo- and took 30

31

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 91 and 121. This preparatory school (also called Aoi-machi Sho-gakko-) did not result from the idea of a primary school that the Ministry of Public Works had planned for in 1871 (see Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakkoso-setsu saiko-’, pp. 88–89, see also Chapter 5 in this volume). Dyer, General Report, p. 22.

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the entrance exam in 1877, but I could not pass it. Therefore, I entered ICE in 1878.32

Furukawa spent seven years preparing to enter ICE, changing schools for each subject he learned. After the Primary School for ICE (Ko-gaku-ryo- sho-gakko-) was closed, the confusion among students continued for a while. In this way, ICE was built while secondary education was still immature, and the candidates were not well-prepared for the entrance exam. ICE was conducting the entrance exam in English, and candidates who did not score 50% or more were not admitted.33 However, the students did not have sufficient ability simply because they passed the exam or were admitted to the school. Likewise, from the perspective of administration, the college was not necessarily run well merely because its capacity had been filled. In a report submitted to Dyer in 1877, teachers alleged that they could not carry out lessons as expected because the enrolled students did not have adequate skills.William E. Ayrton (1847–1908), the teacher of Natural Philosophy, reported on the subjects he engaged in, and complained to Dyer as follows: Now it is impossible to do this in the first two years of the students’ course, as their knowledge of English and mathematics on entering the College is small.34 To carry out the syllabus fully, as I consider it should be carried out in an Engineering College, would require the services of an additional Lecturer in Natural Philosophy so that four lectures a day on an average should be given, instead of two as at present, and at least one additional year added to the students’ College course.35

John Perry (1850–1920), a teacher of civil engineering, described an engineering class that he taught: 32

33 34

35

Furukawa Sakajiro-, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gaku ni okeru undo- sonota’ (Exercises and so on at the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Historical materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering, Supplement), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, pp. 136– 140, esp. pp. 138–139. The difficulties the examinees faced are also mentioned in Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke.’ Dyer, General Report, p. 21. Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Class Reports by the Professors for the Period 1873–77, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877, p. 21. Class Reports, p. 22.

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I would specially call your attention to the visible tendency of the general course to overlap the Technical Course. It shows that so long as we maintain our present entrance standard, a two years’ general course will be found insufficient, and only that our students are exceptionally studious and energetic, a change of the present system would have been found necessary before this, due to their inability to follow the third-year lectures.36

These reports by foreign teachers were consistent. It obviously was unreasonable to set the standard of the course at ICE without considering the students’ abilities. There were large differences in students’ skills. Ishibashi Ayahiko (1853–1932), a first-year student who graduated from the Civil Engineering Branch, testified that ‘the results of those who were not from shu- giko- (the practical training schools) were not good’.37 In other words, those with good grades had studied under hired foreign engineers at practical training institutions run by the Ministry of Public Works before ICE was opened. At the same time, Ishibashi’s words imply that most others found it hard to keep up with the classes. In this way, the government established higher education institutions during the early Meiji period in order to absorb Western culture and technology. Schools such as ICE faced the challenge of their students lacking in academic ability from the beginning. However, the college did not lower the level of the course, nor did it take drastic measures to raise the performance of enrolled students. In other words, the government did not pay attention to the school’s educational effect, but instead prioritized maintaining its appearance as a higher education institution, in addition to its academic standard. 3.2 The lack of intermediate-level technical education

Another problem that caused confusion was the dearth of a system of technical education for cultivating well-balanced personnel such as engineers, technicians and craftsmen who have 36

37

Imperial College of Engineering, Class Reports, p. 44. At ICE, the 6-year course was divided into general and scientific classes, the technical classes, and the practical class, given every two years. Ishibashi Ayahiko, ‘Kaikoroku, sono 2’ (Memoirs), in Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakkoshiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Supplement), pp. 207–257, esp. 223.

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different knowledge and skill levels, according to the demands of industry. Regarding technical education under the Ministry of Public Works, before ICE was launched in 1873, there was a system of training schools (shu-giko-) that offered an education that could be completed quickly – such as Shu-gi Ko-sha of the Lighthouse Board, Shu-gi Kyo-jo- of the Telegraphy Board, Ko-sha of the Steelmaking Board, and Joko- Denshu-jo of the Engineering Promotion Board. According to the pedagogical scholar, Hosoya Toshio, all of these entities were established to cope with the actual situation, but in reality, they were factories with an education system, rather than education institutions.38 As mentioned in Section 2, the technical training schools (shu-giko-), which primarily employed on-site workers and provided education for workers under the supervision of foreign engineers, had been closed and integrated in order to construct ICE, which emphasized science. Among them, the Shu-gi Kyo-jo- of the Telegraphy Board continued to be run throughout the duration of the Ministry of Public Works, separately from the Telegraphy Branch at ICE. It was taken over by the Ministry of Communications and became an independent institution called To-kyo- Denshin-gakko(To-kyo- Telegraph School) in 1887.39 Under the Ministry of Education, a manufacturing school (seisakugaku kyo-jo-) was founded inside To-kyo- Kaisei-gakko- (one of the predecessors of the University of To-kyo-) in 1874; it was the first institution to systematically teach an intermediate level of technology for a relatively long period. The school was opened because a German engineer, Gottfried Wagener (1831–1892), proposed establishing a school to the Meiji government. The school taught chemistry and mechanics in a four-year course, including a two-year preparatory course and a two-year main course; 61 students were enrolled when it was inaugurated. However, as early as 1877, the school was shut

38

39

Hosoya Toshio, Gijutsu kyo-iku-ron (Technical education), To-kyo-: To-kyoDaigaku Shuppankai, 1978, pp. 115–116. Kakihara Yasushi expresses his opinion that the educational policy of practical training succeeded To-kyo- Denshin Gakko- after ICE was closed (‘Ko-bu-sho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’, p. 76). The business historian, Morikawa Hidemasa, points to ICE regarding the origins of a job site-oriented mind. See Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Nihon gijutsu-sha no ‘genba shugi’ ni tsuite’ (The origins of the genba [job site]oriented mind of modern Japanese engineers), in Yokohama keiei kenkyu-, vol. 8, no. 4, 1988, pp. 29–40.

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down because it offered simple ‘lay practice’ (hikin jitsuyo-).40 Its closure shows that the Meiji government prioritised lofty fields for technical education not directly connected to industry. The delay in establishing a training system for technicians and craftsmen was a problem not only due to the leaders involved. In the case of the To-kyo Shokko--gakko- (To-kyo-Vocational School, which later became the To-kyo- Institute of Technology), founded in 1881 (see Toda’s contribution in this volume), ‘even those who enrolled in the school did not think about the educational content such as study at one’s desk only in the morning and practical training all through the afternoon; they complained bitterly, and many students transferred to other schools “mid-course”’. In the Department of Mechanical Crafts (Kikai ko-geika), among 40 students who first entered the school, only ten finished the four-year course.41 The expectation of the students was not to become craftsmen working in industry. In their minds, education should be high-level science rather than anything else. The need for intermediate-level engineers (such as foremen and craftsmen) came to be recognized in industry around the year Meiji 20 (1887). Table 1 lists civil engineering schools established during the Meiji period (until 1912). In general education the admission level was graduation from ordinary primary schools in 1886 (Meiji 19), a private school, Ko-gyoku-sha, first began educating craftsmen in civil engineering fields after having trained surveyors.42 All the schools for the general education for civil engineers founded in the Meiji era were private – except for one public school, Okayama Ko-gyo--gakko-, which was established in 1901. There was a structure of technical education in Japan during the Meiji period in which the government took charge of training high-level engineers, entrusting the private sector with the training of intermediate-level engineers and workers. The Society of Engineering, whose major members were graduates of ICE, was involved in founding Ko-shu-gakko- (literally, ‘Craftsmen School’, which later became Ko-gakuin University). It is thus possible that graduates of ICE understood the importance 40

41 42

Nihon Kagakushi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 8, p. 534; Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-jo (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, 9, Sangyokyo-iku, 1 (100-year history of modern education in Japan, industrial education), To-kyo-: Bunsho-do-, 1973, p. 168; and Hosoya, Gijutsu kyo-iku-ron, p. 116. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 8, p. 535. Ko-gakkai (ed.), Meiji ko-gyo-shi, Doboku hen (Meiji industrial history, civil engineering), To-kyo-: Ko-gakkai Meiji Ko-gyo--shi Hakko-jo, 1929, pp. 1, 112.

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of intermediate-level technical education. However, the statement of the purpose of opening a new industrial school (Ko-gyo--gakko-), proposed by the Society of Engineering, explains the need for craftsmen from the viewpoint of leaders, not based on the demands of industry: To ask excellent engineers to take charge for everything such as land selection, design, planning, drawing and calculation, would be like asking a star to play the horse’s hind legs in the theatre. Thus, the mistake of casting results not only causes a nuisance for general actors, but also the loss of the entrepreneur. Therefore, in industry, we see the necessity to hire, by all means, many craftsmen as assistants.43

Here, the need for many foremen and craftsmen was explained by the arrogant logic that graduates of ICE or the University of To-kyo- were regarded as stars, and that one should stay away from bothering general actors and entrepreneurs. The Meiji government first organized schools of higher technical education, such as ICE, to produce engineers in leading positions, but there were no consistent policies for foremen and craftsmen. The historian of science, Itakura Kiyonobu, points out the immaturity of intermediate-level education for science and technology, and concludes that ‘in Japan, full-time apprenticeship or craftsmen education has never been successful’.44 The historian of technology, Nakaoka Tetsuro-, analyses the outcomes of the Ministry of Public Works, and affirms that ‘the Ministry was not very effective in contributing to the development of the Japanese industry and economy at that time, and many enterprises were in fact in deficit, but the Ministry played a huge role in introducing industrial civilization to the public’.45 This shows a similar tendency regarding technical education under the Ministry. In other words, the fundamental background to ICE’s establishment was a policy of sticking to advanced technical education, which trained a few elites while lacking in intermediate education.

43 44 45

‘Ko-gyo--gakko-’ (Industrial Schools), in Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 70 (1887), pp. 816–817. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 8, p. 535. Nakaoka Tetsuro-, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei (Formation of modern technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006, p. 55.

Higher

Level

1877 (10) 1886 (19)

Ko- bu-dai-gakko-

To- kyo- Teikoku Daigaku, Ko- ka Daigaku

1876 (9)

Sapporo No- -gakko-

Dai Go Ko- to- gakko- , Ko- gakubu; 1897 (30) Kumamoto Ko- to- Ko- gyo- -gakkoNagoya Ko to Ko gyo gakko 1905 (38) Sendai Ko- to- Ko- gyo- -gakko1906 (39)

Dai San Ko- to- gakko- , Ko- gakubu 1894 (27)

1877 (10)

Ko- gisei Yo- seijo

Kyo- to Teikoku Daigaku, 1897 (30) Riko- ka Daigaku Kyushu Teikoku Daigaku, Ko ka 1911 (44) Daigaku

1877 (10)

Year of est. (Meiji)

To- kyo- Daigaku

School

Number of graduates from the civil engineering course

122, 113 (Kumamoto) 114 77

4 4

54

16 (until 1897), 187

24

200

671

4

4

Depended on exams 4

3

3

3

6 (main course: 4) 45

6 (main course: 4) 30

Course period (year)

Table 1. Schools for civil engineers established in the Meiji period.

Suspension of admission in 1896 Kumamoto Ko- to- Ko- gyoGakko- in 1906

Closed in 1882

Teikoku Daigaku in 1886, To- kyo- Teikoku Daigaku in 1893 Ko- ka Daigaku in 1918

Daigaku Nanko- in 1869, Kaisei Gakko- in 1873 Ko- gaku-ryo- in 1873

Notes

176 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Source:

General

Level

1897 (30) 1902 (35) 1903 (36) 1904 (37) 1909 (42)

Iwakura Tetsudo- -gakko-

Kansai Sho- ko- -gakkoSho- ko- -gakko-

To- -A-Tetsudo- -gakko-

Chu-o- Ko- -gakko3

3

3

1 (2 after 1901)

1.5

2

4

Course period (year) Notes

158

Okayama Prefecture. The admission qualification was graduation from Ko- toSho- -gakkoKo- gyoku-juku in 1863 (Dutch studies, mathematics, 2,050 (civil engineering navigation), Ko- gyoku-sha course), 261 (Ko- -gakko- ), in 1881, civil engineering 310 (Ko- shujo) course in 1886, Ko- -gakko- in 1901, attached Ko- shu-jo in 1906 2,088 84 (advanced archiTetsudo- -gakko- in 1897, tecture), 786 (main Iwakura Tetsudo- -gakko- in architecture) 1903 421 168 To- -A-Tetsudo- Gakuin in 123 1904, To- -A-Tetsudo- Gakkoin 1907 73

Number of graduates from the civil engineering course

Ko-gakkai (ed.), Meiji ko-gyo-shi, Doboku hen (Meiji industrial history, Civil engineering), To-kyo-: Ko-gakkai Meiji Ko-gyo-shi Hakko-jo, 1929, pp. 1102–1120. Schools are listed in the order in which they appear in the source. Graduates’ figures exclude those schools that have closed, and are the total number up to 1912.

1887 (20)

1881 (14)

Ko- gyoku-sha, Ko- -gakko-

Ko- shu Gakko-

1901 (34)

Year of est. (Meiji)

Okayama Ko- gyo- -gakko-

School

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3.3 Looking after fallen shizoku

Higher education played a role in looking after the fallen shizoku (the former samurai class).46 This is why higher education was prioritized, while primary, secondary and intermediate levels of technical education were ignored in the early Meiji period. Nakayama Shigeru, the historian of science, indicates that for shizoku, the former ruling class who had lost their status, higher education played a role in helping them to obtain state-related jobs.47 This argument is in line with the claim of educational sociology that shizoku (who had not lost their pride of having been the ruling class) considered enrolment in newly established government schools as a way to advance in their lives.48 The industrial field, along with agriculture, paved the path for many shizoku who had lost their livelihoods after the Meiji Restoration. According to the historian of science and technology, Yoshida Mitsukuni, some leaders in the government actively considered the industrial field to be a measure for looking after fallen shizoku, because some of the old samurai had been engaged in home manufacturing during the Edo period.49 However, in government companies, shizoku occupied engineering jobs; they were clearly separated from the craftsmen, who worked under their command.50 Entering a government technical school was the fastest way to gain a leadership position as an engineer. At this time, when shizoku were the main group of students, the newly constructed schools were required to offer high-level education. 4. COMPLETION OF THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE, AND THE END OF THE COLLEGE

It is often complained that the closure of the Imperial College of Engineering and its merging into the College of Engineering at the Imperial University led to the loss of its characteristics. Reviewing the process by which ICE achieved its goals, this section reconsiders the transition to the Imperial University. 46

47

48

49

50

With the abolition of the feudal domains in 1871 the shizoku lost their hereditary status as a social elite and often also their economic basis. Nakayama Shigeru, Teikoku Daigaku no tanjo- (The birth of the Imperial University), To-kyo-: Chu-o- Ko-ronsha, 1978. Earl H. Kinmonth, The Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. Yoshida Mitsukuni, Gijutsu to Nihon kindaika: zusetsu (Technology and modernization in Japan: Illustrated), To-kyo-: Nihon Ho-so- Shuppan Kyo-kai, 1977, p. 66. Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-jo (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, 9, pp. 125–126.

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4.1 Replacing hired foreigners with Japanese

As is well known, the Ministry of Public Works proposed building a new school under the Meiji government to train Japanese citizens to replace o-yatoi (hired) foreigners. The ‘Proposition of Construction of the School of Engineering’, submitted to the Council of State in 1871, explained that the government had hired many foreign engineers for the development of infrastructure, and appealed to the necessity to educate Japanese citizens to carry out government initiatives without foreigners’ help.51 How did the training of students at ICE, who would replace foreign teachers at higher education institutions of engineering, progress? Contemporary records consistently demonstrate a policy of sending students to study abroad. In addition to the previous proposal, which outlines the policy of ‘sequentially sending students abroad’,52 the ‘Outline of Construction of an Engineering School’ (presented in the same month) states that ‘those who have passed the test will be selected and sent abroad’.53 The ‘Outline of the Regular Rules’ (presented in November 1871) also affirms that ‘qualified students will be ordered to go abroad and improve their own academic ability’.54 The first graduation ceremony was held in November 1879 and 23 students graduated from ICE. Shortly before, in July 1879 the Minister of Public Works, Inoue Kaoru, had submitted the proposal ‘On sending students of the Imperial College of Engineering to study abroad’ to the Council of State; he insisted that studying abroad was indispensable for training teachers.55 In other words, ICE was positioned as an institution for selection based on the assumption that excellent students would study abroad after their graduation to deepen their academic ability. As originally planned, 11 of the first graduates with outstanding grades were instructed to study in Britain and stay there for around three years.56 51

52 53 54 55 56

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 4–5. The details of the Ministry of Public Works’ intention are discussed in Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-’ (see also Chapter 5 in this volume). Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 5. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 8. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 20. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 135–136. As discussed in Chapter 5 in this volume, this was the first group of graduates, and the biggest, to be dispatched abroad at once. Later the ICE officially decided to instruct all Japanese who had not been abroad after graduation and became teachers at the college to make up for the stay abroad (Okura-sho- (ed.), Ko-bushoenkaku ho koku (Ministry of Public Works history report), To-kyo-: Okurasho-, 1889, p. 812).

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All the foreign teachers were hired for fixed periods and returned to their home countries one after another when their contracts ended. Some of the hired teachers at ICE, such as Edward Divers (1837–1912), a teacher of chemistry who returned to Japan in 1899, stayed there for a long time. However, others returned to their home country: Ayrton in 1878, Perry in 1879, and Principal Dyer in 1882.57 Even before the 11 above-mentioned graduates began returning to Japan in 1883, Japanese had joined faculty members at ICE. The first eight Japanese took their posts in 1877 as assistants to professors: Koide Hidemasa, Mori Jinpei and Nakashima Katsumasa in chemistry; Sugi Shigetoshi (Ko-ichiro-) and Hanawa Yasutoshi in drawing; Takahara Ko-zo- in architecture; Ogawa Shigen in surveying; and Arao Kunio in natural philosophy.58 Of these, Sugi, who had studied drawing at the University of Edinburgh, was promoted to instructor in 1878 and professor in 1881.59 Of the graduates of ICE, nine became assistant professors in 1882: Nakamura Teikichi, a first-year graduate who had stayed in Japan; two second-year graduates; and six third-year graduates. In 1883, nine other Japanese joined the faculty, including Takayama Naomoto, a first-year graduate from the Mechanical Engineering Branch who had returned from Britain as an assistant professor; and Sone Tatsuzo-, a first-year graduate from the Architecture Branch, who stayed in Japan as an instructor.60 By this time, the original purpose of establishing ICE (which was to train Japanese to replace the foreigners) was being completed in terms of recruiting teachers. Around this time, the goal of training ‘industrial officers’ (the purpose during the initial phase of launching the college) was completed. This can be inferred from measures that exempted government-sponsored students from serving in the Ministry of Public Works for seven years after graduating. According to the rules when the college was inaugurated, the employment of governmentsponsored students was limited to the Ministry of Public Works.61 After 1876, students were permitted to enrol at their own expense. 57 58

59

60 61

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 353–356. Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Calendar. Session MDCCCLXXVII– LXXVIII, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877, p. 8. Calendar, 1878 and 1881. Sugi Ko-ichiro- (dates of birth and death unknown) was from Edo. He went to Britain as a member of the Iwakura Mission and stayed in Edinburgh. Calendar, 1882 and 1883. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 199.

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In 1879, the ICE chose to allow only privately funded students to enrol (except for a few excellent students each year).62 In May 1882, the Ministry of Public Works exempted government-sponsored students at ICE from service, enabling them to find jobs in the private sector; those graduates who could not immediately find employment in the private sector, but had enough skills to work as engineers in the future, would be paid two-thirds (or one-third) of their monthly salary as ‘on-leave engineers’.63 This series of measures seemed to reduce the Ministry’s spending. At the same time, the supply of human resources to the government became excessive as graduates from ICE and the University of To-kyo- had steadily increased, and students who had gone abroad gradually returned home. The University of To-kyo- had produced a stable number of engineers each year, although not as many as ICE (see Table 2).The excess of trained engineers is evident, for example, in the railway field, as economic historian, Nakamura Naofumi, points out. Even before a sufficient number of students at ICE finished the course, those who had studied abroad occupied leadership positions and together with-graduates from Ko-gisei Yosei-jo, a school for railway engineers in Osaka, had already replaced hired foreigners.64 Table 2: Annual number of engineers who graduated from ICE and the University of To- kyo- , 1878–1885 Year

ICE

University of To- kyo-

1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885

23 40 38 35 35 22 18

3 8 7 9 9 11 6 5

Total

211

58

Source: To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku sotsugyo--sei shimei-roku (List of graduates of To-kyo- Imperial University), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku, 1926. The University of To-kyo- offered courses in applied chemistry, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and mining and metallurgy. 62 63

64

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, pp. 104 and 133. Ko-bu-sho- enkaku ho-koku, p. 806. The career paths of the college’s graduates are mentioned in Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke’. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Tetsudo- gijutsu-sha shu-dan no keisei to Ko-bu-daigakko-’ (Formation of a group of railway engineers and the Imperial College of Engineering), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai, p. 103.

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In this way, ten years after ICE was launched, the government met the demand for teachers and engineers to replace foreigners, and the positive reason for maintaining the school disappeared. In other words, it was no longer necessary to cultivate a large number of engineers at that time. Hence, the reason for training and hiring Japanese teachers for ICE was to maintain the college. It seems to be natural to intend to keep the college open, because an institution would usually not be operated on the premise of closing it unless it had a fixed deadline for being shut down. At that time, for Japanese to teach at higher education institutions, they generally had to study abroad; this was not based on graduating from the college. Although the desire for training Japanese teachers and engineers was due to pride in not relying on foreigners, lowering costs played a role as well. The proposal ‘On sending students of the Imperial College of Engineering to study abroad’ underscores the significance of replacing hired foreigners with graduates of ICE, and states that ‘if the employment of foreigners can be completely abolished and Japanese people can be engaged in industry, the amount of industrial expenses can be significantly reduced’.65 Regarding labour costs, for example, Sugi Ko-ichiro-, who was appointed as the first Japanese professor in 1881 and was in charge of the subject of drawing, was paid 60 yen per month.66 It may not be appropriate to compare his salary with that of Dyer’s 660 yen, or Divers’ 550 yen per month, but Edmund Mondy, who worked as a teacher of drawing, was paid 208 yen. William Barr, also a teacher of drawing, was paid 234 yen a month.67 By replacing them with Japanese citizens, labour costs were greatly reduced. From the beginning, the Ministry of Public Works did not intend to maintain its own school with a policy of focusing on practical education. Since ICE nearly achieved its goal of not relying on foreigners, the government could choose to diminish its scale or close it, or to set another new purpose and continue its education in a developmental manner. As a result, its transfer to the College of Engineering at Imperial University did not undermine its original purpose. 65 66

67

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 135. Hikone Sho-zo- (ed.), Kan’inroku: kaisei: Meiji 14. 10 (List of government officers: Revised: October 1881), To-kyo-: Hakko- Shoin, 1884, p. 155. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, p. 354.

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4.2 The financial aspect of the transition

Scholars have discussed Imperial University’s opening in 1886 in various ways, but the reasons for, and process of, closing ICE and transferring it to Imperial University remain unclear due to limited historical materials. According to the University of To-kyo-’s official history, even before the Imperial University was inaugurated in 1886, the Meiji government launched a movement to reduce costs in 1880 by integrating several schools of the same type, rather than keeping them open. However, the Ministry of Education was reluctant to place these schools under its jurisdiction because its budget did not increase enough to deal with them, so this proposal was not realized at this point.68 Subsequently, the Ho--gakko- (Law School) of the Ministry of Justice was transferred to the Ministry of Education in December 1884, and To-kyo- Sho-gyo--gakko- (the To-kyo- School of Commerce) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was also transferred to the Ministry of Education in May 1885, so the unification of education progressed.69 In December 1885, the Ministry of Public Works was closed down, and ICE was transferred to the Ministry of Education. Then, the Imperial University Ordinance was promulgated on 1 March 1886, and ICE and the Faculty of Engineering and Design at the University of To-kyo- (separated from the Faculty of Science in September of 1885) were merged during the transfer to the College of Engineering of the Imperial University. According to the official history, ICE was shut down and Imperial University was opened because there was a ‘request for unification of higher education institutions established by each ministry from the aspect of financial rationality’ and there was ‘substantial reorganization due to the annexation of the Imperial College of Engineering to the University of To-kyo-’. The total number of teachers and staff was 431 at the University of To-kyo- and ICE; it declined to 228 at Imperial University because 203 staff (47%) were laid off.70 Hence, an administrative step was 68

69

70

To-kyo--daigaku hyakunen-shi hensan iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunenshi,Tsu-shi 1 (The centennial history of the University of To-kyo-, vol. 1, Complete History), To-kyo-: To-kyo--Daigaku Shuppankai, 1984, p. 697. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, tsu-shi 1, p. 699. After the jurisdiction of the Ho--gakko- (Law School) was transferred to the Ministry of Education, the school became To-kyo- Ho--gakko-, and was integrated into the Department of Law at the University of To-kyo- in September 1887. To-kyo- Sho-gyo--gakko- was the predecessor to the present Hitotsubashi University. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, Tsu-shi 1, p. 805.

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taken to streamline the financial system by integrating the various schools run by individual ministries under one roof, while the launching of Imperial University was based on the idea of a university that ‘meets the needs of the nation’, as shown in Article 1 of the Imperial University Ordinance.

5. CONCLUSION: THE FEATURES OF ICE

This chapter has so far focused on the closure of the Imperial College of Engineering and examined its significance in the education system of Meiji Japan. In conclusion, we will re-evaluate the end of ICE and its transition to the Imperial University, based on the facets of the history of technical education in Japan. Previous studies have recognized practical education as ICE’s greatest feature; this view led to a negative evaluation of its closure and transition to Imperial University. However, the practical education taught at ICE was brought about by chance when the Ministry of Public Works introduced the British style in the wake of the government’s political bargaining; the Ministry of Public Works did not request (and was not interested in) it. Underlying the college’s inauguration was the introduction of a higher education system in Japan, with ignorance of the connection between primary and secondary education and intermediate technical education. Since ICE was positioned as an institution for choosing candidates based on the assumption that excellent students would study abroad after graduation and deepen their academic studies, the college’s basic character was that it prioritized absorbing Western ideas anyway, rather than being a school that stressed practical education. Regarding the supply of human resources, in the years around 1882, the demand for engineers and teachers to replace hired foreigners in the government, which was the original purpose of founding the college, had been met for the time being. Afterward, the Ministry of Public Works lost the positive purpose of keeping the college open. ICE’s transfer to the Imperial University was nothing more than an administrative measure after ICE accomplished its original aim. Although the jurisdictions of ICE and the College of Engineering at Imperial University differed (e.g. the Ministries of Public Works and Education), the policy of providing a form of higher education under the Meiji government that was comparable to that of the West was consistent. Hence, ICE’s transfer to the Ministry of

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Education and the merger with the University of To-kyo- (i e. the closure of the Ministry of Public Works) was a reasonable step for the Meiji government to take for financial reasons. In the future, it will be necessary to discuss the significance of practical education in technical schools in Japan and overseas. In particular, when emphasizing the importance of practical education, we should start by assessing schools that train intermediatelevel engineers in which practical training was taken for granted.

REFERENCES Amano Ikuo, Daigaku no tanjo-, jo- (Birth of universities, vol. 1), To-kyo-: Chu-o- Ko-ron Shinsha, 2009. Furukawa Sakajiro-, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gaku ni okeru undo- sonota’ (Exercises and so on at the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kyu- Ko-bu-daigakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Historical materials on the old Imperial College of Engineering, Supplement), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, pp. 136–140. Henry Dyer, Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. General Report by the Principal for the Period 1873–77, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877. Hikone Sho-zo- (ed.), Kan’inroku: kaisei: Meiji 14. 10 (List of government officers: Revised: October 1881), To-kyo-: Hakko- Shoin, 1884. Hosoya Toshio, Gijutsu kyo-iku-ron (Technical education), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1978. Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Class Reports by the Professors for the Period 1873–77, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877. Imperial College of Engineering, Tokei. Calendar. Session MDCCCLXXVII– LXXVIII, Tokei, Printed at the College, 1877. Ishibashi Ayahiko, ‘Kaikoroku, sono 2’ (Memoirs), in Kyu- Ko-bu-daigakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-, furoku (Supplement), pp. 207–257. Kakihara Yasushi, ‘Ko-busho- no gijutsu-sha yo-sei’ (Training of engineers in the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 57–82. Kakihara Yasushi, ‘O-yatoi gaikokujin to Igirisu teikoku no enjinia’ (‘Hired foreigners’ and engineers of the British Empire), in To-kyo-daigaku-shi kiyo-, no. 18, 2000, pp. 33–44. Kita Masami, Sukottorando to kindai Nihon (Scotland and modern Japan), To-kyo-: Maruzen Planet, 2001. Kinmonth, Earl H., The Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. Ko-gakkai (ed.), Meiji ko-gyo-shi, Doboku hen (Meiji industrial history, civil engineering), To-kyo-: Ko-gakkai Meiji Ko-gyo--shi Hakko-jo, 1929.

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Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-jo (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, 9, Sangyo- kyo-iku, 1 (100-year history of modern education in Japan, vol. 9, Industrial education), To-kyo-: Bunsho-do-, Ko-gyo--gakko- (Industrial Schools), in Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 70 (1887), pp. 816–817. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo(Historical materials on the former Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsushi no kenkyu- (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Daiaa no Nihon (Dyer’s Japan), To-kyo-: Fukumura Shuppan, 1989. Matsumoto Miwao, ‘Gijutsu iten to kagaku-gijutsu kyo-iku’, in Ito Shuntaro- and Murakami Yo-ichiro- (eds), Ko-za kagaku-shi, 2, Shakai kara yomu kagaku-shi (A course: History of science, 2, History of science read from society), To-kyo-: Baifu-kan, 1989, pp. 127–163. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Nihon gijutsu-sha no ‘genba shugi’ ni tsuite’ (The origins of the genba [job site]-oriented mind of modern Japanese engineers), in Yokohama keiei kenkyu-, vol. 8, no. 4, 1988, pp. 29–40. Nagai Michio, Nihon no daigaku (Universities in Japan), To-kyo-: Chu-oKo-ronsha, 1965. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Tetsudo- gijutsu-sha shu-dan no keisei to Ko-bu-daigakko-’ (Formation of a group of railway engineers and the Imperial College of Engineering), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-bu-sho- to sono jidai, p. 103. Nakano Minoru, ‘Teikoku-daigaku bunka daigaku no jikkyo- no ippan: kaisetsu’ (One part of the actual situation of colleges at the Imperial University: Commentary), in To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (University of To-kyo- Annual Report), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994, pp. 513–525. Nakaoka Tetsuro-, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei (Formation of modern technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006. Nakayama Shigeru, Teikoku Daigaku no tanjo- (The birth of the Imperial University), To-kyo-: Chu-o- Ko-ronsha, 1978. Nishikawa Makoto, ‘Sasaki Takayuki to Ko-busho-’ (Sasaki Takayuki and the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 229–260. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei (History of science and technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Daiichi Ho-ki Shuppan, 1964. Oyodo Sho-ichi, Kindai Nihon no ko-gyo- rikkoku-ka to kokumin keisei (Industrialisation of modern Japan and the formation of the nation), Kawagoe: Suzusawa Shoten, 2009.

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Okura-sho- (ed.), Ko-busho- -enkaku ho-koku (Ministry of Public Works history report), To-kyo-: Okurasho-, 1889. Sakamoto Kenzo-, Sentan gijutsu no yukue (The whereabouts of advanced technology), To-kyo-: Iwanami Shoten, 1987. Suzuki Jun, ‘Ko-busho- no 15-nen’ (15 years of the Ministry of Public Works), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002, pp. 3–22. Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono jidai (The Ministry of Public Works and its era), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan, 2002. Tachi Akira, ‘Nihon ni okeru ko-to- gijutsu kyo-iku no keisei: Ko-bu-daigakko- no seiritsu to tenkai’ (The formation of higher technology education in Japan), in Kyo-iku-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 43, no. 1, 1976, pp. 13–23. To-kyo--daigaku hyakunen-shi hensan iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, Tsu-shi 1 (100-year history of the University of To-kyo-, vol. 1, Complete history), To-kyo-: To-kyo--Daigaku Shuppankai, 1984. Tomita Hitoshi and Nishibori Akira, Yokosuka-seitetsu-jo no hitobito (People at Yokosuka Naval Shipyard), Yokohama: Yu-rindo-, 1989. Toyohara Jiro-, ‘Ko-busho- to o-yatoi gaikokujin ni tsuite’ (The Ministry of Public Works and ‘Hired Foreigners’), in (Journal of University of Hyo-go) Sho-dai ronshu-, no. 60, 1964, pp. 35–56. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (Ko-gaku-ryo-) ni okeru rigaku shirabasu no hensen’ (The transitions of the natural philosophy syllabus in the Imperial College of Engineering), in Ryu-tsu--kagaku Daigaku ronshu-. Keizai, jo-ho-, seisaku-hen, vol. 23, no. 1, 2014, pp. 19–43. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no keireki to to-kei kansatsu’ (Engineers’ careers and their statistical observations in early modern Japan), in Shakai kagaku, vol. 44, no. 4, 2015, pp. 1–48. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- doboku-ka no jitchi kyo-iku’ (Civil engineering education at the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 53, no. 269, 2014, pp. 49–66. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- no shu-en to Teikoku Daigaku e no ikowo meguru hyo-ka’ (Closure of the Imperial College of Engineering and Formation of the Imperial University), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 57, no. 287, 2018, pp. 186–200. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gakuryo- ko-so- to sono jisshi’ (The role of the Ministry of Public Works in Meiji Japan in designing engineering education: Reconsidering the foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke’ (Chemistry and practical education at the Imperial College of Engineering in To-kyo-, 1873–1886), in Kagakushi kenkyu-

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(The Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry), vol. 39, no. 2, 2012, pp. 55–78. Watanabe Minoru, Kindai Nihon kaigai ryu-gakusei-shi, jo- (A history of modern Japanese students studying abroad, vol 1), To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 1977. Yoshida Mitsukuni, Gijutsu to Nihon kindaika: zusetsu (Technology and modernization in Japan: Illustrated), To-kyo-: Nihon Ho-so- Shuppan Kyo-kai, 1977.

Accessing Technical Education in Modern Japan –

VOLUME II

Edited by

Erich Pauer CEEJA

& Regine Mathias CEEJA

8

Kikuchi Kyo-zo- and the Implementation of Cotton-spinning Technology: The Career of a Graduate of the Imperial College of Engineering Janet HUNTER

–

If we are to develop our trade with Japan it will be necessary for us to regard the country more in the light of a civilised European State than we have hitherto been accustomed to do, and to study its requirements accordingly, rather than confound them with those of the general category of less advanced markets beyond the seas. ‘The Cotton Industry of Japan’, Manchester Guardian 27 May, 1887. 1. INTRODUCTION

THE

ENGINEER

K IKUCHI Kyo- zo- was born in what is now

Yawatahama, Ehime prefecture, on Shikoku island in 1859, and started his studies at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) at To- kyo- in 1879. After studying on the general course for two years, he opted to specialize in mechanical engineering (kikaika). He graduated in the spring of 1885 with a top-class degree, and made his career in the cotton spinning industry, working with a succession of leading textile companies until his resignation from the board of Dai-Nihon Spinning in 1940. He died two 189

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years later. Kikuchi was, par excellence, a trained engineer who also became a leading figure in the business world, using his technical expertise as a springboard for wider business involvement. The focus of this chapter is on Kikuchi’s role as one of the architects of the development of one of Japan’s most important industries in the pre-World War II period.1 It considers how he acquired his technical knowledge, how he developed that knowledge further, often through trial and error, and how he diffused it to a network of enterprises that included several of Japan’s largest businesses.2 Much has already been written on the process of technology transfer and the acquisition of technological expertise in Japan’s industrial growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including by a number of the authors in this volume. It has been powerfully argued that the import and dissemination of new technologies was well supported by social capability, business and information networks, human capital resources and the role of the Japanese state.3 One of the doyens of the history of technology in Japan, Nakaoka Tetsuro-, has argued that latecomer countries such as Japan can only benefit from the advantages of backwardness by engaging in the production of standardized products, while trial and error was of crucial importance in technology transfer in the engineering field. Nakaoka suggests that key factors in Japan’s trajectory included learning by making or copying, a system of designated manufacturers, and a collaborative development of standard models, but also that ‘a rapid substitution of foreign 1

2

3

Most accounts of the cotton industry identify a triumvirate of engineer-managers as spearheading development: Yamanobe (Yamabe) Takeo, Saito- Tsunezo-, and Kikuchi. See e.g. Abe Takeshi, Kindai O saka keizai-shi (Economic history of Osaka), Osaka: Osaka Daigaku Shuppankai, 2006, pp.128–36. Some of the comments in this chapter are based on the author’s previous work on Kikuchi. See ‘British training for Japanese Engineers: The case of Kikuchi Kyo-zo- (1859–1942)’, in Hugh Cortazzi and Gordon Daniels (eds), Britain and Japan, 1859–1991: Themes and Personalities, London and New York: Routledge, 1991, as well as ‘Reviving the Kansai Cotton Industry: Engineering Expertise and Knowledge in the Early Meiji Period’, in Japan Forum no. 26, 1 March 2014. For example Erich Pauer, Technologietransfer Deutschland–Japan von 1850 bis zur Gegenwart, Munich: Iudicium Verlag, 1992; Tessa Morris-Suzuki, The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the 17th to the 21st Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Ian Inkster and Satofuka Fumihiko (eds), Culture and Technology in Modern Japan, London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2000; Ian Inkster, Japanese Industrial Economy: Late Development and Cultural Causation, Routledge: London and New York, 2001; David G. Wittner, Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan, London: Routledge, 2009.

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supervisors with local engineers was favourable to the learning effect’.4 Tom Nicholas has highlighted the concept of knowledgesharing in his analysis of patents in late nineteenth-century Japan. He emphasizes in particular the importance of prize competitions for knowledge diffusion and learning, arguing that these boosted patent outcomes, especially in less-developed regions. ‘At the competitions,’ he states, ‘inventors coalesced under an established set of norms for the exchange of information, which facilitated the diffusion of technological knowledge in an institutional environment where patents were also available’.5 Japan’s technological development thus benefited in particular from discussions of innovation and invention, while ‘these gatherings facilitated knowledge spill overs at a time when communications technologies were still quite rudimentary’.6 The importance of Japan’s textile industry in the country’s development has underlined its significance in many of these discussions. The manufacture of silk played a major role throughout the Meiji period, undergoing a process of mechanization and factory production, and raw silk became Japan’s largest export by value. The concern of this chapter, however, is with the cotton industry. Factory-based cotton production started around the time of the Meiji Restoration, but became economically viable only in the 1880s, and it was not until the interwar years that Japan achieved a dominant position in the global cotton market. Cotton production was, of course, not new to Japan in the Meiji period, and so we are not talking exclusively about a process of international technology transfer. Mechanized cotton production may have introduced new foreign technologies, but, as Japanese scholars have shown, these operations were also characterized by a two-way interaction between the development of modern cotton spinning and the evolution of traditional cloth production at the local level. Nakamura Naofumi, for example, has shown how local kasuri (ikat) producers in Kurume (Fukuoka) supported the introduction of mechanized cotton-spinning factories whose output eventually had to be sold outside the region to achieve economies of scale, while at the same time kasuri producers learned from 4

5

6

Nakaoka Tetsuro-, ‘On technological leaps of Japan as a developing country, 1900–1940’, O saka City University Economic Review 22, 1987. Quotation from p. 10. Tom Nicholas, ‘The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization’, in Explorations in Economic History 48, 2011, pp. 271–291, here p. 273. Nicholas, ‘The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization’, p. 285.

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the new mills to modernize their technology and organization.7 Eugene K. Choi has looked at the interaction between the traditional and new technologies through analysis of the garabo- (‘rattling spindle’) technology, and has made a powerful case for the fact that it was the ‘strategic and sustainable management of borrowed technologies’, and not just the technologies per se, that was a key fact in Japan’s global success in cotton spinning.8 Nevertheless, much of the story of the cotton industry has focused on the process of technology transfer, and the ways in which Japan acquired a set of technologies that came from outside and successfully tackled the problems of embedding them in the Japanese environment. The broader emphasis on knowledge sharing and standardized technologies mentioned above is manifest in the history of cotton production. It is clear that knowledge exchange co-existed with competition, and that there existed a crucial set of institutions that served to bring engineers together and supported collaborative actions and choices in relation to technology.9 The author has argued in an earlier paper that it was the above process that allowed useful and reliable knowledge ‘to mobilise the existing resources of Kansai, setting the industry on the path to commercial success’.10 As Braguinsky and Hounshell have pointed out, however, diffusion of the best technology was not always an easy process, and we should not think in terms of the “slavish imitation” of Western technology.11 As we shall see, the career of Kikuchi Kyo-zoresonates with a number of these broader factors. 7

8

9

10 11

Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Reconsidering the Japanese Industrial Revolution: Local Entrepreneurs in the Cotton Textile Industry during the Meiji Era’, in Social Science Japan Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, Dec. 2014, pp. 23–44. Eugene K. Choi, ‘Another Spinning Innovation: The Case of the Rattling Spindle, Garabo-, in the Development of the Japanese Spinning Industry’, in Australian Economic History Review, vol. 51, no. 1, March 2011, pp. 22–45; Choi, ‘The Genesis of Modern Management of Technology: The Case of the Meiji Cotton Spinning Sector in Globalization, 1880s–1890s’, in Umemura Maki and Fujioka Rika (eds), Comparative Responses to Globalization: British and Japanese Enterprises, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 99–100. Minami Ryo-shin and Kiyokawa Yukihiko (eds), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten (Japanese industrialization and technical development), To-kyo-: To-yo- Keizai Shinpo-sha, 1987, pp. 14–18, here p. 101. Hunter, ‘Reviving the Kansai Cotton Industry’, p. 67. Serguey Braguinsky and David A. Hounshell, ‘Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now’, in Columbia Business School Center on Japanese Economy and Business Working Paper 336, Feb. 2014, available at https://doi.org/10.7916/D8319SXB (accessed 22/09/2020).

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Fig. 1: Kikuchi Kyo-zo- in his younger years. Source: Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai (ed.), Nichibo- 75nen-shi (75-year history of Nichibo-), Osaka, 1966.

- ZO 2. THE CAREER OF KIKUCHI KYO

Kikuchi started his studies at the ICE in 1879 (Fig. 1) and was joined there by his younger brother the following year. He chose to specialize in mechanical engineering at the end of his second year, with a particular emphasis on shipping engineering (his brother focused on shipbuilding). His final years of study were supervised by the Irish engineer, Charles Dickinson West, who had succeeded Henry Dyer as Professor of Mechanical Engineering and also specialized in naval architecture. Only three students graduated in mechanical engineering in Kikuchi’s year, so it seems likely that West was a considerable influence on him. Kikuchi’s graduation thesis, submitted in 1885, was on the design of marine engines, and he achieved the highest class of degree (ko-gaku-shi), one of only four students out of the total graduate cohort of 18 in that year to achieve this distinction. His graduation certificate was signed by the College principal, now Edward Divers, following the departure of Henry Dyer in 1882.12 12

Nitta Naozo- (ed.), Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den (Biography of Kikuchi Kyo-zo-), Osaka: Kikuchi Kyo-zo- denki hensan jimusho, 1948, pp. 44–45; Kyu- ko-bu-dai-gakko-

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There have been a number of studies of the history of the ICE, so here we limit ourselves to a few observations that are particularly relevant to the focus on Kikuchi Kyo-zo-. One factor was the significance for Kikuchi as well as for other ICE students of having a sixyear course in which the first two years provided a general science education, with students subsequently specializing in one particular branch of science or technology.13 This preliminary period of study, which those devising the curriculum recognized might even need to be extended to allow for Japan’s existing level “of national scientific study”, ensured that students were well prepared to engage in more advanced study. Just as important for many, perhaps, was the emphasis on applied work, especially in the final two years of study. Dyer had promoted the Akabane Machine Works to allow students hands-on experience of machinery construction and operation, and strongly emphasized the fusion of theory and practice: Engineering consists in the adaptation of the forces of nature to the wants of society, and the men who practise it should be neither pedants however profound, nor ignorant mechanics however dextrous.14

This was something that Kikuchi built on in his subsequent career, gaining for himself a reputation as a very ‘hands-on’ engineer, with confidence in his personal ability to tackle any technological problem that might arise.15 Subsequent ICE students were, in Henry Dyer’s view, much less fortunate in this respect. Writing much later, Dyer lamented the decline since the mid-1880s in the extent of practical instruction received by Japanese engineering students.16

13

14

15 16

shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- (Historical materials on the former Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, p. 395. The main source in English on Henry Dyer is Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Henry Dyer: Pioneer of Engineering Education in Japan, Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2004. For an account of the Imperial College of Engineering in English see Olive Checkland, Britain’s Encounter with Meiji Japan, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1989, ch. 5. Details of the course and curricula are in Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo-. Dyer’s 1879 graduation speech, quoted in D. Allsobrook and G. Mitchell, ‘Henry Dyer: Engineer and Education Innovator’, in Paedagogica Historica, vol. XXXIII, no. 2, 1997, p. 445. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 87–88. Henry Dyer, Dai Nippon: the Britain of the East, London: Blackie, 1904, p. 90.

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The emerging textile industry was to be a key area of employment for a number of ICE graduates. One survey of 84 ICE graduates in the late 1890s indicated that 19, nearly a quarter of the group, were employed in the textile industry, second only to the proportion employed in the railway industry.17 Along with Kikuchi, a key member of this group was Kikuchi’s senpai (lit. ‘older colleague’) Saito- Tsunezo- , who had graduated from the ICE in 1882, and became engineer and managing director of the Mie Spinning Mill, retaining his position as - managing director after the mill merged with the pathbreaking Osaka Spinning Mill in 1914. Interestingly, shortly after his own graduation in 1885, Kikuchi succeeded Saito- in one of his first jobs, at the Mint in Osaka. Approached soon after by the newly established Hirano Spinning Company to serve as its chief engineer, Kikuchi accepted the invitation, but made it a condition of his employment that the company support him in acquiring the necessary technical knowhow. Arguing that the required specialist expertise could only be acquired outside Japan, Kikuchi received a promise from Hirano that the company would provide him with the finance to cover a fact-finding trip to Europe. Leaving Ko-be on 14 October 1887, Kikuchi travelled to Western Europe with two basic purposes in mind. One was to develop his own understanding of cotton spinning technology. The other was to arrange the purchase of equipment for the new spinning mill. Unsurprisingly, it was to Lancashire, the acknowledged centre of British cotton production, that Kikuchi headed in January 1888 to meet both of these objectives. He was to stay there until the end of August. This eight-month period was in many respects the second educational foundation stone of his subsequent career, a spell of painstaking and unremitting study.18 Kikuchi arrived in Lancashire at a time when local cotton manufacturers’ global dominance could no longer be taken for granted. There were growing doubts at this time about England’s ability to maintain the quality of its production and to sustain its international position, and the increasing concerns about the international position of English cotton yarn and cloth were highlighted in a report from To-kyo- in 1887 compiled by British Vice-Consul

17

18

Stafford Ransome, ‘The Training of Engineers in Japan’, in The Engineer 27 Nov. and 3 Dec. 1897. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 84–5.

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Joseph Longford.19 The contents of Longford’s report were widely reported in the press in Britain and elsewhere. One article in the Times of India in June 1887, for example, highlighted the very poor quality of the English cotton piece goods now available in Japan: The English shirtings now sent to Japan are loaded with size, they tear rapidly, they will not stand a single washing, when dyed their colours run together and soon entirely fade, and after being worn a short time as linings – almost the sole ‘base use’ they are put to in Japan – they are even found to be worthless for household purpose when torn up into dusters, washing cloths, wrappers, etc.20

Such complaints were a frequent theme in this and many other publications in the mid-late 1880s; there was a widespread view that Lancashire producers were sacrificing quality to cheapness and showy appearance, and it was blatantly apparent even to the lowest income consumers that British companies were providing ‘showy but inferior cotton cloths’.21 Many of the complaints related to cloth rather than yarn, but the prospect of Lancashire losing out to foreign competitors was beginning to be a serious proposition. Observers of Japan were already suggesting at this time that Japan might eventually be able to compete with Britain for cotton yarn markets.The Manchester Guardian, the daily newspaper based in Lancashire, was by 1887 noticing that Japan was increasingly importing cotton yarn from India rather than England, and suggesting that the “nice manipulative skill” of Japanese workers meant that Japan could become an internationally viable competitor.22 The Guardian’s counterpart in India, notwithstanding the benefits to India from increased exports to Japan, also predicted Japanese competition: If the selling price above stated is correct, it would seem that the yarn most desired by the Japanese can be produced by the aid of foreign machinery more cheaply than it can be imported from England – a fact which, combined with the increased development

19

20

21 22

‘Cotton Trade and Manufactures of Japan’, sent to London with accompanying samples on 19 February 1887, and included in the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers under Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series 49, 1887. Editorial in Times of India, 9 June 1887. Shirting was plain or striped fine cotton cloth used for making men’s shirts. Editorial in Times of India, 17 May 1888. ‘The Cotton Industry of Japan’, Manchester Guardian, 27 May 1887.

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of factories of this description in Japan, affords but an unpromising outlook for the English trade in this staple.23

It was, of course, the production of yarn, the spinning process, on which Kikuchi initially wished to focus, and despite the growing doubts about Lancashire’s global competitiveness it remained the obvious place where he could acquire the desired knowledge. For formal training he looked to the Manchester Technical School.The School had been established in 1883 as a reformulation of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution, which had been founded in 1824 ‘for the purpose of enabling mechanics and artisans, of whatever trade they may be, to become acquainted with such branches [of science and technology] as are of practical application in the exercise of their trade’. According to the original rules of the institution:

Fig. 2: The Technical School in Manchester that Kikuchi attended in 1887/88. See https:// www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/science-engineering/wp-content/uploads/ sites/59/2020/01/UMIST-scaled-e1579777178383.jpg (accessed 05/02/2020). According to the Manchester University Archive, the original photo is in the Engineering Faculty archive there. 23

‘The Cotton Industry in Japan: Native Method of Cultivation’, Times of India, 9 June 1887.

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It is not intended to teach the trade of the Machine-Maker, the Dyer, the Carpenter, the Mason, or any other particular business, but there is no Art which does not depend, more or less, on scientific principles, and to teach what these are, and to point out their practical application, will form the chief objects of this institution.24

The Mechanics’ Institution and the Manchester Technical School had strong reputations, but even so the system of technical education in the Manchester area was by the 1880s increasingly regarded as inadequate for the changing needs of industry. Around the time of Kikuchi’s arrival moves were underway to try and institute ‘a highly efficient system of technical instruction in Manchester and the district’, and a new association was formed to enhance cooperation among interested parties in pursuit of this objective.25 Among those involved was the secretary of the Manchester Technical School. The elected president of the new association was a man called Oliver Heywood, who had also been involved with the Technical School.26 Heywood argued persuasively that the School was inadequately financed to function as it wished and as need demanded. He also made clear that the stated function of the School was not to teach students the technical skills that they needed for their jobs; the assumption was still that cotton spinning operatives and technicians should learn their skills on the job. The objectives of the Manchester Technical School, in an era in which even minimal formal schooling had only recently become compulsory, were rather broader: They were not teaching trades nor aiming at teaching them, but he believed they were supplying a very large number of men with the sort of teaching which enabled them better to grasp the work that they were doing.27

Such a broader objective was in many respects less necessary for someone such as Kikuchi, who had already completed many years of education and possessed a broad and in-depth technical knowledge, although his expertise in the specifics of cotton technology remained somewhat limited. He therefore turned elsewhere for his 24

25 26

27

Archive of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution, Archival Collection https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/57f82bf5-4ce7-3c57-b463d73a354596a7, accessed 16/09/2020. The Technical School would eventually evolve into the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. ‘Technical Education in Manchester’, Manchester Guardian, 14 December 1887. Heywood’s father, Benjamin, had been president of the Manchester Mechanics Institution in its early days. ‘Technical Education in Manchester’, Manchester Guardian 14 December 1887.

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industry-specific learning, with Platt Brothers, the leading machinery firm with which he was negotiating the machinery purchase, introducing him to a Mr Wood, who had a spinning factory in Middleton, around six miles northeast of Manchester. Kikuchi’s biography does not say much further about this factory, but it seems likely that the Mr Wood mentioned was Thomas Broadbent Wood of Park Mill, which was located in Suffield Street in Middleton (Fig. 3). Wood served at some point as an Alderman, so was clearly an important figure in the local community. In 1890, two years after Kikuchi’s visit, Thomas Wood Broadbent and Son was recorded as having 18,000 spindles, so it was not a particularly large spinning mill by English standards.28 Just for comparison, by the late 1890s Kikuchi’s own Hirano Mill had well over 20,000 spindles.

Fig. 3: Female mill workers at Thomas Broadbent Wood’s Park Mill at Middleton, where it is likely that Kikuchi turned for his industry-specific learning during his stay in Britain 1887/1888. An undated photo, although the workers’ dress suggests that it is taken in late nineteenth century; see https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ incoming/gallery/mill-owner-kept-lifesaving-labours-707350. 28

Information from Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, accessed 12/09/2019 at https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page. Kikuchi’s assignment to T.B. Wood’s mill is confirmed by Abe Takeshi in his 2006 paper ‘Technological and Organizational Absorption in the Development of the Modern Japanese Cotton Industry’, pp. 10–12, available at https://www.lse.ac.uk/EconomicHistory/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf5/ AbetextGEHN5.pdf (accessed 23/09/2020).

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We have very little information on how exactly Kikuchi spent his time at the Technical School or in Wood’s mill. His biography merely states that every hour of the day was spent on enhancing his knowledge, and his commitment to mastering in barely eight months a stock of engineering and other knowledge that normally took years strengthened his position as a practical engineer, closely involved with production line issues, following his return to Japan. We do know, however, that he would slip the factory workers a few pennies in return for being shown exactly what they were doing in their tasks. We also know that Kikuchi acquired texts on cotton spinning technology, at least one of which he brought back to Japan. This was a book by Richard Marsden, entitled Cotton Spinning: Its Development, Principles, and Practice, first published in 1884. Marsden was a leading authority on textile production, who founded his own publishing company in 1889.The company subsequently published journals such as The Textile Mercury, The Cotton Year Book and The Wool Year Book. Marsden’s book offered an exhaustive overview, with illustrations, of every stage of cotton industry production, starting with an analysis of the growing of cotton, and raw cotton as a product, then going on to the organization and structure of a cotton mill and the different stages of the production process, offering detailed diagrams of different kinds of machinery. As might be expected, the discussion was focused on the technologies of Europe and North America, and mentions of Japan were brief in the extreme. Marsden did observe that Japanese-grown cotton was ‘inferior’.29 He also took the view that women did not have the necessary strength to operate the mule machinery that was widespread in Britain, so that the US had developed the alternative technology of ring spinning to cope with its lack of male labour. This foreshadowed the widespread adoption of female-operated ring spindle machinery in Japan. At one point in the book’s introduction, however, Marsden made one statement that would prove prescient: China and Japan have recently made tentative efforts in the direction of introducing this industry amongst their peoples, but as yet 29

Richard Marsden, Cotton Spinning: Its Development, Principles and Practice, London: George Bell & Sons, 1903, p. 32. The ‘inferiority’ referred to the short staple length of Japanese cotton in relation to e.g., US or Indian cotton, which will be discussed later in this chapter. Marsden’s book went through several reprintings following its first appearance in 1884, but the content remained the same.

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not much success has attended these efforts. It will not be a matter of surprise should the latter country, however, achieve a considerable degree of success, and that at no distant date. The strenuous efforts its government has put forth during the last ten or twelve years to make its people familiar with the manufacturing arts of the West, is a phenomenon of which the latter should not fail to take note, as it may lead to important consequences which will seriously affect the hold that Western nations now have upon Asian markets.30

Marsden’s statement was to show signs of becoming reality in less than two decades. It was the technical content of the book, however, that was of most interest to Japanese engineers such as Kikuchi. Following his return from Britain in 1888 the text was made widely available to his junior colleagues, and became part of their learning process. Given the lack of scientific knowledge and the dependence on trial and error, the availability of this text was a key step in the path towards more systematic scientific research and understanding.31 By the autumn of 1888 Kikuchi felt that he had achieved his objectives in Britain. He had acquired a working knowledge of spinning technology, and had in addition negotiated through Mitsui Bussan the purchase of textile machinery for the Hirano Mill from Platt Brothers of Oldham. He returned to Japan, travelling via the United States, and arriving in New York on 19 September. His sightseeing took in Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Chicago and Salt Lake City before he arrived in San Francisco on 4 October.32 His visit to Chicago was reported in the American press: - saka and K. Aba of To-kyo-, Japan, are in the city. K. Kikuchi of O They have been to England to purchase machinery for cotton and woollen mills to be erected in their respective cities. Kikuchi says he will employ about 300 persons in his cotton mill, paying girls 10 cents a day and the most skilful men 30 cents a day. He will get the principal part of his raw material from China, but some of the inferior quality is grown in Japan.33 30 31

32 33

Marsden, Cotton Spinning, p. 6. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, p. 112; Memoir of Takatsuji Narazo-, reproduced in Nitta, pp. 592–593; Takatsuji was a graduate of the ICE, four years behind Kikuchi, who had also gone into cotton spinning. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, p. 91. ‘Cotton Mills for Japan’, New York Times 31/10/1888. The author has been unable to ascertain the identity of K. Aba.

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This article also noted that while in Britain Kikuchi had been made a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering ‘in recognition of what he has done in introducing industries into Japan’. The historical list of the members of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering confirms that Kikuchi became one of its members in 1888, listing him as ‘Superintendent Engineer, Hirano Spinning Mill, Osaka’. Membership of the IME was not restricted to a small elite – the 1890 membership list, for example, has 1,941 members – but included only three Japanese, so membership must have been something of an accolade for Kikuchi, particularly given the relatively early stage in his career.34 Kikuchi arrived back in Yokohama on 24 November, 1888. He had been away a bit over a year. With the Hirano Spinning factory building nearing completion and the arrival of the newly purchased machinery, the mill was able to commence production in the spring of 1889, expanding its spindleage capacity soon after.

Fig. 4: Platt machinery for the Hirano Mill purchased during Kikuchi’s stay in Britain in 1888. Source: Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai (ed.), Nichibo- 75nen-shi, Osaka, 1966 34

Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1890_ Institution_of_Mechanical_Engineers:_Members, (accessed 22/09/2020). The other two Japanese members were Mano Bunji, who had studied at Glasgow University 1886–1887 and worked at Armstrong’s in Newcastle, and subsequently became Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Imperial University in To-kyo-; and Tsuneta Shin, who studied engineering and naval architecture at Glasgow University in 1888, and became Chief Engineer and Director at Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering. Both Mano and Tsuneta, like Kikuchi, were graduates of the ICE.

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Kikuchi was not only technician and engineer, but de facto in charge of day-to-day operations, although it was only much later that his managerial role was formally recognized. His first steps as a leader of Japan’s expanding cotton spinning industry had been taken, and he never looked back. By September 1889 he was sharing his expertise with a second new company, Amagasaki, and by the spring of 1890 a third, the Settsu company. Such was the scarcity of appropriate knowledge that the expertise of cotton spinning engineers such as Kikuchi, Saito- and Yamanobe Takeo of the Osaka Company, was in high demand. By mid1890 Kikuchi was in charge of production at three leading spinning companies with a total capacity of 42,000 spindles, around 20% of Japan’s total spindleage at the time. By 1899 these three companies together had paid up capital of ¥2 million, possessed over 130,000 operating spindles and employed over 8,000 workers, nearly 70% of whom were women.35 By 1902 the Settsu company was the second largest employer in the Osaka district, 36 surpassed only by the Osaka Arsenal. The smallest of the three companies, Hirano, was taken over by Settsu the same year. Over time the capacity and number of factories of the companies with which Kikuchi was associated mushroomed. They increasingly engaged in mechanized weaving, and not just the production of yarn. Kikuchi moved from director to presidential status at both Amagasaki and Settsu, and served as president following the two companies’ merger into the Dai Nihon Spinning Company in 1918. By the time of the merger Amagasaki alone had a capacity of nearly 340,000 spindles and Settsu not much less.37 Through the interwar years, under Kikuchi’s presidency, Dai Nihon was one of the three giants of Japan’s spinning world (the others were Kanegafuchi and To- yo- bo- ), taking over other smaller textile companies and moving also into rayon production. Kikuchi was one of a very small number of individuals whose name has come to embody the remarkable development of one of Japan’s most successful export industries up to the Second World War. It is essential, of course, to put Kikuchi’s career into the broader context of the evolution of cotton spinning technology in Japan. In thinking about technological development in the early stages of 35

36 37

Kato- Ko-zaburo-, Mengyo- ni okeru gijutsu iten to keitai (Technology transfer in the Japanese cotton industry) (UNU Working Paper HSDRJE-18J/UNUP-68, 1979, pp. 35–36. Abe, Kindai O saka keizai-shi, pp. 118–119. Hunter, ‘Reviving the Kansai Cotton Industry’, p. 77.

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Japan’s cotton spinning industry, it is important to acknowledge the key role of the Osaka Cotton Spinning Company, which achieved the first real breakthrough in terms of mechanized spinning production. The technological developments at the company, and the key role of its engineer, Yamanobe Takeo, have been studied in some depth, in particular the decision to opt for ring spindles rather than mule machinery, and the realization that production facilities needed to grow to achieve economies of scale.This particular aspect of technology choice was a critical factor for Japanese engineers. At the time of the start of the Hirano Company, mule spindles tended to be used in Lancashire to spin higher-count (finer) yarn, while ring spindles were used for coarser (lower-count) yarn. Lancashire, with its long production history, focused on finer yarns, and the majority of production capacity there tended to be mules. By contrast, in the United States it was mostly ring spindles. Early Japanese mills used mules, but the transition from mule to ring spindles in Japan from the early 1880s is clear. It is generally accepted by scholars that this was based on economic rationality: rings were more labour intensive, requiring fewer skilled workers, and Japan had substantial supplies of relatively unskilled labour. Japanese spinning companies’ focus on ring spindles not only enabled them to capitalize on labour availability, but allowed the operation of large capacity and achievement of economies of scale. Kiyokawa argues that it is clear from various sources, including reports from Kikuchi’s visit, that by the late 1880s the differences between mule and ring technologies were already well known to those involved in the industry in Japan,38 and there seems little reason to doubt this observation. But how far this shift was a planned and coordinated effort by the leading textile engineers has been questioned by Nakaoka Tetsuro- , who suggests that most engineers had relatively little practical experience, and that the role of the machinery supplier and the trading companies through whom transactions were made may have been more important. Choi has confirmed the importance of the trading company Mitsui Bussan in the process of technology acquisition.39 38

39

Kiyokawa Yukihiko, ‘Menbo-sekigyo- ni okeru gijutsu sentaku: Myu-ru Bo-ki kara Ringu Bo-ki e’ (Technology choice in the cotton spinning industry: The switch from mules to ring frame), in Minami Ryo-shin & Kiyokawa Yukihiko (eds), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten, pp. 98–99. For an English translation of this article see Minami Ryo-shin et al. (eds), Acquiring, Adapting and Developing Technologies. Lessons from the Japanese Experience, London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1995, pp. 85–111. Nakaoka Tetsuro-, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei (The formation of modern technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006, pp. 250–258. Choi, ‘The Genesis of Modern Management of Technology’.

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Certainly, there seems little doubt that this major technical shift was facilitated by the role of Platt Bros. as the major supplier to most of the new Japanese companies, as well as the practical exposure of the Japanese engineers, including Yamanobe, Saitoand Kikuchi, to factory operations in Lancashire. Knowing how individual engineers approached this particular choice of technology, however, is very difficult. Kiyokawa suggests that Kikuchi had already decided to order ring spindles before going to England,40 but it remains hard to know exactly how much was known about the techniques of cotton spinning by this time, and by whom. Nevertheless, one thing that became increasingly apparent to Yamanobe, Kikuchi and other engineering colleagues was the issue of a seeming mismatch between the functioning of imported spinning machinery and the characteristics of the cotton that constituted the raw material. This led to a great deal of thought about how machinery could be adapted to the varied characteristics of the raw cotton.41 The basic problem was that Japanese cotton was much shorter staple than the Indian and US cotton that tended to be used in Britain. Chinese cotton, while slightly longer staple than Japanese, was also significantly shorter. Ring spindle technology had been developed on the basis of the long-staple American product. Shorter filaments led to more frequent breaks in the thread, and inconsistency and variation in the quality of that thread. The most straightforward solution for Japan would have been to shift to longer staple imported raw material, but this was expensive, and would jeopardize the financial viability of Japanese spinning production. The alternative was to use a combination of longer and shorter staple cotton, which could help to keep down the cost of the raw material. Cotton mixing was the solution that was ultimately reached, and the shift to ring spindles went hand in hand with the development of cotton mixing in response to the fact that East Asian cotton was very short staple. The details of how this expertise was achieved are difficult to substantiate. What we do know is that cotton mixing techniques became increasingly sophisticated, and knowledge of cotton mixing a highly valued skill. Absence of skill in the process could lead to disastrous results for production. It is accepted, therefore, that cotton mixing became one of the key factors in the international competitiveness of Japan’s spinning industry. It was 40 41

Kiyokawa, ‘Menbo-sekigyo- ni okeru gijutsu sentaku’, p. 104. Nakaoka, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei, p. 233.

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the diffusion of ring spindles associated with the rise of cotton mixing that helped to produce relatively high-count yarn from short to medium staple cotton, in the process significantly reducing the capital–labour ratio. 42 As one analysis stated, the combination of cotton mixing, ring machinery and labour intensity ‘represents an excellent demonstration of how technology borrowing, adaptation, and diffusion can work in an environment which permits signals to be perceived and competitive pressures to be felt by individual decision-makers’.43 These were the broad parameters within which Kikuchi had to make technological choices, and making the initial choice of machinery on behalf of the Hirano Company was a challenging and crucially important decision. Purchasing a combination of ring and mule spindles would seem to be desirable, allowing for the possibility of producing finer yarns and moving up the value-added chain more quickly, but it was also deemed to be uneconomic. Kikuchi reportedly agonized over the choice, but ended up coming down in favour of ring spindles, in the hope that improvements in technology would allow the use of ring spindles to produce both kinds of yarn. He also had to choose between flat and roller carding processes, and opted for the former.44 In many respects, though, we have few insights into his rationale for choosing these particular technologies. Kikuchi made a second trip to England in 1896, again visiting Lancashire, where he purchased a substantial number of spinning frames and twisting machines from Platt Brothers for both the Amagasaki and Settsu mills. Apart from these purchases, the visit also had a number of objectives in terms of technological knowledge acquisition.These included learning more about the production of higher-count gassed thread, the use of North American cotton, and the production of twisted thread. This time, Kikuchi spent around four months based in Britain, but he also undertook observations at woollen mills in Germany and France. He returned to Japan via the USA, arriving back at the end of Sep42

43 44

O tsuka Katsuo, Gustav Ranis and Gary Saxonhouse, Comparative Technology Choice in Development: The Indian and Japanese Cotton Textile Industries, Basingstoke, Hants: Macmillan, 1988, p. 35ff.; Nakaoka, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei, pp. 249–250. Otsuka, Ranis and Saxonhouse, Comparative Technology Choice in Development, p. 43. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 118. Carding is the process of removing tangles in the raw material and aligning the individual fibres in preparation for the spinning process.

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tember.45 As noted, one of the objectives of the trip related to the production by Amagasaki of medium/higher-count twisted thread (32s and 42s). The ability to produce such higher quality yarn was regarded as increasingly important given the growing complaints about the quality of imported medium-count yarns; as mentioned earlier, complaints over the declining quality of British yarns dated back at least to the time of Kikuchi’s first visit to Europe in 1888. Importing yarn was also expensive. Japan’s imports of yarn peaked in 1888 at over 63 million pounds by weight (ca. 28.5 million kilograms), accounting for over 28% of the total value of Japan’s imports.46 The Amagasaki company sought to use the new highercount twisted yarn for the warp thread of double-striped cloth (futagoshima), to replace lower-count yarn in socks, and also for the warp of Kurume splash-pattern cloth (Kurume kasuri).47 However, working out how to produce good twisted yarn on the basis of domestic and imported raw cotton also proved challenging. Again, it was the staple length of the raw cotton that caused difficulties, particularly for twisted thread, as noted much later by Miyamoto Seichiro- , a leading cotton industrialist.48 Techniques had to be adjusted if domestic or Chinese shorter-staple raw cotton was to be used, and this had potential implications for quality. This was a challenge that pushed further not only the mixing of cotton, but the overall growth in raw cotton imports.49 Amagasaki, working under Kikuchi’s guidance, was the first Japanese mill to plan for the production of twisted yarn on a large scale, when it equipped its second factory (which specialized in higher-count yarns, 20s–42s) with 5,000 spindles for twisted yarn in late 1894. The Osaka Spinning Company had produced twisted yarn earlier, but had barely 2,000 spindles devoted to it.50 In developing the production of twisted yarn, Kikuchi worked closely with his colleague Tashiro Juemon, who was considered by many the architect of higher-count (42) twisted yarn. Tashiro had 45 46

47

48

49 50

Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 179–80. Nichibo KK shashi hensan iinkai (ed.), Nichibo- 75 nen-shi, (75-year history of Nichibo-), Osaka, 1966, p. 38. Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 183184. The warp threads are the longitudinal threads when weaving cloth. For twisted yarn the cotton fibres are twisted together prior to spinning to achieve greater strength. Writing in Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, p. 650. Miyamoto was president of To-kyo- Bo-seki until it was taken over by Amagasaki in 1914, and continued to work at senior levels in the business. Kato-, ‘Mengyo- ni okeru gijutsu iten to keitai’, p. 27. Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai, Nichibo- 75nen-shi, p. 38.

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joined Amagasaki in 1891 at the age of 40, and was said to be the one person trusted by Kikuchi as well as by Fukumoto Gennosuke, who became president of Amagasaki in 1893.51 Tashiro came from a family of cotton dealers and used his marketing expertise to focus on his objective of ousting English imported twisted yarn (known as seba after the original English producers) and taking over the market.52 It was Tashiro who identified the opportunity offered by sock makers wishing to move from 20- to 42-count yarn, a trend then followed by some weavers. Achieving this was far from easy. It seemed that even when longer-staple cotton was imported from the USA or elsewhere, the good to middling raw cotton destined for Asia was lower quality than that destined for Europe. The result was many breakages in the thread, since the twisting machines were British and tuned to the standards of the better raw material.The problem was gradually solved by trial and error, but even when production became profitable it seems that the quality of output was more variable, and had more nap (fuzz), i.e., it was less smooth.53 It was this problem that was one of the focuses of Kikuchi’s second trip abroad in 1896, when apart from looking at Manchester’s technology he also made a more detailed study of the quality of US raw cotton. After his return, Amagasaki imported a range of US raw cottons, looking to mix them, and experimenting in the use of raw material and machinery until the company came up with a product that was little different from its British equivalent. The problems, as Miyamoto later summarized it, were eventually solved by talking to English engineers, close observations of practical operations, and then subsequent trials to avoid shrinkage.54 An associated challenge that Kikuchi had to face in the early 1890s was that of how to produce gassed yarn. Gassing yarn had proved to reduce its nap and make the yarn more glossy. The gassed yarn equipment provided by Platt Brothers consisted of 51

52

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Kinugawa Taiichi, Honpo- menshi bo-seki-shi (The history of cotton spinning in Japan), vol. 4, Osaka: Nihon Mengyo- Kurabu, 1939, pp.142–146. Nichi-Bo- (comp.), ‘Wagakuni mengyo- no kindaika to Amagasaki Bo-seki no so-ritsu (– Meiji 45nen)’( The modernization of Japanese cotton trade and the foundation of the Amagasaki Bo-seki up to Meiji 45), https://www.unitika.co.jp/ company/archive/history/pdf/nichibo00.pdf (accessed 22/09/20). Seba was a distorted abbreviated version of the name of the Manchester company Zill & Schwabe, which was eventually wound up in 1921, London Gazette, 7 June 1921, p. 4578. Kinugawa, Honpo- menshi bo-seki-shi, vol. 4, pp. 164–167. In Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 650–651.

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a line of small burners over which the threads ran by turn, but any movement in the air would cause the flames to shake, risking burning the thread. But shutting the windows and doors to avert all drafts meant that the factory environment became unbearable, causing illness among the factory workers. A process of trial and error eventually resulted in success, with operation of the gassing within a relative vacuum. As in the case of twisted yarn, Kikuchi sought to work in close conjunction with other colleagues. In this case it was Saburi Takashi, appointed as a new engineer in early 1898 by the company. Saburi had attended middle school in Okayama and high school in Kanazawa.Working under Kikuchi’s technological guidance, Saburi played a pioneering role in the development of gassed thread.55 - ZO - AND TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE 3. KIKUCHI KYO IN JAPAN’S COTTON INDUSTRY

Kikuchi Kyo- zo- ’s career demonstrates how he was able to build on the technological knowledge acquired at the ICE and through overseas observations. It also embodies a number of the features of technology development and technology choice that characterized the rise of the Japanese cotton industry to global leadership. The key features were knowledge sharing and knowledge diffusion, the existence of complementary technological strategies and technological congruence, the import of capital goods as a means of technology transfer, the role of engineers as managers, and the importance of trial and error and a permanent learning process. Leading engineers such as Kikuchi and Yamanobe Takeo were conspicuous for spending their whole careers in the same company (or, in the case if Kikuchi, in three companies that eventually merged into a single one). In their classic study of technology choice in the Japanese and Indian cotton spinning industries, however, Otsuka et al. argue that individuals of this kind were in the minority. More often, they argue, textile engineers in the preWorld War I period were characterized by their interfirm mobility, which helped to reinforce the rapid diffusion of best-practice technologies through the whole industry. The result was also a collectively strong professional orientation.56 Kikuchi’s career 55 56

Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai, Nichibo- 75nen-shi, pp. 36–39, 107. Otsuka, Ranis and Saxonhouse, Comparative Technology Choice in Development, pp. 75–76.

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Fig. 5: Platt machinery for the Hirano Mill purchased during Kikuchi’s stay in Britain in 1888 Source: Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai (ed.), Nichibo- 75nen-shi, Osaka, 1966.

underlines the importance of knowledge sharing and knowledge diffusion, but also in some respects bridged the gap between work for a single company and highly mobile engineers. It was characterized by long-term employment and lack of mobility, but included employment with three different companies simultaneously, and links to many other companies through the process of company mergers into Dai-Nihon Bo- seki with which he was closely involved. As we have seen, moreover, he found additional ways of diffusing knowledge in the form of tutelage of younger colleagues and access to written texts. A further means of knowledge sharing and knowledge diffusion was through formal and informal institutions. Kikuchi, like many of his colleagues, promoted the sharing and diffusion of technological knowledge through building dedicated institutions. Conspicuous was the role of the Spinners’ Federation (Bo-ren), in which Kikuchi consistently played an active part. The importance of Bo- ren as an industrial association is discussed by Otsuka et al.,57 and Choi has written of the importance of the organization 57

Otsuka, Ranis and Saxonhouse, Comparative Technology Choice in Development, pp. 87–91.

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as an ‘essential terminal in creating and sharing ‘public goods’ – that is, in the reduction of information costs and uncertainty. The association’s publication for members, the monthly journal, was the key medium in developing pan-industrial coordination.’58 It is instructive, however, to identify particular instances of how the auspices of Bo- ren promoted the sharing and diffusion of knowledge as a practical solution to the specific problems of the industry. The industry in general engaged in coordination efforts to minimize the cost of coping with technical problems and accidents on shop floors by operating identical sets of British textile machinery. A reported problem and possible countermeasures for trouble at one mill could be shared by the industry as a whole.59 We know that Bo- ren facilitated some collaborative purchasing, such as when in the late 1890s 11 Kansai firms together purchased a baling machine for higher-count yarns, and shared its use.60 Under Bo- ren there were also regular meetings of company chief engineers (Bo-seki gishi konshin-kai).61 We therefore see the sharing and diffusion of skills and knowledge as a practical solution to the specific problems of the industry and knowledge exchange between engineers combined with competition between their companies. Also important was the extent of technological congruence and technological complementarity between companies. Technological decisions at different companies were not made in isolation. Use of a common set of machinery was achieved not only through knowledge sharing of the kind in which Kikuchi engaged, but the use of purchasing strategies and practical modes of operation that led engineers as a whole to opt for the same technologies. Much of Japan’s cotton textile machinery was imported from a single firm, Platt Brothers, and the more specialized machines also tended to be ordered from the same specialist supplier, usually in Lancashire. The operation of a standardized technology was associated with technological uniformity applicable to a wide range of products. This was in turn to facilitate the merger process that accelerated after the turn of the century, and in which Kikuchi himself played a major part.62 58

59

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Eugene K. Choi, ‘Reconsidering the Innovations in the Meiji Cotton Spinners’ Growth Strategy for Global Competition’, Business and Economic History On-Line 8, 2010, p. 5. Choi, ‘Reconsidering the Innovations in the Meiji Cotton Spinners’ Growth Strategy’, p. 6. Kinugawa, Honpo- menshi bo-seki-shi vol. 4, pp. 262, 284. Minami and Kiyokawa (eds), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten, p. 101. Okamoto Yukio, Chiho- bo-seki kigyo- no seiritsu to tenkai: Meiji-ki Kyu-shu- chihobo-seki no keiei shi-teki kenkyu- (The establishment and development of local textile

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This technological congruence did not, however, preclude the existence of complementary technological strategies by different firms. In the case of the firms with which Kikuchi was associated, Settsu focused on the large-volume production of coarse yarn (high productivity per spindle), while Amagasaki focused on finer middle-grade yarn (lower productivity per spindle but higher value added). There was an explicit acknowledgement in the technology choices of the market differentiation. Asian consumers, for example, were expected to continue to demand low-count yarn in line with their low incomes. The technology choices were far from perfect. Yamanobe was among those who attempted to introduce factory weaving in the 1880s, but his efforts yielded poor results because it seems that the directors of Osaka Spinning made decisions as though it was handweaving, for example by demanding frequent changes of cloth design rather than focusing on simple standardized goods.63 This adoption of standardized technologies was closely associated with the import of capital goods, which Minami and Kiyokawa have suggested was a key way of bridging the technology gap. In the cotton industry most machinery was imported until the 1920s, from twisting and spinning machines through to boilers, steam engines, balers and generators. Significantly, Mitsui Bussan was the main agent for almost all the equipment purchases for the industry (accounting for 81% of the total in 1892–3). Shared use of a trading company also allowed for collective purchasing of imported cotton, which in turn facilitated more economical purchasing of cotton with different characteristics that fed into the process of cotton mixing.64 Choi has highlighted the involvement of Mitsui Bussan employees such as Watanabe Senjiro- , the head of its London branch, who became a sole agent for the sale of Platt machinery and was thus a strategic knowledge source for Meiji cotton industrialists and engineers, starting with Yamanobe.65 Kikuchi’s career embodies this whole process, but he added to it a second channel of technology transfer: the gradual introduction

63 64 65

industry. Historical studies on the management of the local textile industry in Kyu-shu- in the Meiji period), Fukuoka: Kyu-shu- University Press, 1993; Eugene K. Choi, Technological Choices in the Rise of the Meiji Cotton-Spinning Industry c. 1860–1900, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. Nakaoka, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei, p. 261. Kato-, ‘Mengyo- ni okeru gijutsu iten to keitai’, pp. 40–43. Eugene K. Choi, ‘Reconsidering the Innovations in the Meiji Cotton Spinners’ Growth Strategy’, pp. 8–10.

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of knowhow to make the machinery, including technical publications, foreign observations, and reverse engineering of imported goods.66 Finally, Kikuchi embodies Morikawa’s trope of engineers as managers.67 Kikuchi believed that technological skill and management went hand in hand. Once an engineer, always an engineer. One of his Dai-Nihon-bo- colleagues, Furumi Toshitomo, reported how even when Kikuchi had achieved high managerial status, he remained very “hands-on”, doing regular inspections of the production line.68 Another colleague commented on Kikuchi’s leading role in raising the status of the engineering profession in a way that had seemed inconceivable. He was also, said this colleague, a real hands-on leader, for example after the 1923 earthquake visiting areas of destroyed Dai-Nihon factories, talking to and eating with the workers, and inspiring rebuilding.69 His reputation remained that of a leader in the improvement and rationalization of technology, and an engineer for whom technology and science remained the foundation of business activities. He was committed to a process of production in which final success built on trial and error and the learning process, whether in the management of machinery or the management of human capital.70 REFERENCES: Abe- Takeshi, - Kindai Osaka keizai-shi (Economic history of Osaka), Osaka: Osaka Daigaku Shuppankai, 2006. Abe Takeshi, ‘Technological and Organizational Absorption in the Development of the Modern Japanese Cotton Industry’, pp. 10–12, available at https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/ Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf5/ AbetextGEHN5.pdf (accessed 23/09/2020). Allsobrook, D. and G. Mitchell, ‘Henry Dyer: Engineer and Education Innovator’, in Paedagogica Historica, vol. XXXIII, no. 2, 1997.

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68 69

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This general process is also highlighted in Minami and Kiyokawa (eds.), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten, pp. 9–10. Morikawa Hidemasa, A History of Top Management in Japan: Managerial Enterprises and Family Enterprises. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. In Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, p. 628. Osaka Sashichi (formerly at Dai-Nihon-bo-, then director at Nihon Rayon) in Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 582–584. Ito Mansuke (head of Ito-man Trading Company) and Taneda Kenzo- (To-yo-bopresident) in Nitta, Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O den, pp. 574–575.

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Archive of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution, Archival Collection https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/57f82bf5-4ce7-3c57b463-d73a354596a7, accessed 16/09/2020. Braguinsky, Serguey and David A. Hounshell, ‘Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now’, in Columbia Business School Center on Japanese Economy and Business Working Paper 336, Feb. 2014, available at https://doi.org/10.7916/ D8319SXB (accessed 22/09/2020). Checkland, Olive Britain’s Encounter with Meiji Japan, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1989. Choi, Eugene K., Technological Choices in the Rise of the Meiji Cotton-Spinning Industry c. 1860–1900, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. Choi, Eugene K., ‘Reconsidering the Innovations in the Meiji Cotton Spinners’ Growth Strategy for Global Competition’, in Business and Economic History On-Line 8, 2010, p. 5. Choi, Eugene K., ‘Another Spinning Innovation: The Case of the Rattling Spindle, Garabo-, in the Development of the Japanese Spinning Industry’, in Australian Economic History Review, vol. 51, no. 1, March 2011, pp. 22–45. Choi, Eugene K., ‘The Genesis of Modern Management of Technology: The Case of the Meiji Cotton Spinning Sector in Globalization, 1880s–1890s’, in Umemura Maki and Fujioka Rika (eds), Comparative Responses to Globalization: British and Japanese Enterprises, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 99–100. ‘Cotton Industry of Japan’, Manchester Guardian 27 May, 1887. ‘Cotton Trade and Manufactures of Japan’, included in the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers under Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series 49, 1887. ‘Cotton Industry in Japan: Native Method of Cultivation’, Times of India, 9 June 1887. Dyer, Henry, Dai Nippon: the Britain of the East, London: Blackie, 1904. Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History https://www.gracesguide. co.uk/1890_Institution_of_Mechanical_Engineers:_Members, (accessed 22/09/2020). Inkster, Ian and Satofuka Fumihiko (eds), Culture and Technology in Modern Japan, London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2000. Inkster, Ian, Japanese Industrial Economy: Late Development and Cultural Causation, Routledge: London and New York, 2001 Hunter, Janet, ‘British training for Japanese Engineers: The case of Kikuchi Kyo-zo- (1859–1942)’, in Hugh Cortazzi and Gordon Daniels (eds), Britain and Japan, 1859–1991: Themes and Personalities, London and New York: Routledge, 1991. Hunter, Janet, ‘Reviving the Kansai Cotton Industry: Engineering Expertise and Knowledge in the Early Meiji Period’, in Japan Forum 26, issue 1, 1 March 2014, pp. 65–87.

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Kato- Ko-zaburo-, Mengyo- ni okeru gijutsu iten to keitai (Technology transfer and forms in the cotton industry), UNU Working Paper HSDRJE18J/UNUP-68, 1979. Kinugawa Taiichi, Honpo- menshi bo-seki-shi (The history of cotton spinning in Japan), vol. 4, Osaka: Nihon Mengyo- Kurabu, 1939. Kiyokawa Yukihiko, ‘Menbo-sekigyo- ni okeru gijutsu sentaku: Myu- ru Bo-ki kara Ringu Bo-ki e’ (Technology choice in the cotton spinning industry: The switch from mules to ring frame), in Minami Ryo-shin & Kiyokawa Yukihiko (eds), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten, To-kyo-: To-yo- Keizai Shinpo-sha, 1987, pp. 98–99. Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo(Materials on the former Ko-bu-dai-gakko-), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931. Marsden, Richard, Cotton Spinning: Its Development, Principles and Practice, London: George Bell & Sons, 1903. Minami Ryo-shin and Kiyokawa Yukihiko (eds), Nihon no ko-gyo-ka to gijutsu hatten (Japanese industrialization and technical development), To-kyo-: To-yo- Keizai Shinpo-sha, 1987. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Henry Dyer: Pioneer of Engineering Education in Japan, Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2004. Morikawa Hidemasa, A History of Top Management in Japan: Managerial Enterprises and Family Enterprises. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Morris-Suzuki, Tessa, The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the 17th to the 21st Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Reconsidering the Japanese Industrial Revolution: Local Entrepreneurs in the Cotton Textile Industry during the Meiji Era’, in Social Science Japan Journal , vol. 18, no. 1, Dec. 2014, pp. 23–44. Nakaoka Tetsuro-, ‘On technological leaps of Japan as a developing country, 1900–1940’, in Osaka City University Economic Review 22, 1987. Nakaoka Tetsuro-, Nihon kindai gijutsu no keisei (The formation of modern technology in Japan), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006, pp. 250–258. Nichibo- KK shashi hensan iinkai (ed.), Nichibo- 75 nen-shi (75-year history of Nichibo-), Osaka, 1966. Nichibo- (comp.), ‘Wagakuni mengyo- no kindaika to Amagasaki Bo-seki no so-ritsu (– Meiji 45nen)’(The modernization of Japanese cotton trade and the foundation of the Amagasaki Bo-seki up to Meiji 45), https://www.unitika.co.jp/company/archive/history/pdf/ nichibo00.pdf (accessed 22/09/20). Nicholas, Tom, ‘The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization’, in Explorations in Economic History, no. 48, 2011, pp. 271–291. - (ed.), Kikuchi Kyo-zo- O- den (Biography of Kikuchi Kyo-zo-), Nitta Naozo Osaka: Kikuchi Kyo-zo- denki hensan jimusho, 1948.

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Okamoto Yukio, Chiho- bo-seki kigyo- no seiritsu to tenkai: Meiji-ki Kyu-shuchiho- bo-seki no keiei shi-teki kenkyu- (The establishment and development of local textile industry. Historical studies on the management of the local textile industry in Kyu- shu- in the Meiji period), Fukuoka: Kyu- shu- University Press, 1993. Otsuka Katsuo, Gustav Ranis and Gary Saxonhouse, Comparative Technology Choice in Development: The Indian and Japanese Cotton Textile Industries, Basingstoke, Hants: Macmillan, 1988. Pauer, Erich, Technologietransfer Deutschland–Japan von 1850 bis zur Gegenwart, Munich: Iudicium Verlag, 1992. Ransome, Stafford, ‘The Training of Engineers in Japan’, in The Engineer 27 Nov. and 3 Dec. 1897. ‘Technical Education in Manchester’, Manchester Guardian, 14 December 1887. Wittner, David G., Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan, London: Routledge, 2009.

9

The Training School for Railway Engineers: An Early Example of an Intra-firm Vocational School in Japan NAKAMURA Naofumi

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1. INTRODUCTION

THIS PAPER EXAMINES the major characteristics of technology formation in the Japanese railways through an analysis of the railway engineers’ groups at the Imperial Government Railway (IGR) during the first half of the Meiji period. In particular, it focuses on the role of an intra-firm vocational school, the Training School for Railway Engineers (TSRE, Ko-gisei Yo-sei-jo) as a way to examine the relationship between training institutions and the transfer of technology. Of particular interest is the question of why the TSRE could play an important role for the independence of railway technology in Meiji Japan, compared with the other training institutions such as the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE, Ko-bu-dai-gakko-). TSRE was a retraining institution for young engineers. Its course of study was relatively short at one to two years. It- was established in May 1877 within the Railway Bureau in Osaka as an educational institution for the fast-track education of civil engineers for railway construction, and provided short-term, intensive training in basic science as well as specialized disciplines such as civil engineering.1 Instructors at TSRE included 1

Tetsudo-sho- (Ministry of Railways) (ed.), Nihon tetsudo--shi (History of the Japanese railways), vol. 1, To-kyo-: Tetsudo-sho-, 1921, p. 161. 217

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both top-level hired foreign engineers (o-yatoi gaikokujin) and Japanese engineers who had studied abroad. TSRE’s curriculum emphasized both basic and practical subjects. The students were divided into three classes, and the students in the first class completed their course of studies concurrently with a work assignment in a construction zone and received on-the-job training (see Appendix 1). Such emphasis on readiness to take up work assignments can also be seen in the type of students who were admitted to TSRE. There are several groups of source materials related with TSRE. The first group deals with educational history. Amano Ikuo, a specialist in educational history, is an example. He was the first to focus on the significant role of TSRE and its graduates in 1965.2 He investigated the formation and distribution of engineering manpower in the early Meiji period, and described the following difference. In the Civil Engineering Bureau, the mainstream engineers were trained by the ‘formal type’ education at ICE from the late 1870s. In contrast, mainstream engineers in the Railway Bureau were trained by ‘external-type’ elements like study abroad, and ‘informal-type’ education such as the TSRE, from 1870 to 1894. This is a significant point, but Amano does not explain why such differences in the recruitment systems of these two sections occurred. Another group of materials concerns railway history. Harada3 and Nakamura4 investigated the formation of the railway engineer group in the IGR, focusing on the significant role of TSRE. However, it is not clear who the TSRE students were, and why they could play such a significant role in railway construction in the 1880s. Last, there are materials related to the history of industrial technology. Tsutsumi Ichiro-5 examined the curriculum of TSRE and the activities of its graduates. This was the first paper in English to discuss TSRE. However, it remains to draw the overall 2

3

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5

Amano Ikuo, ‘Sangyo--kakumei-ki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no ikusei-keitai to koyo-ko-zo-’ (Formation and distribution of engineering manpower in Japan during the industrial revolution), in Kyo-iku shakai-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 20, 1965, pp. 156–171. Harada Katsumasa, Tetsudo--shi kenkyu- shiron (A tentative theory of the study of railway history), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1989. Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways 1869–1894), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998. Tsutsumi Ichiro-, Teramachi Yasuaki, Sano Shigeru, Kaji Nobufuji (eds), ‘The Engineer Training School of the Imperial Government Railway of Japan: Its curriculum and graduates’ activities’, in The International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer, 2004, pp. 128–131.

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picture of TSRE and its students. To do so, it seems worthwhile to investigate TSRE graduates in more detail and follow their individual careers. 2. ENGINEERS AT THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT RAILWAY IN THE EARLY MEIJI PERIOD6

In the development of the IGR between 1870 and 1892, there were considerable changes in the number and composition of the engineers employed there (Figure 1). The foreign engineers include several groups: those with monthly salaries greater than 300 yen, those in managerial positions such as the railway director (tetsudo- sahai-nin), the engineer in chief (kenchiku shicho-), and the principal engineer, as well as those responsible for design and construction of rail line segments, such as the deputy engineer (kenchiku fukuyaku). Besides these groups there were also the regular engineers (gishi), who were engaged in the actual construction, as well as some engineers who served as construction assistants (kenchiku joyaku). Figure 1 clearly shows two peaks in the number of engineers at IGR: 1874 and 1887. The first peak in 1874 coincides with the of the railway in the Kansai area between Kyo-to, - construction Osaka and Kobe. This project was accomplished mainly with foreign engineers who were paid extraordinary salaries from 300 yen to over 1,000 yen a month.7 The second peak in 1887 corresponds to the construction of the To-kaido- line8 from To-kyo- to Osaka, and involved mostly native Japanese engineers in higher civil service ranks. After the first peak from the end of the 1870s to the first half of the 1880s native Japanese engineers rapidly replaced the hired foreign engineers. In the process of transition from foreign to native engineers, the increase in native engineers took place in two steps, starting with an increase in the number of assistant engineers (gishu, gite), followed by a 6

7

8

This section is based on Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group in Early Meiji Japan’, in Japanese Research in Business History, vol. 28, 2011, esp. pp. 14–16. In comparison in 1877, Inoue Masaru, head of the Railway Bureau, received a salary of 500 yen per month, and Iida Toshinori, the top native engineer, was paid 100 yen per month; see Nakamura, Nihon Tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 66. The To-kaido- (lit. eastern seaboard route) was one of the major routes between Edo/To-kyo- and Kyo-to since the seventeenth century, which travelled along the southeastern coastline through present day Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Aichi prefectures.

Japanese Engineers

Source: Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon no tetsudo--gyo- no keisei (The formation of Japan’s railways),To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998, pp. 58, 173; Nihon Kokuyu- Tetsudo- (ed.), Nihon Kokuyu- Tetsudo- 100-nen-shi, (100 years’ anniversary of Japan National Railways), vol.1, To-kyo-: Nihon Kokuyu- Tetsudo-, 1969, p. 316.

Japanese Assistant Engineers

Foreign engineers

Fig. 1: Numbers of engineers in the Imperial Government Railways (IGR): 1870–1892.

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rise in the number of regular engineers (gishi).The number of assistant engineers had decreased in proportion to the reduced number of foreign engineers through 1877, but beginning in 1878 their numbers began to increase.The reason for this turnaround was that the nature of the assistant engineers had shifted from assistants and interpreters for foreign engineers to full-fledged technicians in support of regular engineers. The number of Japanese engineers in positions analogous to the managerial positions held by foreign engineers such as engineer in chief, principal engineer, and regional deputy engineer also increased rapidly during the same time period. However, in comparison to the increase in the number of assistant engineers, the increase was not as pronounced.After 1886 and with the start of the construction of the To-kaido- line, the number of (Japanese) engineers increased rapidly with the establishment of a career ladder that promoted experienced assistant engineers to full engineers. 3. THE FORMATION OF A RAILWAY ENGINEERS’ GROUP AND TSRE

We now examine the method for training native engineers and the formal organization of engineers through the railway engineers’ group at IGR. 3.1 Technical Independence and TSRE9

The construction of the railway line between Kyo-to and Otsu, the first part of the To-kaido- line which began in 1878, was notable because it was designed and constructed entirely by native Japanese engineers, despite the high degree of difficulties that included drilling the first tunnel through a mountain at Osakayama (Fig. 2). An important point was the fact that in the six years since the opening of the first railway line between Shinbashi andYokohama in 1872, the Japanese had gained complete technical independence in terms of civil engineering.10 9

10

This section is based on Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, pp. 16–21. The rapid movement away from hired foreign engineers was necessitated by the following factors: 1) the chronic government budgetary shortfall threatened the privatization of IGR; 2) the need to increase profitability of IGR; and 3) the release of foreign engineers, who commanded large salaries, was necessary to improve IGR’s profitability; see Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei (The formation of Japan’s railways), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998, chapter 1.

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Fig. 2: The east entrance of the Osakayama tunnel of the former To-kaido- line shortly after its completion in 1880.The tunnel was planned and constructed entirely by the engineers of the Ko-gisei Yo-sei-jo. Location: Otsu, Shiga prefecture; designated as historic site (Source: Murai Masatoshi (ed.), Shishaku Inoue Masaru-kun shoden (Biography of Viscount Inoue Masaru. To-kyo-: Inoue shishaku do-zo- kensetu do-shikai, 1915, p. 22

Looking at the distribution of railway engineers in various positions at IGR in 1881, they were divided into three bands: (1) chief engineers (gicho- or goyo- kakari), who held managerial responsibilities for the organization and its regional divisions; (2) engineers (gishu, gite) in first through fourth grades,11 who were responsible for the construction of line sections; and (3) engineers in fifth through tenth grades, who supported those in the second group (Fig. 3). These three groups were equivalent in their responsibilities to foreign engineers who held the positions of chief engineer and deputy engineers for the first band, full engineers for the second band, and assistant engineers for the third band.

The first band included those with experiences of governmentfunded study abroad, such as Inoue Masaru (who studied at University College, London, during 1863–1868),12 Iida Toshinori 11 12

For numerical grades, smaller numbers represent higher rank. Oikawa Yoshinobu, Inoue Masaru (A biography of Inoue Masaru), Kyo-to: Minerva Shobo-, 2013, pp. 21–23.

THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS

223

Fig. 3: Structure of the Imperial Government Railways (IGR) Engineer Group in 1881. Source: Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998, p. 60.

(Technische Universiteit, Delft, the Netherlands, 1867–1873),13 and Homma Eiichiro- (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1867–1874).14 The second band included others with study-abroad experiences such as Kurobe Gentaro- and Hiraoka Hiroshi as well as the top-class graduates (ikkyu--sei) from the Training School for Railway Engineers. The third band included the secondclass (nikyu--sei) and third-class (sankyu--sei) graduates from TSRE as well as graduates of the Imperial College of Engineering.15 Table 1 shows the educational credentials of the engineers in the second and third bands. Of the 26 engineers in this group, 17 were graduates of TSRE. Instructors at TSRE included principal engineer Thomas R. Shervinton, engineer Edmund G. Holtham, and deputy engineer Iida Toshinori, who had studied abroad. Head of the Railway Bureau Inoue Masaru also taught at TSRE from time to time.16 13 14 15 16

Nakamura, Nihon no tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 28. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 60. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 60. Sawa Kazuya (ed.), Tetsudo-: Meiji so-gyo- kaikodan (Railway: Reflections on its founding in the Meiji period), To-kyo-: Tsukiji Shokan, 1981, pp. 171–172.

1

TSRE

1

17

Total

2

7

1

1

1

1

18

4

3

4

6

3

3

ICE

Nov. 1883

8

2

1

1

1

2

1

others

20

1

4

3

2

4

3

3

TSRE

11

4

1

5

1

ICE

Jun. 1885

25

2

7

3

2

4

3

1

1

2

others

18

3

4

3

1

7

TSRE

5

4

1

ICE

Nov. 1886

19

3

4

4

1

5

1

1

others

Source: Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998, pp. 60, 101, 143; Nihon Kokuyu- Tetsudo- (ed.), Nihon Kokuyu- Tetsudo- 100-nen-shi, (100 years’ anniversary of Japan National Railways), vol.1, To-kyo-: Nihon Kokuyu Tetsudu-, 1969, pp. 31–34. Note: TSRE = Training School of Railway Engineers; ICE = Imperial College of Engineering

5

9

10

1

8

1

1

2

6

7

4

3

4

5

3

2

1

others

3

ICE

2

1

1

3

TSRE

Grade

Oct. 1881

Table 1: Educational background of assistant engineers in the Imperial Government Railways (IGR).

224 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS

225

TSRE’s curriculum emphasized both basic subjects such as mathematics and dynamics as well as practical subjects such as surveying, drafting, planning, materials, and construction (see Appendix 1).17 The students were divided into three classes, and the students in the first class completed their course of studies concurrently with a work assignment in a construction zone and received on-the-job training.18 Such emphasis on readiness to take up work assignments can also be seen in the type of students who were admitted to TSRE. The 12 members of the first cohort of students were almost all young engineers in their 20s at the time of their entrance in 1877. At entrance, the second cohort were on average over ten years younger than the first cohort.19 On the other hand, there were only two ICE graduates, both lower-level engineers (Table 1), who were anticipated to replace the foreign engineers. By 1881, 18 students had graduated from the Civil Engineering branch at ICE, but only five had secured employment with the Railway Bureau following graduation. Rather, the Civil Engineering Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs (seven graduates) and the Navy Ministry (five graduates) were more prominent employers of ICE graduates.20 Such distribution patterns of postgraduate employment continued after 1882, and of the seven or eight graduates of the programme each year, only two or so entered the Railway Bureau. Moreover, with the exception of 1883, it was rare that those who graduated with top academic records (first class) would enter the Railway Bureau.21 It can be inferred that among the elite graduates of ICE, the Railway Bureau did not offer good prospects for employment.

17 18 19

20 21

Tsutsumi et al., ‘Engineer Training School’, pp. 128–129. Harada, Tetsudo--shi kenkyu- shiron, pp. 78–81. The second cohort entered TSRE in 1879 and 1880 (Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyono keisei, p. 70). Although data are limited, it seems that there were two more cohorts of students at TSRE. Nakamura, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, p. 20. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Tetsudo- gijutsu-sha shu-dan no keisei to Ko-bu-daigakko-,” (The formation of the IGR’s railway engineers’ group and the Imperial College of Engineering), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-busho- to sono-jidai (The era of the Ministry of Public Works), To-kyo-: Yamakawa Shuppan-sha, 2002, pp. 100–101.

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ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Thus, the railway engineers at the Imperial Government Railway during this period were comprised primarily of the students of Inoue and Iida at the Training School for Railway Engineers. The independence of railway civil-engineering technology in Japan and the replacement of foreigners with native engineers were accomplished by these instructors and graduates of TSRE. 3.2 Members and Career of the Trainees of the TSRE

An overview of the composition of the TSRE trainees shows the names, period of study and, as far as can be ascertained, the personal career paths of the 24 TSRE trainees (Table 2). These trainees are divided into the first cohort that was admitted to TSRE when it was established in May 1877, and a second cohort that was admitted in 1879 and after.22 Concerning the selection methods for both cohorts, it seems that the trainees of the first group were selected on the basis of recommendations by Inoue Masaru and Iida Toshinori from among young employees at the Railway Bureau. In contrast, it is said that the second cohort were not members of the Railway Bureau, but were recruited externally; successful applicants had to pass an examination consisting of roughly middle-school-level mathematics and English.23 As a result, while the median age of the first cohort was 25, that of the second cohort was much younger, at 17. From this difference in selection method we can understand that the trainees enrolled at TSRE were composed of two groups with quite different characteristics. The first cohort were expected to be industry-ready engineers, and the second cohort were to be trained to become future engineers. A look at the personal histories of the trainees prior to their enrolment at TSRE shows that with the exception of one person whose personal history is unknown, the first cohort of 12 trainees can be classified into three categories:

22

23

Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai (ed.), Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa Kinsuke-den (A biography of Hasegawa Kinsuke, Doctor of Engineering), To-kyo-: Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, 1937, pp. 30–34. Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa, p. 32.

1850

1848

1841

Nagae Shudo

Musha Manka

Chishima Kyu-ichi

1853

1850

Kimura Tsutomu

Uzurao Kinshin

Nobutake Shimada

Year of birth

Name

Engineer candidate

Engineer candidate Osaka School of English, Interpreter

Naval school in Tsukiji

Assistant of foreign engineer, interpreter

Education

3

2

1

1

1

2

Estimated class

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

Duration of school

27

24

36

29

27

Enrolment age

To-kaido- line west (1886), Shinonoi line, Central west line, Kagoshima line

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, Nagahama-Taketoyo line, To-kaido- line west (1886)

Kyo-to-Otsu line, Nihon Railway (1885) Kyo-to-Otsu line, To-kaido line west (1886)

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, To-kaido- line west (1886), Chief of track maintenance in Ko-be division (1897) Kyo-to-Otsu line, To-kaido line west (1886)

Career in IGR

assistant 2

assistant 2

assistant 3

secretary 4

assistant 2

assistant 2

Positions and grade in 1886

Table 2: Membership and career history of graduates of the Training School of Railway Engineers.

Korea Government Railway (1907)

Honma Railway Office(1894), Narita Railway (1895), Kiwa Ry, Nanao Railway (1896), Sangu Railway (1903)

Nihon Railway (1890), So-bu Railway

Honma Railway Office(1894), Nanao Railway (1896)

Temporary Taiwan Railway Corps (1895-6)

Career after leaving IGR THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS 227

Year of birth

1852

1852

1852

1856

1848

Name

Kidera Noriyoshi

Satake Masaakira

ShimasakiMimura Shu-

Matsui Sho-go

Kunizawa Yoshinaga

Engineer candidate

Hitotsubashi School, Lighthouse School in Yokohama Osaka School of English, interpreter

Engineer candidate

Assistant of foreign engineer, interpreter

Education

1

3

3

1

3

Estimated class

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

1877-79

Duration of school

29

21

25

25

25

Enrolment age

Naoetsu line (1886), Nihon Railway line, To-kaido- line

To-kaido- line west (1886), Chief of track maintenance in Nagoya division (1897) Kyo-to-Otsu line,

Kyo-to-Otsu line, Tokaido line west (1886), Chief of track maintenance in Shizuoka division etc. Kyo-to-Otsu line (track design), Nihon Railway line (1885)

Nagahama-Taketoyo line, To-kaido- line west K11 (1886)

Career in IGR

engineer 4

assistant 2

engineer 5

assistant 2

assistant 2

Positions and grade in 1886

Nihon Railway (1890), Sobu Railway (1891). Government Railway (1899)

death in 1899

Nihon Railway (1890), Mimura Machinery Works (1900)

retirement in 1907

Kyo-to Ry, Kiwa Railway (1896)

Career after leaving IGR

228 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, assistant 5 To-kaido- line west (1886)

17

1879-81

1862

Nishi Daisuke

assistant 7 (1886)

1879-81

assistant 7

(1886) To-kaido- line west

assistant 7

assistant 7

assistant 5

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, To-kaido- line west (1886) To-kaido- line west

Nihon Railway line (1886)

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, To-kaido- line west (1886), Shinonoi line

assistant 5

engineer 4

Kishimoto Junkichi

19

To-kaido- line west (1886), Chief of track maintenance in Nagoya division (1897)

Kyo-to-Otsu line, Nagahama-Tsuruga line, To-kaido- line west (1886)

Positions and grade in 1886

1879-81

1879-81

16

22

Career in IGR

Irie Kenji

English learning in Nagasaki

1879-81

1877-79

Enrolment age

1879-81

1860

Yoshiyama Ro-suke

Osaka school of English

1

Duration of school

Kaneda Hideaki

1863

Yoshida Tsunetaro-

Osaka school of English, Interpreter

Estimated class

1879-81

1855

Hasagawa Kinsuke

Education

Sato Kensuke

Year of birth

Name

Nihon Railway (1892)

Okura Doboku Taiwan (1899)

Nihon Railway (1890)

Taiwan Government Railway (1899)

Nihon Railway (1891), death in 1906

Temporary Railway Corps (1895), death in 1903

Nihon Railway (1892), Ganetsu Railway (1893), Taiwan Government Railway (Engineer in Chief, 1899)

Career after leaving IGR

THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS 229

16

assistant 8

assistant 8

assistant 8

Positions and grade in 1886

Ishikawajima Shipyard (Adviser of Bridge Division, 1915)

University of To-kyo(1885), Okada Work Office (1899), Dalian Okada Office (1907) Kyu-shu- Railway (1899)

Career after leaving IGR

Source: Tetsudo-sho- (Ministry of Railways) (ed.), Nihon tetsudo--shi (History of the Japanese Railways), vol. 1, To-kyo-: Tetsudo-sho-, 1921; Nihon Ko-tsu Kyo-ryoku-kai (ed.), Tetsudo- senjin-roku, (Forerunners of the Japanese Railways),To-kyo-: Nihon Teishajo- Shuppan jigyo--bu, 1972; Hasegawa hakase-den hensankai (ed.), Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa Kinsuke-den (A biography of Hasegawa Kinsuke, Doctor of Engineering),To-kyo-: Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, 1937; Sawa Kazuya (ed.), Tetsudo-: Meiji so-gyo- kaikodan (Railway: Reflections on its founding in the Meiji period), To-kyo-: Tsukiji Shokan, 1981; Tetsudo--shi Gakkai (ed.), Tetsudo--shi jinbutsu jiten, (A biographical encyclopedia of Japanese Railway history), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 2013; Tsutsumi Ichiro-, Teramachi Yasuaki, Sano Shigeru, Kaji Nobufuji (eds), ‘Engineer Training School of Imperial Government Railway of Japan: Its curriculum and graduates’ activities’, in The International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer, 2004, pp. 128-131; Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998.

1880-81

Nagahama-Tsuruga line

Nagahama-Tsuruga line

Career in IGR

Assistant of Pownall, Specialist in bridge design in IGR, To-kaidoline west (1886)

1864

20

Enrolment age

Furukawa Seiichi

1879-81

Duration of school

Nagahama-Tsuruga line, To-kaido- line west (1886)

Estimated class

Nakano Yoshimitsu

Osaka School of English

Education

Nihon Ry line (1886)

1859

Year of birth

Ishiguro Yutaro-

Okada Tokitato-

Kobayashi Hideshige

Name

230 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

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231

(1) Those who were assistants to foreign engineers (Nagae, Kidera), (2) Those who were engineer candidates belonging to the Railway Board (Tetsudo- -ryo- ) of the Ministry of Public Works (Ko- busho- ) (Kunizawa, Satake, Uzurao, Shimada), and (3) Those who had become interpreters to the foreign engineers after acquiring English at language schools, etc. (Musha, Hasegawa, Matsui, Shimasaki, Kimura).

The point that all three categories had in common was that they had all acquired some degree of competency in English by the time they entered TSRE. While there would naturally have been some difference in their level of proficiency, English was a necessity, since some of the classes at TSRE were taught in English by foreign engineers. Furthermore, the Osaka School of English, where Hasegawa, Matsui and Kimura had studied, was a government-founded-language school equivalent to middle school, and was one of the predecessors of the Third High School. According to the- memoirs of Musha Manka, the Railway Board requested that Osaka School of English introduce students to them, four or five students, including Hasegawa, who were subsequently hired by the Railway Department as interpreters for the foreign engineers.24 It is unfortunate that the educational background of only three trainees in the second cohort has been identified. Thus, while it is not certain, from the subjects included in the entrance examination it is very likely that the trainees had- acquired English to an intermediate level at schools such as the Osaka School of English. Furthermore, as it is reported that ‘Iida Toshinori alone acted as instructor’ to the second cohort,25 there is a strong possibility that the lectures were basically in Japanese. From the above points, it is clear that TSRE differed from ICE, where basic English education was included in the curriculum, in that while it was premised on an intermediate level of English competency, it aimed to shorten the time required to train engineers by incorporating classes by Japanese lecturers (mainly Iida and Inoue) along with those taught by foreign engineers. The TSRE trainees were divided into three classes in accordance with Article 1 of the Trainee Guidelines (Appendix 1). However, 24 25

Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa, p. 187. Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa, pp. 32–33.

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how the classes were actually determined has not been clarified for either the first or the second cohort. Article 2 of the Trainee Guidelines stipulates that ‘First-class trainees shall share part of the work charged to Engineers. Among the Second- and Third-class trainees, some shall be assigned to the Engineers Department.’ With this point in mind, it is possible to estimate the composition of the classes for the 12 trainees in the first cohort. Firstly, there is little problem in considering that the five trainees Satake, Kunizawa, Chishima, Hasegawa and Musha,- who had taken charge of the construction work for the Kyo-to–Otsu segment (1878–1880), mentioned above, were in the first class. It is also highly likely that Kimura and Nagae, who were newly appointed to take charge of the extension construction works on the Nagahama–Tsuruga segment, were in the second class. It would seem that the remainder, Shimada, Shimasaki, Matsui, Kidera, and Uzurao, were in the third class, as they-performed the role of assistants to those in charge of the Kyo-to–Otsu and Nagahama–Tsuruga segments. However, this ranking had little significance in the trainees’ later careers in IGR. For instance, looking at the positions of the 12 trainees in the first cohort as of November 1886, Kunizawa, Hasegawa, Shimasaki and Chishima had attained the top-level rank of regular engineer (4th to 5th grade) or secretary (4th grade), while all the others were assistant engineers (2nd to 3rd grade). Satake and Musha were assistant engineers despite having been in the first class, and Shimasaki (Mimura), who is thought to have been in the third class, had been promoted to regular engineer. In this connection, the class division of the second cohort is completely unknown, but as of 1886, three were 5th-grade assistant engineers, four were 7thgrade assistant engineers, three were 8th-grade assistant engineers, and two were unknown; they were all known to be working as assistants to those who had been first cohort trainees. 3.3 Construction of the Nakasendo- line26

In 1883, the government decided formally that the railway between To-kyo- and Kyo-to, the most important line of the time, would be constructed along the Nakasendo- route.27 In order to 26 27

This section is based on Nakamura, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, pp. 21–23. Nakasendo-, or central mountain route, was the other major route between To-kyoand Kyo-to beside the To-kaido- since the seventeenth century, traveling through the central mountains through present day Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures.

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233

expedite the completion of this line, the Imperial Government Railway opened its Shinbashi Railway Office in To-kyo-, in addition to the Ko-be Railway Office, which was to take the responsibilities for the western part of the Nakasendo- line. Staffing at IGR took place in tandem with these organizational changes. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the number of full engineers increased from three in 1881 to seven in 1883. The newly hired engineers were Mo-ri Shigesuke, Haraguchi Kaname, Masuda Reisaku, and Minami Kiyoshi,28 all of whom had studied abroad.29 Many of them had been assigned to other offices such as the Mining Bureau in the Ministry of Public Works or the To-kyo- Prefectural Government following their return from their overseas studies, but with the imminent construction of the Nakasendo- line, they were reassigned to the Imperial Government Railway. In addition to these four men, others with foreign study experience, such as Matsuda Shu-ji, Ogawa Shigen, and Matsumoto So-ichiro-, were reassigned to IGR around the same time.30 The concentration of civil engineers with foreign study experience at IGR at this time is quite amazing. IGR had deliberately used the national importance attached to the construction of the Nakasendo- line to monopolize the railway engineers within its organization.31 At the same time, the number of middle and lower rank engineers in the assistant engineer (gishu, gite) position increased substantially with the decision to move forward with the Nakasendoline construction. The assistant engineers, who numbered 26 in October 1881, had increased to 32 in November 1883 and 56 in June 1885. Table 1 shows the breakdown of the middle- (grades 1–4) and lower-rank (grades 5–9) assistant engineers according to their educational background as of November 1883. In the mid28

29

30

31

See Appendix 2 for the obituary of Minami Kyoshi, who can be regarded as representative of this group of engineers. Mo-ri had studied at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Rochester, New York, from 1869 to 1872. Haraguchi also studied at RPI, 1875–1878. Masuda studied at Glasgow University from 1876 to 1878. Minami graduated from ICE in 1879 and subsequently studied at Glasgow University from 1879 to 1881; see Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 101. Matsuda studied at Owens College, 1871–75, Ogawa at Edinburgh University, 1872–1875, and Matsumoto at RPI, 1871–1876; see Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo-gyo- no keisei, p. 101). Inoue Masaru, ‘Naichinsho’ (internal petition), dated June 10, 1885; see Unknown, Nihon tetsudo- kabushiki kaisha enkaku-shi (The history of Nippon Railway Company), vol. 1, (reprint), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1980, p. 211.

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dle rank, 11 out of 15 were graduates of TSRE, one was trained abroad, and four received other forms of training. In the lower rank, seven out of 17 were graduates of TSRE, six were graduates of the Imperial College of Engineering, and four received other forms of training (one was trained in locomotives). Similar to the beginning of the 1880s, the graduates of the TSRE comprise a substantial core for both ranks. However, the percentage of Imperial College of Engineering graduates is increasing gradually, although they were still only given lower rank positions among the railway engineers. In terms of age, as of October 1883, assistant engineers who graduated from ICE between 1880 and 1883 were between 22 and 26 years of age and considerably younger than the first cohort graduates of TSRE, whose average age was around 30.32 Therefore, one may conclude that the differences in rank between the graduates of these two programmes arose from differences in their age and work experience. On the other hand, students studying abroad, such as Masuda Reisaku and Hirai Seijiro-, were promoted to full engineer (gishi) in their late 20s. From these observations, one may infer that at the Imperial Government Railway around this time, there was a substantial barrier between those with and without foreign study experience, and the ICE graduates were treated in the same manner as graduates of other domestic educational institutions such as TSRE. Thus, at this stage of the development of IGR, the underlying principle of the organization of railway engineers was essentially the same as the principle of organization of the early years. While there are some changes brought about by the expansion of the physical capacity of the railway system, such as the division of the railway engineers into the eastern and western blocks, the basic pattern has not changed from that in Figure 3, aside from the overall size of the group. 4. STRUCTURAL CHANGE OF THE IGR’S ENGINEERS’ GROUP33

In July 1886, the Head of the Railway Bureau, Inoue Masaru, received permission from the government to change the route of the To-kyo-–Kyo-to line from Nakasendo-, which passes through 32 33

Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 56. This section is based on Nakamura, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, pp. 23–27.

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235

the central mountainous region, to To-kaido-, which follows the southern coast. Inoue argued that this change was not only necessary for technical and fiscal reasons but also in order to shorten the construction time so that the line would be completed by the opening of the Imperial Diet in 1890.34 Thus began the construction of the To-kaido- line, and having promised to the government that the line would be complete by the opening of the Imperial Diet, the Imperial Government Railway was forced to speed up construction as much as possible. At the same time, the construction of the Nihon Railway Company line, which IGR had subcontracted, was at its peak, and the construction of the Shinetsu line, which connected the Pacific Ocean side with the Sea of Japan side of the main island, needed to continue. IGR attempted to manage these major construction projects simultaneously and expeditiously by employing the basic framework of the existing railway engineers’ group and expanding the system. However, with the rapid expansion of the construction areas, the existing sources of railway engineers could not fulfil the demand for their services at IGR. In the end, IGR was forced to reorganize its railway engineers’ group. 4.1 Changes in Trunk Line Routes and the Railway Engineers’ Group

The first sign of this reorganization was that the position of full engineer (gishi), which had been exclusively filled by those who had studied abroad, began to be filled by graduates of domestic educational institutions. The first such appointee was Sengoku Mitsugu, who graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering in the Faculty of Science at To-kyo- University in 1878. Sengoku was appointed in May 1884 as Associate Higher Civil Servant (Goyo- kakari junso-nin).This appointment is significant and considerably more advanced than that of ICE graduates in his birth cohort, 1857, who were assistant engineers (gishu) in grades five or six. Sengoku joined IGR following five years at the To-kyoMunicipal Government, and became full engineer without ever being appointed assistant engineer. Thus, his career path is essentially equivalent to those with foreign study experience. 34

Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, pp. 141–142.

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The difference in the career paths of the graduates of the two domestic educational institutions, the Faculty of Science at To-kyo- University and ICE, which later merged to become the College of Engineering at the Imperial University, stems in part from the educational system used at ICE. There, students received six years of education followed by a graduation examination. Those who received scores of 60 or above were allowed to graduate. Among them, those who received scores of 80 or above were classified as first-class graduates and received their bachelor of engineering (ko-gaku-shi) degree immediately, while those in the second class were required to complete two to three years of on-the-job training before receiving their bachelor of engineering degree. Finally, those in the third class were not granted a bachelor’s degree. Moreover, the starting salaries of graduates differed significantly according to their class at graduation. The first-class graduates received 30 yen per month, equivalent to assistant engineers in grade six; second-class graduates received 25 yen per month, equivalent to assistant engineers in grade seven; and third-class graduates received 20 yen per month, equivalent to assistant engineers in grade eight. In contrast, graduates of To-kyo- University received starting salaries of 50 yen per month or more, equivalent to assistant engineers in grade two.35 Many graduates of ICE became disgruntled when they found that although they possessed the same college degrees, they were paid considerably less than the graduates of To-kyo- University. For example, Watanabe Kaichi, who graduated from ICE in May 1883 at the top of his class and immediately entered the Imperial Government Railway, resigned in 1884 (when Sengoku was promoted to Associate Higher Civil Servant) so he could study at Glasgow University in Scotland.36 One reason for his resignation was his dissatisfaction with discrimination within IGR by academic institution. 35

36

Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- (Historical materials of the former Imperial College of Engineering), To-kyo-: Toranomon-kai, 1931, pp. 179–180. Following his graduation from Glasgow University, Watanabe worked on the construction of the Forth Bridge, outside Edinburgh, and returned to Japan to join Japan Civil Engineering Company (Nihon Doboku Kaisha). He later served as the President of Hokuetsu Railway Company (Hokuetsu Tetsudo- Kaisha); see Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 101.

7

7

9

9

1883

1884

1885

1886

8

4

1882

9

3

1881

1890

2

1880

1889

2

1879

9

2

1878

10

2

1877

1888

2

1876

1887

mechanic

civil

year

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

SSA

Fiscal

3

4

4

4

3

1

1

civil

Univ. To-kyo-

2

2

1

1

5

civil

5

3

1

mechanic

ICE electric

1

1

civil

mechanic

electric

Imperial University

Table 3: Educational background of engineers in the Imperial Government Railways (IGR).

6

8

8

3

3

civil

TSRE

2

2

1

1

1

1

civil

others

28

31

26

19

22

11

9

7

4

3

2

2

2

2

3

total THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS 237

mechanic

civil

8

8

6

6

6

6

5

5

5

year

1891

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

2

2

2

2

4

4

4

3

3

civil

Univ. To-kyo-

5

4

5

3

4

4

2

2

2

civil

ICE

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

5

5

mechanic

1

electric

26

21

19

16

7

7

8

2

2

civil

9

4

5

2

2

2

2

mechanic

1

electric

Imperial University

5

6

7

6

5

5

5

5

6

civil

TSRE

9

7

9

8

2

2

1

1

1

civil

others

66

52

55

46

33

33

32

27

28

total

Source: Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998, pp. 28, 98–99, 144–145, 206–207 and directories of government officials. Note: SSA = Students studying abroad,TSRE = Training School of Railway Engineers, ICE = Imperial College of Engineering.

1

1

1

SSA

Fiscal

238 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR RAILWAY ENGINEERS

239

The construction of the To-kaido- line, however, brought about significant changes. In 1883, at the beginning of the Nakasendo- line construction, the expansion of the engineers’ group was accomplished by hiring engineers with foreign study experience from other units. On the other hand, in this round of expansion, only a handful of engineers were -transferred from other units, including Nomura Ryu-taro- and Oya Gombei.37 The vast majority of engineers were promoted within from the ranks of assistant engineers.The new engineers, including transfers from other units, were almost all graduates of domestic institutions, such as the University of To-kyo-, TSRE and ICE (Table 3). Five graduates from ICE were promoted at the same time, and all of them were promoted up multiple ranks to engineer from third or fourth grade assistant engineer.38 One reason for this extraordinary move was that the Imperial Government Railway was forced to treat ICE graduates better in order to prevent them from moving to private railway companies as the demand of railway engineers rose rapidly during the period of the ‘railway boom’ and rapid industrialization. However, for ICE graduates who held longstanding dissatisfaction with IGR, such attempts of appeasement were not successful, as four of the five who were promoted would leave IGR within the next year.39 However, it is significant that these five broke the barriers that existed between engineers and assistant engineers as well as between those with foreign study experience and those trained at domestic institutions, and the group of engineers began to change gradually. More specifically, the senior engineers’ group, which was dominated by those who had studied abroad, began to include graduates of ICE and TSRE, and the differences between the middle band and lower band of assistant engineers began to decline. As a result, the three-tiered structure of the engineers’ group was reorganized to two tiers, consisting of engineers and assistant engineers. Although the core of the senior engineers, such as Inoue Masaru and Iida Toshinori continued to play a central role, the basic organizational framework of the group was changed dramatically by the rapid increase in the demand for engineers brought about by the construction of the To-kaido- line and the rise of the private railway companies. 37

38 39

Nomura graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering, To-kyo- University, in 1881, and Oya graduated from the same programme in 1883. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, pp. 144–145. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, pp. 98–99.

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4.2 The first Railway Boom and the Spread of Engineers40

In the latter half of 1886, while the Imperial Government Railway was rapidly constructing the To-kaido- line, the private sector had caught its first ‘railway boom’, which resulted in the formation of numerous private railway companies. Between 1887 and 1890, 14 companies received foundation permits from the government, and ten had started business. The length of rail operated by the private sector also grew rapidly, from 267 kilometres in 1886 to 1,365 kilometres in 1890, or an increase of more than five-fold.41 Such a rapid increase raised the demand for engineers to oversee the construction and management of railways. For regional railway companies in the private sector, filling these positions became high priority. Responding to such a rapid rise in the demand for engineering - skills and the expanding market for civil engineering projects, Okura Kihachiro- and Fujita Densaburo- founded the Japan Civil Engineering Company (JCEC, Nihon Doboku Kaisha) in 1887 with an initial capitalization of two million yen. While most construction contractors did not possess the survey and design capabilities themselves and were specialized as unit-cost contractors, JCEC sought to be a general contractor that could do everything from survey to project completion. With such a business plan, the company needed excellent engineers on its staff, and sought to hire engineers with college degrees. In this process, JCEC used its network of ICE graduates and was aggressive in hiring them away from government positions. As of 1887, the company employed 27 engineers, of whom 17 were graduates of ICE.42 JCEC completed diverse projects in civil engineering and buildings. In the area of railway construction, it developed a very close working relationship with private railway companies. By assigning its own engineers as senior engineer or engineer in chief to each of the railway companies and by having these engineers on assignment complete the initial survey and design phases, JCEC then subcontracted from the railway company to complete the actual construction phase. Through this process, the engineers employed by JCEC, many of whom were graduates of ICE, were transferred to the private railway companies.Thus, JCEC served as a mechanism by which engineers were ‘pumped’ from the government to the private sector. 40 41 42

This part is depended on Nakamura, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, pp. 27–29. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 148. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 152.

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The transfer of railway engineers from the government to the private sector increased rapidly in the first enterprise boom in the late 1880s, despite the efforts of the government to prevent such transfers. Between 1887 and 1889, five engineers per year, or 16 in total, moved from government positions to the private sector. Their destinations were as follows: seven in direct employment by a private railway company, eight employed by railway construction contractors, and one by a locomotive manufacturer.43 Although contractors as an industry were not highly regarded socially, engineers with college degrees chose to move into this industry. One of the reasons behind these transfers was that for many engineers at the assistant engineer level who were disgruntled with the government’s compensation policies, these companies enticed them with salaries more than twice that paid by the government. For example, for Sugawara Tsunemi, who transferred from an assistant engineer grade six position at the Railway Bureau to a newly formed private-sector contractor named Shingyo--sha in Saga in July 1888, his monthly salary increased from 35 yen at IGR to 120 yen.44 It should be noted that in contrast to this large number of transfers for civil engineers, only two mechanical engineers had left their government positions. Furthermore, for mechanical engineers, in contrast to the civil engineers, ICE graduates became the core of the IGR railway engineers after 1888. Thus, it seems that the organizational framework of mechanical engineers at IGR was different from that of civil engineers, but a definitive conclusion requires further investigation. 4.3 The Collapse of the Railway Engineers’ Group45

The collapse of the engineers’ group that began with the first enterprise boom hastened with the completion of the To-kaidoline in July 1889. Between 1890 and 1892, a total of 25 engineers transferred from IGR to private railway companies. Of these, 11 were full engineers; this is in contrast to the earlier pattern in 43 44

45

Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 153. Tetsudo- Kensetsu-gyo- Kyo-kai (ed.), Nihon tetsudo- ukeoi-gyo--shi, Meiji-hen (A history of Japanese railway contractors, Meiji era), To-kyo-: Tetsudo- Kensetsu-gyoKyo-kai, 1967, p. 137. The monthly salary for an assistant engineer who graduated from the Ko-shu-gakko- (a school for lower-rank technicians between engineer (gishi) and worker (shokko-) was 12.5 yen. This section is based on Nakamura, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group’, pp. 29–31.

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which transfers at the assistant engineer level was more common.46 One reason behind this change is that IGR no longer had plans to build new railway lines. Since the primary objective of civil engineers was the construction of new lines, they moved en masse to the private sector in search of new opportunities. In response to this crisis, IGR made plans for continued construction in an effort to maintain the group of engineers. In July 1891, Inoue Masaru, the Railway Bureau Chief, made public a large-scale plan to expand IGR in a proposal titled ‘A proposal for railway strategy’. However, by the time this proposal was passed as the Railway Construction Law (Tetsudo- fusetsu-ho-) in June 1892, the political manoeuvres of various forces within the executive and legislative branches had led to substantial revisions to the original proposal.47 For Inoue, this process and its result were far from his wishes. Moreover, the implementation of this law resulted in substantial changes in the nature of the Imperial Government Railway, which Inoue had led and nurtured for over 20 years since the 1870s. The Imperial Diet played a key role in determining the government’s policies the Railway Construction Law. Since this law required the legislature’s approval in the selection of routes and the allocation of construction budgets, the expansion of IGR began to reflect the preferences of the Imperial Diet. Similarly, governmental purchases of private railway companies and petitions for the construction of new lines planned in the law by the private sector also required the approval of the legislature. Since the law included a comprehensive nationwide plan for railway trunk lines, the establishment of private railway companies covering any significant line required the approval of the Imperial Diet. Furthermore, with the establishment of the Railway Council (Tetsudo- kaigi), issues not delineated in the Railway Construction Law, such as fare rates and operating rules, began to reflect the opinions and preferences of the military, the legislature, and other executive branch ministries. In these ways, the supervisory power of IGR over its own operations and those of private railway companies began to erode and be influenced by other governmental units. In addition, due to the cancellation of further purchases of private railway companies and the unlimited expansion of plans for new lines, IGR became saddled with lines that would never be profitable. This resulted in 46 47

Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, pp. 174–175. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, pp. 202–204.

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a system in which achieving consistent and healthy profitability would be difficult. For Inoue, who was aggressive in introducing managerial rationalization, organizational reform, and accounting system in an effort to improve IGR’s profitability, such developments were difficult to swallow. As a protest to these changes at IGR, Inoue Masaru and Iida Toshinori resigned from IGR in March 1893. Matsumoto So-ichiro- was selected to take the position vacated by Inoue. Although Matsumoto had studied abroad, he did not have the strong leadership characteristics that would enable him to be an effective leader of others with foreign study experience, who were often independent and assertive. The railway engineers’ group, with its stratified structure of those with foreign study experience and graduates of domestic educational institutions with the former leading and training the latter, lost its core and collapsed. 4.4 Diffusion of TSRE Graduates

Returning to Table 2, let us trace the careers of the TSRE graduates from the time of the construction of the To-kaido- line to the 1890s. First, looking at the positions of the 24 TSRE graduates in IGR as of 1886, 17 were engaged in the construction of the western side of the To-kaido- line. Of the remainder, four were working on the Nihon Railway Company line, one on the Naoetsu line, and two were elsewhere. On the western half of the To-kaido- line, a national project at the time, the TSRE instructor Iida Toshinori was general director and the line was being constructed with TSRE graduates, including Hasegawa Kinsuke, taking charge of segments or serving as assistants to those in charge. As the main IGR construction works temporarily abated due to the completion of the full opening of the To-kaido- line in 1889, the outflow of IGR engineers to private companies began in earnest from 1890 onwards.48 Looking at the positions of the 24 TSRE graduates as of 1892, 14 were working for IGR, seven for privately owned railways, one was independent, and two had either died or disappeared. Having said that, of the seven who had joined private companies, six were on temporary transfer to the Nihon Railway Company, which had been subcontracted by IGR to construct railway lines, so we cannot conclude that the 48

See Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, chapter 3.

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TSRE graduates had moved completely to the private sector. In other words, until the resignation of the former instructors Inoue Masaru and Iida Toshinori, more than 80% of the TSRE graduates were still working within IGR. Nevertheless, the dispersal of the TSRE graduates began from around 1893, when the collapse of the IGR engineers’ group became certain. If we look at the career of these graduates after they left IGR, it becomes clear that, by way of the Nihon Railway Company, they were reemployed by many private railways as chief engineers. Since the Nihon Railway Company had been subcontracted by IGR to construct and operate railways lines until the completion of the full length of the Ueno–Aomori line in northeastern Honshu- in 1892, it was possible for IGR engineers to work for the Nihon Railway Company on temporary transfer while still being officially on the IGR payroll. Thus, after they had gained experience at a private business with the Nihon Railway Company, the route by which the TSRE graduates moved over to the private sector as chief engineers in branch-line private companies such as the So-bu Railway and Ganetsu Railway can be said to have provided them with relatively smooth career path. Private companies such as the Narita Railway Company, the Kiwa Railway Company and the Sangu Railway Company, established during the enterprise boom period (1895–99) following the Sino-Japanese War, also provided reemployment opportunities for TSRE graduates. The common factor among these companies was that they all commissioned the Homma Railway Office as a construction and operation consultant. The Homma Railway Office was a railway construction consultant founded in 1894 by Homma Eiichiro, who had been a top-level engineer in the Railway Bureau, and who had promoted the establishment of many small and medium railway companies in the 1890s.49 Homma, who had studied in the United States, had been a superior of the TSRE graduates. Thus, Musha Manka, Kimura Tsutomu and others passed through their former superior’s office on their way to work for private railway companies. In this way, the TSRE graduates, who had played active roles in IGR in the 1880s, moved to the private sector in the 1890s, becoming the engineers who supported the technical aspects of the rapid rise of the private railways, the so-called second railway boom.

49

Tetsudo- Kensetsu-gyo- Kyo-kai, Nihon tetsudo- ukeoi-gyo--shi.

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From the time of the Sino-Japanese (1894–1895) and RussoJapanese Wars (1904–1905) some TSRE graduates came to be active in Japanese colonies and spheres of influence, such as Taiwan, Korea, and Dalian in northeast China. A representative example of this kind of movement was Hasegawa Kinsuke. In 1892, Hasegawa moved from IGR to the Nihon Railway Company. After serving as chief engineer for the Ganetsu Railway Company, he was appointed chief engineer of the Railway Division of the Taiwan Government-General in 1899. He took a group of engineers, including the second-cohort TSRE graduate Sato- Kensuke, with him to Taiwan, pushing the construction of the longitudinal Taiwan railway forward with a firm hand.50 The TSRE graduates, who supported the dawn of Japanese domestic railways, took on the role of advance guard as ‘imperial engineers’ as Japan began its overseas advance triggered by the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. 5. CONCLUSION

While spotlighting the position and role of TSRE, this chapter has examined the process of formation of Japan’s railway engineers’ group. We have clarified the following points. First, there is a necessity to re-evaluate the historical significance of the role performed by TSRE instructors and graduates in IGR construction works during the early Meiji period. At the end of the 1870s, IGR faced a crisis of existence due to government financial difficulties and exorbitant construction costs under the supervision of foreign engineers. For this reason, it can be said that for the Railway Bureau of the time, bringing railway construction costs down through a crash programme of training Japanese engineers was a pressing issue.The Head of the Railway Bureau, Inoue Masaru, writing off ICE as taking far too much time to train engineers, attempted to establish a fast-track training programme for engineers at TSRE. Those with English ability and practical experience were selected from among young employees, taught the theoretical side of railway engineering through lectures in a short period of time, and then sent out to acquire the necessary skills through on-the-job training. This was TSRE’s first cohort.The Kyo-to–Otsu line was a brilliant success, 50

Tsai Lung-pao, Zhangguchuan Jinjie yu Rizhi shiqi Taiwan tielu de fazhan (Hasegawa Kinsuke and the development of Taiwan’s railway in the Japanese colonial period), in Guoshiguan xueshu jikan, (Bulletin of Academia Historica, Taiwan), vol. 6, 2005.

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the trainees taking charge of the construction under the direction of the TSRE instructor Iida Toshinori. This was significant for two reasons, first in the nationalistic sense of technological independence, and second in the economic sense of the reduction in construction costs through lower personnel costs. In particular, the latter had a great effect. Looking at the accumulated total costs for construction as of 1886, the construction cost per kilometre of railway line fell more than 30% from-66,900 yen on the Osaka–Kyo-to line to 45,900 yen on the Kyo-to–Otsu line.51 The ability to cut the salaries and travel expenses of the foreign engineers, - which accounted for 10% of the total construction costs of the Osaka–Kyo-to line, is thought to have been a crucial factor in reducing construction costs.52 In the 1880s, TSRE graduates also played a central role in the IGR trunk line construction, including the Tsuruga and To-kaidolines. The structure, under which railway construction was expedited by engineers who had studied overseas, who acted as general directors to oversee the on-the-job-training of domestically trained assistant engineers, became the principle for the formation of the IGR engineers’ group during this period. In addition, coming into the latter half of the 1880s, a number of TSRE graduates were promoted to the rank of regular engineer, themselves taking a leading position in the engineers’ group. At the same time, in relations with the private sector, one may also highlight the assistance provided by TSRE graduates in the establishment of small and medium railway companies during the second enterprise boom period (1895–1899).The author has elsewhere emphasized the notion that spin-outs from IGR engineers who were graduates of the ICE Civil Engineering branch became the technical base for the mushrooming of railway companies in the first enterprise boom period (1886–90).53 In contrast, this chapter has made clear that, in the case of TSRE graduates, the full-fledged shift towards the private sector was brought about not by the first period but by the second enterprise boom period, and that these graduates supported the railway construction boom that followed the Sino-Japanese War. Further, in the background to this was the collapse of the IGR engineers’ group that was set off by the resignation of the Head of the Railway Bureau, Inoue Masaru, in 1893. 51 52 53

Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 34. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, p. 35. Nakamura, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei, chapter 3.

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Last, one should also take special note of the advance by some TSRE graduates into Japan’s colonies and spheres of influence as ‘imperial engineers’. For civil engineers, the most challenging and glamorous work is that of the construction of new railway lines, with track maintenance and line upgrading duties holding little attraction.Thus, civil engineers with abundant experience migrate across regions and international borders in search of the new lineconstruction frontier. In the first place, foreign engineers such as Edmund Morel,54 who had taken on the initial creation of Japan’s railways, and T.R. Shervinton and E.G. Holtham, who had been instructors at TSRE, were ‘imperial engineers’ who had travelled extensively in the spheres of influence of the British Empire. It is therefore, in a sense, only a natural consequence that TSRE graduates, who had gained ample proficiency by the 1890s, should move on in the 1900s, when the construction of new lines in Japan had abated for the time being, to seek new frontiers in Taiwan, Korea and Manchuria. It can therefore be said that the TSRE graduates, who were leading figures in the independence of Japan’s railways from foreign engineers were at the same time pioneers of Imperial Japan’s railway construction. APPENDIX 1: TRAINEE GUIDELINE55 1) 2) 3)

54

55

The trainees shall be divided into the three classes, First, Second, and Third. First-class trainees shall share part of the work charged to Engineers. Among the Second- and Third-class trainees, some shall be assigned to the Engineers Department. Those trainees who are charged with local districts shall produce monthly reports and submit them to the supervising Engineer. The monthly report shall cover necessary items pertaining to progress of work, repairs and rebuilding implemented during the previous month. The Engineer will assess the merits of the report’s content, write a critical statement, and retain a copy in the progress document.

Hayashida Haruo, Edomondo Moreru: Tetsudo- gofushin saisho yori (Edmond Morel: Railway construction from the beginning), To-kyo-: Minerva Shobo-, 2018. Source: Tsutsumi Ichiro, Teramachi Yasuaki, Sano Shigeru, Kaji Nobufuji (eds), ‘Engineer Training School of the Imperial Government Railway of Japan (IGRJ): Its curriculum and graduates’ activities’, in The 2nd International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer, Dec. 3–5, 2004, Preston UK, pp. 128–131.

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4)

5) 6)

Those trainees who are assigned to the Engineers’ Department shall not only engage in training within the school facilities but also accompany the inspection tours conducted by the Engineer in order to acquire practical on-site skills. In the event any difficulty arises, the trainee shall report the matter to the Engineer without alteration. The subjects and their short descriptions are given below: 1.

Surveying The names of equipment, their uses and maintenance. 2. Plane surveying Plane surveying device, its use and maintenance, working under various weather conditions. Use of the sextant for height measurement. 3. Sketches and mechanical drawing Instruments for sketches and drawings. Drawing plans and elevations, maintenance of detail drawings. 4. Planning and cost estimation Estimating costs from drawings, drawing up work process charts, strength calculation of civil works, making a construction budget. 5. Construction of railway tracks Construction of track centreline and underlying substructures, bridges, and other structures. 6. Construction material Copper, steel, wood/timber, stone, brick, concrete, lime, roof materials, earthworks, mud dikes. 7. Strength of materials 8. Types of construction Construction with brick masonry, stone masonry, foundations, woodworking. 9. Construction support work Construction of scaffoldings and weirs. 10. Construction equipment 11. Principles of track selection, safety of regular curves and inclines, regular construction of rails, i.e., ballast, permanent way, rails, points, crossings, sewage maintenance, station safety, etc. 12. Arithmetic, algebra, surveying, and triangulation will also be required subjects. 7)

Regular examinations shall be conducted in accordance with the above subjects. The trainee’s level of understanding will be evaluated based on the examinations, and those who have

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demonstrated their advancement shall be promoted to the upper class. It is hoped and expected that all trainees, whether within the school facilities, working on site, or during instruction, will fully direct their hearts and minds to their duties and seek to acquire the knowledge and skills of the arts belonging to the engineer’s profession, and by practising careful attention and experience, fulfil their dutiful goal in works for which they are given responsibilities in their official capacity. May 8, 1877 T. R. Shervinton, Chief Engineer, Kyo-to-Osaka-Ko-be District APPENDIX 2

Obituary (slightly corrected) for Minami Kiyoshi, whose life is representative of a member of the early railway engineers’ group at the Imperial Government Railway during the first half of the Meiji period in Japan. He was educated first at the Imperial College of Engineering followed by the Training School for Railway Engineers (Ko-gisei Yo-sei-jo) and belongs to the group of those who studied abroad: Minami Kiyoshi died on the 20th January, 1904, at Osaka, Japan, in his forty-ninth year. Born in the Aizu province on the 1st May, 1856, he entered the Imperial College of Engineering on its establishment at To-kyo- in 1872, graduating in 1879 as Master of Civil Engineering. His practical training was gained during the same period in the Imperial Survey Department, under Mr. McVean, and as an apprentice in the Government workshops at Akabane. During 1879 he was employed on the construction of the Kyo-to-Otsu Railway, under Messrs. T. R. Shervinton and T. M. Rymer-Jones, and in the following year he was sent by the Government to complete his scientific studies at Glasgow University. After acting as Assistant Resident Engineer on extensions of the Caledonian Railway and assisting in surveys for the watersupply of Huelva, Spain, Mr. Minami returned to Japan in 1883 and received an appointment in the Government Railway service, acting as Resident Engineer on several of the lines which were being built in various parts of the country. In 1889 he accepted the appointment of Chief Engineer to the Sanyo- line, comprising 340 miles of railway between Ko-be and Shimonoseki on the

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Inland Sea and traversing the most thickly populated part of the country. This appointment he retained for 7 years, exchanging it for that of Consulting Engineer to the company in 1896, when he engaged in private practice in partnership with Mr. Murakami. Besides his connection with the railways already mentioned, Mr. Minami was President of the Hankaku Railway, connecting the Inland Sea with the Sea of Japan, and also acted as Consulting Engineer to various other lines. He made two tours in Europe and America for the purpose of studying Western methods of railway organization and management, and the enterprises with which he was connected bear witness to his intelligent appreciation both of broad policy and technical details, and to his ability in successfully applying them to the conditions obtaining in Japan. He had carefully considered the question of the future organization of the Japanese railway system, and had already taken some steps to carry his ideas into effect when he was attacked by the illness which led to his untimely death, regretted by many friends. Mr. Minami was a member of various technical and other societies in Japan.The degree of Doctor of Engineering was conferred on him by To-kyo- University in 1891, and in 1896 he was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 5th December, 1882.56 REFERENCES Amano Ikuo, ‘Sangyo -kakumei-ki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no ikusei-keitai to koyo- -ko- zo- ’ (Formation and distribution of engineering manpower in Japan during the industrial revolution), in Kyo-iku shakai-gaku kenkyu-, vol. 20, 1965, pp. 156–171. Harada Katsumasa, Tetsudo--shi kenkyu- shiron (A tentative theory of the study of railway history), To- kyo- : Nihon Keizai Hyo- ronsha, 1989. Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai (ed.), Ko-gaku hakase Hasegawa Kinsukeden (A biography of Hasegawa Kinsuke, Doctor of Engineering), To- kyo- : Hasegawa hakase-den hensan-kai, 1937. Hayashida Haruo, Edomondo Moreru: Tetsudo- gofushin saisho yori (Edmond Morel: Railway construction from the beginning), To-kyo-: Minerva Shobo-, 2018. ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) (ed.), Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 160, issue 1905, part 2, 1905, 56

Source: ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) (ed.), Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 160, issue 1905, part 2, 1905, pp. 401–402, available at https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/abs/10.1680/ imotp.1905.16907 (accessed 09/03/2021).

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pp. 401–402, available at https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/ abs/10.1680/imotp.1905.16907 Kyu- Ko- bu-dai-gakko- shiryo- hensan-kai (ed.), Kyu- Ko-bu-dai-gakko- shiryo(Historical material of the former Imperial College of Engineering), To- kyo- : Toranomon-kai, 1931. Murai Masatoshi (ed.), Shishaku Inoue Masaru-kun shoden (Biography of Viscount Inoue Masaru, To- kyo- : Inoue shishaku do- zo- kensetu do- shikai, 1915. Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo--gyo- no keisei 1869–1894 (The formation of Japan’s railways 1869–1894), To- kyo- : Nihon Keizai Hyo- ronsha, 1998. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Tetsudo- gijutsu-sha shu-dan no keisei to Ko- bu-daigakko- ,” (The formation of the IGR’s railway engineers’ group and the Imperial College of Engineering), in Suzuki Jun (ed.), Ko-bushoto sono-jidai (The era of the Ministry of Public Works), To- kyo- : Yamakawa Shuppan-sha, 2002. Nakamura Naofumi, ‘Railway Engineers’ Group in Early Meiji Japan’, in Japanese Research in Business History, vol. 28, 2011. Oikawa Yoshinobu, Inoue Masaru (A biography of Inoue Masaru), Kyo- to: Minerva Shobo- , 2013. Nihon tetsudo- kabushiki kaisha enkaku-shi (The history of Nippon Railway Company), vol. 1, (reprint), To- kyo- : Nihon Keizai Hyo- ronsha, 1980. Sawa Kazuya (ed.), Tetsudo-: Meiji so-gyo- kaikodan (Railway: Reflections on its founding in the Meiji period), To- kyo- : Tsukiji Shokan, 1981. Tetsudo- Kensetsu-gyo- Kyo- kai (ed.), Nihon tetsudo- ukeoi-gyo--shi, Meijihen (A history of Japanese railway contractors, Meiji era), To- kyo- : Tetsudo- Kensetsu-gyo- Kyo- kai, 1967. Tetsudo- sho- (Ministry of Railways) (ed.), Nihon tetsudo--shi (History of the Japanese railways), vol. 1, To- kyo- : Tetsudo- sho- , 1921. Tsai Lung-pao, Zhangguchuan Jinjie yu Rizhi shiqi Taiwan tielu de fazhan (Hasegawa Kinsuke and the development of Taiwan’s railway in the Japanese colonial period), in Guoshiguan xueshu jikan, (Bulletin of Academia Historica, Taiwan), vol. 6, 2005. Tsutsumi Ichiro- , Teramachi Yasuaki, Sano Shigeru, Kaji Nobufuji (eds), ‘The Engineer Training School of the Imperial Government Railway of Japan: Its curriculum and graduates’ activities’, in The International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer, 2004, pp. 128–131.

10

Training and Education of Female Silk-reeling Instructors in Meiji Japan SASHINAMI Akiko

–

1. INTRODUCTION

WOMEN TEACHERS TRAINED in the science and skills of silk production made a significant contribution to the development of the Japanese silk-reeling industry in the Meiji period. During the preceding Edo period (1603–1867), the production of raw silk developed as an additional way for farmers to earn income. Sericulture and silk production – except for the cultivation of mulberry trees to feed the silkworms – were the work of women. A single woman would carry out the work of reeling silk: boiling the cocoons in a small pot of hot water over a fire and then twisting the fibres from the cocoons and reeling them onto a reel (Fig. 1). In the 1860s, the demand for Japanese raw silk rose as a substitute for European raw silk, which had been devastated by the epidemic of pébrine, a microsporidian parasitic disease of the silkworm. Driven by export demand, the Japanese silk industry rapidly expanded its production. However, the rapid increase in the number of silk producers – induced by high yarn prices – and the increase in low-quality yarn led to a decline in the reputation of Japanese yarn.The Meiji government, concerned about the loss of profits from the export of raw silk, built European-style silk mills in Japan with government funds and encouraged the establishment of silk mills modelled after them.

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Fig. 1: Oshu--ryu- ito tori zu (Silk reeling style in northeastern Japan during the Edo period). Source: Uegaki Morikuni et al., Yo-san hiroku (chu-) (The secrets of sericulture, vol. 2), 1803 (Kyo-wa 3), National Diet Library, Digital collection https://dl.ndl.go.jp/ info:ndljp/pid/2556953 What is shown in this illustration is usually described as the traditional do-guri reeling method. This method employs a cylindrical device held by a simple wooden frame, turned by the female worker sitting in front of the device working with her right hand. In the basin of hot water, a small number of cocoons are heated to dissolve the gum that binds the filaments together as a cocoon. The filaments are then passed through a ring (made of horsehair or women’s hair) shown at the edge of the basin, and the worker guides them with her left hand to the cylinder on which they are reeled.

It is said that the original silk-reeling instructors were women who learned the Western reeling method at government-run model mills such as the Tomioka Silk Mill, and then taught them to women workers in mills all over Japan. The Tomioka Silk Mill1 was opened in 1872 by a Frenchman, Paul Brunat, who had been hired as a technical director by the government to buy a complete set of equipment in France, and to employ maintenance staff and technical instructors. In response to the govern1

Tomioka Silk Mill is the oldest model silk-reeling factory in Japan, now a World Heritage Site, located in Gunma prefecture around 100 km northwest of To-kyo-.

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ment’s call, women came to work at the Tomioka Silk Filature, learning from French instructors and the Japanese women who had been trained by them.They learned how to sort the cocoons they had purchased in large quantities, how to draw the fibres from cocoons boiled in water and twist them together to make raw silk, and how to reel it onto a spool at the speed of a steampowered machine. They also learned how to reel the yarn onto a large reel, and how to measure the average thickness of the yarn by reeling it to a certain length and weighing it. One of the women who entered the factory the year after it opened recalled that after three days of instruction in a corner of the mill, she worked as a thread spinner, improving her skills and becoming an excellent spinner within nine months.2 The women who received training at the Tomioka Silk Mill taught women at other silk mills in the same way. In the latter half of the Meiji period, the production of raw silk increased, mainly due to the products of the silk mills, and the quality of raw silk required by the American market – the main export market – became higher and higher.Therefore, the training of female silk spinners became even more important. As a result, there was an increasing demand for instructors who not only had the skills to make silk, but also had scientific knowledge about the method. Kiyokawa Yukihiko describes this process as one in which Japan tried to optimize the use of technology introduced from the West within its own environment and market conditions. Kiyokawa notes in particular the rapid increase in demand from the mid1920s to the 1930s for private silk mills with scientifically literate teachers.3 Building on Kiyokawa’s work, this chapter examines the establishment in Japan of training courses for silk instructors with scientific knowledge, and the type of people who attended these courses. The chapter focuses on the training course for silk instructors at the Imperial To- kyo- Sericultural Institute (To- kyoSangyo- Ko- shu-sho), the first attempt of its kind.

2

3

Concerning the life of the women’s workers in a silk mill, see the memoir of Wada Ei, herself a mill worker, later becoming a trainer for younger workers. See Wada Ei, Tomioka nikki, kikai ito kuri koto hajime (Diary in Tomioka Silk Mill – The beginning of machine silk reeling), Maebashi: Miyama bunko, 1985, pp. 23–41. Kiyokawa Yukihiko, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia (Modern silk making technology and Asia), Nagoya: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai, 2009, pp. 191–197, 336.

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2. INTRODUCTION OF EUROPEAN-STYLE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN THE SILK INDUSTRY 2.1 The Naito- Shinjuku Experimental Station (Naito- Shinjuku Shiken-jo-)

The first institution in Japan to carry out scientific research on sericulture and to impart the results of this research was the sericultural laboratory set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Naimusho-) in 1874 as the Naito- Shinjuku Experimental Station (Naito- Shinjuku Shiken-jo-) in To-kyo-. It was headed by Sasaki Nagaatsu, who introduced to Japan the microscopic examination of silkworm seeds developed by Louis Pasteur in France as a measure against particulate diseases. Sasaki was a government official with a background in Western studies. While working at the Ministry of Public Works, he helped set up the Aoi-cho- Silk Mill in To-kyo- (opened in 1873) under the guidance of Caspar Müller from Switzerland, who had previously directed the Maebashi Silk Mill (opened in 1870) and the Tsukiji Silk Mill of the merchant house Ono-gumi (opened in 1871). Sasaki Nagaatsu was then sent as a secretary to the Vienna World’s Fair (1873) and continued his research in Italy, where he visited sericultural schools, silk mills and waste silk mills. He reported on the sericultural school in Padua, which had been set up by the Italian government as a countermeasure against microsporidian diseases (e.g. pébrine); the school taught both male and female trainees the biology of the silkworm body, the microscopic examination of diseased silkworm tissues, and methods of mulberry production and cold-weather sericulture. Based on this experience, Sasaki proposed the establishment of a sericultural school at the Naito- Shinjuku Experimental Station, where he carried out research on sericultural methods and the microscopic examination of silkworms, as well as a waste silk mill at the Shinmachi Spinning Mill that opened in 1877, after he took part in the preparations for its founding.4 In 1876, in accordance with Sasaki’s proposal, the Silk-testing Department was set up with the aim of training teachers of silk production. The department was headed by Marunaka Bunsuke, one of the trainees dispatched to the Vienna World’s Fair, who had mainly studied the silk industry in Italy. More than 260 men and women from various prefectures learned how to make and twist raw silk and inspect silk in the newly established reeling and twisting mills. Only the male students were taught how to construct the machines, train the female 4

Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon no josei to sangyo- kyo-iku (Women and industrial education in Japan), To-kyo-: To-shindo-, 2000, pp. 62–63.

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workers, and supervise them. As originally intended, the graduates of the course became prefectural officials, silk teachers, and silk manufacturers. However, the Naito- Shinjuku Experiment Station was closed in 1879 as part of the government’s efforts to reduce the size of its business, due to financial difficulties following the Civil War.5 2.2 The Sericultural Institute and the proposal of Honda Iwajiro-

It was not until 1902 that governmental authorities once again took up the task of researching the technology of silk production and providing scientific knowledge and skills training to silk-production instructors. In 1884, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce had set up a Silkworm Disease Experiment Station (Sangyo- Shiken-jo- ) to carry out research in the sericultural industry, with a focus on combating microsporidium diseases (e.g. pébrine).6 In 1887, it began to train inspectors of sericultural diseases.This training course took place over a period of three months, teaching those who had experience of sericulture not only the methods of inspecting sericultural seeds,7 but also the techniques necessary for the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. This involved teaching sericulture and more general scientific subjects, including zoology, botany, and chemistry, alongside the methods of silk production. In the subjects of sericulture, breeding and the examination of silkworm seeds, practical work was carried out together with lectures.8 From 1887 to 1889, the course was completed by about 200 to 300 students each year. In 1890, a more intensive training course for sericultural teachers was started, in which about 50 students were trained over a period of nine months.The graduates were expected to popularize a method of mass-producing cheap but high-quality cocoons.9 5

6

7 8

9

Marunaka Bunsuke, ‘O-koku hakurankai-go seishi no jitsureki’ (History of the promotion of the silk industry after the Vienna World’s Fair), in Tanaka Yoshio and Hirayama Shigenobu (eds), O-koku hakurankai sando-kiyo- (Record of participation at the Vienna World’s Fair), 1897. In 1886 it was moved to Nishigahara (To-kyo-, Shimokita Toshima-gun) and changed its name several times until it became the To-kyo- Sericultural Institute (To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu-sho) in 1896. “Seed” is a term used for silkworm eggs in sericultural (re)production. To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- goju-nen-shi (Fifty years’ history of To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshigakko-, 1942, p. 37. In June 1889, at the graduation ceremony of the Sericultural Institute, the Minister of Finance, Matsukata Masayoshi, wished them good luck, since their efforts would lead to an increase in the production of cheap and good-quality raw

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At this time, the number of prefectural sericultural training centres and sericultural schools increased all over the country, and there was a growing demand for a higher level of sericultural education. Therefore, the Sericultural Experiment Station (Sangyo- Shiken-jo) was reorganised and renamed the Sericultural Institute (Sangyo- Ko- shu--jo) in 1896, with the aim of expanding its educational function while retaining its research function. It was expressly stipulated that only male students should attend. The head of the training department was Honda Iwajiro- , who had worked at the Silkworm Disease Experiment Station and the Sericultural Institute since his graduation from the To- kyo- School of Agriculture and Forestry in 1888. He was in charge of training in chemistry, mulberry cultivation, soil, and fertilizer. Between June 1896 and January 1897, immediately after he had been appointed Director of the Training Department, Honda went to the United States – the main market for Japanese raw silk – and then to Europe – the source and consumer of highquality raw silk.10 He submitted his report the following year. Honda believed that unless Japanese raw silk could be produced in a uniform way that did not interrupt work in weaving and twisting mills due to yarn breakage and did not compromise the quality of mass-produced goods, they would have little chance of finding a market in the United States, where wages were high and production efficiency per hour was a major concern. The study of the Italian and French sericulture industries, which were in competition with Japan, pointed out two problems that the Japanese industry needed to address. The first was the improvement of the cocoons. The quality of Japanese raw silk was so inconsistent because it was made from a wider variety of cocoons than those used in Europe. The second problem was the establishment of a research and educational institution for the method of reeling. On the assumption that Japanese cocoons were inferior to European ones in terms of the quality of the fibre and the ease with which the fibre can be broken the report concluded that it was necessary to study methods of reeling silk and to train reeling instructors to cope with this weakness.

10

silk, which in turn would facilitate the purchase of warships from abroad with the proceeds of their export. Honda Iwajiro-, O-Bei sanshi-gyo- shisatsu fukumei-sho (Report of inspection of sericultural industry in Europe and America), No-musho- No-mu-kyoku (Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce), 1897.

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Raw silk is made by twisting together several fibres drawn from cocoons. The biggest problem in terms of quality at that time was spotted yarn. In order to reduce the occurrence of yarn spots, it is necessary to know exactly how many fibres should be twisted together to achieve the desired thickness of the finished raw silk, and to maintain the appropriate number of fibres at all times. Skill is also necessary when adding fibres to the raw silk, and to consider the combination of cocoons, as the thickness of the fibres differs between the inside and the outside of the cocoon. Honda also referred to the efficiency of the silk-making process. He wrote that in France and Italy, a female worker usually handled four or six silk yarns, but that this was impossible in Japan. In the end, it was the teacher who was needed: someone who understood the nature of cocoons and how to make high-quality raw silk, and who had the necessary skills to instruct the women workers in the proper combination of cocoons and working procedures. However, the establishment of such an institution took some time, due to the lack of financial resources of the government. 2.3 Minorikawa Silk-making School11

In 1900, Minorikawa Naosaburo- (1856–1930), inventor of various machines for the manufacture of silk, established a silk-making school in To- kyo- at his own expense. Born into a family of samurai of the Akita domain, he began to work as a sericulturist in 1868. In 1873, he took part in a project for the production of silkworm seeds and their direct export to Italy. In 1878, his companion, who had travelled to Italy on a business trip, sent him a translation of Pasteur’s treatise on silkworm diseases and a microscope to study them. The following year, under the guidance of a local doctor, he began to carry out microscopic examinations of silkworm seeds. After the end of this project, he became an apprentice at the Sericultural Experiment Station in 1887, assisting in its research and educational work, and he became a member of its staff the following year. Around 1892, he developed a silk-reeling machine based on the French machine, in which the female workers were positioned separately to boil the cocoons and draw out the fibres, so that one worker 11

Niwa Shiro- (ed.), Minorikawa Naosaburo- O jiden (Autobiography of Minorikawa Naosaburo-), Minorikawa Saburo-, 1933, pp. 3–49.

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could be responsible for four strands of raw silk. Despite the high praise the French machine received at the 3rd National Industrial Exhibition (1890), some of the mills that had introduced the new machine, such as the Tomioka Silk Mill, were not able to successfully operate the four-strand system. Seeing this, Minori Kawa thought that one of the reasons for the slowdown of the Japanese silk industry was that those involved in the industry relied on their own experience, without basic knowledge of the silkworm and silk industry. He concluded that the solution was to further improve the silk-making methods and the skills of the women workers, and he decided to try to establish a national silk-making school to train silk-making technicians and instructors.12 However, due to a lack of government funding, this was not going to happen soon; thus, in 1900, he invested his own money to set up a silk-reeling school in To- kyo- . The school had a one-year program that was designed to train male foremen and female instructors. Thirteen students enrolled in the main course for men, and 23 students enrolled in the separate course for women, where they studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, drawing, boiler and steam machine handling, economics, sericulture, and bookkeeping, in addition to various theories and practical training related to silk production. Graduates of this course were invited to teach silk production at various silk mills in Japan, as well as by the Government of Siam (present Thailand). However, when the To- kyo- Sericultural Training School (SangyoKo shu--jo) established a new course program in 1902 on silk production to supplement its existing sericulture course, Minorikawa decided that the unique role of his school was no longer needed and closed it down that year. 12

At the 3rd National Industrial Exhibition (1890), the Omi Sumitomo Silk Mill in Shiga Prefecture exhibited a French silk-reeling machine. It had a cord puller and a reel puller that handled four skeins of raw silk, which were wound directly onto a large frame. The machine was equipped with a drying function to prevent the raw silk from sticking to the frame, see Maibara-cho--shi hensan iinkai (ed.), Maibara-cho--shi (History of Maibara), Maibara: Maibara-cho- Yakuba, 2002, pp. 1053–1056. This was changed by Minorikawa, who wound the raw silk onto a small frame and then rewound it onto a large frame. See Sashinami Akiko, ‘Tomioka Seishi-jo- ni okeru “kyo-fu”’ (Silk teachers in Tomika Silk Mill), in: Tomioka-shi (ed.), Tomioka Seishi-jo- josei ro-do- kankyo--to- kenkyu- iinkai ho-koku-sho (Report on research into the working environment for women at the Tomioka Silk Mill), Tomioka-shi, 2020, p. 105.

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3. TRAINING COURSES FOR TEACHERS AT THE TOKYO SERICULTURAL INSTITUTE (SINCE 1914 TOKYO HIGHER SCHOOL OF SERICULTURE) 3.1 Establishment and educational content13

In 1902, the To- kyo- Sericultural Institute (reorganized as the To- kyoHigher School of Sericulture in April 1914) established a new instruction program of silk production, which was called the Filature Department, while the previous instruction program was called the Silkworm Department. Honda Iwajiro- was appointed head of both Departments. In July of the following year, Honda took over the post of director of the school, as the current director died suddenly of illness. He remained there until his death in 1936. The Filature Department was set up to train silk-reeling instructors and silk mill managers in order to improve the silk industry so that it could meet the growing demand for more and better raw materials in the American textile industry, the biggest consumer of Japanese yarn. The department was especially significant in that it provided a training course for teachers who would directly instruct women. The course was free of charge, but students had to pay for their own accommodation and food and provide their own uniforms.14 Honda consulted Imanishi Naojiro- , an engineer at the Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, to decide how best to design the course.15 Imanishi had studied French at the French School in Kyo- to since 1873; after that he studied at the Naito- Shinjuku Experiment Station, and later he had gone to France in 1877 as an overseas student of the Kyo- to Prefectural Government. He enrolled in the Lyon Textile School to study silk making and twisting in order to promote traditional industries. In addition to his studies, he received practical training at a silk mill in Wals, Ardèche (today’s Vals-les-Bains in the Ardèche département, in southern France) and at a public silk inspection station in Aupuna, also in Ardèche.16 He returned to France once more in 1881, and on the occasion of the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, he 13 14

15 16

See To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- goju-nen-shi, pp. 56–58. To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo, To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo ichiran (Calendar of the To-kyoSericulture Training Centre), 1906, pp. 3, 10. See To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- goju-nen-shi, p. 58. Maesawa Terumasa, Kondo- Tokutaro- – Orimono no kyo-iku no senkakusha (Biography of a pioneer of textile education), To-kyo- Chu-o- Ko-ron Jigyo- Shuppan, 2005, pp. 80–97, ‘Kyo-to-fu kangyo--ka yatoi Imanishi Naojiro- cho-hei meneki’ (A case of conscription exemption for Imanishi Naojiro-), in Dajo-kan (ed.), Dajo- ruiten, part 5,

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toured the silk industry and the raw silk market of Europe and the United States, becoming well acquainted with the situation.17 The original six teachers of the filature course had either worked at the aforementioned Tomioka Silk Mill and the Tsukiji Silk Mill of the merchant house Ono-gumi, or had studied at the Naito- Shinjuku Experiment Station, the Silkworm Disease Experiment Station or the Sericultural Institute, before gaining experience as technicians at the silk inspection station or as silk production teachers. The Silkworm Department was only for male students, whereas the Filature Department was divided into the three training courses: first, a three-year regular course for male students with a maximum of 60 students, open to anyone over 17 years of age with a middle-school diploma; second, a two-year regular course for female students with a maximum of 20 students, open to anyone over 18 years of age with at least two years of experience working in the silk industry and a minimum of a higher primary school diploma; third, a ten-month special course for female students with a maximum of 40 students, open to anyone over 20 years of age with at least three years of experience working in the silk industry who had the basic academic qualifications of a primary school graduate (Table 1). Both courses for women were intended for the retraining of experienced workers.18 Table 1: Requirements for applicants for admission (female students) (1906–1907). Regular Course Those who are over eighteen years old

Special Course Those who are over twenty years of age

Those who have been engaged in filatures Those who have been engaged in filatures more than two years more than three years Graduates of the higher course of Primary Graduates of the Primary Schools, or those Schools, or those who have attainments who have attainments equal to, or higher equal to, or higher than those of the said than those of the said graduates. graduates. Source: To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo (ed.), Calendar of the To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo, 1906, pp. 15–16.

17

18

Annual 1881, vol. 27, National Archives of Japan, Digital Archive, https://www. digital.archives.go.jp/ Imanishi Naojiro-, O-Bei sanshi-gyo- shisatsu fukumei-sho (Report on the sericulture industry in Europe and America), Yokohama: Kiito Kensa-jo, 1902. See To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo ichiran, pp. 10–12.

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Table 2: Subjects of study in courses for female students of the Filature Department (1906–1907). Subjects 䅋㗙Lectures

ᇏ㘂Practice

Regular course

Special course

Arithmetic˄㇇㺃˅

噘

噘

Natural science ˄⨶、˅

噘

Book-keeping˄㉯䁈ᆖ˅

噘

Workshop management and hygiene˄ᐕ๤㇑⨶䄆࣭ᐕ ๤㺋⭏䄆˅

噘

Silkworm-rearing ˄伺㳅⌅˅

噘

Stifling and preservation of cocoons˄⇪㴩䋟㒝⌅˅

噘

噘

Filature and mechanism of reeling˄㼭㌨₏Ỡ˅

噘

ƸFilature

Stifling and preservation of cocoons

噘

噘

Examination of cocoons ˄㒝Ὄḫ˅

噘

ƸExamination of cocoons and raw silk

Examination of raw silk ˄⭏㌨Ὄḫ˅

噘

Filature

噘

噘

Finishing of raw silk ˄⭏㌨ᮤ⨶˅

噘

噘

Finishing of waste silk ˄ኁ㒝ᮤ⨶˅

噘

ƸWorkshop Management

Source: To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo (ed.), Calendar of the To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo, 1906, pp. 13.

From the list of subjects in 1906, we can see the knowledge required of silk instructors (Table 2).They learned how to properly process and store raw cocoons, how to make raw silk, and how to inspect the products, as well as how to maintain a comfortable working environment in the factory. They also learned how to use traditional hand-reeling equipment, which were used by farmers as a side-line, as well as how to process waste cocoons, which are not suitable for spinning, into silk floss. This knowledge was also useful

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when they worked as officials in prefectural business departments, rather than in the factories, guiding the farmers’ side-lines. In 1914, the Sericulture Institute’s education department (Filature and Silkworm courses) was transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to the Ministry of Education, and reorganized as the To- kyo- Higher School of Sericulture, a kind of vocational school with the same tuition fees as a normal school. The special course for women was abolished. In 1929, the criteria for admission to the school were set to graduates from junior high or vocational schools for girls, or who were at least 17 years of age with an academic qualification equivalent to that of an upper primary school.19 As such, it could be regarded as one of the few institutions of higher education for women in Japan at that time.20 In this way, the training of women changed from retraining experienced women to training those without experience. This was due to the rapid changes in the methods of reeling and in the reeling machines themselves that reduced the burden on the reelers and increased the efficiency of production, while paying attention to the quality of the raw silk.21 The problem of the unification of various cocoon varieties, which had been an issue for many years, was rapidly being solved around 1914, when the National Sericultural Experimental Station identified a superior one-generation crossbreed silkworm that was robust and easy to breed and had a good ratio of the quantity of cocoons to the quantity of silk produced. The production and use of first-generation hybrids spread rapidly, since some of the private silk mills also independently selected the best cocoons and distributed them to the farmers.22 With regard to the problem of cocoon release, the highly effective method of dividing cocoon production into separate operations was becoming more and more widespread following a workshop organized by the Sericultural Experiment Station of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in 1915. The demand from the market was a strong impetus; the Law on the Inspection of Raw Silk for Export was enacted in 1926, and the improvement of yarn spotting became an urgent task by the 19

20

21 22

See To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- goju-nen-shi, pp. 166–172, 176–179; To-kyo- Ko-toSanshi-gakko- ichiran, 1925, p. 56. See To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- ichiran, 1925, p. 55; To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- ichiran, 1929, p. 50. See Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, pp. 200–202. See Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, pp. 106–107.

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Fig. 2: The multi-strand spinning machine developed by Minorikawa Naosaburo-. The principle of silk reeling is similar to the traditional process (as shown in Fig. 1), but mechanically this model is much more sophisticated and requires special training of the workers. Source: Tomioka-shi, Okano Masae (eds), Tomioka seishi-jo – keisho- sareru kakushin no rekishi (Tomioka silk mill – The inherited tradition and innovation),To-kyo-: Echelle-1, 2020, p. 59.

following year. Minorikawa Naosaburo-, who had been working on the development of a multi-strand spinning machine since the 1890s, perfected a slow-speed multi-strand spinning machine in 1925, which was put into practical use around 1929. In order to adapt to the new machine and method, it was necessary to change the way the women workers operated and to standardise movement sequences. As a paper published in 1911 pointed out, experienced workers – who moved their bodies without being conscious of it – found it more difficult than inexperienced workers to follow instructions when they were told to move in a different way.23 It became a requirement for the women 23

An article of Machida Yuzuru in Sangyo- shinpo- (Sericulture news magazine), no. 222, 1911. Machida was one of the original teachers of the Filature Department.

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Fig. 3: The multi-strand spinning machine of the Minorikawa type at the world’s silk expo in Philadelphia in 1925. The photo shows two Minorikawa type machines and two female instructors demonstrating their use to the audience at the World Exhibition. Source: Niwa Shiro- (ed.), Minorikawa Naosaburo- O to sono jiseki (Minorikawa Naosaburoand his achievements),Tokyo: Minorikawa Naosaburo- O denki kanko--kai, 1960.

teachers to understand the meaning of the movements based on scientific knowledge and to be able to follow instructions, and to instruct women workers in the same way. This change is also confirmed by the courses of study. At the end of the period of the To-kyo- Sericultural Training School (To-kyoSangyo- Ko-shu--jo) in 1914, the main course for women consisted of seven to eight hours a week of lectures and 60–90 hours of practical training (including 41–67 hours of practical training in silk production and an indefinite number of hours in factory management), consisting of many ordinary subjects such as arithmetic and science, as well as specialized subjects that were necessary for supervising the work of a silk factory. Many of the graduates of the course devoted themselves not to correcting the silk-making techniques of experienced workers, but to training newcomers and to establishing standard movements; see above, Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, p. 212.

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It is not possible to compare the women’s course with the men’s course, because the practical training in sericulture or factory management may have been of an indefinite duration; it is, however, clear that the men’s course with 15–26 hours of lectures per week was very different from the women’s course, which was mainly practical. The women’s special course had even fewer subjects and fewer hours of practical training.24 The reason for the lower number of hours of practical training in the special course was probably that the skills required at the time of entry were higher than for the women’s regular course. When the school was reorganized in 1914, the number of hours of lectures slightly increased to nine hours per week, with the addition of shu-shin (moral training) and Japanese. In 1934, the number of hours of lectures increased to 13 hours per week, and the number of practical experiments increased to three days of spinning practice (30 hours per week, assuming 10 hours per day) and eight hours of other experiments.25 The change was probably due to the fact that multi-strand looms had started to be introduced and the number of hours needed to improve the skills to manage such looms was decreasing. Some of the leading silk manufacturers, who were eager to introduce new machines, employed school-educated instructors to teach the female workers, and sometimes their pupils became new instructors, thus increasing the number of instructors. For medium and small-scale mills, the prefecture sometimes subsidized the cost of hiring school-educated instructors. 3.2 Graduates and alumni associations

In the 50 years between 1903, when the Filature Department started to take in students and 1951, when it was discontinued, 1,211 students graduated from this Department. When the first graduates arrived in 1904, it was difficult for them to find work, but by 1912 there were more than enough jobs to meet the demand.26 24

25

26

To-kyo- No-ko- Daigaku do-so-kai seishi bukai joshibu kinen jigyo- kai (ed.), Seishi kyo-fu-shi: Kinu no musubi (History of silk teachers), To-kyo-: To-kyo- No-ko- Daigaku do-so-kai seishi, 1982, p. 76. In addition to this, there was also practical training in a factory which had no fixed time for implementation. Honda’s speech on the graduation ceremony in Nishigahara joshi sanyu--kai-ho(Nishigahara Women’s Silkworm Friends’ Association Bulletin), no. 12, 1913, pp. 68–69.

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Looking at the place of employment of the 480 female students (out of a total of 483 students), who had graduated in 1916, 20% worked for public sector including schools, while 37% worked for the private sector, such as silk mills, or ran their own silk company (Table 3). Of these, 25% (124) were ‘silk mill workers’, who may have worked as teachers at silk mills. Those who became officials of the prefectures were sent to small and medium-sized silk mills as travelling teachers. They also taught local women at workshops, and some of them became silk teachers. It is known that many of the silk mills which employed graduates relatively early on were keen to improve the quality of their raw silk. The fact that 7% of the graduates of the special course were already owners or managers of silk companies indicates that there were a certain number of people who entered the course because they thought it would help the family business. A large percentage (28%) of the graduates did not report their present occupation; considering that being a teacher in the private sector meant a difficult routine of working from early morning to late at night and living in dormitories, it is not surprising that a number of them retired. Table 3: Occupation of graduates of the To-kyo- Sericultural Training School (1903–1916). Regular course

Special course

Total

Government officials

14

18

32

Local officials

23

34

57

School, institute

4

3

7

Company staff

8

15

23

Factory workers

31

93

124

Factory owner

4

31

35

Unknown

36

125

161

Deceased

8

33

41

128

352

480

Total

Source: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- sanju-nen-shi (Thirty years of history of the To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture) To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshigakko-, 1916, p. 25.

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(a)

(b)

Figs 4a and 4b: The training of future female instructors on the different devices in various work processes. Source: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- sanju-nen-shi (Thirty years’ history of To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko-, 1916.

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In addition, Kiyokawa examined the first employment of graduates throughout the entire period of the Filature Department’s existence and found that 42.8% of the special course graduates and 22.2% of the regular course graduates (33% of the total) found their first job in their home prefecture. This suggests that the majority of graduates were not dispatched by companies, but rather enrolled at their own expense.27 According to Miyoshi’s examination of the system of vocational education for women, the descriptions in vocational guides for women show that, at a time when work in textile mills – including in spinning – was not regarded as a desirable occupation for women, school-educated spinning workers were highly regarded as professionals.28 In a job guide published in 1908, Honda invited students to apply, saying that it would contribute to the production of the important Japanese export of raw silk, and that it was a lucrative job that paid more than teaching in primary schools.29 In a 1904 speech to the first class of graduating teachers, Honda stressed the need for women to gain knowledge and become active in industry in order to change the trend of male chauvinism, and emphasized that the job could help improve the social status of women. When the Empress resumed sericulture in the Imperial Palace in 1908, Honda paid his respects to her by leading the excellent students to the Palace every year to produce silk and cotton from the cocoons of the silkworms she had cared for (Fig. 5).30 In view of all this, it seems likely that the women who went to this training course for teachers were those who had a certain financial means and were sensitive to the social reputation of their work. The Nishigahara Women’s Silkworm Friends’ Association (Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai), an alumni association, was formed by volunteers among current students who wished to make use 27 28 29

30

See Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, pp. 198–200. See Miyoshi, Nihon no josei to sangyo- kyo-iku, pp. 66–72. Teshima Masuo (ed.), Joshi no shin shokugyo- (Women’s new occupations), To-kyo-: Shin Ko-ronsha, 1908, pp. 42–44. Between 1871 and 1873, Empress Haruko of the Meiji Emperor started to raise silkworms in the Imperial Palace as a symbol of the promotion of sericulture following an ancient Chinese ritual, but this was stopped by fire. In 1908, the Crown Princess resumed this activity. Every year about five of the excellent students of the female silk teachers’ course came to the Imperial Palace to work on silk and cotton production. See To-kyo- No-ko- Daigaku (ed.) Seishi kyo-fu-shi: Kinu no musubi, pp. 23–57.

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Fig. 5: Female students who went to the Palace to produce silk in 1917.The imperial family had always encouraged sericulture, and the Empress was actually practising it in the Imperial Palace in To-kyo-. Photo: Courtesy Okonogi Etsuko; originally in the possession of Uda Kiyo, who was one of the girls; Uda Kiyo graduated in 1917.

of the association in their work after graduation. They came up with the idea when one of the special course students, who had graduated before them, told them about the trouble she had when she was unexpectedly asked to give a speech at work. And it was Honda who advised them that an alumni association would be useful for the purpose and that he would refer to the men’s alumni association. The alumni association was formed with current students and graduates as members and teaching staff as supporting members. In the biannual (later, once a year) bulletin Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kaiho-), the women contributed information that was useful for their work, such as regarding the facilities and management of their places of employment and how to deal with the workers. They also discussed their own recent activities in order to promote friendship and physical and mental training.31 Some of the graduates visited the school to discuss their problems at work or to seek advice on where to change jobs. 31

See the article on ‘The launching ceremony and the feelings’ of Kamo Maki, a first-year student of the special course in Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai-ho-, no. 1, 1904, pp. 11–12.

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4. GRADUATES OF TEACHER TRAINING COURSES WORKING ABROAD 4.1 Siam (present-day Thailand)

In September 1902, two teachers from the Minorikawa Silk Manufacturing School were sent to Ayutthaya, a city in today’s central Thailand.32 They were part of the Japanese Sericultural Advisory Mission, headed by renowned geneticist Toyama Kametaro-. In 1898, Japan and Siam established a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Inagaki Manjiro-, the first Minister to Siam, made a report in English addressed to the King of Siam’s brother in 1901 that recommended the promotion of sericulture and the improvement of sericultural techniques on the Japanese model. Since yarn of native cocoons in Siam was of poor quality, it was thought to be necessary to crossbreed the silk moths with Japanese moths to improve the variety. For this reason, plans were made to carry out the improvement of silk moth varieties and practical training in sericultural reeling at three locations: the main office in Bangkok, the Siamese capital, and at sericultural experiment stations in the provinces. Basic scientific education was also provided to train the professionals in Ayutthaya. The role of the teachers was to give the girls practical training in silk reeling and sericulture using a treadle loom, and to test the reeling of the cocoons that were obtained from the breeding process. The two teachers from the Minorikawa Silk Manufacturing School stayed for three years, until September 1905, when they were succeeded by two graduates of the To-kyo- Sericultural Training School (one from the main course in 1904 and the other from a separate course), who stayed until 1908. In the end, the project was abandoned after the death of the members of the Thai Royal Family who had been promoting it, and the Sericultural Experimental Station was closed down in 1913.33 32

33

See Niwa, Minorikawa Naosaburo- O jiden, p. 48. They were among the five people hired by the Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station in 1901, when it purchased ten French silk-reeling machines to test them. See Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Yokohama Kiito Kensa-jo rokuju-nen shi (Sixty years of the Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station), Yokohama: Yokohama Kiito Kensa-jo, 1959, p. 61. Yoshikawa Toshiharu, ‘Shamu-koku sangyo- komon gishi’ (The consulting engineer for the sericultural industry of Siam/Ayutthaya – Technical assistance to Southeast Asia in the Meiji Period), To-nan Ajia kenkyu-, no. 18, 3, 1980. The name of Siam was changed to Thailand in 1939.

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4.2 Korea

In December 1905, Japan established the Joseon Inspectorate. In the following year, it set up a model industrial complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, which was open to the public. In June 1909, the Empress of Korea visited the Silkworm Testing Centre to observe the model operations of the silk industry, including the production of silk floss and the manufacture of silk. The demonstration was given by a female graduate of the To-kyo- Sericultural Institute, who had been appointed to the post by her alma mater. In the same year, the Korean Imperial Family also began to cultivate silkworms in the Imperial Palace, calling for the encouragement of the sericultural industry throughout the country.34 In 1910, the Yongsan Branch of the Imperial Silkworm Training Centre, which was in charge of the silkworm industry, began offering courses for women. The course lasted eight months for a total of 28 students, including those recommended by the local authorities, those who had passed the selection examination, and those who had taken the course at their own expense. The 25 students who passed the examination were given diplomas. The course consisted of lectures on five subjects – shu-shin (moral training), Japanese language, arithmetic, sericulture, and spinning – and practical training in sericulture, breeding, and spinning. In the following year, the period of practical training was extended to 10 months, with the addition of practical training in silkworm breeding and waste management. By March 1927, the number of female sericultural technicians trained in the course had reached 386.35 In 1912, the Japanese Governor-General of Korea issued an instruction on the encouragement of the silkworm industry, which he hoped would develop into a powerful side industry. He set up the Hara Silkworm Breeding Factory in 1914, and in 1925, he planned to increase the production of cocoons in order to supply the Japanese silk industry with raw materials.36 According to reports from the alumni bulletin of the Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai, the demographics of the graduates of the training 34

35

36

Cho-sen so-toku-fu kangyo- mohan-jo- ho-koku (Report of the Korean GovernorGeneral’s Office), no. 4, 1910, p. 1. See also no. 5, 1911, pp. 1–3, 324–325; Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai-ho-, no. 9, 1909, pp. 30–32. Cho-sen So-toku-fu Shokusan-kyoku, Cho-sen no no-gyo- (Agriculture in Korea), 1927, p. 139. Shimojo- Hideo, ‘Kankoku no keizai hatten to sanshi-gyo-’ (Korea’s economic development and the sericultural industry), in Josai keizai gakkai-shi, vol. 7, no. 1, 1971, pp. 214–285.

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course for silk masters in To-kyo-, who were employed in Korea were: 4 Japanese (at the model silk industry factory, the women’s silk industry training institute, and the original silk breeding factory) and 14 Koreans (3 at the original breeding factory, 3 at the silk industry training institute, 3 at the agricultural experiment station, 3 at the silk manufacturing company, and 2 at other companies).37 After 1927, the last year with a record of Japanese graduates, all the students came from Korea. With the exception of the period from 1926 to 1932, the number of female Korean students in the Filature Department was almost one every year, and it can be said that they returned to their home country to take up jobs supporting the promotion of the sericultural industry in Korea. 4.3 China

At the end of the Qing dynasty, after China’s defeat in the SinoJapanese War (1894–1895), there was a growing interest in the Japanese educational system – including in the silkworm industry. Silkworm schools were established in the traditional cocoonproducing areas of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and other provinces, where education was provided by Japanese teachers and short-term students. At the same time, the number of students studying in Japan also increased, and dozens of students from Sichuan, Hubei, and other provinces, where the movement for the improvement of the silkworm and silk industry was active, came to Japan in groups and enrolled in medium-level sericultural schools. The To-kyo- Sericultural Training Institute had been accepting students from China since 1900 for men and 1905 for women. After it was reorganized as the To-kyo- Higher Sericultural School in 1914, as an establishment of higher education, there were many applicants. In 1926, as director of the school, Honda requested the government to take into consideration the fact that the continued difficulty of admission would be a hindrance to the future development of sericultural agriculture in China, and that a special preparatory course system should be established. The percentage of foreign students who were able to graduate was only about 70%; during the whole period, only 45 male and 14 female Chinese students graduated.38 Many of them worked in the field of sericultural education; others worked in the sericultural experiment 37 38

Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai-ho-, Annual 1934, 1937, and 1939. Zhou Yichuan, ‘Chu-goku-jin josei no Nihon ryu-gaku-shi kenkyu-’ (The History of Chinese women’s study in Japan), in Kokusho kanko--kai, 2000, p. 166.

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station or in private silk mills and breeding factories, thus contributing to the development of the Chinese silk industry.39 Of the 14 graduates of the training course for silk-dressers (see Table 4), 6 were known to be employed: three of them at the Provincial Women’s Sericultural School in Jiangsu Province, two at other schools, and one at Jinling University. Table 4: Chinese graduates of female silk teacher training courses (To-kyo- Sangyo- ko-shu--jo – To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko-). Year of graduation

Name

Workplace (year of confirmation)

1907

Pan Ying

unknown

1909

Hu Ningyuan

unknown

1909

Li Zhezi

unknown

1911

Liu Qichao

unknown

1916

Zhang Lixia

Tomioka Silk Mill (1916), Hu Shu Guan Provincial Women’s Sericulture School, Jiangsu Province (1924, 1928)

1920

Zao Fan

unknown

1921

Zhou Daipei

Sichuan Guang’an Prefectural Junior High School (1934)

Girls

1921

Chen Fuzhang

unknown

1922

Zhang xian

Hu Shu Guan Provincial Women’s Sericulture School, Jiangsu Province (1924), Wuxi Yongsheng Silk Mill, Jiangsu Province (1938)

1923

Fei Dasheng

Hu Shu Guan Provincial Women’s Sericulture School, Jiangsu Province (1924), Wuxi Yongsheng Silk Mill, Jiangsu Province (1938)

1925

Chen Xuanzhao

unknown

1926

Wu Xueqian

Nanjing Jinling University, Jiangsu Province (1934, 1938)

1927

Luo Zhongping

Zhejiang Hangzhou Women’s Sericulture School (1934), Provincial Women’s Vocational School, Anqing, Anhui Province (1938)

1935

Han Huiqing

unknown

Source: Zhou Yichuan, Chu-goku-jin josei no Nihon ryu-gaku-shi kenkyu- (History of Chinese women’s study in Japan), To-kyo-: Kokusho kanko--kai, 2000, p. 163. Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai (ed.), Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai-ho- (Nishigahara Women’s Silkworm Friends’ Association Bulletin), Annual 1916, 1924, 1928, 1934 and 1938. 39

Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, pp. 340–344.

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The Provincial Girls’ Sericultural School of Jiangsu Province is known for its remarkable activity in the promotion of one-generation hybrids in China from the 1920s onwards.40 In the period between 1926 and 1928, Shirasawa Miki set up a large refrigeration system there, and the school began to raise and distribute artificially hatched autumn silkworms. In addition, a silkworm breeding centre and a communal breeding centre for young silkworms were set up, and women instructors provided detailed guidance in these facilities.The sericultural farmers, often wary of new methods, were reassured by this support. Nearly all of the hundreds of instructors at the training centres were graduates of the Provincial Girls’ Sericultural School. They were not employed on a temporary basis, as they had to work outside the silkworm-farming season in tasks such as making silkworm-farming tools and teaching sericulture; their income sometimes exceeded that of male labourers. These women were trained by graduates of the training course for teachers and nurses in To- kyo- .Women had greater authority and were paid more than those in Japan because, according to Japanese newspapers of the time, it was only women who could approach and instruct the women farmers involved in sericulture, and there was an atmosphere of women’s liberation that was unique to the Republic of China that had been created by the revolution of 1911.41 Hi Tatsu-sei (in Chinese Feng Dasheng) was a graduate of the class of 1923 of the Filature Department in To-kyo-, and later taught at the Provincial Girls’ Sericultural School in Jiangsu Province. According to her, she herself had been a graduate of this school and, after studying in Jiangsu for four years, had gone to Japan to study supported by funds from the provincial government. After six months of studying in Japan, she became proficient in the Japanese language and entered the school in To-kyo- in March 1921, along with two of her classmates from the Girls’ Sericultural School in Jiangsu. They were instructed to specialize in sericulture, so they moved to the Ueda Sericultural School in Nagano prefecture.They became teachers at their Chinese alma mater after completing their Chinese studies in Japan.42 After returning to the Girl’s Sericultural 40 41

42

Kiyokawa, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia, p. 308. Uehara Shigemi, ‘Osorubeki Shina sanshi-gyo- no hiyaku’ (Fearsome leap of the Chinese sericultural industry), in Chu-gai Sho-gyo- Shinpo-, 28 August 1929 –1 September 1929. Ko-be University Library Digital Archive, http://www.lib.kobe-u. ac.jp/das/jsp/en/ContentViewM.jsp?METAID=00223754&TYPE=IMAGE_ FILE&POS=1&LANG=EN Zhou, ‘Chu-goku-jin josei no Nihon ryu-gaku-shi kenkyu-’, pp. 445–455.

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School, Hi Tatsu-sei went to the countryside to teach sericulture and work on the construction of silk mills, taking part in all aspects of the process – from design to management. She had happened to see an experimental multi-spindle spinning machine at the To-kyoHigher School of Silkworms, and she succeeded in imitating it from memory on her return from Japan; this was probably the result of her careful study of the whole process of silk production in Japan. 4. CONCLUSION

The training of Japanese silk masters was born out of a trial-anderror process to find a way to produce yarn that was as good as the more highly regarded Italian and French yarns, while the main export market for Japanese raw silk was the United States. The design and realisation of the training course for teachers was based on the need, since the beginning of the Meiji period, for a greater number of people who were familiar with the nature of Japanese cocoons and with the actual production of Japanese raw silk, and who could understand it based on scientific knowledge, as a result of the industrial policy. The women who chose to study in the training course for silk workers at the To- kyo- Sericultural Training Institute were required to have a certain level of experience in silk production, and they had the financial means to live in dormitories in To- kyo- . In this way, they were different from the women who worked in the silk mills. This was particularly the case when, with changes in the machinery and methods of silk production, experience with working in a silk mill was no longer a requirement for admission. Graduates of the training courses for silk masters in Japan also worked in Siam, China, Korea, and – though not discussed in this article – in India. In Siam and Korea, the students returned to their home countries to transmit the results of their research in the Japanese silk industry as well as the methods of teaching it. In China, on the other hand, it was not only the teachers but also the women who had been trained by them who acted as full-time instructors in the improvement of sericultural methods. REFERENCES: Cho sen sotoku-fu kangyo mohan-jo- ho-koku (Report of the Korean Governor-General’s Office), no. 4, 1910, p. 1. See also no. 5, 1911, pp. 1–3, 324–325.

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Cho-sen So-toku-fu Shokusan-kyoku, Cho-sen no no-gyo- (Agriculture in Korea), 1927. Honda Iwajiro-, O-Bei sanshi-gyo- shisatsu fukumei-sho (Report of inspection of sericultural industry in Europe and America), No-mushoNo-mu-kyoku (Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce), 1897. Imanishi Naojiro-, O-Bei sanshi-gyo- shisatsu fukumei-sho (Report on the sericulture industry in Europe and America), Yokohama: Kiito Kensa-jo, 1902. Kamo Maki, ‘The launching ceremony and the feelings’, in Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu--kai-ho-, no. 1, 1904, pp. 11–12. Kiyokawa Yukihiko, Kindai seishi gijutsu to Ajia (Modern silk making technology and Asia), Nagoya: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai, 2009. ‘Kyo-to-fu kangyo--ka yatoi Imanishi Naojiro- cho-hei meneki’ (A case of conscription exemption for Imanishi Naojiro-), in Dajo-kan (ed.), Dajo- ruiten, part 5, Annual 1881, vol. 27, National Archives of Japan, Digital Archive, https://www.digital.archives.go.jp/ Maesawa Terumasa, Kondo- Tokutaro- – Orimono no kyo-iku no senkakusha (Kondo- Tokutaro-. Biography of a pioneer of textile education), To-kyo- Chu- o- Ko-ron Jigyo- Shuppan, 2005. Maibara-cho--shi hensan iinkai (ed.), Maibara-cho--shi (History of Maibara), Maibara:-Maibara-cho- Yakuba, 2002. Marunaka Bunsuke, ‘O-koku hakurankai-go seishi no jitsureki’ (History of the promotion of the silk industry after the Vienna - World’s Fair), in Tanaka Yoshio and Hirayama Shigenobu (eds), O-koku hakurankai sando-kiyo- (Record of participation at the Vienna World’s Fair), 1897. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon no josei to sangyo- kyo-iku (Women and industrial education in Japan), To-kyo-: To-shindo-, 2000. Nishigahara joshi sanyu--kai-ho- (Nishigahara Women’s Silkworm Friends’ Association Bulletin), no. 12, 1913. Niwa Shiro- (ed.), Minorikawa Naosaburo- O jiden (Autobiography of - , 1933. Minorikawa Naosaburo), Minorikawa Saburo Niwa Shiro- (ed.), Minorikawa Naosaburo- O to sono jiseki (Minorikawa - and his achievements), To-kyo-: Minorikawa NaosaburoNaosaburo O denki kanko--kai, 1960. Sashinami Akiko, ‘Tomioka Seishi-jo- ni okeru “kyo-fu”’ (Silk teachers in Tomika Silk Mill), in: Tomioka-shi (ed.), Tomioka Seishi-jo- josei ro-do- kankyo--to- kenkyu- iinkai ho-koku-sho (Report on research into the working environment for women at the Tomioka Silk Mill), Tomioka-shi, 2020. Shimojo- Hideo, ‘Kankoku no keizai hatten to sanshi-gyo-’ (Korea’s economic development and the sericultural industry), in Josai keizai gakkai-shi, vol. 7, no. 1, 1971, pp. 214–285. Teshima Masuo (ed.), Joshi no shin shokugyo- (Women’s new occupations), To-kyo-: Shin Ko-ronsha, 1908. To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- sanju-nen-shi (Thirty years’ history of the To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture) To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko-, 1916.

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To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- goju-nen-shi (Fifty years’ history of To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko-, 1942. To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko-, To-kyo- Ko-to- Sanshi-gakko- ichiran (Calendar of To-kyo- Higher School of Sericulture), 1925 and 1929. To-kyo- No-ko- Daigaku do-so-kai seishi bukai joshibu kinen jigyo- kai (ed.), Seishi kyo-fu-shi: Kinu no musubi (History of silk teachers), To-kyo-: To-kyo- No-ko- Daigaku do-so-kai seishi, 1982. Tomioka-shi, Okano Masae (eds), Tomioka seishi-jo – keisho- sareru kakushin no rekishi (Tomioka silk mill – The inherited tradition and innovation), To-kyo-: Echelle-1, 2020. Tokyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu- -jo, To-kyo- Sangyo- Ko-shu--jo ichiran (Calendar of the To-kyo- Sericulture Training Centre), 1906. Uegaki Morikuni et al., Yo-san hiroku (chu-) (The secrets of sericulture, vol. 2), 1803 (Kyo-wa 3), National Diet Library, Digital collection https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2556953 Uehara Shigemi, ‘Osorubeki Shina sanshi-gyo- no hiyaku’ (Fearsome leap of the Chinese sericultural industry), in Chu-gai Sho-gyoShinpo-, 28 August 1929 – 1 September 1929. Ko-be University Library Digital Archive, http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/das/jsp/ en/ContentViewM.jsp?METAID=00223754&TYPE=IMAGE_ FILE&POS=1&LANG=EN Wada Ei, Tomioka nikki: kikai ito kuri koto hajime (Diary in Tomioka Silk Mill – The beginning of machine silk reeling), Maebashi: Miyama bunko, 1985. Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Yokohama kiito kensa-jo rokuju--nen shi (Sixty years of the Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Station), Yokohama: Yokohama Kiito Kensa-jo, 1959. Yoshikawa Toshiharu, ‘Shamu-koku sangyo- komon gishi’ (The consulting engineer for the sericultural industry of Siam/Ayutthaya – Technical assistance to Southeast Asia in the Meiji Period), To-nan Ajia kenkyu-, no. 18, 3, 1980. Zhou Yichuan, ‘Chu- goku-jin josei no Nihon ryu- gaku-shi kenkyu- ’ (The History of Chinese women’s study in Japan), in Kokusho kanko--kai, 2000.

11

The Establishment and Curriculum of the To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- (To-kyo- Vocational School) in Meiji Japan1 TODA Kiyoko

–

1. INTRODUCTION

THE

CONCEPT OF

a formalized industrial education2 began to develop in Japan with the establishment of the Ministry of Public Works (Ko- busho- ) in 1870 (Meiji 3). It was part of the government policy aiming at the advancement of industrialization, and developing Japan into a modern nation comparable to the countries of Western Europe. The government started its efforts to promote top-level technical education by hiring foreign teachers to train senior engineers. This led to the foundation of the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-gaku-ryo-, Ko-bu-dai-gakko-, ICE) under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works. Teaching began in 1873 and aimed at introducing modern industrial technology, which was

1

2

This chapter is an abbreviated and modified version of a Japanese article by the author. See Toda Kiyoko, ‘To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- no seiritsu to tenkai. Ko-gyokyo-iku seido no kaho- kakuju- wo megutte’ (The foundation and development of To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-. On the downward expansion of the industrial education system), in Nara kenritsu Daigaku kenkyu- kiho-, Chiiki so-zo--gaku kenkyu- XIII, vol. 22, no. 3, 2011, pp. 61–92. Editors’ note: The English terms ‘industrial’ and ‘technical’ education are used in translation of various Japanese terms ko-gyo--, sangyo--, gigei-, gijutsu-kyo-iku in different texts with different connotations, and sometimes also interchangeably for technical education. In this text the author mostly uses ‘industrial education’. 279

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‘unprecedented in Japan’.3 The training of senior engineers at ICE achieved its first results from around 1880, when students educated at the school graduated as engineers and teachers. In response to this, officials of the Ministry of Education (Monbusho-), who had until then focused mainly on general education, gradually recognized the need to train intermediate-level engineers, as well as the need for institutions for secondary industrial education. Several officials undertook concrete measures to systematize such technical education.4 The expansion of industrial education downward from the education of senior engineers to the training of intermediate-level engineers reflects the rise of modern industry and the establishment of a capitalist society in Japan, centred on the policy of industrial development. The education policy was not only geared towards the expansion and maintenance of technical education institutions, but reflects a strong awareness of the need for a continuous technical education that should already start below the level of higher technical education. In other words, a consistent hierarchy for the training of engineers was envisioned to meet the needs of industry, comprising the training of senior engineers, intermediate-level engineers such as foremen (shokko--cho-) and managers of manufacturing facilities (ko-jo- keieisha), as well as lower-level technical workers and craftsmen (shokko-). It was regarded as an urgent task to spread this message widely in society and train many industrial engineers. This was partly successful, as the historian Ishizuka Hiromichi confirms: With the retreat of the government-employed foreign engineers at the end of the 1880s, a large number of low-level technical workers (shokko-) were trained by senior technical instructors (ko--shi) and instructors of vocational schools (shokko--cho-) to master Western-style industrial technology. This, together with the re-organization of the 3

4

Petition to the Dajo-kan, cited in Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Report on the development of the Ministry of Public Works), reprinted in Okurasho(ed.), Meiji zenki zaisei keizai shiryo shusei (Collection of historical materials on finance and economy of the early Meiji period), vol. 17, no. 1, To-kyo-: Kaizo-sha, 1931, p. 7. For the positions of the Ministry of Public Affairs and the Ministry of Education in the development of the educational system, see Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku kikan no seiritsu to tenkai. Ko-bu-, Monbu- ryoshono hikaku wo chu-shin ni’ (The establishment and development of institutions for technical education in early Meiji period. A comparison between the two Ministries of Public Works and Education), in Nara kenritsu Daigaku kenkyu- kiho-, vol. 15, nos. 2–3, 2004, pp. 33–44.

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administrative staff in the wake of the dismantling of the shogunate system, led to a reversal of fortunes in the formation of the Japanese engineering profession. However, this fact cannot be immediately regarded as the end of subordination to Western production technology and the achievement of independence in technology.5

While the occupational structure of industrial engineers in the early Meiji period resembled an inverted pyramid focusing on the training of senior engineers, it shifted to a conventional pyramidal structure, in which the majority of workers at the end of the 1880s were lower-ranking technical staff. So, after establishing the higher technical education institutions, government officials focused on setting up secondary industrial education institutions.The focus of this chapter is the To-kyo- Vocational School (To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-).6 Founded in 1881 by the Ministry of Education, this school played a central role in the establishment and development of secondary industrial education in Japan. There can be no doubt that officials generally strove to overcome the limitations of technical training methods in the traditional apprenticeship system inherited from the Edo period, and at the same time establish a thorough education as a means for poverty prevention, especially among young people. However, at the core of this secondary industrial education concept was the To-kyo- craftsman, as is also clear from the name To-kyo- Vocational School (To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-): shokko- means craftsman and (since the Meiji period) factory worker. This school was founded with a focus on training a broader stratum of intermediate-level engineers, master craftsmen, foremen and managers of manufacturing facilities, who would form the link that connected the senior engineers and the technical workers and craftsmen, with the aim to support full-scale industrialization. It was the first (and for quite some time the only) independent secondary industrial school in the field of intermediate-level technical education in Japan. Following the retirement of the school’s first principal, Masaki Taizo- (1846–1896),Tejima Seiichi (1850–1918) a former official of 5

6

Ishizuka Hiromichi, Nihon shihon-shu-gi seiritsu-shi kenkyu- – Meiji kokka to shokusan ko-gyo- seisaku (A study on the history of the establishment of Japanese capitalism: The Meiji state and the policy of industrial development), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 1973, p. 172. Editors’ note: To-kyo- Vocational School is the official translation for To-kyoShokko--gakko- in publications and on the homepage of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology (To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku), the successor of the To-kyo- Vocational School.

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the Ministry of Education and promotor of industrial education, became the second principal of the school in 1890. He soon began to reform the school regulations and curriculum. He also changed the name of the school first to To-kyo- Ko-gyo--gakko- (To-kyo- Technical School) and then, in 1901 to To-kyo- Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko- (To-kyoHigher Technical School). He developed the school into an institution that played an important part in the industrial education in Japan. It is the predecessor of the present-day To-kyo- Institute of Technology (To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku). During his term as principal of the To-kyo- Vocational School, Tejima Seiichi strongly promoted the development of industrial education.7 With reference to Tejima’s educational philosophy, the chapter analyses the establishment and development of secondary industrial education and the requirements in industrial practice in the ‘real world’. The focus is on education in the To-kyo- Vocational School, where Tejima envisioned, and practised in his teachings, an awareness of the need to continue general education in parallel with technical education, and to integrate science and practice. To gain a better understanding, it is necessary to investigate the background of the school’s establishment and its curriculum, as well as the major revision of the curriculum after the school changed its purpose and its name to the To-kyo- Technical School. An important point is the emphasis on general and technical education8 claimed by Tejima. The question is how the continuity of the above and the integration of science and practice were reflected in the curriculum, and how it was realized in practice. One of the clues is the meaning of the terms ‘technique’ (gigei) and ‘handicraft’ (shuko-) used by Tejima in his editorials, and also ‘technical education’ (gigei kyo-iku). By clarifying the characteristics of industrial education as practised in the school, one can see how the expansion of secondary industrial education institutions was positioned in the industrialization process of Japan. 7

8

For more information about Tejima Seiichi’s educational ideas and achievements, see Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru kyo-iku hakubutsukan no igi to ko-gyokyo-iku no tenkai – Tejima Seiichi no ko-gyo- kyo-ikuron wo meguru ko-satsu’ (The significance of the Education Museum and the development of industrial education in the Meiji period: A study of Tejima Seiichi’s theory of industrial education), in Nara kenritsu daigaku kenkyu- kiho-, Chiiki so-zo-gaku kenkyu- X, vol. 21, no. 4, March 2011, pp. 37–67. Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-sho (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, dai 9 kan, Sangyo- kyo-iku 1 (100-year history of modern education in Japan, vol. 9, Industrial education 1), To-kyo-: Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-sho, 1973, pp. 199-200; To-kyoKo-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi (60-year history of To-kyo- Institute of Technology),To-kyo-:To-kyo- Institute of Technology, 1940, p. 56.

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2. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TOKYO VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

On 28 December 1880, the revised Education Order (Kaisei kyo-iku rei) was promulgated, and the term Shokko- -gakko- (vocational school) appears in it for the first time. It lists Shokko- -gakko- as one of the ordinary schools, along with elementary schools, middle schools, colleges, and others, and ranks it as an intermediate-level institution (chu-to- gijutsu kyo-iku gakko-). The educational content of a vocational school was defined as ‘a place where craftsmanship (hyakko- no shokugei) can be passed on’.9 In April 1881 (Meiji 14) the Minister of Education, Fukuoka Takachika, submitted ‘The inquiry of installing a vocational school in To- kyo- ’ to Prime Minister (dajo- daijin) Sanjo- Sanetomi. In this ‘Inquiry’ the reasons for adding such vocational schools to the revised Education Order were described as follows: Traditionally, anyone who wants to become a craftsman in our country is always a disciple of another older craftsman. That is a habit. However, the disciple is generally used for so many miscellaneous things, and is almost the same as the servant […]. The craftsman does not teach the principles of the technique with certain rules, so the disciple spends about five to ten years and endures a lot of hardship. After that, the disciple gains a certain knowledge of the technique, but at the very least he cannot explore the principle.10

This statement shows that in the traditional apprenticeship system, it was difficult to pass on technical knowledge to young people. The ‘Inquiry’ therefore demanded that it was necessary to develop a new institutional framework as an urgent measure. The foundation of the To- kyo- Vocational School in April 1881, was an important step in this direction.

9 10

Articles 2 and 8. See e.g. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 31. Later in the text it says: ‘In order to stimulate the development of arts and crafts and to enlighten the way of industry in Japan today, it is necessary to first learn the arts and then to implement them. A policy how to achieve that, is the establishment of a vocational school.’ So, the purpose of the establishment of the To-kyo- Vocational School was ‘to revive the industry that was in decline, and to create a place where entrepreneurs would thrive, and to make the way of industry in Japan more vigorous’. For these reasons, the establishment of vocational schools was considered to be ‘the most urgent need of the day in industry’, see To-kyoKo-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, pp. 59–61, here p. 60.

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3. EDUCATION CONTENT OF THE TOKYO VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

In order to learn more about the specific content of education at the To- kyo- Vocational School, it is necessary to take a closer look at the school regulations (gaku soku) and their amendments over time. a) The 1882 amendment of the school regulations11

In summary, the 1882 school regulations stipulate under the headline ‘Department composition and term of completion’ the following points: To- kyo- Vocational School had a Preparation Course and a Core Course. The completion period was four years, one year for the Preparation Course and three years for the Core Course. In the Core Course two departments, namely the Chemical Engineering Department and the Mechanical Engineering Department, were set up. The curriculum for the first two years included theoretical instruction in the subjects of each department, and jointly conducted experimental lessons. In the third year, each student chose a subject and specialized in experiments. The course requirements of the Preparation Course were mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanical drawing, freehand drawing, and moral studies. The main lectures of the Core Course were as follows: Chemical Engineering Department: • First grade: chemistry, analytic chemistry, dynamics, experimentation, mechanical drawing, freehand drawing, moral studies. • Second grade: combustion theory, analytical chemistry, applied chemistry, experiment, workman economy, moral studies. 11

The ‘To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- Regulations’ as of August 1881, when the school was founded, can only be reconstructed from other sources, but they are said to have stated that ‘the purpose of the school is to teach various arts and crafts essential for those becoming teachers or foremen’, see To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, pp. 66, 94).

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Mechanical Engineering Department: • First grade: mathematics, material strength and weakness

theory, workman’s tools, dynamics, experimentation, mechanical drawing, freehand drawing, moral studies. • Second grade: mathematics, dynamics, mechanics, mechanical drawing, experimentation, workman economy, moral studies.12 To be admitted to the school, applicants had to pass an examination which included reading (history of the dynasty), composition, arithmetic, algebra and physics.13 In another revised version of the school regulations in 1890, Article 1 states, ‘This school aims to educate those who will be future teachers of vocational schools, foremen, and managers of manufacturing facilities , so it teaches essential crafts (ko-gei)’.14 The purpose of establishing the To- kyo- Vocational School clearly was not to train simple craftsmen, but to educate master craftsmen who had the ability to direct and supervise a workshop or other sites. Moreover, one of the explicit purposes was to train managers of manufacturing facilities as well. So, it can be said that the original purpose of the To- kyo- Vocational School was to train intermediate-level industrial leaders, and to aim for a secondary vocational school of higher rank than a mere apprenticeship school for craftsmen.15 The word shokko- (often translated as ‘craftsman’, sometimes in an industrial context also as ‘worker’) tends to be associated with a low-level technical school, but from the very beginning, the school was intended to train intermediatelevel engineers such as master craftsmen, foremen and managers of manufacturing facilities. Most of the students who actually entered the school were not children of craftsmen, but had another social background.16 Takamatsu Toyokichi, who was an instructor at the time, commented on the career paths of the graduates: 12

13 14 15 16

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, pp. 94–98; To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyoKo-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, Tsu-shi (100-year history of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology, General history), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku, 1985, p. 48. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, pp. 94–100. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 95. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 66. Of the 247 students in 1886 (Meiji 19), 172 were of samurai origin, accounting for 70%. See Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi kenkyu- (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan), Kazama Shobo-, 1979, p. 361.

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The name of the school is Shokko--gakko-, but it does not admit the children of shokko- (craftsmen, workers). It is a school for the children of former samurai families, and when they graduate, they become technicians or officials, but there is not a single one who became a craftsman. 17

The discrepancy between the negative image evoked by the term Shokko- -gakko- (craftmen’s school or workers’ school) and the actual situation was a problem for the students and teachers from the beginning, and eventually led to a change in the name of the school. b) Changes due to the re-amendment of the Education Order

Due to the re-amendment of the Education Order in August 1885 (Meiji 18), Shokko- -gakko- (now in the meaning of industrial or technical schools), were positioned as one kind of intermediate-level specialized schools (senmon-gakko-) besides agricultural and commercial specialized schools.18 For the To- kyo- Vocational School this was an upgrading on the way to attain full intermediate-level status. Prior to the revision of this Education Ordinance, an advanced course had already been established at the To- kyoVocational School in September 1884 (Meiji 17). So that ‘those graduates who wish to study further in the same field shall be allowed to study for one more year’.19 Moreover, in April 1885, English was newly established among the academic subjects, and even those who had already graduated could choose it, thus following the academic principle of steady progress in learning (nisshin no gakuri). In the Core Course, students were divided into groups according to special fields like woodworking, casting, smithing, metalworking, finishing. Each group was supervised by a foreman (shokko- cho-) and had several instructors (shihan shokko-) to conduct factory training. From September to November 1885 (Meiji 18), practice workshops began to operate.These included a forge and foundry in the Mechanical Engineering Department and a dyer factory, manufacturing shop and a boiler room in the Chemical Engineering 17 18 19

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 66. Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-sho (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, p. 208. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 100.

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Department. In December, a glass factory and a pottery factory were opened. This expanded the experimental factories and workshops and strengthened practical training.20 However, the social and financial situation surrounding the school were severe, and the mere survival of the school was jeopardized. c) Revision of school regulations while attached to the Imperial University

On 29 April 1886 (Meiji 19), the To-kyo- Vocational School became attached to the newly established Imperial University, Japan’s first modern university and forerunner of today’s University of To-kyo-.21 The reasons for this were that it was difficult to recruit students for the school due to low public awareness of industry, the demand for human resources from industry was low due to lack of progress in industrialization, and a large amount of money was required to run the school.22 Mori Arinori (1847–1889), the Minister of Education, thought that it would be difficult for the school to survive as an independent institution in such a situation. In view of the low demand for graduates from the side of industry, the rationalist Mori considered the economic viability of the school to be extremely low. He thought the school had difficulty proving its value and raison d’être for its survival as an independent institution.23 He therefore pursued the affiliation with the Imperial University. In August 1886, shortly after its affiliation with Imperial University, the school changed its organizational structure.The amendments were (1) to divide the former Core Course into specialized departments for dyeing, pottery and glass production, manufacturing, and engineering, (2) to abolish the Preparatory Course and 20

21 22

23

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 90; To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 118. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 73. It is thought that the annual expenses of the To-kyo- Vocational School averaged just over 30,000 yen, except in 1882 and 1885 when new facilities were built. According to the Annual Report of the Ministry of Education of 1882, the annual expenses of the University of To-kyo- were about 360,000 yen, those of the To-kyoForeign Language School and the To-kyo- Normal School were both 45,000 yen, and those of To-kyo- Women’s Normal School were 27,000 yen. So, in term of costs the To-kyo- Vocational School’s performance was better than that of the To-kyo- Foreign Language School and the To-kyo- Normal School, see To-kyoKo-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, pp. 83–84. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 75.

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shorten the training period to three years in total, and (3) to establish a new Fast Track Course.24 Thereby the school adopted a dualtrack system in which the regular course further strengthened its character as a specialized industrial school. The amendment made clear that the practical training should be emphasized, and that the newly established fast-track course aimed solely at practical education of human resources to respond quickly to changes in the field of industry.25 The new structure shows that the school focused on expanding practical specialized education, and that it was regarded as a secondary technical education institution.26 d) Renewed revision of school regulations in 1888

On 4 October 1887 (Meiji 20), the affiliation with the Imperial University was revoked, and the To-kyo- Vocational School once again became an independent institution under the direct control of the Ministry of Education. One reason was that the cost reductions that the Ministry of Education wanted to achieve with the affiliation with the Imperial University were not as effective as expected. As a result of these developments, the systematization and formalization of industrial education and its integration into a single unified education system progressed. Senior engineers were trained at the College of Engineering of the Imperial University. The To-kyo- Vocational School became the training institution for intermediate-level engineers and foremen, while lower engineers and craftsmen were trained at apprentice schools. Industrial education became more generally recognized, and higher technical education was further promoted. While on one hand the To- kyo- Vocational School consolidated its status as a specialized secondary institution for technical education, on the other hand, the demand for low-level technical education became more pressing. In the 1880s and 1890s, institutions established to meet this demand were apprenticeship schools (toteigakko-) and business supplementary schools (jisshu- hoshu- -gakko-). 27 After regaining its independence, the To- kyo- Vocational School revised its school regulations again in 1888 (Meiji 21). Most important, in Article 1, the term shokko- was mostly replaced by kogei (industrial art, craft, technology), and the purpose of the school 24 25 26 27

‘Monbusho- dai 14nenpo-’, cited in To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 100. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 89. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 100. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, pp. 98–99.

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was changed to ‘teaching the necessary crafts (ko-gei) to those who should become craft teachers, craft engineers, master craftsmen, and managers of manufacturing facilities in the future’.28 It is probable that the word shokko- gakko- was removed because public awareness of craftsmanship was still low, and as will be described later, this had a considerable influence on the employment and promotion of graduates. Even after it had become an independent institution again, there were still critical opinions about the issue of the school’s survival.The general public’s esteem for ‘vocational schools’ was still low, and the question of their abolition reignited in 1888. As of 1888, craftsmanship enjoyed little social recognition, and neither the general public nor current students and graduates valued highly the existence of a school that bore the word craftsman in its name. It is conceivable that Tejima was very dissatisfied. Considering that the word ‘craft’ was misunderstood by the public and that the students and graduates of the time were disadvantaged, it can be said that he realized the seriousness of the situation through the revisions.29 In addition, the inclusion of various kinds of vocational schools into the category ‘vocational school’ and their diversification in the revised Education Ordinance encouraged the development of the school into an even more specialized technical education institution. In other words, the school, which had been established with the aim of becoming a secondary industrial education institution, moved closer to this goal and became an institution for intermediate-level technical education, both institutionally and internally. This amendment, which eliminated the word ‘craftsman’ (shokko-) and used the word ‘craftsmanship’ (ko-gei) anew, reflects on one hand a reaction to harsh reality. On the other hand, the accompanying rise in the level of education improved the school’s standing as a secondary technical education institution. It was a first step on the way that would much later lead to its upgrading to the To- kyo- Institute of Technology. 4. TEJIMA SEIICHI’S SCHOOL SYSTEM REFORM a) Appointment as principal and change of school name

As shown so far, the To- kyo- Vocational School underwent several revisions of its educational regulations in the nine years after its foundation, and its educational objectives changed. 28 29

Toda, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku kikan’, p. 39. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 113.

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Tejima Seiichi,30 who took over as the school principal from Masaki on 3 March 1890, had been asked by the Ministry of Education to take up this post, even though he was not employed there at that time. He accepted and demonstrated his true abilities as an industrial educator throughout his time at the head of the school (1890–1916). The first issue Tejima dealt with was to change the name of the school. In his numerous editorials and lectures, he had always stressed the necessity for Japan to become an industrial nation, and explained that for that purpose, it was urgent to systematically establish industrial education and to educate industrial leaders. However, as mentioned before, in the 1880s and 1890s, the profession of ‘craftsmanship’ was not correctly understood, and the necessity of industry itself was not fully recognized.31 So, it was difficult to train intermediate-level engineers within the existing framework of technical education, and the disadvantages suffered by current students and graduates were quite serious.32 In reaction to the low public esteem of craftsmen and the general tendency to downplay industry, Tejima immediately set about to change the name of the school to To-kyo- Technical School (To-kyo- Ko-gyo--gakko-). He succeeded on 24 March in the same year that he became the principal. The change of name was carried out in consideration of the dissatisfaction of current students and graduates. But it did not completely solve the problem. By 1890, Japan’s industry, especially the private sector, was not mature enough to require a large number of engineers who had mastered academic and specialized practical skills. The number of factories was still small, and the demand for engineers was extremely low. Graduates seem to have experience considerable difficulties in finding a job.33 30

31 32 33

Tejima Seiichi was born in 1849 as the second son of Tanabe Yotsuyu, a vassal of Numazu lord Mizuno Tadahiro. At the age of 12, he was adopted by Tejima Ugenta, a samurai of the Numazu domain, and changed his name to Tejima Seiichi in the Meiji period. He studied languages, architecture and physics in the United States, but due to the abolition of the feudal domains, the Numazu domain stopped sending money to Tejima just two months after he entered the United States. In April 1872, he went to England as a member of the Iwakura delegation, and continued his studies at his own expense. He returned to Japan in 1874 and became an official of the Ministry of Education in July 1875. See Toda, ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru kyo-iku hakubutsukan’, pp. 39–40. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 114. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 114. Regarding the employment situation of graduates, Yamaguchi Takao, one of the first graduates of the school, later wrote: ‘The industrial situation (ko-gyo- jo-tai) in Japan at this time was as follows: weaving, raw silk, lacquerware, paper, leather, camphor, wax, sugar, sake, soy sauce, tobacco, indigo beads, etc., were produced

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It was apparently not uncommon for graduates to spend five or six years unemployed, and it was rare for them to be hired as engineers from the beginning. Even if did get such a job, their salaries were low. As a result, the instructors intervened and struggled to find jobs for the graduates.34 In such a situation, the aim of the school was to spread the understanding of the importance of technical education in society and raise the reputation of the school among the people. b) Tejima’s view of technical education

After the name change, the ‘To- kyo- Technical School Regulations’ were enacted in July 1897. They contained important changes compared to those of the Vocational School. As mentioned previously, the 1888 revision of the regulations replaced the term ‘craftsman’ with ‘crafts teacher’ and ‘crafts engineer’. In the 1897 revision ,Tejima redefined the purpose of the school in Article 1 as follows: ‘This school is a place to train those who should become master craftsmen/foremen (shokko--cho-) or industrial teachers (ko--gyo- kyo-in) in the future’.35 The word shokko--cho- is again added at the beginning, and the previous terms ‘crafts teachers’ (ko-gei kyo-in) and ‘crafts engineers’ (ko-gei gishi) were replaced with ‘industrial teachers’ (ko-gyo- kyo-in). Why did he change ‘crafts’ (ko-gei) to ‘industry’ (ko-gyo-) and re-introduce the term shokko--cho-? Tejima’s educational philosophy comprised both science and practice. For him ‘the most indispensable thing for industrial development was research and application of science’.36 Moreover, in this Article 1,Tejima advocates getting used to the habit of working hard by engaging in the manufacturing process not only in theory but also on site. For him, it was an important precondition as an engineer not only to acquire knowledge, but

34 35 36

on a very small scale in various parts of the country. Imported industries such as cotton yarn spinning, glass, bricks, cement, medicine, phosphoric acid, soap, ships, machinery, etc., were gradually sprouting up, but the number of factories and the number of workers were extremely small, and the volume of foreign trade was very small, with imports amounting to 20–30 million yen and exports to 40–50 million yen. It was under such conditions of commerce and industry that we graduated. It was only natural that there were very few factories to enter’, cited in To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 129. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 130. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 120. Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai Office (ed.), Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, no. 156, 1894, p. 19.

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also to move the body, to sweat, and to acquire a working spirit – as technical knowledge is created and improved by the accumulation of such labour in the field. Tejima emphasized that theory and practice were part of the same thing. It was important to study science, but especially in vocational schools, Tejima was worried about the situation where students tended to be biased toward learning theory and reluctant to work in the field.37 It can be said that Tejima’s view of technical education was reflected in the fact that he revived the words ‘craftsmanship’ (shokko-) and ‘industry’ (ko-gyo-) in the first school regulations after he took over as principal. c) Establishment of the dyeing and weaving engineering section

Under the new regulations, a major departmental reorganization took place. Article 2 stipulates that there would be two departments: (1) the Department of Chemical Crafts and (2) the Department of Mechanical Crafts.The former would have three sections: dyeing and weaving, pottery and glass, and applied chemistry. The latter had two sections: mechanical engineering and electrical engineering.38 Thus, the To- kyo- Technical School consisted of two departments and five sections. The reorganization was a reaction to the changing demands of the real world. The reason the dyeing and weaving engineering section was established was that the demand from industry for dyeing engineers was low and it was difficult for graduates to utilize what they had learned. On the other hand, textile production was thriving, but the division of labour between dyeing and weaving and textiles was not established in rural areas. By combining all of these technologies in one educational section, it was possible to supply human resources that matched the actual conditions of the rural areas.39 Tejima recalled that ‘dyeing was also important at that time, but there was no one to teach textiles’, and ‘he investigated the situation and insisted that the dyeing and weaving engineering section should be set up in the school’.40 37

38 39 40

Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai Office (ed.), Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, no. 156, 1894, p. 32. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, pp. 120–121. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, pp. 132–133. Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko- (Posthumous writings of Tejima Seiichi sensei), To-kyo-: Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai, 1940, p. 17.

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d) Establishment of the ‘working practice system’ (gengyorenshu- no sei)

The basis of the reform that Tejima aimed at was to strengthen the cooperation between school education and the real world, to foster private industry through organic cooperation between the two, and to train industrial human resources commensurate with it. The ‘working practice system’ (gengyo- renshu- no sei) was set up in line with that philosophy.This system was like on-site training. Article 4 of the School Regulations of 1897 stipulates that for more than one year after graduation, the students would practise work on-site, and under supervision of the school, would learn the work of workers or craftsmen (shokko- no gyo-) in factories or from businessmen (jitsugyo--sha)’.41 Thereby, graduates should acquire ‘craftsmanship’ in the real world. When he took office as principal, Tejima recalled that the industry was not yet active enough, it was difficult for graduates to find work, and few people tried to start their own business.42 He pointed out that technical education and social conditions were separated and did not support each other. In his view the school rules had to be revised in response.43 It can be seen from his writings that Tejima was constantly conscious of this problem and pondered solutions to it. In a situation where industrialization is not progressing in earnest, what is technical education that connects schools and the real world, and how can one closely relate both to improve the quality of technical education? Around 1890 and 1891, many domestic trades still existed in Japan, and few industries had a factory organization.44 This might explain Tejima’s view of technical education, which aimed to integrate school education and practice through close cooperation between school education and the real world.45 e) Reform of the entrance examination system

Tejima’s idea of strengthening cooperation between school education and the real world was also reflected in the reform of the entrance examination system. The regulations were amended in 41 42 43 44 45

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 121. Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko-, p. 19. Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko-, p. 24. Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko-, p. 25. Dai Nippon Kyo-iku-kai Office (ed.), Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, no. 163, 1895, p. 19.

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order to expand the catchment area of the school to the whole country and increase the number of applicants for admission. To this end a system was established to entrust the admission procedure to the local governments (Article 42).46 It was planned to recruit students from all over the country through this so-called local entrance examination system.47 In order to further strengthen cooperation between middle schools and specialized schools (senmon-gakko-) like the To- kyo- Technical School, a special rule for those students who excelled in industry-related subjects (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, drawing, physics/chemistry) was introduced. Students whose grades in these subjects exceeded two-thirds of the highest score would be allowed admission without an examination, just with the certification of the prefectural governor.48 Especially in rural areas, this paved the way for excellent graduates from middle schools, many of whom had no opportunity to take the entrance examination for the To- kyo- Technical School.49 f) Role of ‘handicrafts’ (shuko-) in school education50

Another of Tejima’s aims was to bring technical education closer together with general education and to expand it downward to the level of primary education. Concerning the close cooperation between technical and general education, Tejima focused on three subjects in general education: science, drawing, and handicrafts. By enhancing these educational contents, general education could get closer to a more practical one. He stressed in particular the importance of handicrafts in school education, based on the fact that primary schools in European countries established handicraft departments from an early stage, which in his view was deeply linked to the achievements of industrialization. Tejima argued that the purpose of handicrafts education was to deepen ‘knowledge in matter’ by actually making things, using 46 47 48 49

50

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 126. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 134. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 135. Under this system, 67 graduates of middle schools were admitted to the school without examination in 1890, of whom two were enrolled in the Ceramics Section, two in the Applied Chemistry Section and eight in the Mechanical Engineering Section; see To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 135. The following passage is based on a summary of Tejima Seiichi, ‘Gakko- kyo-iku ni okeru shuko-gyo-’ (Handicraft in school education), editorial in Dai-Nippon Kyoiku-kai zasshi, no. 110, 1891.

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tools and touching them with the hands. The utility of drawing was highly valued as a way for the eyes to re-confirm what the hands could feel. Touching with the hands and checking with the eyes – Tejima said it was important to train the work of ‘hands and eyes’ through handicrafts. Tejima regarded drawing as providing knowledge of forms, and handicrafts as providing knowledge of objects. He emphasized both, but pointed out that handicrafts play a major role in physical learning. At To- kyo- Technical School, not only theoretical learning but also experimental and practical learning were emphasized, and Tejima was looking forward to the educational effect of factory training. In a similar way, he explained the significance of teaching handicrafts, because even the children of craftsmen did not have the opportunity to properly study practical science. However, there was also opposition to teaching handicrafts in primary schools. According to Tejima, there were opinions that emphasized the acquisition of knowledge by learning through books and opposed the introduction of handicraft education in such schools. Nevertheless, he believed that ‘the best education is obtained only by books, and by studying the real thing’. What Tejima wanted to emphasize most was that school education and business were inherently deeply related. If general education and the knowledge and skills necessary in the real world could be closely linked and continuous, a great deal of synergy would result. He insisted that this effect could be expected.Tejima also used the word ‘technique’ (gigei) as well as ‘handicraft’ (shuko-), and emphasized technical education (gigei kyo-iku) as a link that connected school education and business, and maintained continuity between them.51 Tejima thus focused not only on theoretical learning, but also on education in handicrafts, which for him was a practical education conducted by ‘using the hands and eyes’. Handicraft education (shuko- kyo-iku) and technical education (gigei kyo-iku) contributed substantially to the downward expansion of industrial education. While handicraft education and technical education were being incorporated into ordinary education, in the 1880s and 1890s, there also appeared business supplementary schools (jitsugyo- hoshu- -gakko-) that complemented ordinary education and apprenticeship schools (totei-gakko-) for vocational training. These supplemented ordinary primary school education. While the 51

Editorial in Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, no. 110, 1891.

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To- kyo- Technical School had become a secondary technical education institution aiming to impart more specialized knowledge and skills, practical business education (jitsugyo- kyo-iku) had also made progress. g) Downward expansion of the industrial education system

How, then, did Tejima conceptualize handicraft, technical, and practical business education, which are closely linked to industrial education? Tejima’s theory of industrial education is behind the enactment of the ‘To- kyo- Technical School Regulations’ examined in the previous section. In 1886, Tejima had already published his ‘Theory of Industrial Education’ (Jitsugyo- kyo-iku-ron) in the Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi.52 In this, he discussed the following five types of business education in Europe: (1) higher technical (gigei) schools, (2) secondary industrial schools, (3) apprenticeship schools, (4) night schools, and (5) girls’ vocational schools. He attributed the highest degree of specialization among the higher technical schools in Japan to the College of Engineering of the Imperial University of Tokyo.53 The To- kyo- Vocational School is regarded as a secondary business/industrial school belonging to group (2). It differed from the higher technical school (1) in that it was a more practical secondary specialized school. In addition, Tejima also mentions apprenticeship schools and girls’ vocational schools as schools, that need to be established in Japan in the future, and in general education, focuses on handicrafts and agriculture in primary schools. What permeates Tejima’s view of technical education was the need for practical and academic industrial education, and the close cooperation between school education and the real world. As already mentioned, technical education in Japan developed from top to bottom, that is, starting with the training of senior engineers at ICE54 and later at the College of Engineering at 52

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Tejima Seiichi, ‘Jitsugyo- kyo-iku-ron’ (Theory on business education), in DaiNippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, nos. 36 and 37, July and August 1886. For more details about Tejima’s five categories of technical education, see Toda ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru kyo-iku hakubutsu-kan’, passim. In 1885 (Meiji 18), Ko-bu-dai-gakko- (ICE) was merged into the Faculty of Industrial Arts of the University of To-kyo-, introducing the latest technology through hired foreign teachers and closing its 15-year history as a leader in technical education in Japan. Later it became part of the Imperial University

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the Imperial University. However, in the late 1880s and 1890s, in response to the demands of the industrial world, there was a growing awareness of the need for a downward expansion of technical education. The background to this was the development of light industries such as spinning, and of the shipbuilding and steelmaking sectors, the leading sectors of modern industry, and the resulting shortage of intermediate-level engineers. Light industries such as spinning, match production and glass manufacturing were regarded as promising export industries for the future. Traditional industries such as ceramics also needed to improve their quality through new scientific manufacturing methods.55 The development of these industries gradually increased the demand not only for senior engineers, but also for intermediate-level engineers and technical workers such as foremen responsible for supervision at factories, and a general workforce for factory labour. To train intermediate-level engineers and a large number of factory workers, industrial education was expanded downwards, and the connection with school education became more significant. The policy of Inoue Takeshi, appointed Minister of Education in March 1893, focused on the promotion of technical education, and in particular, the institutionalization and expansion of primary technical education.56 It seems that the legal development related to business education (jitsugyo- kyo-iku) centring on technical education was promoted in this way largely due to the opinion of Tejima as principal of the To- kyo- Technical School. It appears that Inoue’s industrial education policy deeply reflected Tejima’s philosophy. The institutionalization of business supplementary education (jitsugyo- hoshu- kyo-iku) and apprenticeship education (totei kyo-iku) reflects the downward expansion of technical education. This was apparently an attempt to achieve institutional and practical ‘continuity’ in the industrial education system.57 These business education policies encompassed not only modern industries, but also traditional industries where technical training was conducted within the apprenticeship system. However, apprenticeship education and business supplementary education are not specialized education; nor are they general education: they

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College of Engineering, and graduates of the former ICE, including the architect Tatsuno Kingo, went on to teach at the College. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, p. 154. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi, pp. 148-154; Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-sho (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, pp. 222–228. Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu-sho (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, p. 223.

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cannot be categorized as either. Therefore, from around this time, the term ‘practical business education’ (jitsugyo- kyo-iku) came to be used to indicate the extremely practical, hands-on education that the real world demanded.58 However, because the content of the term ‘business’ (jitsugyo-) is so vague, terms that could express the purpose and content of the education more clearly, such as ‘handicraft’ (shuko-) and ‘technique’ (gigei) were also often used. Why would Tejima want to use the term ‘technical education’ (gigei kyo-iku) when the term ‘business education’ was becoming more and more popular in society?59 In this regard, as Tejima himself argued, the word ‘business education’ was extremely broad and ambiguous, so a more clearly targeted word was needed, and the word gigei, which refers to practical skills and techniques in general education seemed appropriate. Tejima’s ‘skill’ (gi) is a technique ‘how to make things’, and the expression ‘gei wa gyo-’ (lit. artistic skill is profession) implies that the craftsmanship is a profession centred on that ‘skill’.This shows Tejima’s intention to upgrade artisanal skills to professional skills. Tejima apparently thought it was necessary to systematically learn ‘techniques’ (skills) in order to acquire a high level of professional competence. He positioned this technical education (gigei kyo-iku) on a low or medium level of general technical education (gijutsu kyo-iku), and aimed to institutionalize and systematize it. He cited the principles of agriculture, commerce, and industry taught at primary schools, and the technical skills taught at the specialized schools, saying that there were two types of teaching technical arts education: ordinary and specialized. He argued that arts and crafts education in primary schools would be particularly useful for children of poor families to earn an independent living as craftsmen in the future. Furthermore, when teaching each subject in primary school, it would be important to teach practical knowledge and skills that were in line with the current state of the real world, rather than idle talk. Tejima stated that ‘technical education concerns mainly three subjects, namely agriculture, industry, and commerce’, and defined it as ‘the practice of useful arts and crafts, and the application of knowledge in the arts and crafts to various subjects in agriculture, industry and commerce’. 58 59

Miyoshi, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi kenkyu-, p.190. This passage partly draws upon Tejima Seiichi, ‘Gigei kyo-iku no ippan’ (Technical education – in general), in Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko-, 379–386.

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5. CONCLUSION

From early 1881 to the 1890s, the educational content of the To- kyo- Vocational School and its position as a technical education institution changed along with the society surrounding it. At the time of the school’s establishment, the ‘Inquiry’ stated that the aim of establishing a new vocational school was to break away from the traditional apprenticeship system and to serve as a nationwide model for vocational schools. However, when the Education Ordinance was amended to include vocational schools, the aim was to become a more specialized industrial education institution.60 The school’s principal, Tejima Seiichi, focused on the training of foremen, managers of manufacturing facilities, and technical school teachers who could lead and supervise on the shop floor. His emphasis on practice and on the shop-floor was in line with his view of industrial education. The background to Tejima’s argument is that after the middle of the 1880s, as Japan’s state-sponsored industrialization progressed ‘from above’ and achieved a certain degree of success, the question of how to expand it downwards became a major issue. Tejima’s aim was to position and develop the To- kyo- Vocational School as a secondary specialized education institution for training intermediate-level engineers and industrial school teachers. In his theory of industrial education, he advocated the strengthening of the link between general education and technical education and the practical application of education in order to expand industrial education downwards. The characteristics of his theory of industrial education are as follows: (1) The conceptualization of vocational education, business

education, and technical education to include industrial fields such as agriculture and commerce, while placing industrial education at the core. (2) Focusing on teaching handicrafts in primary schools, referring to practical cases in Western European countries, he was conscious of the need to expand the industrial education system downwards to include primary education.61 60 61

Miyoshi, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi kenkyu-, p. 212. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Tejima Seiichi and the development of Japanese technical education: A biographical study of technical education I, Kazama Shobo, 1999.

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The basic points of his reform of the school system are: (1) Strengthening and maintaining the organic collabora-

tion between technical education and industry. (2) Promoting the development of the private sector and training highly skilled technical personnel who could be supplied to the industry. Therefore, at the To- kyo- Vocational (and later Technical) School, both theoretical learning and practical training were always emphasized, and ‘integration of science and practice’ was reflected in the curriculum. Tejima was conscious of the importance of the students’ not only acquiring advanced skills, but also of their learning how to apply those skills on the shop floor, and how to direct and supervise technical workers (shokko-) on the shop floor in order to achieve results in production. At the same time, they should acquire specialized knowledge about industry and develop comprehensive skills as technicians. In this way, we can understand Tejima’s reason for sticking to the word shokko-. As discussed in this chapter, technical education was to be expanded downwards in the late 1880s and 1890s, increasing the need for lower-level technical education institutions such as apprenticeship schools and business supplementary schools. Tejima recognized the necessity to connect different levels of industrial education and to strengthen cooperation with the industrial world. He developed the To- kyo- Technical School into a specialized technical education institution, focusing on practical science (jitsugaku-teki) and useful knowledge (jitsuyo--teki). The process of the school’s establishment and development in the late 1880s, and its change in name, clearly show the distinctive features of its education and the way its principal, Tejima Seiichi, formed his views on industrial education through thought and practice. After the abolition of ICE 1885, the College of Engineering at the Imperial University (representing Japan’s higher technical education) leaned toward a science-centred approach. The To- kyo- Technical School would go on to become the To- kyoHigher Technical School (To- kyo- Ko- to- Ko- gyo- -gakko- ) in 1901 and to develop an even more professional and practical approach to industrial education. The educational reforms that took place from the time of the school’s foundation to the twentieth century, from the time of the

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To- kyo- Vocational School to the To- kyo- Technical School, increased the significance of the school’s presence in industrial education, and became the basis for its subsequent development and expansion. REFERENCES Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai Office (ed.), Dai-Nippon Kyo-iku-kai zasshi, various years. Dai Nippon Ko-gyo- Gakkai (ed.), Tejima Seiichi sensei iko- (Posthumous writings of Tejima Seiichi sensei), To-kyo-: Dai Nippon Ko-gyoGakkai, 1940. Ishizuka Hiromichi, Nihon shihonshugi seiritsu-shi kenkyu- – Meiji kokka to shokusan ko-gyo- seisaku (A study on the history of the establishment of Japanese capitalism: The Meiji state and the policy of industrial development), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 1973. Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu- sho (ed.), Nihon kindai kyo-iku hyakunen-shi, dai 9 kan, Sangyo- kyo-iku 1 (100-year history of modern education in Japan, vol. 9, Industrial education 1), To-kyo-: Kokuritsu Kyo-iku Kenkyu- sho, 1973. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku seiritsu-shi kenkyu- (A study of the formation of industrial education in Japan), Kazama Shobo-, 1979. Miyoshi Nobuhiro Tejima Seiichi to Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku hattatsushi – Sangyo- kyo-iku jinbutsu-shi kenkyu- I (Tejima Seiichi and the development of Japanese technical education: A biographical study - - of industrial education I), Tokyo: Kazama Shobo, 1999. Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Report on - the development of the Ministry of Public Works), reprinted in Okurasho- (ed.), Meiji zenki zaisei keizai shiryo- shu-sei (Collection of historical materials on finance and economy of the early Meiji period), vol. 17, no. 1, To-kyo-: Kaizo-sha, 1931. Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku kikan no seiritsu to tenkai. Ko-bu-, Monbu- ryo-sho- no hikaku wo chu- shin ni’ (The establishment and development of institutions for technical education in early Meiji period. A comparison between the two Ministries of Public Works and Education), in Nara kenritsu Daigaku kenkyu- kiho-, vol. 15, nos. 2–3, 2004, pp. 33-44. Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru kyo-iku hakubutsu-kan no igi to ko-gyo--kyo-iku no tenkai – Tejima Seiichi no ko-gyo--kyo-iku-ron wo meguru ikko-’ (The significance of the Education Museum and the development of industrial education in the Meiji era: A study of Tejima Seiichi’s theory of industrial education), in Nara kenritsu Daigaku kenkyu- kiho-, Chiiki so-zo--gaku kenkyu- X, vol. 21, no. 4, March 2011, pp. 37–67. Toda Kiyoko, ‘To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- no seiritsu to tenkai. Ko-gyokyo-iku seido no kaho- kakuju- wo megutte’ (The foundation and

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development of To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-. On the downward expansion of the industrial education system), in Nara kenritsu Daigaku kenkyukiho-, Chiiki so-zo--gaku kenkyu- XIII, vol. 22, no. 3, 2011, pp. 61–92. Tokyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi (60year history of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology), To-kyo-: To-kyoInstitute of Technology, 1940. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi (100year history of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology), To-kyo-: To-kyoInstitute of Technology, 1985.

12

The Development of Mining Schools in Japan Regine MATHIAS

–

Mining is the most important among a hundred trades that make a country rich, and that surely is why there are not a few countries that are wealthy in Europe and America. […]. The (Japanese) Empire not only has products of the mountains such as coal and iron, but is also rich in the five metal ores that match those in countries in Europe and the USA. However, the mining and smelting methods in the Empire are still the old ones used for 300 years, and people do not know the methods to save human power with the use of machines. Although the empire has countless mines, they cannot make the country rich. Oshima Takato- (1870)1 1. INTRODUCTION

M INING WAS A particularly important industry for the Meiji government that urgently needed to be promoted. This is demonstrated by the efforts of Japanese politicians to advance this field, and the relatively large number of foreign mining engineers who 1

Oshima Takato-, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo- shinsetsu ni kansuru Takato- no iken shoden’ (Statement of Opinion by Takato- on the new foundation of a mining school), 25 September 1870, in Oshima Shinzo- (ed.), Oshima Takato- ko-jitsu (The achievements of Oshima Takato), Tokyo (private print), 1938, pp. 683–386, here 683. The five metal ores were gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead. 303

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were invited to Japan after the 1860s to modernize the industry, transfer their scientific knowledge and train miners. Given its great importance, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to the establishment of a modern education system for mining engineers and miners in Japan, and its impact on the country’s overall development. The topic of ‘mining schools’ (ko-zan gakko-), meaning institutions whose curriculum was entirely or to a large part geared to the requirements of mining, is much less prominent in both Japanese and Western publications than other areas of technical education. Even in the book by Fathi Habashi, Schools of Mines,2 only 16 of the 588 pages deal with Asia. Ten of these pages cover Japan, and contain a few short paragraphs on some prominent foreign mining engineers who were called to the country. While various articles in Japanese deal with individual mines and individuals working in this field, there are as yet few overarching accounts of mining education in Japan. One exception is a relatively short chapter in the volume on mining and metallurgy in the series Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei,3 which will be discussed later. In Europe the intensification of mining and metallurgy associated with the flourishing of the natural sciences in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had spurred the foundation of mining schools and mining academies. These played an important role in the development of scientific and technical knowledge far beyond the field of mining. Such institutions offered new knowledge in mining, extraction and smelting, and increasingly also in the application of machines, to high-ranking engineers as well as mine foremen and miners. Mining academies, often grown out of mining schools, such as in Freiberg (Germany, founded 1765), Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia, founded by the Habsburg Empire in 1770) or St. Étienne (France, 1816), attracted students from all over the world. Quite a few Japanese visited the ‘Bergakademie’ in Freiberg, for example, or studied there in the 1870s and 1880s. Some played an important role in driving the establishment of mining education in Japan, and regarded Freiberg as a model. However, Japan 2

3

Fathi Habashi, Schools of Mines. The Beginnings of Mining and Metallurgical Education, Quebec: Laval University, 2003. The case of Japan is described on pp. 517–527, but it contains flaws and inaccuracies and should not be used as a source. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, Saikoyakin gijutsu (Compendium on Japanese history of science and technology, vol. 20, Mining and metallurgy), To-kyo-: Daiichi Ho-ki Shuppan, 1971 (1965), chapter 4, pp. 173–191.

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never saw the establishment of an independent mining academy at such a high level. Instead, higher mining engineers were trained at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE, Ko- bu-dai-gakko- , 1871/3–1886), the first institution for higher technical education in the country with an important mining department, and at certain universities such as the Departments for Mining and Metallurgy (saiko- yakin gakka) at the Universities of To- kyo- (established 1877), Kyo- to (1898) and Kyu-shu-/Fukuoka (1911). The Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei contains a list of 19 institutions where mining and metallurgy were taught for mining engineers of higher and middle rank during the Meiji period. The list starts with the Mining and Metallurgy Department of the Faculty of Physics at the University of To- kyo- , and the Mining Department of the Imperial College of Engineering. The founding date for both is given as 1877 even though they had precursors dating back to the early 1870s. Other Imperial Universities as well as private ones such as Waseda University also established departments for mining and metallurgy, mostly around the turn of the century. At the middle level, the list shows technical courses in high schools, mostly founded after 1896, and special vocational middle schools and vocational colleges, which were often established by private entrepreneurs or companies.4 Another overview of schools for lower ranking miners and technicians lists nine institutions, most of which were founded in the first two decades of the twentieth century.5 These lists are not complete, but they show that mining schools did not emerge until the Meiji period. Then, the government began with the highest level of training for high-ranking engineers at ICE and the University of To- kyo- . Only in the course of time did it move on to train mid-level technicians and workers for the mining industry. Although there is some temporal overlap, the chronological order clearly indicates that the development was essentially top-down. This development is quite typical of the overall expansion of technical education in Japan, and it is a question, already debated around 1920,6 as to how this impacted the development and modernization of the mining sector. If one speaks about Japanese mining schools or colleges today, most people immediately think of the Akita Mining College (Akita Ko- zan Senmon-gakko- ). This was founded in 1910 4 5 6

Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, pp. 175, table 1. Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, pp. 176, table 2. See i.e. Yokobori Jisaburo- , ‘Ko-gyo- kyo-iku’ (Mining education), in Nihon Ko-gyokai-shi, no. 411, 1919, pp. 371–388, here p. 377, 388.

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and officially opened in 1912. During the nearly 40 years of its independent existence, it developed into one of the major institutions for education in mining and metallurgy as well as related subjects below the university level. Another mining school that has drawn the attention of researchers in recent times is the Chikuho- Ko- zan-gakko- (Chikuho- Mining School), which opened in 1919. The school was located in the city of No- gata (Fukuoka prefecture), and trained middle-ranking technicians and miners in coal mining, a thriving business in northern Kyu-shu-. The school existed in various forms and under various names until 2005. In one article, the Chikuho- Mining School is praised as a counterpart to Akita Mining College, as one of the only two (‘true’) mining schools in Japan.7 However, without wishing to diminish the importance of the Akita college or the Chikuho- school, below the university level there were quite a few other schools devoted exclusively or largely to the education of middle-rank mining engineers and lower-rank technicians and miners. Some of their founders and teachers, especially in the early Meiji period, came from ICE and the Imperial University of To- kyo- , but the ideas and planning of such schools and their beginnings predate the above-mentioned institutions. Knowledge about these beginnings is fragmentary, not least due to the lack of documents. Little is known about how the transition took place since the Meiji period from mining knowledge that individuals acquired on the job during the Edo period to a formalized subject in its own right in schools and institutions of higher learning. This article traces this development and assesses the role mining schools played during this decisive development stage, and their impact on the development. But before turning to the mining schools, it is important to sketch the situation before the Meiji period. 2. TRAINING OF MINERS DURING THE EDO PERIOD (1603–1867)

Even though the first references to mining schools did not appear before the 1860s, Japan looks back at a long and successful history of mining. Starting in ancient times, gold, silver and copper as well 7

E.g., Yoshida Takamitsu, ‘“Ho-koku” Chikuho- ko-zan-gakko-, Chikuho- Ko-gyoKo-ko- no rekishi to kyo-iku naiyo-’ (The Chikuho- Mining School / ChikuhoTechnical High School: Its history and teaching contents), in Enerugii-shi kenkyu-, no. 33, 2018 (3), pp. 191–203, here p. 191.

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as lead, iron, mercury and other ores were mined in different places in the country. Since the second half of the sixteenth century mining activities increased considerably and new technologies, especially in processing ore and partly in mine-drainage methods led to a boom in the production of precious metals, and later also copper.

Fig. 1: Extraction of ore in the Sado gold mine during Edo period. Two miners work with hammer and chisel, hold with tongs, while two others on the lower right side, who are supposed to relieve them in between, are having a rest. Two officials in dark kimonos at the lower edge are supervising the work. Courtesy: Museum Fünf Kontinente, München.

But mining work itself, the extraction of ore, the driving of tunnels and adits as well as aspects of the drainage work remained to be done by hand (Figure 1). Ores were mined with hammer and mallet following the veins from their outcrop as far as possible into the depths, often leaving deep scars in the landscape. Only few mechanical devices, such as simple piston pumps or wind machines (to-mi) were used in the mines. Over time, the ore deposits accessible by traditional methods declined, and output shrank. However, there was obviously enough manpower for the remaining lodes, and operators apparently felt no need to rationalize and mechanize on a larger scale.8 This long 8

See Mathias, Regine, ‘Knowledge on Mining and Smelting and its Dissemination in the Edo Period’, in Erich Pauer and Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkstone: Renaissance Books, 2020, pp. 69–95.

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period of stagnation in mining technology is also lamented in - shima’s ‘Statement of Opinion’ printed at the beginning of this O article. During the Edo period, there were many written and pictorial sources dealing with mining. Many treatises on mining were written by local officials to transmit empirical knowledge about the administration and management of mines, or passed on Chinese cosmological ideas. Others dealt with the work in the mines, obviously based on information directly obtained from foremen and miners.9 However, there were few theoretical considerations about the formation of ore deposits and veins, let alone systematic and scientific research in this field. For the work itself one needed only a certain practical knowledge, learned from experienced foremen on the job. Knowledge was passed on in the same way as in crafts or agriculture: through a kind of apprenticeship based on a personal paternalistic relationship of oya-ko kankei (quasi parent–child relation) between the boss and the miners. This system seems to have been sufficiently detailed to pass on knowledge and sustain the necessary labour force for the mining sector without a more systematic education. However, it did not provide a basis for innovations or knowledge on how to overcome difficulties encountered in mining more difficult lodes at evergreater depths. It therefore could not prevent the decline of many mines in Japan before the Meiji Restoration. 3. FIRST BEGINNINGS

The first thoughts about establishing mining schools apparently go back to the early 1860s, and emerged in Hokkaido- , where the government hoped to discover new sources of ore and develop new - shima Takato- (1826–1901) from the Nanbu domain (now mines. O Morioka prefecture), one of Japan’s first modern mining engineers, is said to have founded a mining school for ‘teachers’ (ko-shi-gakko-) with some like-minded people in Hakodate as early as 1863.10 9

10

See also Mathias, ‘Knowledge on Mining and Smelting’, p. 92. Reprints of many of these texts appeared in the series Nihon kagaku koten zensho (Classical studies in Japanese science), edited by Saigusa Hiroto, vols. 9, 10, 11, To-kyo- and Osaka: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1942–1944; the whole series was reprinted in 1978; reprints can also be found in the series Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo-shu- kanko- iinkai (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo-shu-, dai ikki, dai niki kinsei-hen (Collected materials on Japanese mining history, vols. 1 and 2, early modern period), To-kyo-: Haku-A Shobo-, 1981. The date is often given as 1862, based on the records of Oshima, Oshima Takatoko jitsu, p. 16, 393–395, but Hasegawa Seiichi has demonstrated in a detailed

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- shima belonged to the generation that still had to gather its O technical and scientific knowledge from many different sources. Having studied under the Dutch scholar and translator Mitsukuri Genpo (1799–1863) and later in Nagasaki in direct contact - shima was engaged in artillery engineering and with foreigners, O gun-casting from 1846 on, and was involved in the construction of a reverberatory furnace at Nakaminato, in the Mito domain, and the first blast furnaces at Hashimoto (Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture). Besides Dutch, he studied English, French and German and gained knowledge through foreign books on various topics. - shima had founded a school for Western Learning In 1861, O (Nisshin-do- ) in Morioka, where knowledge about mining and metallurgy was probably also taught. At least it is known that students of the Nisshin-do- were taken by him to the Kosaka silver mine for ‘training on the job’. They not only worked there - shima Takato- and his brother, O - shima Fukuharu practically, but O (Fukuji) also taught them the reading of English books, surveying, civil engineering, drawing, mathematics, report writing etc.11 In 1862, on behalf of the Hakodate Magistrate (Hakodate bugyo-), Oshima Takato- and four other young men12 accompanied William Phipps Blake and Raphael Pumpelly, two foreign mining engineers specialized in mineralogy and geology, on their geologi- shima and Takeda cal explorations in Hokkaido- . Two of them, O Ayasaburo , had been selected because they had already excelled in the study and application of Western learning and were to deepen their knowledge in contact with the foreign engineers. Pumpelly describes them as being ‘at the same time assistants, escorts, and pupils’.13 The assistants’ training took place mainly during two excursions to inland Hokkaido- , where samples of ores and other minerals were collected and geological surveys conducted. An important and well-known event during the second ‘study trip’

11

12

13

study that some events listed in this book for 1862 and 1863 probably have to be corrected; see Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Oshima Takato- to Hakodate’ (Oshima Takatoand Hakodate), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu- - 1977(9), 1976, pp. 129–140. Honda Toshio, ‘Morioka Nisshin-do- “Ko-zan” gakko-’ (The Morioka Nisshindo“Mining” School), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, 1989 (21), 1988, pp. 1-13, pp. 4–5. Besides Oshima they were Takeda Ayasaburo-, a scholar of Western learning like Oshima, Tachi Katsusaburo- and Yu[I]wao Katsuuemon/Sho-uemon, both officials of the Mining Department of the Revenue Office, and Mi(y)agawa Saburo-, interpreter and student, see Hasegawa, ‘Oshima Takato-’, p. 130. Raphael Pumpelly, Across America and Asia. Notes of A Five Years Journey Around the World and of Residence in Arizona, Japan and China, New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1870 (3rd edition, revised), p. 143.

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was Pumpelly’s first use of gunpowder to excavate tunnels in the lead mines of Yurup. Pumpelly describes this event, and the resistance that had to be overcome in the run-up to it, very vividly. He found it surprising that gunpowder was widely known in Japan and China but not used there in mining. The successful first attempt at blasting, the result of which corresponded to several days’ manual labour, convinced his assistants after initial scepticism, and they soon mastered the new method.14 A measles outbreak15 led to the detention of the group at Hakodate for two months until the end of July 1862, a period which Blake and Pumpelly used for an intensive training: […giving] regular instruction to our assistants in the branches bearing on mining and metallurgy […]. I used a collection of the common minerals and rocks gathered on the excursions for teaching how to recognize them. The outlines of geology I taught verbally and by sketched illustrations and observation in the field. So also the methods of mining. I taught the use of the surveying instruments in the field as far as was possible in their ignorance of trigonometry. […] Blake was to teach elementary chemistry, but, as the promised room was not provided, I don’t know what he was able to do.16

Pumpelly also mentions the difficulties that pupils and teachers had to overcome, ‘as we were teaching subjects of which but few of the technical terms had Japanese equivalents, to students who were ignorant of the elementary branches which necessarily precede the study of applied science’.17 This teaching may have been the first step towards the establishing by Blake and Pumpelly of what is referred to in the sources as the ‘School of mines and applied Science’. Starting in the summer months, Blake wrote several letters to the Hakodate bugyo- and 14

15

16 17

Raphael Pumpelly, My Reminiscences, vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918, pp. 334–335. In 1862 Japan experienced a measles epidemic which spread throughout the whole country. According to various sources it was one of the most severe, most deadly, outbreak of measles in Japanese history; see e.g. Georg C. Kohn, Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence. From Ancient Time to the Present. New York: Facts on file, 2007, p. 213; according to Pumpelly, families of his companions were also affected, see Pumpelly, My Reminiscences, p. 319. Pumpelly, Across America and Asia, pp. 155–156; My Reminiscences, pp. 319–320. Pumpelly, My Reminiscences, p. 319.

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other officials, concerning details of such a school. In November 1862 he seems to have even proposed a ‘Plan for the permanent establishment and conduct of a School of mines and Applied Science’.18 Lessons continued, interrupted by the excursions, into the autumn and winter months of 1862/63. Pumpelly remarks that he was now able to speak the common dialect fairly well, and his assistants had learned much about minerals, rocks and geology and mining. He describes that in mining and metallurgy he instructed them on both early and modern methods, including the machines used. The modern part proved to be […] more easy because one of the men had an album in which he had copied all the illustrations of the machines made at the Cockerell works in Belgium. They were drawn in minute details with the fineness of steel engravings. The men showed intelligent interest and took full notes with sketches.19

This example shows how technical knowledge could be acquired during the transitional period until formalized technical schooling was established. Learning directly from foreign engineers and geologists certainly was a great but rare chance, but the prereq- shima uisite was that the students were already well prepared. O had studied in Nagasaki and gained practical experience with the construction of reverberatory and blast furnaces. He and the others also studied foreign books and were well aware of machines used in the West, as the above-mentioned album with drawings of Belgian machines shows. In any case, ability in foreign languages was a prerequisite for acquiring knowledge. Besides Blake and Pumpelly, other Western mining engineers passed on their knowledge to Japanese ‘students’. Benjamin Smith 18

19

Letter from 8 January 1862, cited in Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Beijin Horeku (Blake) shi raikan hen’ (Letters received from the American Blake), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, 1980(12), 1979, pp. 37–57, here pp. 39–42. There is some confusion around this school: Yoshiki Fumio equates this school with the Ko-shi-gakko- founded by Oshima, according to other sources, and writes: ‘Pumpelly and Blake in July 1862 opened in Hakodate a school called Ko-shi-gakko-, where they educated Japanese in scientific mining practices’ (Yoshiki Fumio, How Japan’s Metal Mining Industry Modernized, UNU Research Paper no. HSDRJE-23/UNUP-83, To-kyo-: The United Nations University, 1980, p. 6). But according to Hasegawa, ‘Oshima to Hakodate’, these are two different schools that succeeded each other (see above fn. 11). Pumpelly, My Reminiscences, pp. 336–337.

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Lyman (1836–1920), for example, who was in Japan from 1872 to 1881, was very influential in the fields connected to geology and mining. He conducted several surveys in search of coal and oil in Japan and trained his numerous assistants in surveying, mapping, mathematics, mineralogy and related subjects. But this transmission of knowledge remained limited to the personal teacher–student relationship and did not lead to the establishment of schools.20 After Pumpelly and Blake had to leave in February 1863,21 Oshima was apparently ordered to pass on the knowledge he had acquired so far, and train personnel for the development of coal mines and other mines in Hokkaido-. He accordingly founded the mining teachers’ school in 1863. While we know little about the organization of and the content taught at this school, the earlier instructions described by Pumpelly provide us at least with some indications about what kind of subjects may have been taught there. Another hint is provided by a list of books and objects - shima apparently obtained for teaching from the Shojutsu that O Shirabe-sho, an institution of Western learning in the Hakodate Magistrate, dealing with Dutch studies, surveying, navigation, shipbuilding, artillery, construction and chemistry as well as mining and metallurgy.22 In his Reminiscences Pumpelly reflects upon their accomplishments in Hokkaido- and concludes, that it was ‘not much beyond a beginning’,23 but the impact of their activities went far beyond the introduction of gunpowder to the mining industry and was - shima, in particular, strove in varicarried on by their ‘students’. O ous capacities to establish schools for mining and other industries. As early as 1863, in a memorandum to the government of the 20

21

22

23

The survey reports of Lyman are available at https://books.google.fr/books?id =RIARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA199&dq=Iwami+Ginzan+silver+mine&client=fire fox-a&hl=de&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=Iwami%20Ginzan%20 silver%20mine&f=false. A short CV can be accessed in the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries under http://findingaids.library.umass.edu/ead/ mums190 Their engagement was terminated prematurely, due to the growing unrest throughout the country, often associated with anti-foreign and anti-Tokugawa acts, whereby the security of foreigners in the service of the Tokugawa Shogunate like Blake and Pumpelly appeared to be threatened. For a list of books borrowed from the Shojutsu Shirabe-sho see Honda Toshio, ‘Morioka Nisshindo- “Ko-zan” gakko-’ (The Morioka Nisshindo- “Mining” School), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, 1989(21), 1988, pp. 1-13, p. 7 and footnote 17. Pumpelly, My reminiscences, p. 338–339.

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Morioka domain, he called for the establishment of specialized schools for various trades, including mining.24 In 1870 he addressed the problem in a ‘Statement of Opinion on the establishment of a mining school’ (Ko-gaku-ryo- shinsetsu ni kansuru Takato- no iken shoden), addressed to high officials of the Minbusho- (Ministry of Popular Affairs).25 It contains an unsparing analysis of the current situation in the mining industry as well as essential elements for the development of the mining sector and its specific education. It is briefly summarized below. In its opening sentences, which appear at the start of this chap- shima points out the great importance of mining and Japan’s ter, O difficulties due to the lack of modern science and technology. He continues that if science is taught and technology is acquired (gaku wo ko-ji, kono jutsu wo to(t)te) and this is enforced in the more than 60 provinces,26 ‘then no doubt many good mines (tunnels) will be established and production should be […] several million kin’.27 This would increase the prosperity of the inhabitants. But to do this in a hurry, mining engineers (ko-zan gishi) were essential. Such engineers would have to study the following subjects: physics (kyu- ri bunseki), machinery, surveying, geology, mineralogy. Then they should learn the methods to sample the ore, prospect, open up tunnels and pick, wash and smelt the ore/coal to become experts in the business of mining (ko-zan no jitsugyo- ni ju- jisuru mono nari). For teachers, one must turn to foreign countries, to the West. From there one should get one top-ranking teacher, two secondranking teachers and four third-ranking teachers, altogether seven persons, plus interpreters and typists, as much as the development of this science needs. The students are to come from all regions and be housed in a dormitory. - shima continues that it would take three to four or even five O to six years, before (Japanese) specialists could be brought in for this field. These engineers with assistants and a few miners would explore, prospect and map Japan’s ore and coal deposits. Maps and reports should be collected in an institution called Ko-gaku-ryo-,28 24 25 26

27 28

Oshima, Oshima Takato- ko-jitsu, p. 416. Oshima, Oshima Takato- ko-jitsu, pp. 683–686. Oshima uses the word shu- here as administrative regional unit, as the restructuring of the administration by abolishing the domains and establishing prefectures was not yet completed. Unit of weight. 1 kin equals 0.6 kg (kin here wrongly written 䠁 instead of ᯔ). Ko- here written ඁ (mining), and not ᐕ(industry) as later in the official name of the Ko-gaku-ryo-, predecessor of ICE, 1871.

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the Government Bureau for Mining, and a directory of all mines in the empire should be made.Then the most promising mines should be selected and developed with capital to be accumulated. Such an ambitious policy must first establish mining schools (ko-gakuryo-) on a large scale, and there teach students physics (kyu-ri bunseki), machinery, surveying, geology, mineralogy, and acquaint them with the methods of assaying, prospecting, tunnel drilling, processing - shima concludes that at the end of (sorting, washing), and so on. O many exercises and experiments, one would be able to penetrate the mysteries of mining and realize mining for the first time. This ‘Statement of Opinion’ is said to have had a significant influence on government policy and contributed e.g. to the founding of what would become the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE; see the chapters by Wada and Pauer in this volume). Moreover, mining schools (ko-zan gakko-) were already mentioned in the Education System Ordinance (Gakusei) of 1873 as a form of specialised secondary school, alongside e.g. schools for law, medicine, agriculture, industry, etc.29 But this Ordinance by the Ministry of Education was only partially implemented and did not lead to the establishment of mining schools within the general education system at that time. 4. JAPAN’S FIRST MINING SCHOOL IN IKUNO

The mine that claims to have established the first – officially registered – mining school in Japan was Ikuno, one of Japan’s most productive silver mines. This is situated approximately 80 km north of Himeji, in a remote mountainous region, not easily reached during the Edo and early Meiji periods. Its beginnings are said to date back to the start of the ninth century, but the actual development of silver deposits began in the middle of the sixteenth century. Since the Edo period, the mine had been continually under the control of the central government, first the Shogunate, then various ministries of the new Meiji government and, for a short period, the Imperial Household Agency. In 1896 it was sold to Mitsubishi Company, which managed it until it was closed in 1973. Thereafter it became an industrial heritage monument, where part of the old galleries and several exhibitions bear witness to the mine’s past. 29

Monbu-sho- jitsugyo-gakumu-kyoku (ed.), Jitsugyo- kyo-iku goju-nen-shi (50-year history of practical business education), To-kyo-, 1934, pp. 57, 60.

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In an exhibit dealing with Ikuno’s history, the first panel reads ‘Japan’s first mining school’. While the text relates to the details of the first mining school founded in 1869, the attached photograph is somewhat misleading. It was taken in 1911 and shows students of the Meiji Senmon-gakko- , a private specialized school in Fukuoka prefecture with a mining department, whose students obviously visited or completed part of their training at the Ikuno mine. There are no pictures of the Ikuno Mining School itself, and until recently only little was known about it. In 2015 a dissertation by Shirai Satoko, a researcher in history of science and technology and Japanese–French relations, affiliated with Ko- be University, shed new light on this school.30 Based on Shirai’s study and a few other sources, we can obtain a certain picture of this school. The founder of the Ikuno Mining School (Ikuno Ko- zangakko- ), was a French Mining engineer, Jean Francisque Coignet (1835–1902) (Figure 2). Coignet had graduated from the École des Mineures in Saint Étienne in 1855 (present École National Superieure des Mines), one of the oldest and most prestigious mining academies in Europe. He spent the following years working in France, Spain, Algeria, Madagascar and Mexico, gathering practical and managerial experience in various ways. In early 1868 he came to Japan following an invitation by the Satsuma domain31 to undertake geological surveys and develop mining in the region. Later in the same year he became employed by the new Meiji government that sought to modernize the mining industry. He was 30

31

Shirai Satoko, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin Jan Furansuwa Kowanie to Nichi-Futsu ko-ryu- (The foreign employee Jean François Coignet in the Ikuno silver mine and the Japan-France exchange), Ph.D. thesis, Kobe University, published in Kobe University Repository, 2019, http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_kernel/ D1006359. One of the first studies, dealing mostly with the events leading up to Coignet’s employment, is a contribution by Takahashi Kunitaro-, ‘Ikuno Ko-zangakko-’ (Ikuno mining school), in (Nihon Futsugaku-shi kenkyu-kai) Nihon Futsugaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 6, 1975, pp. 1–6; there are also short passages on the mining school in local histories such as Ikuno-cho- Chu-o- Ko-minkan (ed.), Ikuno ginzan-cho- monogatari (A tale of Ikuno silver mine town), Ikuno-cho-: Ikuno-choChu-o- Ko-minkan, rev. edition 2004 (1987), pp. 50–51; Fujiwara Torakatsu, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi (The mining history of Ikuno since Meiji), Ikuno-cho-: Ikuno-cho- Kyo-iku iinkai, 1988, pp. 52–56. The contact with Satsuma was apparently made through C.D. de Montblanc, who met with Godai Tomoatsu and the Satsuma Delegation, that visited Europe in 1866.

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the first foreigner to be employed by the Meiji government, and the first of more than 70 foreign mining and civil engineers, metallurgists, geologists and others, mostly from France, the United Kingdom and Germany, hired to modernize the Japanese mining sector during the following years. This proves the great interest of the central government in this sector of the economy and its rapid development. Ikuno, then a government-owned mine, was selected to be the first to get Western machinery and other equipment, and Coignet spent the following ten years to turn Ikuno into a model for other mines in the country.

Fig. 2: Bronze bust of Jean F. Coignet in Ikuno. The monument was erected near the entrance to Ikuno mine. (Photo © R. Mathias)

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To do this, he brought a number of French specialists, some of them with their families, to Ikuno (Figure 3). The group included all kinds of professionals needed to build and run a modern mine: mining engineers, miners, smelters, but also people to construct machines and tools, and to build workshops and administrative buildings, roads, and later on, a railway connecting Ikuno with Himeji. Several of them had connections to Saint Étienne; some were even members of Coignet’s extended family. With 36 people it certainly was one of the largest French communities in Japan during the early Meiji period. Coignet came to Ikuno in September 1868 and started work in December of the same year. In his contract with the government, he was employed as ‘mining engineer and teacher of mining’ (ko--zanshi ken ko-gaku kyo-shi).32 His task was not only to modernize the mine by introducing Western machinery and mining methods, but also to pass on his knowledge to the Japanese miners and train future mining experts. As early as October 1868 Coignet wrote to the Ministry of - kurasho- ), then in charge of the mines, that he the Treasury (O intended to engage himself in the establishment of a mining school, in which it would be possible to study mining, obtain practical experience and train specialists. The answer of the Ministry was positive: he was advised to build a school in the mine, as a place for studying and research to train specialists, and teach there while at the same time continuing his work at the mine. He was urged to hand in a draft on the rules of this school.33 The school was opened in February 1869. Sources are scarce, but it seems to have existed for only four years and is said to have been closed in 1872.34 In Meiji 2.1.8 (18 February 1869), a provisional branch office of the governmental Mining Office (Ko-zan-shi) and the Ikuno Mining School were established in disused buildings on the site of the Kuchinoyama Shrine in Inono-cho-.35 It evidently had no building of its own, but the classroom seems to have been in close proximity to the offices of government representatives. Teaching had a 32 33

34 35

Ikuno-cho- Chu-o- Ko-minkan, Ikuno ginzan-cho- monogatari, p. 47. Ikuno-cho- Chu-o- Ko-minkan, Ikuno ginzan-cho- monogatari, p. 50, Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, p. 122. Fujiwara, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi, p. 53 mentions 1872 as year of its closure. Ikuno-cho- Chu-o- Ko-minkan, Ikuno ginzan-cho- monogatari, p. 51. The shrine was later transferred to a different location when the site became part of the mining area.

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Fig. 3: List of French employees in Ikuno. Source: Sugiura Takeo (ed.), Ikuno ginzan. Nihon to furansu to no yu-ko- no tame ni (‘Mined’ Ikuno’. For the Japanese-French friendship), Ikuno: Ikuno-cho- Chu-oKo-minkan, 1992, p. 62.

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strong focus on practice. According to Coignet, the students were to be taught while they were working on site, i.e., training on the job. However, the memoirs of one former student (Nakae Tanezo-, see below) testify that there were also lectures on mining-related sciences.36 Coignet himself is said to have taught not only mining, but also geology, geomorphology, metallurgy, applied physics and chemistry, etc. We can assume that other members of the French group of engineers and technicians also participated in training the students in the use of modern smelting furnaces and other facilities. Some students obviously also used the time in Ikuno to learn French, which was taught by the physician Augustin Hédon. We know that he made his students translate Japanese fables and tales into French because he produced the results later during a conference of Orientalists in France.37 According to the Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Report on the history of the Ko- busho- ), at least 15 ‘students’ were sent to Ikuno during these four years to learn from Coignet and others about modern mining, but there are indications that there were in fact more than this number. Even after the closing of the school, in 1876, 14 students came from Ani silver mine in northeastern Japan to Ikuno to study modern mining technology and other sciences with Coignet.38 Little is known about the individual students. Most came from surrounding domains and prefectures, but also from Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Shimonoseki, Bizen and other distant places. Several seem to have already been working for the government. One, the son of a local official, apparently obtained a scholarship from the governor of his prefecture.39 Shirai Satoko has traced two students whose later careers are well known. Although they might not be representative for all students, their examples give some insight into the teaching and how the Ikuno mining school influenced their later lives. One was Nakae Tanezo- (1836–1931), a native from Toyooka domain (Tajima province). He worked as a guard and studied gunnery, mathematics and surveying. After the Meiji Restoration he was - saka Mint, where he became acquainted with employed in the O 36 37 38

39

Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, p. 123. Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, p.125. Fujiwara, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi, p. 53; Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, p.125–126. Fujiwara, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi, p. 54.

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chemistry and metallurgy. He was transferred to the Mining Bureau and later sent to Ikuno shortly after the mining school was founded. There he worked in the office, while studying mining, applied physics and chemistry with Coignet and Denis Sévoz (1836 ?–1896), one of the mining engineers. He wrote in his memoirs that he found the lectures by Sévoz especially interesting because Sévoz contrasted science and practical application in his lectures, making use of the mine facilities near the classroom. This increased Nakae’s interest in mining and was important for his later career. He took up an influential position with Furukawa Mining Company before setting up his own business as a mining entrepreneur in 1884.40 The second ‘student’ was Takashima Tokuzo- (Hokkai). He already worked in the Japanese Ministry of Public Affairs and was sent to Ikuno, where from 1872 to 1875 he worked and studied geology, botany and French. He seems to have worked as an assistant to Coignet, whom he accompanied on survey trips to To- hoku and Hokuriku, learning how to analyse rocks and ores, and other geological methods. In 1874, he published two geological maps of Yamaguchi prefecture, the first such works by a Japanese. Later he worked for several ministries, mostly in the field of forestry. In 1885, he went to the World Exhibition on Water and Forestry in London and then to France, where he studied geobotany for three years at the National School of Water Resources and Forestry in Nancy. After his return to Japan, he continued his career as a government official for nearly ten years before, at the age of 47, quitting the ministry and making a living as a painter. Today he is well known as a painter of landscapes and plants.41 Not everything at the school went smoothly, at least at first. Two miners from the Besshi copper mine in Shikoku, who were sent to Ikuno mine in 1869 to acquire knowledge on new mining methods and modern machinery, seem to have been among the first students of the school. After their return they reported that it had been very difficult to study and obtain training, not least because everything was in French. Learning French was difficult, and several students left the school after only a month and returned home.42 Some of 40 41

42

Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, pp. 123-24. Takashima Tokuzo- (Hokkai) is briefly mentioned in Takahashi, ‘Ikuno Ko-zan-gakko-’, 1975, pp. 5–6; Fujiwara, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi, p. 54; in detail see Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, pp. 136–167, where Chapter 4 deals with Takashima. Shirai, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin, pp. 179–180.

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these shortcomings in the teaching may have been related to the fact that Coignet was just starting out. In addition, the French had had to flee Ikuno shortly before because there had been an uprising by the miners and their leaders, who were resisting the modernization measures. Only after calm had returned could Coignet and the others return. Even though the mining school in Ikuno was short-lived, focused on practical experience, and its teaching was not very well structured, the school could be described as the first (or if one wants to include Blake and Pumpelly’s school in Hokkaido-, the second) attempt to systematically and persistently teach mining and related sciences to Japanese students. Although we know little about the students, it is probably safe to assume that quite a few already had some prior knowledge or were miners with some practical experience. The idea was to turn Ikuno into a model mine and use the school to spread the knowledge on new methods and machines to other areas. It has to be noted that all the teachers were French, and all the lessons were in French, probably translated by an interpreter. Some of the students also learned French, but we do not know how far their knowledge went. However, those who had previous knowledge could profit from the lessons, as the two examples of Takashima and Nakae show. 5. THE SADO MINING SCHOOL

Another attempt to establish a mining school took place on the island of Sado, in the Sea of Japan. Sado had some of the richest gold and silver deposits in Japan. Placer gold had been mined since ancient times. In 1601 a large gold ore deposit was discovered on the island in the Aikawa region, which became the centre of the mining activities during the Edo period. Like Ikuno, Sado was owned by the central government, the shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration, the new government took over the mine and began to modernize it. In contrast to Ikuno, where only French engineers were invited to advance the modernization, foreign mining engineers in Sado came from various countries. Erasmus Gower from the United Kingdom is credited with the introduction of explosives for mining; Alexis Janin, an American engineer, modernized the processing of ore; and Adolph Reh from Germany is said to have sunk the first shaft in Sado (and in Japan). Since the middle of the 1880s, the modernization of the Aikawa mine was supervised by two Japanese officials who were members

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- shima Takatoof the technical elite of the early Meiji period: O 43 and Watanabe Wataru (1857–1919) (Figure 4). The latter was the founder of the Sado mining school. Watanabe belongs to the first generation of fully fledged professional engineers in Japan. He studied chemistry and other natural sciences at the Kaisei-gakko- (and its successor, the University of To-kyo-), and later switched to mining and geology. He was among the first cohort of students to graduate from the Departments of Mining and Geology of the University of To-kyo- in 1879. After graduation he was employed as an ‘assistant professor’ at the University of To-kyo- and worked together with Curt Netto44 and with Imai Iwao, who had obtained his diploma as an engineer from the Bergakademie (Mining Academy) in Freiberg, Saxony, in 1876 and taught mining and German. The Mining Academy in Freiberg was one of the oldest mining academies in Europe, founded in 1765, and had an excellent reputation, attracting many foreign students, among them also many Japanese. Imai Iwao was one of three Japanese who completed their entire studies in Freiberg and graduated with a German engineering degree.45 Probably due to this German connection, and his training in German,Watanabe also studied in Freiberg. His enrolment sheet (‘Immatriculation’), and the track records of the two years are still preserved in Freiberg. After his return he became Professor at the University of To- kyo- , - shima Takato- to support him in and shortly after he was asked by O - shima retired his endeavour to modernize the Sado mines. When O 1889, Watanabe succeeded him as director of the Sado Mining Office. It was in this capacity that he began his efforts to set up a mining school. In summer 1889 Watanabe Wataru submitted a request to the Ministry to establish a mining school in Sado (Figure 5).In summary, the main points of the document are as follows: the aim was to teach all sciences and skills necessary for working in the 43

44

45

For details on Watanabe Wataru see e.g. Sasaki Susumu, ‘Watanabe Wataru no sho-gai to Nihon Ko-gyo--kai’ (Watanabe Wataru and the Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Japan), in Nihon Ko-gyo--kai shi, vol. 90, no. 1037, 1974, pp. 441–453. Curt Adolph Netto (1847–1909) was a German mining engineer and metallurgist. He worked in Japan 1873–1885, modernized the Kosaka mine, and in 1878 became Professor of Metallurgy at the University of To-kyo-. Another student who obtained a German engineering degree (Diplom-Ingenieur) was Oshima Michitaro-, son of Oshima Takato-. His father had also visited Freiberg as a member of the Iwakura mission in 1873.

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Fig. 4: Watanabe Wataru. Source: Schiffner, Carl, Aus dem Leben alter Freiberger Bergstudenten, vol. 2, Freiberg: Ernst Mauckisch, 1938, p. 177.

Sado mines to foremen and skilled workers (ko-shu and higher shokko- ) and their sons and younger brothers to train a qualified workforce for the mine. All the teaching was to be in Japanese. The document also contains details on the organization of teaching, subjects and degrees. There were two courses, a Preparation Course of three years, that served to make up for the often inadequate school education, and a Main Course of one-and-a-half years, which allowed for four specializations: mining, metallurgy, mechanical engineering and construction. The contents taught in the Preparation Course comprised moral studies, reading, essay writing, calligraphy, mathematics, geography, history and English, and sewing for women. The Main Course offered lessons in mathematics, introduction to physics, chemistry, geology and mining (dry and wet methods of ore-dressing); metallurgy, mechanical engineering (steam engines, rock drilling machine, blower, pump and winch) as well as surveying. Further topics were the properties and application of iron, the production of moulds, casting, forging, construction design, rasping, an introduction to methods of smelting and refining, assaying, building, drawing and bookkeeping. Classes in the Main Course were to be held after sunset

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Fig. 5: Official confirmation of the establishment of the Sado Mining School and its Regulations in the Official Gazette Kanpo-, no. 1835, Meiji 22.8.10 (10 August 1889), p. 102.

for three hours, while during the day the students worked and trained on the site. This was a course with a large practical component. The Preparation Course was to be held during the day or in the evening, according to the situation.46

46

Kanpo-, no. 1835, Meiji 22.8.10. (10 August, 1889) pp. 102–103. See also Fumoto Saburo-, Sado kinginzan shiwa (Historical stories about the gold and silver mines at Sado), To-kyo-: Mitsubishi Kinzoku Ko-gyo- K.K. 1973 (1956), p. 483.

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Fig. 6: Detail from a map of Aikawa town on Sado island, showing the site where the Sado Mining School was situated (middle of the map), near the Agency of Imperial Property Sado Branch Office, the administration of the mine. Buildings of the former mine are shown in red; those with a dotted red outline including the school no longer exist. Source: 1893 Agency of Imperial Property Sado mines establishments. Sado chiku heimen-zu no. 48. Courtesy of World Heritage Inscription Promotion Office, Niigata-ken, Sado-shi.

The school was set up in Aikawa, near the port, within the compound of the Sado Mining Administration (Agency of Imperial Property, Sado branch office, see Fig. 6).Today not a trace is left of the school, or of many of the other mine buildings, which are marked on the map in red. Only a plaque in the Aikawa museum still recalls the school. The list of teachers is quite impressive (Table 1).Their specialties cover a wide range of subjects. In their teaching they covered all areas of knowledge necessary for mining work. Among the eight professors two, Kanda Reiji and Yoshimi Kuro-, were graduates of ICE (Imperial College of Engineering, Ko-bu-dai-gakko-).Yoshimi belonged to the first cohort of graduates from that school. Kanda was two years his junior and later made a career in the mining business.47 Watanabe Wataru himself was graduate of and professor 47

It is not clear when and how long Kanda Reiji was teaching in Sado as documents show that he was enrolled as ‘Hospitant’ in the German Mining Academy of Freiberg from October 1893 to July 1894. There he is mentioned as ‘Director of the Kyoritsu Mining Co. in Tokio’. See Carl Schiffner, Aus dem Leben alter Freiberger Bergstudenten, vol. 2, Freiberg: Ernst Mauckisch, 1938, p. 175.

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at the University of To-kyo-, and taught at both institutions. We do not know much about the others, but Kaneko Tsunesaburo- had published articles on modern methods of dressing (Huntington mill), which shows his research capacity. Basics in sciences as well as basic methods (drawing) were taught by assistant professors who seem to have been technicians at the mine. Table1: Teachers in the Sado Mining School Name

Status

Nakamura Katsushika

Administrative Head of School (Coordinator, Imperial Household Agency)

Watanabe Wataru

Head of School, Prof., (rigaku-shi University of To-kyo-), engineer (gishi) Prof., (ko-gaku-shi ICE), engineer

Kanda Reiji

Subjects

Mining, Geology Mining, Surveying

(gishi) Kaneko Tsunesaburo-

Prof., (ko-gaku-shi), engineer (gishi)

Dressing, Amalgamation, Smelting

Yamanishi Toshiya

Prof., engineer (gishi)

Smelting, Refining Methods

Kigawa Shinichi Yoshimi Kuro-

Prof., engineer (gishi) Prof., (ko-gaku-shi ICE), engineer (gishi)

Assaying, Analysis

Sannai Cho-jiro-

Prof., technician (gite)

Construction

Kodama IkutaroOsawa Isoyoshi Yokota Sho-zo-

Prof., technician (gite)

Mechanical Engineering

Ass. Prof., technician (gite)

Physics, Chemistry

Ass. Prof., Smelting Dept.

Drawing

Endo- Ryo-ji Harada Ko-saku

Ass. Prof., technician (gite)

Arithmetics, Algebra

Ass. Prof., technician (gite)

Geometry, Trigonometry

Toshioka Shundai Ono Rinpei

Medical Service

First Aid

Mechanical Engineering, Material Science

Source: Fumoto Saburo-, Sado kinginzan shiwa (Historical stories of the gold and silver mines at Sado), To-kyo-: Mitsubishi Kinzoku Ko-gyo- KK, 1973, pp. 483–484.

In contrast to the Ikuno Mining School, which attracted students from different regions, the Sado mining school was primarily meant for the workforce in Sado. This was possible because the teaching language was Japanese. Students had to be graduates of an

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primary school or have equivalent academic ability. However, this limitation did not apply to those who already worked in the mine or their children above primary school age.48 In the first year, 87 students were enrolled in the Main Course, the largest group among them in metallurgy and mining. Fortyone students were in the Preparatory Course. Eight students finished the main course at the end of the first year in 1891, and nine at the end of the second year. Two of them later became the heads of the Sado ore processing plant and the Sado workshop, which shows that the curriculum was successful in training a middle stratum of technicians and foremen capable of taking on leading positions in the production process.49 Unfortunately, there is no further information about the school and its graduates. There is just one anonymous reference to Watanabe’s lectures, which states that his lectures were very difficult, probably on the same level as his lectures at the University of To-kyo-. There were many things the students did not understand, but to them it seems to have been a great experience to attend the lectures of such a highly educated, eminent teacher.50 The Sado Mining School existed for only seven years, from 1890 to 1896. When the mine was sold to Mitsubishi and Watanabe Wataru’s term as director ended in 1896, the school was closed. But it was longer-lived than Ikuno and its structure and content of science-based teaching was more elaborate. A common feature of the two early schools was the emphasis on practical education and training. Today the school is remembered only in the Aikawa Museum, where several exhibits in the corner of a showcase refer to the school. The text on a copper plate exhibited there praises the school as ‘the first mining school in Japan’. This might be disputed by Ikuno, but it is interesting that Sado is described as the predecessor of the Akita Mining College, the first attempt that led to a longlived mining school in Japan. 6. THE AKITA MINING COLLEGE

The Akita Mining College (Akita Ko- zan Senmon-gakko- ), was established as a national professional college in 1911 in the city 48 49 50

Kanpo- (Official Gazette) 1835, 1889 (Meiji 22.8.10), p. 102. Fumoto, Sado kinginzan shiwa, p. 484. Reminiscences in Ko-gakuin Daigaku gakuen 75nen shi, 1964, cited in Sasaki, ‘Watanabe Wataru’, p. 446.

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of Akita (Akita prefecture). It was the only specialized school (senmon-gakko-) that exclusively focused on mining in Japan. In 1949, after nearly 40 years of independent existence, the Akita Mining College was integrated into the newly established Akita University and became its Department for Mining and Metallurgy. After 1886 the Ministry of Education had started reforms to promote the establishment of industrial and vocational secondary education. The promulgation of the Kyo-iku rei (Education Order) in 1880, the Jitsugyo--gakko- rei (Vocational School Ordinance) in 1899 and the Senmon-gakko- rei (Ordinance for specialized schools)51 in 1903 (Meiji 36), among others, established a legal basis for this development. The Ministry of Education increasingly incorporated various forms of vocational and professional education into the general education system. The predominantly government-run schools on national or prefectural level were designed for a higher-level specialized training below the university level in technical fields, medicine, law and commerce. This led to an increase in the number of technical schools and colleges below the university level. The main subjects taught in these technical institutions were textiles, mechanical engineering, construction, chemistry, civil engineering, silkworm breeding and shipbuilding. Mining and metallurgy were offered as one of several specializations at the Sendai Higher Technical School (Sendai Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko- in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture), founded in 1906, the private Meiji Specialized School (Meiji Senmon-gakkoin Kitakyu-shu-), founded in 1907, and the Akita Mining College. - saka Higher Technical School Metallurgy was also taught at the O (Osaka Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko-), which included shipbuilding in its curriculum.52 The Akita Mining College was the only college that focused exclusively on mining and related subjects. The initiative for its foundation originally came from several large companies, but was also supported by local politicians and individuals, and by institutions at the national level. Akita prefecture was an important mining area in Japan. In Akita and surrounding areas, rich deposits of gold, silver and copper had been mined since the Edo period. 51 52

In some texts also translated as ‘professional college’. Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu (ed.), Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko-/Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu 50-nen shi (50 years of the History of the Akita Mining College and Akita University Mining Faculty), Akita: Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu, 1961, pp. 7–9.

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Fig. 7: Official opening ceremony of the Akita Mining College in 1913. In a text accompanying this photo, the viewer’s attention is drawn to the fact that there is no name engraved above the entrance to the building, because Obana Fuyukichi, the first director of the school wanted to avoid the name Senmon-gakko- and hoped to upgrade the school to a university one day. Source: Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu (ed.), Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko-/Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu 50nen shi (50 years of the History of the Akita Mining School and Akita University Mining Faculty), Akita: Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu, 1961, photographs at the beginning of the book.

Since the 1880s, many of the mines were sold to large companies like Mitsubishi, Furukawa or Fujita Gumi, which were all important national players. It was these companies that donated a large sum (350,000 yen), and together with the governor of Akita prefecture advanced the foundation of a mining school in Akita.53 After several years of preparation, the Mining College was established as a national college in 1910, accepting its first students in 1911. The official opening ceremony in 1913 took place in front of the impressive new school building (Figure 7). The first director was Obana Fuyukichi (1856–1934), a graduate from ICE, where he studied metallurgy and chemistry. After graduating in 1879 as a member of the first group of graduates of this school, he went to study at the Mining 53

Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, p. 9.

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Academy in Freiberg for several years. Back in Japan, he held several posts in the mining administration and private industry, before becoming the first director of Akita Mining College. A statue commemorates his achievements for the Mining College (Figure 8). In one respect, however, he was not successful. From the beginning he tried to align the College with the model of the Freiberg Mining Academy.54 Accordingly, he invested great efforts to get permission for an ‘upgrading’ of the College as a Mining University/Academy – but failed. The debate about ‘upgrading’ continued through the whole history of the College, with teachers as well as students split about the pros and cons.

Fig. 8: Bronze bust of Obana Fuyukichi on the grounds of Akita University in Akita. Photo: © Erich Pauer

Students could enter the College after finishing middle school, but they had to pass a rather strict entrance examination. The entire course took three years and comprised a curriculum of 39 hours per week, which could be expanded for special lectures, etc. In the first year, all students took the same courses, which provided them with basic knowledge in English, maths, sciences in theory and practice, and methods for analysis and drawing, also in theory and practice. Moral studies and sports complemented 54

Mano Bunji, cited in Akita 50-nenshi, p. 17.

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the programme. The special field, mining or metallurgy, was only briefly introduced. In the second and third years there were still joint lectures, but the focus was now on the respective special fields and, in the third year, also on general knowledge for plant managers like bookkeeping, plant hygiene and industrial law. Great importance was attached to practice. In the second year, six hours of practice were given for every three hours of instruction in surveying. And in the third year, there were even eight and ten hours of practice per week in the two main subjects, mining and metallurgy.55 One problem was the lack of a laboratory building for practical metallurgy. Obana persuaded Mitsui Gennosuke, the President of Mitsui Mining Company, to present the College with such a building in 1913. Laboratories, workshops and a test mine were seen as prerogatives for a Mining University, which Obana was striving for. In the beginning of the College there was a teaching staff consisting of a director, who participated in teaching, six to eight professors, and five to six assistant professors. For 57 students, there were 11 to 14 teachers in 1911: quite a good ratio.56 The quality of the teachers varied. The first directors came from prestigious universities such as the Universities of To- kyo- and Kyo- to. Prof. Obana himself was from To- kyo- ; the third director, Prof.Yokobori Jisaburo- , from Kyo- to.The second director, Prof. Kuroiwa Kyu-taro- , had been employed in the Japanese colonial administration in Korea before he took over the post in Akita. This connection might have strengthened relations between the college and Korea. The third director, Yokobori Jisaburo- , was very influential. He is said to have lured many lecturers (ko-shi) from the University of To- kyo- to Akita, because it was difficult to otherwise attract sufficient numbers of competent teachers to the city. Some students remarked that ‘We were all proud because we thought that we had the same instructions as the students at the Imperial Universities.’57 The professors were urged to spend some years abroad, mostly in Germany (Freiberg), the United Kingdom and the United States. That enabled them to include new knowledge and methods from abroad into their classes. However, although there were always several experienced and eminent teachers in Akita who 55 56 57

Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, pp. 30–34. Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, pp. 35–36. Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, p. 178.

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often also taught at universities (such as To- hoku University), students remembered that many teachers were quite young – often only 27 or 28 years old. These ‘assistant professors’ were often recruited directly after graduation, and some students remembered that some talked about things which they themselves did not really know’.58 The Mining College took in the first group of students in 1911. From originally 150 applicants in 1911, including 26 Chinese, 57 students were accepted, including four Chinese. The first cohort graduated three years later in March 1914. Between 1911 and 1924 there were 717 students enrolled, an average of 50 students per year. Nearly 80% of them, or 569 students, graduated during this time. In later years the number of special fields was expanded and the number of students increased, especially during the Second World War, reaching a peak of 600 to 800 students in 1944 and 1945. All in all, more than 5,700 people graduated from the college over the years. Students are reported to have come often from families with connections to mining. There were also foreign students, mainly from China, Korea and Taiwan, but they were often special students and not fully enrolled.59 Graduates of the Akita Mining College were in high demand on the labour market and often found employment in large firms, which also supplied scholarships for some. One 1914 graduate entered Mitsubishi Steel and, after a few years in Yawata Steel Works was sent to Korea. He was the first graduate of the College to be sent abroad. For 10 years he went back and forth between the headquarters in To- kyo- and various places on the continent. After the end of the Second World War, he returned to Akita and became a teacher at the college.60 Among the later graduates many are said to have worked in China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Burma, in short, in all of Japan’s colonies in East and Southeast Asia. The students themselves seem to have been proud of their alma mater. They successfully competed with graduates not only from the universities, but also from other institutions of mining education that were founded after the turn of the century.

58 59 60

Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, p. 181. Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, p. 214. Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, pp. 213–214

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7. NORTHERN KYUSHU AS A CENTRE FOR MINING EDUCATION

In reaction to the fast-growing production of coal and steel in northern Kyu-shu- after 1900, several educational institutions with mining departments were established in the region. Kyu-shuImperial University opened a Department for Mining and Metallurgy in 1911. The growing need for trained technicians and foremen below the level of graduate engineers led to the foundation of several private schools by entrepreneurs, companies or trade unions. A short-lived school for coal miners, the Akaike Mining School, was established in 1902 and closed due to a series of accidents in the Akaike coal mine two years later. In 1908, the Mitsui company founded the Mitsui Technical School (Mitsui Ko- gyo- -gakko- ) with a mining and a mechanical engineering department to train personnel for its mines and workshops at the Miike coal mine. Another private technical school, the Meiji Senmon-gakko- (Meiji Specialized School) started in 1909. One of the last in this founding boom was the private Chikuho- Mining School (Chikuho- Ko- zan-gakko- ), where teaching began in 1919. a) Akaike Mining School, Akaike

Akaike Mining School was an early attempt to establish a mining school especially for coal miners. Founded by the entrepreneur Yasukawa Keiichiro- (1849–1934) in 1902, it was attached to the Akaike coal mine (Tagawa-gun, Fukuoka prefecture) to train the miners on site and impart the necessary knowledge and skills for guiding the workforce and supporting the engineers and higher technical staff. Before the opening of the school, Yasukawa or the colliery had sent capable miners to technical schools in To-kyo- and Fukuoka, but decided that it was important for the operational management of the mine to train their own technical staff on site.61 The training was to last for two years, which indicates a relatively thorough, comprehensive training. Yasukawa’s son, Matsumoto Kenjiro- (1870–1963), was made headmaster of the school, and the teachers were members of the top management.62 The mine selected young miners who had finished middle-school or a similar education and had no family obligations.The subjects were geology, 61

62

Meiji Ko-gyo- KK shashi hensan iikai (ed.), Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK (Company history: The Meiji Mining Comp.), To-kyo-: Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, 1957, p. 51. Matsumoto Kenjiro-, Matsumoto Kenjiro- Kaikyu-dan (Reminiscences of Matsumoto Kenjiro-), cited in Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, p.186.

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Fig. 9: Commemorative photo of the first graduates’ group from Akaike Mining School in April 1904. Even though it was a private mining school run by a mining company, the students wear uniforms like in government-run middle and higher schools. This underlines the fact of integration of mining education into general school education. Source: Meiji Ko-gyo- KK shashi hensan iikai (ed.), Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK (Company history:The Meiji Mining Comp.),To-kyo-: Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, 1957, p. 51.

mineralogy, physics and chemistry, mathematics, surveying, drawing, outline of mechanical engineering, mining, English, sports, and practical work. The students lived in dormitories on site and wore school uniforms, just like other students in institutions of secondary education, a sign of the integration of mining education into the formalized school system. However, there were no fees; instead, the company paid wages to the students. The first cohort of nine students graduated in April 1904 (Figure 9), and a total 40 students were enrolled at that time. Accidents in the mine led to the schooling of the second cohort being shortened by half a year, so that another 20 students graduated as early as December 1907.After that, the school was closed. So, the first school for coal miners was shortlived and produced only 29 graduates. But it set an example that influenced Yasukawa Keiichiro-’s later educational activities.63 63

Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, p. 52 and Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, pp. 186–187.

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b) Mitsui Technical School, Omuta

In 1908 a technical school with a focus on mining and mechani- muta (Fukuoka prefecture) with cal engineering was founded in O private funds of the Mitsui zaibatsu family to train technicians and foremen for the Miike colliery and its workshops. Mitsui had acquired the Miike mine, one of the largest coal mines in Japan, from the government 20 years earlier, and was in a phase of restructuring its personnel policy. The use of convicts, which had been customary at Miike until then, declined rapidly from 1898 onward.64 Instead, the labour was recruited mostly locally. At the same time, the influence of subcontractors, who were responsible for recruiting and supervising the non-convict workforce, was reduced and the miners were increasingly placed under the direct control of the company.65 This may have been one reason for the need for well-trained technicians and foremen was felt to be urgent. At the same time, the establishment of the school fitted into the increased efforts at the government and private companies to train more mid-level human resources for various industries. The private Mitsui Technical School (Shiritsu Mitsui Ko- gyo- -gakko- ) offered a three-year program to students, who were between 14 and 20 years old and had finished higher primary school or the first two years of middle school. Students had to pass an entrance examination that included writing, reading, arithmetic, history, geography, drawing, and natural history, as well as English. There were 42 hours of classes per week. In addition to lessons in English, arithmetic, Japanese, science (rika), and sports, there were also introductions to industrial economics and accounting to give the students an idea of the economics of a colliery or workshop. Among the technical subjects, specialization occurred according to the course of study. Mining students learned (coal) mining, geology and mineralogy, as well as surveying and mining law. The mechanical engineers had a higher quota of hours in technical drawing, machine construction, and electrical engineering. Included in the 42 hours were 15 hours 64

65

For convict labour see Miyamoto Takashi, ‘Convict Labor and Its Commemoration: the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine Experience’, in Asia-Pacific Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1–15, Article ID 4997; Regine Mathias, Industrialisierung und Lohnarbeit. Der Kohlebergbau in Nord-Kyu-shu- und sein Einfluß auf die Herausbildung einer Lohnarbeiterschaft (Industrialization and wage labour. Coal mining in northern Kyu-shu- and its impact on the emergence of wage labour), Wien: Institut für Japanologie, 1978, pp. 289–296. Mathias, Industrialisierung und Lohnarbeit, p. 325–327.

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of practical training on site. The school emphasized in its declarations that ‘on site’ really meant in the Miike colliery and the workshops, and not in special training institutions attached to the school.66 The school employed 21 teachers, apparently well qualified, including its first headmaster, the mining engineer Yamada Naoya (1860–1939). He was a graduate of To-kyo- University who had also studied in Germany and taught at To- kyo- University before entering the Mitsui company. His successor after one year was Kamisaku Hamakichi, who had been director of the Yonezawa Ko- gyo Ko- to- -gakko- from April 1901 to February 1908. The Calendar of the school of the year 1910 offers rare insights into the social and regional origins of teachers and students. The social origins of the teachers were split nearly evenly between shizoku (descendant of the former warrior class) and heimin (commoners). Regionally half of them stemmed from prefectures in Kyu-shu-, the other half from all over the country. Among the 174 students at the school in 1910, 78 were in the mining course and 96 in the mechanical engineering course. Some 23% of the mining students and 15.6% of the mechanical engineering students were of shizoku origin; the rest were commoners. The fact that almost a quarter of the mining students came from the former warrior class seems astonishing in view of the relatively poor image of work in mining. Here the name Mitsui might have had some attraction. Regionally over 90% of the students (161) came from Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures, in whose border region the Miike colliery is located.67 Apparently, at least at that time, the school recruited students almost exclusively from the immediate vicinity of the colliery. This narrow local focus reflects the company’s recruitment policy of workers for the colliery. As early as 1901, an internal clause stipulated that recruitment for Miike should be limited to the immediately neighbouring prefectures of Fukuoka and Kumamoto. The reason given was that if the workforce was reduced, people could more easily return to their villages.68 The Mitsui Technical School was an important instrument to recruit and train a part of the workforce for the Miike colliery and 66

67 68

Matsubara Jinsaburo- (ed.), Shiritsu Mitsui Ko-gyo--gakko- ichiran M. 43.4–44.3 (Calendar of Mitsui private Technical School April 1910–March 1911) https://dl.ndl. go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/901575 (accessed 10.07.2021), p. 12–15. Matsubara (ed.), Shiritsu Mitsui Ko-gyo--gakko- ichiran M. 43.4–44.3, pp. 53–59. Mathias, Industrialisierung und Lohnarbeit, pp. 144.

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its workshops. The establishment of the school shows that it was considered necessary at that time to employ a group of foremen and technicians with a science-based, systematic knowledge and the ability to apply it practically. They were supposed to form the link between the graduate engineers and the often semiskilled or unskilled labour force. After the Second World War, the Mitsui Technical School became the private Miike Higher Technical School (Shiritsu Miike Ko-gyo- Ko-to--gakko-) in 1948. It was taken over by Fukuoka prefecture in 1950, and celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2008. c) Meiji Senmon-gakko-, Tobata

Around the same time as the Mitsui Technical School, another private school was established in Tobata (now Kitakyu-shu- city, Fukuoka prefecture) in 1907, starting teaching in 1909. This was the Meiji Senmon-gakko- (Meiji Specialized School). It also educated miners, but had a completely different, much broader profile than the Mitsui Technical School. Its founder was the local entrepreneur, Matsumoto Kenjiro- (1870–1963), who had already been involved with the Akaike Mining School.Together with his father, Yasukawa Keiichiro- , founder of the Meiji Coal Mining Company, he drew up the ambitious plans for the school. It was to have five sections: Smelting, Mining, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Chemistry and Electrical Engineering.69 With the support of the former president of the University of To- kyo- , Yamakawa Kenjiro- (1854–1931), they assembled an illustrious advisory board of experts who supported them in the conception of the respective fields.70 All of them were professors at the University of To- kyo- , and all except one (Shiba Chu-saburo- ) had graduated from the Imperial College of Engineering, which once more shows the impact of ICE on the first cohorts of engineers in Japan.71 According to Yamakawa Kenjiro- , the school should be a place for human development, not just a place for teaching 69 70

71

Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, p. 54 They included Matoba Naka (1856–1933; mining, and later director of the Meiji Senmon-gakko- until 1921), Yamakawa Gitaro- (1860–1933; electrical engineering), Shiba Chu-saburo- (1873–1934; mechanical engineering), Kawakita Michitada (1853–1925; applied chemistry), and Tatsuno Kingo (1854–1919; architecture), who designed the first school building. Matsumoto Kenjiro-, Matsumoto Kenjiro- kaikyu-dan (Reminiscences of Matsumoto Kenjiro-), partly cited in Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi, vol. 20, pp. 186–187.

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skills. It aimed at educating ‘gentlemen, with a thorough knowledge of technology’72, i.e., its ideal was a broader education that included the humanities. Students studied one year in a Preparation Course and three years in the Main Course.73 Among the higher technical schools with mining departments founded in the two decades after 1900, the Meiji Senmon-gakko- (often abbreviated to ‘Mei-sen’) was the only one to offer a four-year programme instead of the usual three years, giving the school a prominent status and ensured a good reputation for its graduates. During their studies, mining students seem to have visited other mines and undergone practical training there, as the photograph of a group of Mei-sen students during a visit to Ikuno in 1911 shows (Figure 10). The ‘Mei-sen’ students were rivals to those at the Akita Mining College. According to some remarks by Akita students, the Meisen graduates often competed with them for internships and jobs: When we did an internship, it was about not being worse than the graduates of the ‘Mei-sen’ (Meiji Senmon-gakko-) who had fouryear courses. And when we started our career, entered employment, we also stood our ground against the university graduates.74

In 1921, the government took over the school and in 1949, it became a national university, called the Kyu-shu- Institute of Technology (KIT). d) Chikuho- Mining School, Chikuho-

The last example of a mining school presented here is the Chikuho- Mining School (Chikuho- Ko- zan-gakko- ). Founded in 1919, the last year of an unprecedented boom in coalmining that had been going on since 1916, it was a latecomer among the mining schools in Japan. Its foundation was a reaction to a quickly growing demand for mid-level technicians and engineers that had been noticeable in all the collieries. In this respect, the school was closely linked to the economic situation in the coal industry, and 72

73 74

Yamakawa Kenjiro-, cited in https://www.kyutech.ac.jp/information/tradition. html. Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, p. 54. Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko- 50-nen shi, p. 186.

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Fig. 10: Mining students from Meiji Senmon-gakko-, who were undergoing training in Ikuno silver mine in 1911. Detail of a poster showing the history of Japan’s First Mining School in Ikuno (Photo: Courtesy Ikuno Ginzan Bunka Museum).

due to various ups and downs was on the verge of being dissolved several times.75 The coal district of Chikuho- , a region in northern Kyu- shuwith many coal mines of different sizes, was the largest producer of coal in Japan. Chikuho- Ko- zan-gakko- was established in No- gata (Fukuoka prefecture) and run by the ChikuhoSekitan Ko- gyo- -kumiai (Trade Union of Coal Mines in Chikuho- ). It remained in private ownership until the end of the Second World War. Its first director was the mining engineer Yamada Kunihiko (1871–1925), a graduate of the University of To- kyo- , and professor at the University of Kyo- to, who had

75

Yoshida Takamitsu, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-/Chikuho- Ko-gyo- Ko-ko- no rekishi to kyo-iku naiyo-’ (The Chikuho- Mining School/Chikuho- Technical High School: Its history and teaching contents), in Enerugii-shi kenkyu-, no. 33, 2018 (3), pp. 191–203, here 193–194.

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also studied for nearly two years in Germany.76 His appointment as director shows the intended high professional level of this school. Like Akita Mining College, the Chikuho- Mining School was entirely focused on coal mining. From the beginning, the curriculum was divided into two courses. The Main Course for middle school graduates lasted 18 months; it aimed at educating mining officials (kakari-in yo-sei). The Special Course for upper primary school graduates with work experience lasted six months. The Main Course comprised one year in school and six months of practical training. Fees were 15 yen for the 18 months. Details of the curriculum from 1927 show that with 46 hours per week, the Main Course was very extensive and covered a wide range of subjects. Subjects taught were surveying (theory and practice 8 hours), drawing (6 hours), applied mechanics (5 hours), mining (4-6 hours), English, and natural sciences (3 hours each), geology and mineralogy, mechanical as well as electrical engineering, material sciences (2 hours each), morals, writing/composition, law and economics (1 hour each).77 The practical training took place in the colliery, where the students belonged to and where they were instructed in the basic techniques of extracting and hauling coal, draining and ventilation, as well as the handling of machines. They also were to spend some time in the administration to gain insight into the overall functioning of a colliery. During the practical training they had to summarize their daily work and hand in a report to the instructor. They also attended four hours a week of special lessons in class.78 Apparently, however, six months of practical training were not enough to produce capable staff with leadership skills to cope with the difficult personnel and work situation underground.This seems to have been one reason for restructuring the courses after the first decade.79 76

77 78 79

Iseki K.R. (ed.), Who’s Who in “Hakushi” in Great Japan. A Biographical Dictionary of Representative Scholars in various Branches of Learning and Holders of the Highest Academic Degree “Hakushi” ed. in English and Japanese, vol. 5, “Kogaku Hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930, p. 100 (no. 99). Yoshida, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-’, p. 195. Yoshida, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-’, p. 194. Matsumoto Ko-ichi, ‘“No-gata sekitan ko-gyo- gijutsu-in yo-sei-sho” sho-ko-. Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko- no jinzai ikusei katei to kigyo- e no setsuzoku ni tsuite’

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To be admitted, students of the Main Course had to pass an entrance examination. The example of the first group of students shows that out of 180 applicants, 50 students passed the entrance examinations and 42 of them graduated after 18 months.80 The Special Course, which started in 1921, was reserved for students with work experience who were recommended by their employers. The aim was to (re-)train capable on-site staff for the collieries. During the course their company would continue to pay their wages. Lessons only took place in the classroom and amounted to 36 hours per week. Subjects were mining (9 hours), surveying (5 hours), mathematics, physics, drawing (3 hours each), electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, chemistry, English and law and economics (2 hours each) and moral studies (1 hour). Of the 58 students in the first group 56 graduated half a year later.81 The structure and level of classes and the content of teaching changed several times over the years. In 1950, the ChikuhoKo- zan-gakko- was taken over by Fukuoka prefecture and became Chikuho- Ko- zan High School (Chikuho- Ko- zan Ko- to- -gakko- ). In 1961, when coal mining industry in Chikuho- was in steep decline, the school was renamed Chikuho- Technical High School (Chikuho- Ko- gyo- Ko- to- -gakko- ). In 2005, due to shrinking birth rates, it was merged with other high schools and ended its existence. 8. CONCLUSION: DID MINING SCHOOLS MATTER?

Even though there was a whole series of writings and illustrations about mining in the Edo period, modern, science-based knowledge about mining only began to spread in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century due to access to Western knowledge. Dutch studies, foreign books in original and translation as well as the opportunities for direct contact with foreign (mostly navy) engineers in Nagasaki after 1857 had prepared the ground for this development. However, the arrival of Western mining engineers, geologists and mineralogists such as William Phipps Blake and Raphael Pumpelly in

80 81

(Some brief thoughts about the training school for coal mining technicians in No-gata. About the process of rearing human resources in the Chikuho- Ko-zangakko-, and its connections to the enterprises), in Kyo-iku kenkyu-, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 53–81. http://id.nii.ac.jp/1265/00000355/ here p. 58. Yoshida, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-’, p. 194. Yoshida, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-’, p. 195–196.

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the 1860s was an important turning point for the Japanese mining industry.These engineers, who had themselves studied at the important mining academies in Europe or universities such as Yale in the USA, passed on to their Japanese students not only special mining knowledge but also knowledge of the structures and content of their own education. Thus, they raised awareness of the need for a formalized education in mining with a certain canon of subjects. Through the return of the first Japanese students who had attended or even graduated from such mining academies abroad, personal experience with such training courses also flowed into the planning of the training of mining engineers and miners. First attempts to implement Western-style education in mining, like for instance in Hokkaido- , were already based on Western science, but were, according to our current knowledge, hardly formalized. The acquisition of knowledge during the 1860s and early 1870s remained fragmentary and still relied on the personal commitment of the individual, who had to seek out teachers or books for the various fields of knowledge, from learning foreign languages to acquiring specialized technical knowledge, on his own. These years can be regarded as a transition period, which lasted, depending on the level of education, until the 1870s or 1880s, because the formalization of mining education took place at different levels at different speeds. Nevertheless, the agents of this transition played an important role in the establishment of the earliest government-run schools where mining was taught, namely ICE and the University of To- kyo- in the 1870s. Both institutions educated graduate mining engineers, with the first cohorts graduating from ICE in 1879, and shaped further development. So, at the academic level, formalization took already place shortly after the Meiji Restoration under the aegis of the new government. Below this level, the process of formalizing mining education took considerably longer. For example, the establishment of the first mining school in Ikuno required a formal application to the government in 1869, but the teaching seems to have been mainly practical and the theory lessons rather sporadic. In comparison, the Sado Mining School, founded about 20 years after the one in Ikuno, had – at least on paper – a much more sophisticated organization and content of the classes. In this respect, the concept of the Sado Mining School represents a transitional form quite close to fully formalized education, as we then find in the technical

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schools, higher technical schools and technical colleges that were founded primarily between 1886 and 1910. A common feature of the first schools was the strong practical orientation at all levels, including ICE at the academic level. This attitude, however, went hand in hand with the attempt to introduce in varying degrees the scientific basis of subjects like geology, surveying and mineralogy. In this way, all these approaches already differed fundamentally from that in the Edo period, with its purely empirical mining knowledge. A comprehensive formalization of mining education at an intermediate level did not take place until the reforms of middle and high school education between 1886 and 1903. At that time, the Ministry of Education had increasingly standardized and formalized the system of vocational and industrial training in the course of several reforms since the 1880s, so that there were clearer guidelines for founding schools. The examples from Akita and Kyu-shu- mining schools, which are discussed in more detail in this paper and were founded in the first decade after the turn of the century, show that the various mining schools still exhibited wide differences in terms of sponsorship, level and scope of education, as well as in terms of target groups. However, all of them, whether private or government-run, were increasingly subject to the same framework conditions set by the Ministry of Education. With the formalized education of middle-rank mining engineers, technicians and foremen within the framework of the general school guidelines, the empirical-practical knowledge of people working underground or in the associated workshops was more and more supplemented by theoretical knowledge that was necessary for the modernization of the larger mines. In the numerous smaller mines, working and personnel conditions changed much more slowly and the training of ordinary workers was still carried out in a kind of apprenticeship relationship on-site. We still need to learn more about the practical implementation in the schools, about the way of teaching and its reception by the students. There is also a lack of information on the further professional development of the graduates of these training courses. It would certainly be worthwhile to seek documents such as student transcripts or memoirs and other subjective sources that would provide more insights into teaching practices and actual requirements and achievements. The formalization of mining education also led to a certain standardization of the qualification of this middle stratum of tech-

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nicians, which was certainly advantageous for the companies. It is surely not a coincidence that the development falls in a time in which many large collieries wanted to abandon the paternalistic forms of work organization like the so-called naya-system, that still prevailed in many places. Under this system workers were recruited, supervised and controlled by external labour bosses. Well-trained technicians and foremen were essential to replace these external bosses and introduce a more direct personnel management by the company itself. This might have been an important reason for the increasing willingness of companies to send competent workers to schools, or to establish such schools themselves to train a workforce for their own needs or even beyond. By the spread of mining schools and courses, important personnel prerequisites for the modernization of mining in Japan, as called - shima Takato- in his memorandum, were gradually realfor by O ized after the turn of the century. REFERENCES Akita Daigaku Kozan-gakubu (ed.), Akita Ko-zan Senmon-gakko-/Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu 50nen shi (50 years of the History of the Akita Mining College and Akita University Mining Faculty), Akita: Akita Daigaku Ko-zan-gakubu, 1961. Fujiwara Torakatsu, Meiji iko- no Ikuno ko-zan-shi (The history of Ikuno mine since the Meiji period), Ikuno-cho-: Ikuno-cho- kyo-iku iinkai, 1988. Fumoto Saburo-, Sado kinginzan shiwa (Historical stories of the gold and silver mines at Sado), To-kyo-: Mitsubishi Kinzoku Ko-gyo- KK, 1973 (1956). Habashi, Fathi, Schools of Mines. The Beginnings of Mining and Metallurgical Education, Québec: - Laval University, 2003. Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Oshima Takato- to Hakodate’ (Oshima Takato- and Hakodate), in Eigakushi kenkyu, 1977 (9), 1976, pp. 129–140. Hasegawa Seiichi, ‘Beijin Horeku (Blake) shi raiken hen’ (Letters received from the American Blake), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, 1980 (12), 1979, pp. 37–57. Honda Toshio, ‘Morioka Nisshindo- “Ko-zan” gakko-’ (The Morioka Nisshindo- “Mining” School), in Eigaku-shi kenkyu-, 1989 (21), 1988, pp. 1–13. Ikuno-cho- Chu- o- Ko-minkan, Ikuno ginzan-cho- monogatari (A tale of Ikuno ginzan town), Ikuno-cho-: Ikuno-cho- Chu- o- Ko-minkan, rev. edition 2004 (1987). Iseki K.R.(ed.), Who’s Who in “Hakushi” in Great Japan. A Biographical Dictionary of Representative Scholars in various Branches of Learning

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and Holders of the Highest Academic Degree “Hakushi” ed. in English and Japanese, vol. 5, “Kogaku Hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930. Kanpo- (Official Gazette), no. 1835, Meiji 22.8.10. Kohn, Georg C., Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence. From Ancient Time to the Present. New York: Facts on file, 2007 (3rd edition). Mathias, Regine, Industrialisierung und Lohnarbeit. Der Kohlebergbau in NordKyu-shu- und sein Einfluß auf die Herausbildung einer Lohnarbeiterschaft (Industrialization and wage labour. Coal mining in northern Kyu- shuand its impact on the emergence of wage labour), Wien: Institut für Japanologie, 1978. Mathias, Regine, ‘Knowledge on Mining and Smelting and its Dissemination in the Edo Period’, in Erich Pauer and Ruselle Meade (eds), Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Folkstone: Renaissance Books, 2020, pp. 69–95. Matsubara Jinsaburo- (ed.), Shiritsu Mitsui Ko-gyo- gakko- ichiran M. 43.4– 44.3 (April 1910–March 1911) https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/ pid/901575 Matsumoto Kenjiro-, Matsumoto Kenjiro- Kaikyu-dan (Reminiscences of Matsumoto Kenjiro-), partly cited in Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi, vol. 20, pp. 186–187. Matsumoto Ko-ichi, ‘“No-gata sekitan ko-gyo- gijutsu-in yo-sei-sho” sho-ko-. Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko- no jinzai ikusei katei to kigyo- e no setsuzoku ni tsuite’ (Some brief thoughts about the training school for coal mining technicians in No-kata. About the process of rearing human resources in the Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko-, and its connections to the enterprises), in Kyo-iku kenkyu-, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 53–81. http:// id.nii.ac.jp/1265/00000355/ Meiji Ko-gyo- KK shashi hensan iikai (ed.), Shashi – Meiji Ko-gyo- KK (Company history: The Meiji Mining Company), To-kyo-: Meiji Ko-gyo- KK, 1957. Monbu-sho- jitsugyo-gakumu-kyoku (ed.), Jitsugyo- kyo- iku goju- nen-shi (50-year history of practical business education), To-kyo-, 1934. Nihon Kagaku-shi Gakkai (ed.), Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, vol. 20, Saiko- yakin gijutsu (Compendium on Japanese history of science and technology, vol. 20, Technology of mining and metallurgy), To-kyo-: Daiichi Ho-ki Shuppan, 1971 (1965). Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo- shu- kanko- iinkai (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- shiryo- shu-, dai ikki , dai niki kinsei-hen (Collected materials on Japanese mining history, vols. 1 and 2, early modern period), To-kyo-: Haku-Shobo-, - 1981. Oshima Shinzo- (ed.), Oshima Takato of Oshima - ko jitsu (Achievements - Takato), Seido-mura (Hyogo): Oshima Shinzo, 1938. Oshima Takato-, ‘Ko-gaku-ryo- shinsetsu ni kansuru Takato- no iken shoden’ (Statement of Opinion by Takato-- on the new foundation - of a mining school), 25 September 1870, in Oshima Shinzo- (ed.), Oshima Takato-

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ko-jitsu (The achievements of Oshima Takato-), To-kyo- (private print), 1938, pp. 683–386. Pumpelly, Raphael, Across America and Asia. Notes of A Five Years Journey Around the World and of Residence in Arizona, Japan and China, New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1870 (3rd revised edition). Pumpelly, Raphael, My Reminiscences, vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918. Sasaki Susumu, ‘Watanabe Wataru no sho-gai to Nihon Ko-gyo-kai’ (Watanabe Wataru and the Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Japan), in Nihon Ko-gyo-kai-shi, vol. 90, no. 1037, 1974, pp. 441–453. Schiffner, Carl, Aus dem Leben alter Freiberger Bergstudenten, vol. 2, Freiberg: Ernst Mauckisch, 1938. Shirai Satoko, Ikuno ginzan o-yatoi gaikokujin Jan Furansuwa Kowanie to Nichi-Futsu ko-ryu- (The foreign employee Jean François Coignet in the Ikuno silver mine and the Japan-France exchange), Ph.D. thesis, Ko-be, University, published in Ko-be University Repository, 2019. http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_kernel/D1006359 Sugiura Takeo (ed.), Ikuno ginzan. Nihon to furansu to no yu-ko- no tame ni (engl. title: ‘Mined’ Ikuno’. For the Japanese French friendship), Ikuno: Ikuno-cho- Chu- o- Ko-minkan, 1992. Takahashi Kunitaro-, ‘Ikuno Ko-zan-gakko-’ (Ikuno mining school), in (Nihon Futsugaku-shi kenkyu- kai) Nihon Futsugaku-shi kenkyu-, no. 6, 1975, pp. 1–6. Yoshida Takamitsu, ‘Chikuho- Ko-zan-gakko- / Chikuho- Ko-gyo- Ko-kono rekishi to kyo-iku naiyo-’ (The Chikuho- Mining School / ChikuhoTechnical High School: its history and teaching contents), in Enerugiishi kenkyu-, no. 33, 2018 (3), pp. 191–203. Yokobori Jisaburo-, ‘Ko-gyo- kyo-iku’ (Mining education), in Nihon Ko-gyo--kai-shi, no. 411, 1919, pp. 371–388. Yoshiki Fumio, How Japan’s Metal Mining Industry Modernized, To-kyo-: The United Nations University, 1980.

13

Science Education in Japanese Schools in the Late 1880s as Reflected in Students’ Notes OKIHARU Fumiko

–

1. INTRODUCTION

UNTIL RECENTLY, LITTLE was known about the situation in the late 1880s of science education in Japanese schools, especially primary schools. This was not least due to a lack of sources. It was not until the discovery of some students’ notebooks from this period that concrete insights into the content and teaching methods of such lessons became possible. In 2007, the late Kimura Hatsuo (1931–2018), professor emeritus of Nagoya University, Faculty of Engineering, found several notebooks of his grandfather, Endo- Shunkichi, in his parents’ house in Murakami, an old castle town at the coast of the Sea of Japan in Niigata prefecture. The cover of a representative example of such a notebook is shown in Fig. 1. The discovery triggered a comprehensive study on this topic by a larger group of scholars, some results of which are presented below. In 2008, Kimura wrote an article to introduce what the student about 100 years ago learned in physics (butsuri).1 For Kimura, these notes were interesting mainly because of their age. However, his article unexpectedly caused a great stir among researchers specialized on the history of science education, because at that time, in 1890 (Meiji 23) there should no longer have been a subject of physics (butsuri) in the official curriculum of higher primary schools. 1

The term butsuri, literally physics, was also often generally used for education in natural science during the early years of Meiji period. 347

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Fig. 1: The cover of Endo- Shunkichi’s physics notes. The cover text reads as follows: Meiji 23.9. 22 / Ko-to--ka Murakami sho-gakko- seito / Butsuri hikki / dai 1 kyu- / Endo- Shunkichi (22 September 1890 / Murakami Higher Primary School student / Physics notes 1st grade / Endo- Shunkichi).

The point is, that the subject of butsuri which had so far represented science education at Japanese schools, was officially replaced in 1886 by a new subject called rika (“science”). This is regarded as a turning point in science education in Japan, because rika, even though also meaning science, had a different connotation. Instead of emphasising “principles” as was the case in butsuri, the subject rika tended more in the direction of a comprehensive natural history. In other words, after 1886 primary school official curricula no longer contained the subject of butsuri, but instead had rika. According to the Sho-gakko--rei (Ordinance of Primary Schools) from 1886, compulsory education was four years for ordinary primary school, and four years for higher primary school. The author of the notebooks, Endo- Shunkichi, was born in 1875 (Meiji 8), so was 15 years old in 1890 and probably a student of a higher primary school.

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Five notebooks from Endo- Shunkichi, dating from 1888 to 1891, remain:2 (b)

(a)

(c)

(d)

Figs 2a–d: Covers of Endo- Shunkichi’s remaining notes. (a) Rika hikaebo (Science notes),1888; (b) Seiri (Physiology), 1889; (c) Rika hikae bo (Science notes), 1890; (d) Kagaku hikki (Chemistry notes), 1891.

• Meiji 21.10.10 / rika hikaebo kan no ge / Endo- Shunkichi (10 October, 1888, notes on science / last volume / Endo- Shunkichi) (Fig. 2a); • Meiji 22.12 / seiri / mochinushi / Endo- Shunkichi (December 1889 / physiology / owner Endo- Shunkichi) (Fig. 2b); • Meiji 23.9.22 butsuri hikki / Endo- Shunkichi (22 September 1890, physics notes, Endo- Shunkichi) (Fig. 1); 2

The notes written by Endo- Shunkichi, except for his physics notes, were donated to Niigata University Library by Prof. Kimura Hatsuo.

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• Meiji 2.12.18 /sairoku / rika hikae bo / kinseki no bu / EndoShunkichi (rewritten, 18 December, 1890 / science notes / part on mineralogy / Endo- Shunkichi) (Fig. 2c); • Meiji 24.3 / kagaku hikki / Endo- Shunkichi (March 1891 / chemistry notes / Endo- Shunkichi) (Fig. 2d).

A first glance at the covers (Fig. 1 and 2) makes it clear that in this case the terms butsuri and rika both occur, without a clear replacement of the term butsuri by rika. It is usually said that modern school education in Japan began in 1872. At that time, many science textbooks were imported from Europe and the United States and were translated. Their contents emphasized the universal principles and laws of science. Typical examples are Butsuri kaitei (Introduction to physics, 1872), originally based on R.G. Parker’s First Lesson in Natural Philosophy, translated by Katayama Junkichi, and Butsuri zenshi (Complete introduction to physics, 1875), translated by Udagawa Junichi. The latter was originally an eclectic blend of George Payn Quackenbos’s A Natural Philosophy and Adolphe Ganot’s Natural Philosophy for General Readers and Young Persons.3 Quackenbos’s textbook from the United States begins with physical properties, and contentious materials and their properties, dynamics and motion, machines and their elements etc., and turns then to mechanics. Practical application is emphasized. On the other hand, the content of another textbook, entitled Lessons in Elementary Physics written by John B. Stewart from the United Kingdom, is characterized entirely in terms of energy.4 Over time, translations of foreign books were replaced by books written by Japanese authors themselves. In the 1880s, textbooks with simple experiments for primary schools were also published. An example is Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) by Goto- Makita et al., published in 1885. It is a textbook based on experiments, and praised as ‘Unlike previous textbooks, it is the texturally most carefully considered textbook’.5 3

4

5

Originally in French Adolphe Ganot, Cours élémentaire de physique, Paris 1875, translated by E. Atkinson, New York 1876. Nakagawa Yasuo, ‘Meiji shoki no butsuri kyo-iku no keisei to Amerika, Igirisu no butsuri kyo-ka-sho’ (The formation of physics education in the early Meiji era of Japan and the physics textbooks from USA and England), in Kagakushi kenkyu- 16, 1977, pp. 38–46. Itakura Kiyonobu, Zo-ho: Nihon rika kyo-iku-shi (The history of [rika] science education in Japan, supplemented), To-kyo-, Kasetsusha, 2009, p. 170.

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However, as mentioned before, with the “birth” of the subject rika in 1886, contents of science education were reduced, and qualitatively changed. Table 1: Summary of the contents of science education as prescribed by law during 1881–1891. 1881 Sho-gakko- kyo-soku ko-ryo- (General Plan of Rules for Primary Education) (Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/797477, accessed 19-03-2021) Article 17 Natural Science (Hakubutsu) Natural science should be taught in the secondary course (chu-to--ka). At first the names, body parts, behaviour and utilities of normal animals, the names, body structures, properties, behaviour, utilities of normal plants, and the names, properties, utilities of normal minerals should be taught using real examples as much as possible. In the higher course (ko-to--ka) it is necessary to collect specimens of animals, plants and minerals as much as possible and to give a brief description of them. Article 18 Physics (Butsuri) Physics should be taught from secondary course (chu-to--ka), and teaching starts with physical properties, gravity, etc. followed by an introduction to water, air, heat, sound, light, electricity, and magnetism.To teach physics, performing experiments with simple apparatus and simple methods should be applied to make the students understand. Article 19 Chemistry (Kagaku) Chemistry should be taught in the higher course (ko-to--ka) and teaching starts with fire, air, water, soil, etc., and a brief summary of chemical theory on non-metallic elements and metallic elements should be added. Teaching through experiments should be in the same way as in physics. 1886 Sho-gakko- gakka oyobi sono teido (Regulations for subjects at primary education) (Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/787969/161, accessed 19-03-2021) Science (rika) is a subject that contains the following things most relevant to human life: Fruits / crops / leaves / plants / human body / fowl / beasts / insects / fish / gold / silver / copper / iron, and things that can be observed by children every day: sun / moon / stars / air / temperature / water / vapour / clouds / fog / frost / snow / icy / ice / wind / rain / lightning / volcanic / earthquake / tidal / combustion / rust / rot / pump / fountain / acoustic / reverberation / timepiece / thermometer / rain gauge / steam instrument / glasses / colour / rainbow / lever / pulley / scale / magnet / telegraph. 1891 Shoo-gakko- kyo-soku taiko-, rika no yo-shi (Regulations for primary education, abstract of science) (Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/797481 , accessed 19-03-2021) The essence of science (rika) is to make precise observations of ordinary natural objects and phenomena, to understand their relations to each other and to human life, and to cultivate a love of natural things.

There are different views on this change. One is that ‘this was a shift from materialistic science education which focuses on education of the most universal principles and laws of science’ (butsuri) ‘to education from a positivistic view focusing on the individual real thing’. The idea behind this was based on the

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introduction of German science education guidance by Muraoka Hanichi (1853–1929).6 On the other hand it is also said that ‘the shift in science education had replaced the atomic view of nature with the emergence of Japan’s traditional view of nature (holistic, physical, pragmatic views of nature)’.7 In any case, both views agree in terms of a modern and an atomistic view of nature, as expressed in their common evaluation of the Butsuri kaitei (Introduction to physics, 1872).8 Thus, in previous studies based on the wording of laws and published textbooks, it was concluded that primary schools no longer offered physics education after 1886, and instead started with rika education.9 Of course, one cannot expect that the education would have changed immediately due to new subject rika. In fact, some sources say that teachers were confused,10 while others state that the change occurred only around 1894, at least in Gunma prefecture.11 Against the backdrop of such different statements, Endo-’s notebooks are of great importance because they 6

7

8

9

10

11

Muraoka Hanichi, a physicist, who had studied in the late 1870s at the university of Strasbourg (then in Germany), was influenced by the method of science education in Germany. He later published a textbook in Japan entitled Butsurigaku kyo-ju-ho- (On the method of teaching physics). See also Itakura, Zo-ho: Nihon rika kyo-iku-shi, p. 210. Okamoto Masashi, Mori Kazuo, ‘Rika kyo-iku ni arawareta waga kuni no dento-teki shizenkan; “rika no yo-shi” no seitei ni kansuru ko-satsu wo chu-shin to shite’ (The influence of Japanese traditional view of nature on [rika] science education: A study on the enactment of “the principle point of rika”), in Kagakushi kenkyu- II, 15, 1976, pp. 98–101. See also Okamoto Masashi & Mori Kazuo, ‘Meiji zenhan-ki ni okeru kagaku kyo-iku no tenkai’ (On the conversion of science education in the early Meiji era), in Kagakushi kenkyu- II, 19, 1980, pp. 14–23. Nakagawa Yasuo, ‘Meiji zenhan-ki no kagaku kyo-iku no hyo-ka wo megutte’ (On the Controversy on the Formation of Science Education in the Early Meiji Japan, 1872–1886), in Kagakushi kenkyu- II, 16, 1977, pp. 146–152. Ito- Toshiaki, ‘Sai kaisei kyo-iku-rei to shinkyo-ka rika no to-jo-’ (Revised Education Ordinance and the emergence of the new subject [rika] science), in The Review of Department of Literature, Aichi Prefectural University (Children’s Literature Department Edition), 54, 2005, pp. 1–16. Ito- Toshiaki, ‘Rika no tanjo- to kyo-iku genba no to-waku ni tsuite no ichi ko-satsu’ (A study on the birth of [rika] science and the puzzle of teachers), in The Review of Department of Literature, Aichi Prefectural University (Children’s Literature Department Edition), vol. 57, 2008, pp. 1–12. Takahashi Hiroshi, Akabane Akira, Shozawa Jun, Tamaki Toyomi, Morishita Takashi, Takizawa Toshiharu, ‘Gunma-ken ni okeru Meiji chu-ki no kagaku rika kyo-iku no jittai to Gunma-ken shihan gakko- no kyo-iku shiso-’ (On elementary [rika] science education in the middle of the Meiji era in Gunma prefecture, Japan), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , no. 43, 2004, pp. 74–81.

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clearly indicate that physics education was still provided at primary schools after 1886. Since such notes are the primary materials that reflect the actual situation of the lessons in the classrooms at that time, our group decided to search for and analyse more such notebooks that presumably lie dormant throughout Japan. In the 1880s and 1890s, unlike now, local autonomy was strong, so the situation of education may have differed from prefecture to prefecture. Therefore, it was important to clarify the situation by investigating as many documents as possible throughout the country.12 The following is essentially a research report including some key findings. 2. METHODICAL APPROACH

For about ten years after 2010, our group searched archives in 35 out of Japan’s 47 prefectures.13 The situation varied from an area with many important cultural properties such as Kyo-to, but where few personal materials remained, to areas where a considerable amount of material was preserved. There were also used textbooks and notebooks that could be purchased for the present study. Thousands of items could be collected, including documents whose use in the Meiji era (1868–1912) could be determined, but whose specific age could not be identified. In recent years, catalogues in one-third of the prefectural archives have been digitized, but the actual documents cannot be browsed without actually visiting the archives. In addition, since documents donated to or deposited in the archives are only gradually being organized, some new document data could be obtained by revisiting the archives. The collected photocopies of these documents, such as notes and ‘questions and answers’ were then compared with published textbooks of the time, and the characteristics of educational contents were analysed. In addition, referring to the educational history of each prefecture, studies on the status of designated textbooks and teacher training, and the status of the spread of experimental equipment for science were also conducted. 12

13

This research was carried out in collaboration with Prof. Kobayashi Akizo-, professor emeritus of Niigata University. As of February 2020, we have not yet been able to search for old documents in Aomori, Ehime, Kagoshima, Ko-chi, Mie, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Nara, Okinawa, Saga, Shiga and Yamanashi prefectures.

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3. THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

In a first step, it was investigated whether Endo- Shunkichi’s studies of physics in primary school after 1886 was a special case. The research focused on science education in higher primary schools, because at this level, students were expected to be taught butsuri before 1886. Next, the change of educational contents was studied by analysing the contents of the notes. Referring to textbooks of the time, such as Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875) and Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885), clarified which textbooks the teachers based their teaching on, and how well the students understood the material. The analysis focused on how translated textbooks that emphasize the principle of science (butsuri) and Japanese textbooks that incorporate practical contents useful for everyday life (rika) were used. Finally, it was clarified whether the experiments described in the textbooks were actually performed. As mentioned above, many textbooks containing simple experiments began to be published in the 1880s. On the other hand, there is speculation that the highly evaluated Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885) was hardly used at all.The notes dealt with in this study are primary materials that record the state of the class. If we find notes about the state of the experiments, we will get strong evidence whether and how the experiments in the class were conducted. Nonetheless, it is not easy to judge whether the notes were written during the class or rewritten later. Some are neatly written and appear to have been summarized later. Other descriptions appear to be miswritten or copied incorrectly, so they look like having been recorded during class. 4. ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ NOTES 4.1 A special case?

In 1885, the enrolment rate at primary schools was estimated less than 50%, and the school attendance rate was less than 30%. Some 770,000 were students enrolled in the first grade in primary schools, but the number decreased at higher grades. It is estimated that 10,000 students entered higher primary school, and only 2,400 remained until the upper grades.14 14

Itakura, Rika kyo-iku shiryo-, p. 18.

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Notes of higher primary school students from 1886 onwards could be found in many prefectures. It was possible to discover notes of higher primary school students who received instruction on the subject named rika as specified by law, and whose age was also specified, in Hiroshima, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Niigata, Okayama, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima and Yamaguchi prefectures. Some notes found did not have a school name or year on the cover, but it was possible to check the name of the school or the age of the student from the personal records or other materials stored in the archives. - Shunkichi lived), In addition to Niigata prefecture (where Endo similar notebooks were also confirmed in Gunma, Saitama and Shizuoka prefectures.15 There are six notebooks from these four prefectures, covering the years between 1888 and 1893: • Nagai Genshin’s notebook. The cover text reads as follows: Meiji 25.9 gejun / butsuri-gaku hikki / ko-to--sho-gaku 2 nen-sei (late September / 1892, physics notes / 2nd grade of higher primary school / Nagai Genshin) (see Fig. 3a); the notes are stored in the archive in Niigata, document number F25-406. • Another notebook of Nagai Genshin. The cover text reads as follows: Meiji 26.2 yori / butsuri-gaku hikki/ ko-to-sho-gaku 1 nen-sei / Nagai Genshin (from February, 1893, physics notes, 1st grade of higher primary school, Nagai Genshin) (see Fig. 3b); kept in the archive in Niigata, document number F25-411. (This notebook was owned by Prof. Kobayashi Akizo-). • Hirano Seiichiro-’s science notebook.The cover text reads as follows: Kisai ko-to--sho-gakko- / Hirano Seiichiro- / ri-gaku hikki (Kisai Higher Primary School / Hirano Seiichiro- / science notes) (see Fig. 3c); kept in the archive in Saitama document number Kawada 11787. • A science notebook (no name). The cover text reads as follows: Meiji 21.4.11/ ri-ka hikki / kami-su 26 mai (11 April, 1888, science notes [with different Chinese character of ka], 26 pages) (see Fig. 3d); kept in the archive in Saitama, document number 1133 bando- 533. • Memorandum. The cover text reads as follows: Meiji 24.6.13 / Meiji 23 / zatsu roku hikki cho / butsuri bibo- roku / 15

Nakagawa, ‘Meiji shoki no butsuri kyo-iku’, pp. 38–46.

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hissan bibo- roku (13 June, 1891, 1890, memorandum / physics memorandum / calculation memorandum) (see Fig. 3e); kept in the archive in Gunma prefecture, document number 0905-1606. • Tanaka So-ichiro-’s notes. The cover text reads as follows: Rika / u- yo- no shokubutsu / butsuri (science / useful plants / physics) (see Fig. 3f). These examples from other prefectures show that butsuri was still taught besides rika. So, the example of Endo- Shunkichi was obviously not an isolated case. (a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

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(e)

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(f )

Figs 3a–f: Covers of notes on butsuri and rika from four prefectures, 1888–1893. (a) Butsuri-gaku hikki (Physics notes), 1892, Nagai Genshin, Niigata; (b) Butsuri-gaku hikki (Physics notes), 1893, Nagai Genshin, Niigata; (c) Ri-gaku hikki (Science notes), 1889, Hirano Seiichiro-, Saitama; (d) Ri-ka hikki (Science notes, with different Chinese character of ka), 1888, Saitama; (e) Butsuri bibo- roku (Memorandum on physics), 1891, 1890 in Gunma; (f) Rika (Science) u-yo- no shokubutsu (useful plants) butsuri (physics), 1889–1892, Tanaka So-ichiro-, Shizuoka.

4.2 What contents were actually taught around the turning point? 4.2.1 Endo- Shunkichi’s physics (butsuri) notes, 1890, and chemistry (kagaku) notes, 1891, Niigata prefecture

Niigata was one of the five ports opened to foreign ships following the Japan–US Treaty of Amity signed at Kanagawa in 1854 and had become one of Japan’s cultural gateways to the world. The educational environment there was advantageous because the culture of other countries was quickly transmitted to this region. Niigata Western School(Nagaoka Yo--gakko-) was established in 1872 just after the opening of the port, and in 1874 the government-owned Niigata Normal School (Kanritsu Niigata Shihan-gakko-) and Niigata English School (Kanritsu Niigata Eigo-gakko-) were also established as nationwide pioneers based on the academic system. Besides Niigata, governmental nor- saka, Hiromal schools were set up only in To-kyo-, Nagoya, O shima, Nagasaki and Sendai. The Niigata English School was

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reorganized in 1876 as Niigata-gakko- (Niigata School) and a Hyakko- Kagaku-ka (Department of Chemical Engineering) was established. Education in chemistry was guided by Nakagawa Kenjiro-, who later led chemistry education in the whole of Japan. In other words, Niigata had suitable conditions for the development of education. Nakagawa Kenjiro- (1850–1928) had studied at the To-kyo- Kaiseigakko- (a predecessor of today’s University of To-kyo-), and after his work at Niigata School, he became the first principal of Sendai Higher Technical School (now the Faculty of Engineering,To-hoku University), and the Women’s Higher Normal School (now Ochanomizu University). Although the Department of Chemical Engineering was abolished in 1880, there is a record that physics (butsuri) and chemistry (kagaku) were taught in the laboratory, and a high level of education was provided. Miyake Yonekichi (1860– 1929), who later became president of To-kyo- Bunrika Daigaku (To-kyo- University of Literature and Science, now Tsukuba University), served as a teacher at this school, and Shinbo Banji, who later worked in editing textbooks, was a student there. From the butsuri notes of Endo-, it was not possible to determine which textbook was being used. As shown in Fig. 4, there is a bulleted list, starting with butsuri on the right side. The following is a summary of the essentials:16 Dai-1 / bussei (section 1 / physical properties). (A) There are various shapes of objects, (a) examples, wood, stone, water, oil and air, (b) dantei17 (assertion): the state of matter of an object is only solid, liquid, or air. (B) All things can be divided, shiken (experiment).18 (a) (1) stone, metal, wood, (2) graphite and water, (3) pigment and water, (b) assertion: (1) all things can be subdivided. (2) these fine particles are called bunshi (molecules), (3) therefore, everything consists of fine molecules. (C) Molecules can be separated. (a) shiken (experiment) (1) water analysis, (b) dantei (definition), molecules always 16

17

18

The division into subsections follows a classical Japanese ordering, and is shown here with (A), (a), (1). Here, the word dantei (assertion) is used, but it is considered to be used in the sense of definition or result. Shiken is also the current word for “experiment”, but was replaced by jikken for some time. See below, 4.3.

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consist of two or more fine particles. These particles are called genso (elements). One can see, that Endo- obviously was already taught using terms such as molecules and elements, representing the viewpoints of physical properties and molecules. This seems to reflect the teaching contents of the early Meiji era, which emphasized “principles”.

Fig. 4: First page of Endo- Shunkichi’s physics notes

Endo-’s chemistry notes begin with oxygen. After the names of the elements, the properties, location, manufacturing methods, and utilities were listed in bullets.19 The last item, Kagaku/butsuri hikki (chemistry/physics notes), is a ‘Summary of chemistry’, where it is stated that ‘chemistry is the study of principle of matter of change and the properties of matter by experiment’. Nakagawa Kenjiro-”s textbook Kunmo- kagaku (Chemistry for beginners, 1880) states 19

Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Hirata Hiroyuki, ‘Nihon kaku-chi no Meiji chu-ki no rika jugyo- hikki no hakken to to-ji no genso kyo-iku’ (Discovery of [rika] science class notes in the middle Meiji period in all regions of Japan and elementary education at that time), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyu- kiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 5, no. 1, 2010, pp. 21–37.

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that ‘chemistry is the study of the principle through experiments’, and states that the world is divided into two things: elements and compounds. It seems that the teacher who taught chemistry to Endo- was influenced by Nakagawa’s Kunmo- kagaku.This textbook was also used for the Niigata School, and might have been used by other teachers who had received such a kind of education. The Sho-gakko- kyo-soku ko-ryo- (Regulation for primary education) from 1881 specifies to begin science education by introducing substances around people in everyday life, such as fire and water, but in the notes, this is unified in the abstract terms of elements. Unfortunately, as with the physics notes, it was not possible to clearly identify the textbook used. Comparing the chemistry notes with the physics notes, it is interesting to note that the underlying concept of chemistry focuses on molecules, whereas physics also mentions atoms, which are the fine structure of matter. A difference in the number of elements in the physics notes and the chemistry notes suggest that different teachers taught these subjects. However, it can be seen that both classes were conducted with emphasis on principles from the viewpoint of atoms and molecules, which are often found in imported textbooks in the early Meiji period. The notes of Endo- Shunkichi are completely consistent in their use of paragraphs from the first day of class to the last. There are very few typographical errors, and it is likely that they are fair copies made after class. 4.2.2 Nagai Genshin’s physics notes, Niigata prefecture, 1892 and 1893

The second case are the notes of Nagai Genshin preserved in the Niigata prefectural archive, which are listed in Table 2.20 20

Nagai Genshin’s writings are stored in the archive in Niigata. See also Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Hatakeyama Morio, Sugimoto Hiroki, ‘Niigataken de hakken sareta butsuri hikki ga shimesu Meiji chu--ki ni okeru kagaku kyo-iku no jittai’ (Actual science education situation in middle Meiji era based on physics notes discovered in Niigata), in Butsuri kyo-iku, 60, 2012, pp. 2–8. See also Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Sugimoto Hiroki, ‘Butsuri hikki kara himo toku Meiji jidai no Niigata ken no butsuri kyo- iku I – Kimura-ke to Nagai-ke no hikki kara denjiki bunya wo chu-shin ni’ (Education on physics in Niigata prefecture in the Meiji era as revealed by physics – Analysis mainly on the electromagnetic field based on notes of Endo- and Nagai), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyu- kiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 4, no.1, 2009, pp. 13–33.

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Table 2: Notes left by Nagai Genshin Period

Title

Content/Remarks

Meiji 24.6/ Jun. 1891

Rika hikki (1) (Science notes, no. 1)

Zoology, 36 pages (Arch. No. F25-384).

Meiji 24.11/ Nov. 1891

Rika hikki (2) (Science notes, no. 2)

Zoology, 18 pages (Arch. No. F25-394

Meiji 25.2/ Feb. 1892

Kinseki hikki (Mineralogy notes)

Metal and minerals, 20 pages (Arch. No. F25-398

Meiji 25.9/ Sep. 1892

Butsuri hikki (Physics notes)

Mechanics, cohesive force, 16 pages.

Meiji 26.2/ Feb. 1893

Butsuri-gaku hikki (Physics notes)

Heat, sound, magnetism, light, electricity, 67 pages.

1891–1893

Rika to-an (Science examination report)

Zoology, mechanics, liquid, electricity, 6 pages (Arch. No. F25-396).

Nagai Genshin was born in February 1881 and attended Yoita Higher Primary School in Niigata prefecture from 1891 to March 1894. He was between 10 and 13 years old at that time. His diploma from Yoita Higher Primary School from 28 March 1894, and the document for his admission to Nagaoka Middle School from April of the same year are also kept in the Niigata Prefectural Archives. Nagai’s physics notes from 1892 starts with shogen, a preface explaining the meaning of butsuri as follows: ‘Physics (butsuri) is the most necessary subject for us, and it is something we see intimately, most of which is related to experiments.’ That shows very clearly which view of physics the teacher who taught students like Nagai had. Such a preface was characteristic for the textbooks of the early Meiji period, but disappeared after the middle of the Meiji period. Nagai Genshin’s notes reflect the contents of five textbooks: the above-mentioned Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, from 1875), the translation of Balfour Stewart’s Physics (1878), Butsuri sho-shi (Introduction to physics for primary school students, from 1880), Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, from 1885), and Sho-gaku rika shinsho (Science for primary school students, from 1891).21 For details see Table 3. 21

For details see also Okiharu et al., ‘Niigata-ken de hakken sareta butsuri hikki’, pp. 2–8; Okiharu et al., ‘Butsuri hikki kara himo toku Meiji jidai no Niigata-ken’,

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Table 3: Textbooks that describe what Nagai Genshin was taught Year of publication

Title

Author / Translator

Remarks

1875

Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics)

Udagawa Junichi

Translated book, for normal school students.

1879

Physics (Balfour Stewart) Butsuri sho-shi

Kawamoto Seiichi

Translated book.

Udagawa Junichi

Translated book, written for primary school students based on the primary school teaching rules of the Ministry of Education.

1880

(Introduction of physics for primary school students)

1885

Sho-gakko- seito-yobutsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students)

Goto- Makita et al.

Textbook renowned for being educational, including simple experiments, but rarely used.

1891

Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students)

Gakkai Shishinsha

Textbook using the term rika in the title published after 1886.

An interesting point are some drawings in Nagai’s notebooks. For example, the section on the refraction of light describes the phenomenon of how a copper coin in a bowl filled with water becomes visible by the refraction of light in passing from water into the air. The drawing as shown in Fig. 5a, is an example that was quite common in Western textbooks in the second half of the nineteenth century and is still taught in present-day rika lessons in junior high schools. Although all textbooks mentioned above describe the refraction of light, the details of the principle and examples of treatment are different. Looking at Nagai’s drawing alone, although similar to a figure of Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875) (Fig. 5b) and a figure of Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho pp. 13–33; Kaigo Tokiomi (ed.), Nihon kyo-kasho taikei, kindai-hen (Textbooks in Japan. Modern period), vol. 22, Rika (Science) (2) (1965); vol. 23, Rika (Science) (3), To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 1966.

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(Physics for primary school students, 1885) (Fig. 5c), it is closest to the figure in Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students, 1891) (Fig. 5d). Both figures are drawn with something like a plate under the bowl. In fact, the explanatory text is exactly the same as in Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students, 1891). However, the notes also state that light is refracted because the vibration of ether differs depending on the optical medium (air, water, glass, etc.). This explanation does not appear in Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students, 1891). Although it is not the same word for word, Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875) has an explanation that ‘the reason for the refraction of light is that it depends on the elasticity of the ether in the optical medium’. One can assume that the teacher also studied Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875), and added this aspect in his teachings. (a)

(c)

(b)

(d)

Figs 5a–d: Diagrams on light refraction in textbooks and notes. (a) Diagram of refraction in Nagai Genshin’s physics notes from 1893; (b) Diagram of refraction in Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics notes) (1875); (c) Diagram of refraction in Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885); (d) Diagram of refraction in the Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students) (1892).

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A second example also concerns the refraction of light. In this case the drawing shows the assumed route of five soldiers marching in a row (Fig. 6a).When the one on the far-right encounters swampy terrain, his pace slows down, while the others initially march on normally until they too encounter the swamp. The difference in speed results in a bend in the direction of the march. This is used to explain the phenomenon of refraction of light.This explanation does not appear in Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875), but is described in the translation of Balfour Stewart’s Lessons in Elementary Physics by Kawamoto Seiichi entitled Shitoka-shi butsuri-gaku (published 1879) (Fig. 6b) as well as in the English original by Balfour Stewart (published 1878) (Fig. 6c).22 In this way, teaching the content of the refraction of light was not only based on Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students, 1891), but the teacher obviously supplemented his lessons with additional explanations of principles, as needed, to provide students with more easily understandable examples. (a)

(b)

(c)

Figs 6a–c: Diagrams on light refraction (“marching soldiers”) in textbooks and notes (a) Drawing on light refraction in Nagai Genshin’s notebook from 1893; (b Diagram explaining refraction in Kawamoto Seiichi’s translation of Balfour Stewart’s Physics, Shitoka-shi butsuri-gaku (publ. 1879); (c) Original diagram explaining refraction in Balfour Stewart’s Physics (1878). 22

The drawing in the notes is laterally reversed compared to the illustrations in the textbooks.

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In the field of electricity, the notes describe everyday contents such as a lightning rod and batteries. This is the content referred to in Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885). The drawing in Nagai’s notes is very similar to an illustration in this textbook (see Figs 7a and 7b), so that it can be assumed that the lessons were based on that book. Moreover, this textbook also seems to have been mainly used in teaching the field of mechanics. (a)

(b)

Figs 7a, b: Drawings of a lightning rod in Nagai Genshin’s physics notes from 1893 (a) and in the textbook Sho-gakkoseito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885) (b).

Nagai’s documents also contain a report on examinations dating back to a decree implemented on 19 June 1887. In his answers to questions posed in the rika examens (Table 2, last row), based upon this decree, Nagai presents the contents of Butsuri sho-shi (Introduction of physics for primary school students, 1880). This Butsuri shoshi was an adapted version for primary school of the Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875), translated by Udagawa Junichi, originally used for normal schools (see also Table 3). This suggests that the teacher used the Butsuri sho-shi (Introduction of physics for primary school students, 1880) in class. Among Nagai’s notes and responses, many contents point to the Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri sho, but there is also content and imagery related to the Shitoka-shi butsurisho (Japanese translation of Stewart’s Lessons in Elementary Physics), the Butsuri zenshi, and the Butsuri

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shoshi, as well as Sho-gaku rika shinsho. The teachers obviously used various textbooks for their lessons, or selected and taught content which they learned in their own student days. By selecting content familiar to the students, they explained principles and rules and struck a balance. 4.2.3. Tanaka So-ichiro-’s notes, Shizuoka prefecture, 1889 to 1892

Further notebooks were located in Shizuoka prefecture. Similar to Niigata prefecture, Shizuoka prefecture had a port that was opened in the early Meiji period, and education there was progressive. The port of Shimoda in today’s Shizuoka prefecture was opened already very early after the Japan–US Treaty of Friendship in 1854. Tanaka So-ichiro- was a student in Shidamasuzu-gun Higher Primary School in Shizuoka prefecture from 1889 to 1892.The notes he left are listed in Table 4.23 Later, Tanaka entered Shizuoka Prefectural Middle School in 1893. Table 4: Notebooks left by Tanaka So-ichiroPeriod

Title

Remarks/Content

1889

Rika cho-bo 2 go- (Science notes, vol. 2)

Balances, wheels and axles, pulley, moving pulley (plants 12 pages, Physics 10 pages)

1889–1892

Rika (Science) Shokubutsu (plants), Butsuri (Physics)

Plants used as food, plants used as clothes, plants used as houses and appliances, plants used for other purposes, 17 pages (no Physics)

1889–1892

Kagaku butsuri hikki (Chemistry notes and Physics notes)

Definition of chemistry, combustion, hydrogen, chlorine, saltpetre, alkali, sulphur, ethnicity, carbon, metals (iron, copper, tin), definition of physics, force, three states, specific gravity, water, energy, sound, heat, temperature, expansion, optics (chemistry 25 pages, physics 36 pages)

1889–1892

Butsuri gaku (Physics)

Hydrology, pneumatics, acoustics (34 pages, with calculations and figures inserted)

Among his notes there is an interesting document: A definition of kagaku (science)24 which was written on the back of a bank 23

24

For more details see Okiharu et al., ‘Nihon kakuchi no Meiji chu-ki no rika’, pp. 21–37. The notes written by Tanaka So-ichiro- were purchased by Prof. Kobayashi Akizo- from an antiquarian bookseller on the internet around 2011. Kagaku is a general term for ‘science’ in contrast to butsuri meaning ‘natural science’.

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letter, reading as follows ‘Science; systematic disciplines, including logic, psychology, law, economy, physics, chemistry, animals, plants, politics, society, geology, and mineralogy; scientific; factual facts and establishing a systematic demonstration, S. Tanaka, surveyed in December of 1889’. The keywords show what a broad range of topics Tanaka subsumes under the term science (kagaku). In Tanaka’s notes Kagaku butsuri hikki (Chemistry and physics notes), both sections on chemistry and on physics show after the title the following statement ‘Oral instruction by Ogawa Masataka, Bachelor of Science’.This Ogawa Masakata (1865–1930) was to become later one of Japan’s most eminent chemists.25 He was the first graduate of the Department of Chemistry at the Imperial University in To-kyo-, and studied also under Professor Edward Divers. In the year following his graduation in 1889, he moved back to Shizuoka as a teacher at the Shizuoka Prefectural Middle School. He taught there for several years, until he was appointed as an unpaid assistant at Imperial University in To-kyo- in 1896. Tanaka’s chemistry and physics notes contain neither his age nor the year, nor the school name, but it is highly probable that Tanaka wrote them when he was a student at the middle school, while Ogawa Masataka was teaching there. In the chemistry section of his notes, the first part is entitled ‘Definition of Chemistry’. It states that the main concern of this subject is ‘to study how to change a substance and what constitutes a substance. For example, how fire burns, what kind of objects use air, and what makes water.’ This content is similar to Sho-gaku kagaku-sho (Chemistry for primary schools) (originally H.E. Roscoe’s book from a science primer series ‘Chemistry’ from 1874, translated by Ichikawa Seisaburo-). Roscoe’s statement at the beginning of the translated book says, ‘I would like students to learn the principles through experiments, not memorization’. In comparison to this, the teacher who taught Tanaka seemed to be focusing on the practicality of familiar natural phenomena. Comparing Tanaka’s Kagaku butsuri hikki (Chemistry and physics notes) and Endo-’s Kagaku hikki (Chemistry notes) mentioned earlier, there were common statements about hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon dioxide, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, combustion, 25

He is known as the discoverer of the 43rd element Nipponium, which was listed in the periodic table in 1909. Unfortunately, this element is unstable and has become a phantom element. From 1904 to 1906, Ogawa studied abroad under Sir William Ramsay – the winner of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Chemistry – at University College, London.

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acids, bases and salts.Tanaka’s notes also describe the manufacturing method for these substances, and give specific examples. One example is the production of hydrogen. It is described as follows: ‘Put a small amount of granular zinc in a glass bottle, cover the mouth of the bottle with a wooden stopper with two holes. Put a funnel tube in one hole, and the bent glass tube unto the other. When dilute sulphuric acid or dilute hydrochloric acid is injected from the funnel tube, bubbles are generated immediately, and hydrogen is generated from the thin tube.’ In this way a fairly specific experimental method is described. There were many descriptions of practicality, such as in the phosphorus section: ‘Yellow and red phosphorus are commonly used in match production.’ And on usage of sulphuric it is said: ‘Sulfuric acid is widely used in the industry.The main ones are soap, glass, paper, soda, phosphorus, and fertilizers.’26 In the beginning of the physics section a definition states that: ‘Physics is a study of the various phenomena that exist between the universe, such as water flowing, wind blowing, and rain falling.’ Many of the figures in the notes correspond to the ones in Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 1875) and the contents of teaching focused mainly on principles. Some of Tanaka’s figures were quite precise, such as drawings of the specific gravity and level experiment, and there were no typographical errors, so the notes seemed to have been rewritten into a fair copy at home rather than during class. 4.2.4 Nishiwaki Ko-taro-’s rika notes and textbooks, Niigata prefecture, 1895 to 1896

The notes of Nishiwaki Ko-taro-, from Niigata prefecture, born in September 1885, are an interesting example because they show that the contents of the subjects began to change.27 Nishiwaki attended Dai-ichi Kita Uonuma Higher Primary School. His fourth-grade graduation certificate is dated 28 March 1899. Therefore, he was probably 10 to 13 years old and attended school from 1895 to 1899. In his case only the textbooks, notes and examination papers on rika (science) are left (Table 5). The description in the rika (science) notes from 1898 almost coincides with the Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students) published 1891. 26 27

See Okiharu et al., ‘Niigata-ken de hakken sareta butsuri hikki’, pp. 2–8. See Okiharu et al., ‘Butsuri hikki kara himo toku Meiji jidai no Niigata ken’, pp. 13–33.

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Table 5: Textbooks and notes of Nishiwaki Ko-taroYear

Title

Remarks/Content

1895

Meiji rika sho (Science in Meiji) (1892) Rika shiken kaito- (Science test answers) Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students), vol. 3 (1891)

Endorsement: Echigo Ojiya-cho-, November 1895, Nishiwaki Ko-taro-

Rika hikki (Science notes)

Analysis of water, oxygen, air components, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, chemistry, non-metallic elements, metallic elements, relationship between living and inanimate objects, steam machine structure, sound, light, solar and lunar eclipse, electricity, triboelectricity, lightning, lightning rod, wet electricity, battery, sentence battery, magnet, physiology, skeleton, muscle, digestive organ, circulatory organ, respiratory organ.

1896 1897

1898

Animals, plants Endorsement: Owner: Nishiwaki Ko-taro-, 30 November 1897

In Nishiwaki’s case, the examination documents deserve special attention. The questions asked there fully correspond to the new laws and guidelines in force after 1886. For example, questions were asked such as ‘What is an animal?’, or ‘What is a plant?’, or likewise ‘What is a mineral?’ In this respect, it looks as if the school is already completely oriented towards the new subject rika. However, if one looks at the contents of Nishiwaki’s rika notes of 1898, things look somewhat different. They included chemistry, physics, and physiology, and much of the content from the earlier period before 1886, the era in which mainly translated foreign textbooks and their view on science dominated teaching. As can be seen from the remarks on contents taught in primary and higher primary schools (Tables 2 (Nagai), 4 (Tanaka), 5 (Nishiwaki), as well as 6 (Matsuoka Toyokichi, 1900) students in lower grades were studying rika (science). The contents were mainly plants, animals and other natural phenomena, and in the field of physics, topics were only levers and pulleys. This is consistent with the provisions of the 1886 legislation. On the other hand, regardless of the introduction of rika (science), there were schools where teachers continued to teach individual subjects like physics and chemistry in higher grades, and the content there often started with the definition of physics and other topics corresponding to the former science orientation of butsuri.

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4.2.5 The qualitative change in rika (science) education

Besides the four cases discussed so far, it has been possible to discover rika (science) notes and examination papers of higher primary school students in the Meiji period in ten prefectures: Gunma, Hiroshima, Ibaraki, Niigata, Okayama, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tochigi,Tokushima and Yamaguchi (Table 6; Shizuoka is not listed in Table 6, but it is represented by Tanaka’s notes described above). The Remarks column in Table 6 contains a comprehensive list of topics dealt with in the various rika notes. By analysing these contents, we can gain better insight into the details of changes that occurred after 1886. Table 6: Rika (science) notebooks from various prefectures in Japan Year

Title

Region/ Prefecture

Endorsement: Written on the cover

Remarks/Content

1887

Rika

Okayama

Irie Hisayuki, Taihaku Higher Primary School, 4th grade

Water, nitrogen, atmosphere, carbon, bleached powder, chlorine, sulphur, sulphuric acid, metal elements, green stalk, copper, lead, tin, zinc, antimony, mercury, silver, gold, platinum, sodium, salt, arsenic.

1889

Rika hikki

Tochigi

Ayuse Shizu Higher Primary School, 1st grade

Plants, roots, leaves, fruits, useful plants, fruit trees.

1890

Rika hikki

Ibaraki

Takahashi Haru

Air, nature of air, weight of air, weight of material in air, exhaust bell, exhaust machine, nature of water, water surface, water pressure, reducing weight of material in water, buoyancy of water, heat, thermometer, origin and spread of heat, change of water.

1890

Rika hikki

Gunma

Hagiwara Genji

Bones, meat, teeth, digestive organs, blood, blood vessels, secretions, respiration, body temperature, sound, skin.

1890

Rika hikki (rika-gaku (science) on the first page)

Yamaguchi

Kamimura (or Uemura) Takikuma Commoner in Yamaguchi prefecture

Object, liquid pressure, water pressure structure, liquid level, liquid buoyancy, specific gravity, air weight, air pressure, barometer, rain gauge, pump, exhaust, acoustic, heat, latent heat, thermometer, heat propagation, light, light refraction, light intensity, telescope, magnet, induction of magnetism, artificial magnet, electricity, negative and positive electricity, good and bad conductor, battery, Bunsen battery, telegraph, amalgam manufacturing method, telephone, electric lamp

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1891

Rika shiken mondai (science test questions)

Tokushima

Sakata Hatsue

Water birds, molluscs, camels, people and monkeys, pine, flowerless plants, bamboo, mouth, nervous system, etc.

1892

Rika-gaku

Tochigi

Ayuse Shinmin Higher Primary school, 2nd grade,

Zoology, distinction and characteristics of mammals, birds, fish, molluscs, classification of animals.

1892

Rika hikki (rika hikki with different Chinese character on the first page)

Tochigi

Ayuse Shinmin Higher Primary school, 2nd grade

Stems, substances from plant nutrients.

1892

Rika nikki (science diary)

Tochigi

Tsuchiya Kishiro-, Ujiie Higher Primary School, 2nd grade

Cats, tigers, ruminants, camels, buffaloes, monopods, horses, whales, vertebrates, birds.

1893

Rika hikki

Ibaraki

Aoki Genkichi, Primary School, 3rd grade

Objects and phenomena, natural objects, plants, vertebrates and invertebrates, mammals, birds, minerals, earth–day/night distinctions, seasonal changes, water vapour.

1893

Rika hikki

Saitama

blank

Natural products, roots, stems, leaves, seeds, flowers, fruits, leafy vegetables, edible fruits.

1894

Rika-cho-

Hiro-shima

Ko-no Ko-ji, Hiro Higher Primary school

Cereals, rice, beans, leafy vegetables, edible fruits, useful plants and trees, sugar, non-flowering plants, animals, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, minerals, metals (gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, mercury, salt, alum, crystal).

1896

Rika

Yamaguchi

Inoue Sadaichiro-, 1st grade,

Plants, animal types, life, classification, minerals, natural phenomena (heat, air, wind, etc.).

1897

Rika to-an (answers)

Niigata

- e DenhachiroO

1898

Rika hikki

Tochigi

Urano Fusa, Tochigi Reproduction of plants, fungi, Prefectural Primary animals, dogs, cats, rats, cows, horses, Women’s School birds of prey, swallows, birds, snakes, frogs, carp, snails, clams, butterflies, bees, centipedes, spiders, lizards, parasites, sea cucumbers, sea anemone.

1898

Test collection

Ibaraki

Hosaka Ihei, 4th grade

Properties of animals such as duck, horse and cow; levers, pulleys; human skeleton, etc.

1899

Rika

Gunma

Sakamoto Sadayoshi,

Plant growth, animal growth, speed, pendulum, centre of gravity, balance, trolley, buoyancy, specific gravity, shat kagaku (chemistry) means, compounds and compounds, water analysis, oxidation and oxides.

Movable pulley, pendulum, capillary attraction, buoyancy

372

1900

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Rika hikki (butsuri gaku hikki (notebook on physics) on the first page) Shiken to-an

Saitama

Matsuoka Toyokichi, - sato Higher O Primary School, 4th grade

Change of object, reason for change, butsuri-gaku to kagaku no betsu (difference between physics and chemistry), three states, properties of solids, liquids, and gases.

Hiroshima

Igarashi Kakutaro-, Higher Primary School, 1st grade

Cereals, beans, leafy vegetables, special plants, trees, sugar, non-flowering plants, animals, animals, birds, reptiles, fish, molluscs, minerals, gold, silver, iron, lead, tin, mercury, salt, alum, levers, pulleys, friction, water properties.

(answers)

1904

Rika hikki

Gunma

Ioku Kiyonori, Higher Primary School, 2nd grade

Peach, rape, beans, silkworm, pine, wheat, birds in pond, fish, frog, fruit tree, grafted tree, snail, autumn field, rice and pests, potato, winter sky, dog, cat, rat, horse, cow.

1906

Rika hikkicho- dai 1 kan

Niigata

Matsuzawa Yo-, To-kamachi, Higher Primary School, 3rd grade

Human body structure, levers, object properties, molecules, cohesion, three states, pressure, water properties, steam, steam engine, oxides, compound heat, carbon gas, blood, heart, breathing, chlorine.

1907

Rika hikkicho- dai 2 kan

Niigata

Elements, explosive, lime, cement, silver nitrate, Daniel battery, air, solid, liquid, sound, throat, head, ear, structure.

1907

Rika

Niigata

Matsuzawa Yo-, To-kamachi, Higher Primary School, 3rd grade Matsuzawa Yo-, To-kamachi, Higher

1907

Rika

Niigata

Straight line of light, solar and lunar eclipse, day and night distinction, four Primary School, 4th seasons, light reflection, flower and grade insect, pest, plant self-defence, animal self-defence, light refraction, prism, lens, microscope, eyeball structure, staining, fat and oil, soap, plant sourness and poison, sugar. Matsuzawa Yo-, sugar, starch, gelatine, cellulose, To-kamachi, Higher fermentation, canning, preservatives, Primary School, 4th food, digestion, urology, excretion, grade, use of natural products, relationships with natural products, magnets, electric currents, electric lights, electric magnets, telegraphs, electric bells, electricity plating, relationship between magnet and current, electricity, static electricity.

For example, the notes, which were written in 1887 by Irie Hisayuki and in 1890 by Uemura (or Kamimura) Takikuma, still contain the contents of imported textbooks. The notes written by

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Takahashi Haru, also in 1890, did not deal with such difficult contents, but describe mainly natural phenomena. However, the notes also mention, for example, a description of the causes of heat. This means that she was not just taught about visible phenomena, but also about principles. Hagiwara Genji in 1890 was taught mainly about the human body, which was quite different from other contents written in notes. This corresponds to the content of the former subject Physiology. Similarly, there were questions on the nervous system in Sakata Hatsue’s 1891 examination, and in 1906 Matsuzawa Yo- was also taught about blood and the heart. Some scholars regard 1895 as a possible turning point.28 Their evidence is mostly based on data from Gunma prefecture. In Gunma there were special circumstances, because three out of four authors of Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885) were teachers at Gunma Normal School. In Gunma prefecture, in the Sho-gakko- kyo-soku (Elementary school teaching rules) of June 1892, the Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885) was still mentioned in the textbook table for teachers of higher primary schools. In the book list for higher primary school students compiled in 1894 (Meiji 27), a science textbook such as Sho-gaku rika shinsho (New science for primary school students, 1891) was specified instead of a textbook with subject names such as physics and chemistry.29 In addition, in Maebashi Higher Primary School in Gunma prefecture, the subjects for examination were physics, chemistry etc. until 1895, but after 1896 it became rika (science), and the content also changed.30 That shows that even after 1886, when the subject of rika (science) was introduced, teachers in Gunma still used Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885), and the time of the switch was probably later, around 1895. But even then, there seemed to have been teachers that still kept this book until much later. This is supported by Sakamoto Sadayoshi’s notes Meiji 32 nen 4 gatsu 8 nichi / rika (April 8, 1899, science), discovered in Gunma prefecture.To give one example: his notes contain the same description as in Section 9, ‘Rules of a falling body’ in the textbook of 28

29

30

Takahashi et al., ‘Gunma ken ni okeru Meiji chu-ki no kagaku rika kyo-iku’, pp. 74–81. Kobayashi Akizo-, ‘Nihon kakuchi de hakken sareru “rika no jidai” no butsuri jyugyo- hikki’, pp. 56–59. Takahashi et al., ‘Gunma ken ni okeru Meiji chu-ki no kagaku rika kyo-iku’, pp. 74–81.

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Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885).31 The description of the method for shiken (experiments) and actual examples are also the same, as well as the description of the experiment ‘Dropping a stone from a board’. However, there are parts added which are not in the textbook, e.g. ‘Running down from a board’. It is worth noting that the textbook Sho-gakkoseito-yo- butsuri-sho was obviously used in classes until the end of the 1890s. In addition, the statements about chemistry written in these notes were similar as in the early Meiji period. Even in Rika hikki (Science notes) from Saitama prefecture, dated 3 January 1900, there is evidence to be found that physics - sato ko-to- showas still taught. Along with the date on the cover, O gakko- seito / dai 4 gakunen-kyu- ko-shu (Osato higher primary school student / 4th grade, class A), Matsuoka Toyokichi, uses the term rika in the title of the notes Rika hikki (Science notes). However, chapter 1 begins with Butsuri-gaku hikki (Physics notes), elaboratoring about the change of objects. In the latter section even the difference between physics and chemistry is explained.32 The content of these notes was based on A Textbook on the Elements of Physics for High Schools and Academies (1882), written by A.P. Gauge in the United States and translated by Kikuchi Kumataro-.33 There are several Japanese versions translated by Kikuchi. The first translated version, in particular, describes atomistics, energetics, immortality of matter, hierarchy of matter, etc. Since the description of Matsuoka’s notes also contains text that verifies the existence of atoms and molecules experimentally, it suggests that the class was quite advanced. Finally, the notes of Matsuzawa Yo- in Niigata prefecture34 contain many descriptions of everyday phenomena, familiar to young people, as well as molecules and difficult contents such as solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and planetary movements.35 In this way, although only a few examples have so far been discovered, even if the subject name changed to rika in 1886, it is clear that the contents of conventional physics were still taught, 31

32 33

34

35

Sakamoto Sadakichi’s notes are stored in the prefectural archive in Gunma, document number 8202–3764. Kaigo, Nihon kyo-kasho taikei, kindai-hen. Rika vols. 2 and 3. Kobayashi, ‘Nihon kakuchi de hakken sareru “rika no jidai”’, pp. 56–59; Gage, The Elements of Physics, a Text-Book for High Schools and Academies; Meltzer et al., pp. 478–496. Matsuzawa Yo-’s notes are stored in the prefectural archive in Niigata, documents numbers E9114-142-1, E9114-142-2, E9114-142-3, E9114-142-4. Akabane et al., ‘Gunma daigaku shozo- Meiji-ki kyo-ka-sho’, 2002.

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beyond the levers and pulleys specified by law as the physics field. In terms of chemistry, Matsuzawa was taught atoms and molecules. In addition, the fact that cases were discovered from three different prefectures, Gunma, Niigata and Saitama prefectures, is significant (although these are all in the Kanto- region). At that time, education fell under the autonomy of the individual prefectures, and was not uniformly regulated throughout Japan, as is the case today. The fact that similar cases were found in different prefectures shows that it was not a particular phenomenon but can be generalized to some extent. On the other hand, in other notes and examination papers after 1895, there was no description related to the principles of the scientific phenomena, but a focus on plants and animals. At the same time, in the field of physics, teaching is mostly limited to levers and pulleys. In this way, the subject called rika was officially introduced in 1886 as part of a new curriculum, but in the transitional period until around 1907, which was quite late, in some regions, classes were still given under the subject names of physics, chemistry and others. Furthermore, these classes dealt not only with those topics stipulated by laws and regulations, but also with a wide range of other content. For most notes preserved under the name of rika, the educational content was limited according to the law. No principles were taught, and the subject dealt only with familiar objects such as levers, pulleys, animals and plants.36 4.3 Did the experiments actually take place?

Science is a discipline that reveals rules of natural phenomena based on experiments and observations. The question remains: Were experiments actually carried out by students in class? In the nineteenth century, a worldwide scientific education reform occurred. For example, Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution in the UK began in 1825. Michael Faraday’s The chemical history of a candle, part of a series given at the Royal Institution in 1848, was published as a book and is still widely read even today. Scientists at the forefront of research communicated the fun of science to the general public and to children. Herbert Spencer stated in Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical (published in 1860) that children should be allowed to make their own 36

Akabane et al., ‘Gunma daigaku shozo- Meiji-ki kyo-ka-sho’, 2002.

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investigations and draw their own inferences. They should be told as little as possible, and induced to discover as much as possible. These words had a great influence not only on education in the United States, but also on Japanese education in the early Meiji period. In the United States, science education surveys were conducted on a national scale. In 1880, F.W. Clark published A Report on the Teaching of Chemistry and Physics in the United States, and in 1884, C.K. Wead followed with Aims and Methods of the Teaching of Physics.37 Harvard University compiled a list of more than 40 experiments to be conducted by junior high school students as an improvement in experimental education, and imposed experimental tests on entrance examinations.38 As shown in the textbooks of Stewart’s Science Primer series published 1872, professors who put together simple experiments were encouraged, and books were published containing descriptions of the apparatus alongside the experiments.39 Only during this “boom” of promoting experiments in physics and chemistry in the 1880s could such a flow be introduced into Japanese science education. From the beginning, scholars who created Japan’s modern school education system recognized the importance of experiments in natural science.40 Therefore, in Gakusei (Government Order of Education) of 1872 and Sho-gakko- kyo-soku ko-ryo- (General Plan of Rules for Primary Education), the subject of natural science was emphasized, and the teaching method was described as ‘the theory is realized by experiments’. At this time, the subjects of natural science were ri-gaku rinko- (science lectures), hakubutsu (natural science), ka-gaku (chemistry), and seiri-gaku (physiology), and the most rational view of nature in modern science was the most important educational content. However, the government’s policy was not fully realized due to the teachers’ inadequate knowledge of science and the limited number of children who advanced to grades to study natural science. In response, the Ministry of Education embarked on an academic incentive campaign in 1878. It established a set of physics experimental equipment for Butsuri zenshi (Introduction to physics, 37

38

39

40

F.W. Clark, A Report on the Teaching of Chemistry and Physics in the United States, 1880; C.K. Wead, Aims and Methods of the Teaching of Physics, 1884. Edwin Herbert Hall, Descriptive List of Elementary Exercises in Physics, for Admission to Harvard College, etc., Cambridge, 1886 (various editions). Nagata Eiji, Nihon rika kyo-zai shi (The history of experimental apparatus in Japan), To-kyo-: Ho-rei Shuppan, 1994, p. 20. Takahashi Hiroshi, ‘Jikken kyo-iku koto hajime’ (Early history of laboratory lessons for engineering education), in Journal of Japanese Society for Engineering Education, 59, 2011, pp. 5–10.

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1875) at one public primary school in each prefecture, and promoted science education based on experiments.41 In 1880, the Kyo-iku rei (Education Order, originally promulgated 1879) and in the following year, the Sho-gakko- kyo-soku ko-ryo- (General Plan of Rules for Primary Education) based on it were enacted. In this regulation, for example, with regard to physics, it is said:‘In order to teach physics, students are required to learn principles through experiments (shiken) by actually experimenting with simple experimental aparatus.’ Here, the term shiken has come up. Regarding this, Nagata Eiji described the term shiken to discover ‘whether the theoretical consequences of expectations or hypotheses were correct’42 and says that the term had taken root at the end of the Edo period. The word jikken (experiment) began to be used around 1900. In order to promote science education based on experiments, the Ministry of Education in 1882 issued an order for granting academic bonuses and regular academic incentives for faculty members and students of public and private schools. The highlight of the recommended products was Rika sho-shi (a translation of Le Roy C. Cooley, Easy Experiments, published in 1882)43 and a set of experimental apparatus used in it. The spread of such experimental apparatus was conducted to support teacher training. In prefectural governments, which had already been focusing on education, teachers of normal schools travelled to instruct instructors and hold workshops. The Ministry of Education tried to spread this approach nationwide.The instructors also tried to spread the carrying out of experiments by introducing ideas for and examples of simple experiments described in foreign textbooks. At the same time, they started to create new simple experiments by themselves. As a result, many physics and chemistry experiment books for primary schools were published in the 1880s. Examples of these include: • (Butsuri shoshi furoku) Kan’i shiken ho- ((Appendix to Butsuri sho-shi). Simple experimental methods), 1884; 41

42 43

Nagahira Yukio, ‘Meiji 11 Monbu-sho- ko-fu no butsuri kyo-iku jikken kikai to Ritchie-sha’ (Physical apparatus imported from E. S. Ritchie & Sons by the Japanese Ministry of Education in the early Meiji era), in O saka Keizai Ho--ka Daigaku ronshu, no. 106, 2014, pp. 1–24. Nagata, Nihon rika kyo-zai shi. Le Roy C. Cooley, Easy Experiments in Physical Science for Oral Instructions in Common Schools, New York: Charles Scriber and Company, 1870 (and later editions).

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• (Sho-gaku butsuri) Kan’i jikken ho- ((Physics for primary schools). Simple Experimental Methods), 1885; • (Kan’i kikai) Butsuri shiken ho- ((Simple instruments:) Physics experimental methods), 1885; • (Kan’i kikai) Ri-ka-gaku shiken ho- ((Simple instruments:) Physics and chemistry experimental methods), 1885; • (Kan’i shiken) Ri-ka kyo-ju- ho- ((Simple experiments:) Physics and chemistry professor’s book). However, it is not clear to what extent such experiments were actually carried out. There are questions how widespread experimental apparatus in primary schools actually was, and whether teachers were able to use it.44 In addition, the importance of experimentation had been obscured by the subject rika (science), which was suddenly imposed in 1886. In other words, the spirit of natural science in the early Meiji period may have been lost through the birth of rika. In our study, some of the notes collected in regions all over the country show that Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885) was used as a textbook based on simple experiments. Moreover, Sakamoto Sadayoshi of Gunma prefecture and Nagai Genshin of Niigata prefecture also used this textbook, as mentioned earlier. However, others claim that this textbook was ‘almost never used’,45 or ‘it may have been used in Gunma prefecture where the authors of this book lived.’46 As far as the regional distribution of this book and the period in which it was used are concerned, our study yielded the following evidence. Textbooks with dates after 1886, with the name of the student’s school, are preserved at the Gunma and the Saitama prefectural archives. Another copy of this textbook, 44

45 46

Shozawa Jun, ‘“Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho” no jidai to Ioku Sho- “butsuri hikki”’ (An examination of physics notes kept by Ms Ioku Sho- at the time of the use of Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , vol. 52, no. 268, 2013, pp. 221–230. Itakura, Zo-ho: Nihon rika kyo-iku-shi, p. 170. Akabane Akira, ‘Nakanojo--machi rekishi to minzoku no hakubutsukan “MUSE” shozo- Ioku Sho- “butsuri hikki” no naiyo- cho-sa’ (Investigation of physics notes written by the student Iyoku Sho-, owned by the Nakanojo Museum of Folk & History), in Kagakushi kenkyu-, vol. 52, no. 268, 2013, pp. 231–239; see also Akabane Akira et.al., ‘“Butsuri hikki” kara yomitoru Meiji 20 nendai no butsuri kyo-iku: Ioku Sho- “butsuri hikki” wo chu-shin ni’ (Physics education in the 1880s based on Ioku Sho-’s physics notes), in Proceedings of the Physics Education Society of Japan, 2011, p. 28.

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dated 1892, with the name of a female student (Kurihara Miho-) and evidently used in Shizuoka prefecture, could be obtained from an antiquarian bookseller (Figures 8a, 8b). Someone called Kurashige Gohachi, a normal school student in Niigata prefecture from 1888 to 1891, used it in his teaching practice. Thus, the textbook was used not only in Gunma prefecture, which is related to the authors, but also in a wider surrounding area, and it was still used after 1886.47 (a)

(b)

Figs 8a, b: Cover of a butsuri textbook with a handwritten note on the back after the “turning point”. (a) Cover of Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885), used in Shizuoka prefecture; (b) Handwritten note on the back, dated Meiji 25, from Kurihara Miho 3rd grade, female (1892).

However, even if the same figures as in the textbook appear in the student’s notes, it does not mean that the experiments were 47

Kurashige Gohachi’s “Sho kyo--an” (Teaching plan of many subjects) in the archive in Niigata, document number, E1207-5-66. See also Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Yamamoto Yuta, ‘Meiji 22 ko-to--sho-gakko- jido- “ri-gaku hikki” ni ikyo shita ka ni butsuri jikken no jittai’ (Actual situation of simple physics experiments based on student’s notes in 1889), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyu- kiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 9, no.1, 2016, pp. 11–26.

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actually carried out. The pictures could have merely been copied. So, we need a proof. In the notes of Hirano Seiichiro- in Saitama prefecture we find indications that an experiment was actually performed.48 Hirano’s notes consist of eight fields: dynamics (including cohesion and three states of matter), liquids, gases, phonology, thermology, optics, magnetism, and electricity. On the other hand, Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885) starts with a preface and contains the main text, and at the end of the book gives a list of low-priced physical instruments for primary school use mentioned in textbooks.49 The book consists of 71 sections in eight volumes in the order of power, liquids, gases, sound, heat, light, magnetism, and history. The content of Hirano’s notes shows the same order. The textbook is basically a series of examples, experiments (shiken), definitions, results, facts, and applications. After deriving the definition or result from an experiment, it explains the situation where the definition or result is applied as an example, and then its application. The contents of Hirano’s notes also consisted of examples, experiments (shiken), etc., which clearly indicate that he was taught with reference to this textbook. Interestingly, the content was almost identical, but the description of the experiment was different and the experimental tools were different. 4.3.1 Example for an experiment: Description of temperature measurement

The decisive indication that experiments were really carried out was found in the description of the temperature measurement. There is a short note saying ‘Niju- ni nen ju- gatsu ni ju- kyu- nichi, gozen ju-ji goju-ppun, serushiyuu ju-kyu- do, faarenhaito rokuju- nana do’, which means ‘October 29, 1889, 10:50 a.m., 19 degrees Celsius, 67 degrees Fahrenheit.’ From the exact data it can be derived that at least in this case the actual temperature was measured (Fig. 9). 48

49

Shozawa Jun, ‘Meiji 10 nendai ko-han no kagaku kyo-iku – “Sho-gakko- seito-yobutsuri-sho” ni mirareru kyo-iku naiyo- no chikuseki’ (Science education in the late Meiji Era. Accumulation of educational contents found in “Sho-gakko- seito-yobutsuri-sho”), in Kyo-iku ho-ho--shi kenkyu- (History of educational methods), vol. 2, 1984, pp. 100–125. Kurashige Gohachi’s Sho kyo--an (A teaching plan of many subjects), is kept in the archive in Niigata, document number E1207-5-66.

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Fig. 9: Description of an actual temperature measurement in Hirano Seiichiro-’s notes (1889).

4.3.2 Experiment demonstrating the law of inertia using different apparatus in comparison with one in the textbook

In this experiment teachers demonstrated the law of inertia. In Sho--gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students), a piece of paper is placed on a bamboo cylinder and a coin is put on top of it.Then the paper is pulled very quickly by hand, as shown in Fig.10b, and the coin falls into the cylinder. However, in the notes a different arrangement is drawn, in which a cup and a flipping bar are used (Fig.10a). The first steps are the same, but then the paper is not pulled by hand, but pushed away with a flipping bar. Obviously, the (a)

(b)

Figs 10a, b: Guidance for an experiment demonstrating the law of inertia. (a) Drawing on the law of inertia in Hirano Seiichiro-’s notes on ri-gaku (1889). (b) Diagram demonstrating the law of inertia in Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885).

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experiment in the textbook is more concise, but different equipment was probably used because these tools were available in the school. In section 9 of the textbook,‘Rules of falling objects’, an experiment was conducted in which ‘feathers fall into a small cup and when they fall, the feathers fall at the same time as a small cup’. On the other hand, in Hirano’s notes, it is said ‘When you put a paper on a chalk lid [chalk-box lid?] and drop them down, the paper falls in the same time as the lid’, using a chalk lid [chalk-box lid?] instead of a small cup and paper instead of feathers. This experiment was described using tools available at school. 4.3.3 Simple explanation and different apparatus in comparison with ones in the textbook

The textbook explains buoyancy as ‘an object submerged in a liquid loses its weight by the same volume as the displaced liquid’ as shown in Figure 11a. And ‘here, (࢖) is a bamboo tube, and (ࣟ) is lead just large enough to fill the empty part of (࢖)’. Now, as shown Figure 11b of the student’s notes (ࣁ) is hung below (ࣟ), and after (ࣁ) and (ࣟ) are balanced with a weight (࢖) using a balance or a scale, if (ࣁ) is submerged in water, the balance is lost. However, if you add water to (ࣟ), it will balance as before.’ (a)

(b)

Figs 11a, b: Demonstrating buoyancy in a textbook and the student’s notes. (a) Demonstrating the law of buoyancy in Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students) (1885); (b) Demonstrating the law of buoyancy in Hirano Seiichiro-’s notes on ri-gaku (1889).

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Comparing the drawing in the textbook (Fig. 11a) with that in the notes (Fig. 11b), it can be seen that the fulcrum positions are different between the two. In the textbook, the fulcrum is closer to the bamboo tube, but in the notes, the fulcrum is at the centre. For students, it was obviously easier to understand if the fulcrum was at the centre. Therefore, it can be assumed that the teacher at that time had devised it so that it was easier to understand. In addition, the material is a tinplate tube instead of a bamboo tube, and the weight suspended on the other side differs in name: in the notes it is called a hakari-dama (scale ball) and in the textbook a bundo(weight). However, although the specific material name is written, the stick at the centre of the scale is drawn below instead of above, and it seems difficult to submerge the device in this state.Therefore, it cannot be said that one really performed this experiment. 4.3.4 Experiments that only appear in the notes

Although the textbook does not have a special description of the centre of gravity, it is mentioned in the notes. The description there states that when balancing a chalk lid [chalk box lid?] on the tip of your finger, there is a place where the lid rides flat on your fingertip. This example indicates that the experiment was performed using familiar tools, like those used in the case of ‘falling objects’. 4.3.5. Numeric values are different

In the textbook, there was only one method to find the specific gravity of a solid, but in the note-book there were two. In addition, there was a method to find the specific gravity of liquid, too. At the end of the item of specific gravity, water, ice, seawater, sulphuric acid, mercury, iron, cork, and copper values are written in a specific gravity table, of which the values for water, ice, seawater, sulphuric acid and cork are identical to those in the textbook. As for the others, the origin remains puzzling. Compared with textbooks published before 1889, when Hirano’s notes were written, however, one could not specify which textbook was referred to, since most textbooks only had specific gravity and did not contain specific numerical values. Only in Kagaku kunmo- (Chemistry for beginners, 1873) by Ishiguro Tadanori, there were many individual values for specific gravities, all of which differ from those in the notes.

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Considering that Saitama prefecture is located next to Gunma prefecture it is conceivable that the teacher of Hirano learned through experiments in Gunma prefecture. There is also a record that teacher training was conducted in Saitama prefecture. Since the measurement method is also described in detail in the notes, it is possible that the teacher had experience in conducting experiments through teacher training or, another possibility, that the teacher did the experiments in class. It is hard to understand that if the teacher just learned in another textbook, why he or she only changed some of its numeric values. The above is a partial example read from Hirano’s handwriting. His notes tell us that the teacher was not only able to teach according to the textbook, but also to adapt the experiments to suit the equipment available. Unfortunately, around 1880, students were not required to describe experimental methods, results and things that could be learned from experiments, as in modern science classes. Therefore, we cannot know to what extent the students understood the results of the experiments, rather than just memorizing the results. The important thing is that the examples show once more that the actual situation of classroom education cannot be guessed at only by analysing published textbooks. 4.4 Kurashige Gohachi’s teaching plan, 1887–1891, Niigata prefecture

Finally, from the teaching plan of Kurashige Gohachi, a student of Niigata Normal School in Niigata prefecture from 1887 to 1891, it seems that he studied how to teach using Sho-gakko- seitoyo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885).50 But the first line of the rika teaching plan was written as ‘physics’, even though it was after 1886. The fact that a pre-service teacher used this book seems indicates its widespread use. In this teaching plan, the expected exchange between the teacher and the student was written in the form of a question and answer (as was the case in many Western textbooks). At the same time, it was also supposed that the student’s answer was envisaged, and that the student simply repeated the predetermined answer. In other words, it was mostly regarded as a formal act and not likely to stimulate students to think for themselves. 50

Akabane, ‘Nakanojo--machi’, pp. 231–239.

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However, in Kurashige Gohachi’s teaching plan, students were expected to respond to the teacher’s questions with answers not based on the textbooks but on their own experimental thinking. It seems that subject was a study based on experiments. 5. CONCLUSION AND REMARKS

The situation in the middle of the 1880s is often regarded as a turning point of science education Japan. However, this in-depth study of the actual situation of education based on an analysis of notebooks of mainly higher primary school students has revealed facts that differ significantly from the results of conventional science education research based on laws and on published textbooks. Such studies usually concluded that with the promulgation of the law of 1886, the teaching of individual subjects such as physics and chemistry was replaced by the comprehensive subject rika across the board. The discovery of students’ notes and examination materials in many prefectures during the last two decades has provided new sources which allow us to examine education on the levels of prefectures, districts or even individual schools. In particular, it became clear that classes continued to be given under the names of physics and chemistry and so on even after 1886, although the subject name of rika (science) was already established. The case of Endo- Shunkichi in Niigata prefecture, which was first discovered, and became the starting point of our research project, has been proved to be not unique. Ri-gaku (science) and physics notes of other students were discovered, which supported this view. Also, a copy of the textbook Sho-gakko- seitoyo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885) with the date “1892” written on the back cover was found in Shizuoka prefecture. This indicates that this textbook from the time before the introduction of rika was still in use, and not only in Gunma, where three of its four authors had been enrolled in the Prefectural Normal School. Even though in many prefectures the name of the subject was changed into rika after 1886, it turned out that not only the individual subject names, like physics and chemistry, but also the underlying principle of the educational content, were continued. The notes showed that some of the contents were based on principles or taught in terms of atoms and molecules, as in teaching the former subject butsuri (meaning physics as well as science).

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A previous study in Gunma prefecture found that the switch from butsuri to rika was around 1895, but there were also cases where teaching was conducted using earlier educational contents until around 1900. From the physics notes in 1890 and chemistry notes in 1891 owned by Endo- Shunkichi, unfortunately it was not possible to determine which textbooks were used, but it was found that different teachers focused on principles from the viewpoint of atoms and molecules, and therefore taught in the sense of butsuri and not rika. In the physics notes of Nagai Genshin in Niigata prefecture dated 1892–1893, and the physics notes and chemistry notes of Tanaka So-ichiro- in Shizuoka prefecture dated 1889–1892, the contents of familiar natural phenomena and objects as part of rika education were gradually included, though the principles are also emphasized. In particular, in the case of Nagai, the contents of translated textbooks and books compiled by Japanese authors were selected and taught for suitable fields. As for rika, notes written by higher primary school students from 1887 to 1907 were found in ten prefectures. Some show that education had completely switched to rika, while other cases show that physics continued to be taught in terms of atoms and molecules. Even though the cover says rika, inside the content is actually physics. The educational situation was clearly different from the present time, as the differences between the individual prefectures and among teachers were quite large. However, it can be assumed that due to the wide range of cases, our findings can be generalized to some extent. Furthermore, there were much evidence that Sho-gakko- seitoyo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885), whose actual usage has hitherto not been well understood, was used not only in Gunma prefecture, but also at least in Niigata, Saitama and Shizuoka prefectures. The ri-gaku (science) notes by Hirano Seiichiro-, Saitama prefecture, suggest whether or not hands-on experiments were performed in class. A dated description of a temperature measurement is evidence that an experiment was actually performed and temperature was actually measured. As for the remaining experiments, many are the same as those described in Sho-gakko- seitoyo- butsuri-sho (Physics for primary school students, 1885), which obviously formed the framework of the lesson, but the experimental apparatus was different and the explanations were more detailed. The chalk that appears in the experiment examples can

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be regarded as actually being in the classroom. Also, some numeric values for specific gravity differ from those in the textbook. These findings make it plausible to think that experiments were actually performed. In addition, in the teaching plan of Kurashige Gohachi, a normal school student in Niigata prefecture from 1887 to 1891, a question-and-answer format that allowed students to actively participate in classes was written. Also, his lesson plan shows that students were required to consider the principles based on experimental results. This study has shown the importance of understanding educational history not only in terms of laws, regulations and curricula. For a conclusive picture of the impact of such laws etc., one needs insights into the lower levels, down to the individual school. The students’ notebooks are a stroke of luck that makes such insights possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers, 17K01022, 15H02912, 15K12373, 25750071, 25560072, 23650503. Funding from Toshiba Internatonal Foundation (TIFO) and support from CEEJA are gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES: Akabane Akira, Takahashi Hiroshi, Tamaki Toyomi, Morishita Takashi, Shozawa Jun, ‘Gunma Daigaku shozo- Meiji-ki kyo-ka-sho no cho-sa ni tsuite’ (Research on textbooks in Meiji period owned by Gunma University), in Proceedings of Nihon kagakushi gakkai 49th meeting, 2002. Akabane Akira et.al., ‘“Butsuri hikki” kara yomitoru Meiji 20 nendai no butsuri kyo-iku: Ioku Sho- “butsuri hikki” wo chu- shin ni’ (Physics education in the 1880s based on Ioku Sho-’s physics notes), in Proceedings of the Physics Education Society of Japan, 2011. Akabane Akira, ‘Nakanojo--machi rekishi to minzoku no hakubutsukan “MUSE” shozo- Ioku Sho- “butsuri hikki” no naiyo- cho-sa’ (Investigation of physics notes written by the student Iyoku Sho-, owned by the Nakanojo Museum of Folk & History), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , vol. 52, no. 268, 2013, pp. 231–239. Clark, F.W., A Report on the Teaching of Chemistry and Physics in the United States, (Circulars of Information No. 6 Bureau of Education), 1880. Le Roy C. Cooley, Easy Experiments in Physical Science for Oral Instructions in Common Schools, New York: Charles Scriber and Company, 1870 (and later editions).

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Gage, Alfred Parson, The Elements of Physics, a Text-Book for High Schools and Academies, Ginn Health and Co., Boston: 1882. Hall, Edwin Herbert, Descriptive List of Elementary Exercises in Physics, for Admission to Harvard College, etc., Cambridge, 1886 (various editions). Itakura Kiyonobu, Zo-ho: Nihon rika kyo-iku-shi (The history of [rika] science education in Japan, supplemented), To-kyo-, Kasetsusha, 2009. Ito Toshiaki, ‘Sai kaisei kyo-iku-rei to shinkyo-ka rika no to-jo-’ (Revised Education Ordinance and the emergence of the new subject [rika] science), in The Review of Department of Literature, Aichi Prefectural University (Children’s Literature Department Edition), 54, 2005, pp. 1–16. Ito- Toshiaki, ‘Rika no tanjo- to kyo-iku genba no to-waku ni tsuite no ichi ko-satsu’ (A study on the birth of [rika] science and the puzzle of teachers), in The Review of Department of Literature, Aichi Prefectural University (Children’s Literature Department Edition), vol. 57, 2008, pp. 1–12. Kaigo Tokiomi (ed.), Nihon kyo-kasho taikei, kindai-hen (Textbooks in Japan. Modern period), vol. 22, Rika (Science) (2) (1965); vol. 23, Rika (Science) (3), To-kyo-: Ko-dansha, 1966. Kobayashi Akizo-, ‘Nihon kakuchi de hakken sareru “rika no jidai” no butsuri jyugyo- hikki’ (Physics Notebooks in the “era of science” found throughout Japan), in Daigaku no butsuri kyo-iku, 19, 2013. Meltzer, David E. and Ronald K. Thornton, ‘Resource Letter ALIP-1: Active-Learning Instruction in Physics’, in Am. J. Phys., 80, 2012, pp. 478–496. Nagahira Yukio, ‘Meiji 11 Monbu-sho- ko-fu no butsuri kyo-iku jikken kikai to Ritchie-sha’ (Physical apparatus imported from E. S. Ritchie & Sons - by the Japanese Ministry of Education in the early Meiji era), in O saka Keizai Ho--ka Daigaku ronshu- , 106, 2014, pp. 1–24. Nagata Eiji, Nihon rika kyo-zai shi (The history of experimental apparatus in Japan), To-kyo-: Ho-rei Shuppan, 1994. Nakagawa Yasuo, ‘Meiji shoki no butsuri kyo-iku no keisei to Amerika, Igirisu no butsuri kyo-ka-sho’ (The formation of physics education in the early Meiji era of Japan and the physics textbooks from USA and England), in Kagakushi kenkyu- 16, 1977, pp. 38–46. Nakagawa Yasuo, ‘Meiji zenhan-ki no kagaku kyo-iku no hyo-ka wo megutte’ (On the Controversy on the Formation of Science Education in the Early Meiji Japan, 1872–1886), in Kagakushi kenkyuII, 16, 1977, pp. 146–152. Okamoto Masashi, Mori Kazuo, ‘Rika kyo-iku ni arawareta waga kuni no dento-teki shizenkan; “rika no yo-shi” no seitei ni kansuru ko-satsu wo chu-shin to shite’ (The influence of Japanese traditional view of nature on [rika] science education: A study on the enactment of “the principle point of rika”), in Kagakushi kenkyu- II, 15, 1976, pp. 98–101. Okamoto Masashi & Mori Kazuo, ‘Meiji zenhan-ki ni okeru kagaku kyo-iku no tenkai’ (On the conversion of science education in the early Meiji era), in Kagakushi kenkyu- II, 19, 1980, pp. 14–23.

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Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Hirata Hiroyuki,‘Nihon kaku-chi no Meiji chu- ki no rika jugyo- hikki no hakken to to-ji no genso kyo-iku’ (Discovery of [rika] science class notes in the middle Meiji period in all regions of Japan and elementary education at that time), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyu- kiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 5, no. 1, 2010, pp. 21–37. Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Hatakeyama Morio, Sugimoto Hiroki, ‘Niigata-ken de hakken sareta butsuri hikki ga shimesu Meiji chu- -ki ni okeru kagaku kyo-iku no jittai’ (Actual science education situation in middle Meiji era based on physics notes discovered in Niigata), in Butsuri kyo-iku, 60, 2012, pp. 2–8. Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Sugimoto Hiroki, ‘Butsuri hikki kara himo toku Meiji jidai no Niigata ken no butsuri kyo-iku I – Kimura-ke to Nagai-ke no hikki kara denjiki bunya wo chu- shin ni’ (Education on physics in Niigata prefecture in the Meiji era as revealed by physics – Analysis mainly on the electromagnetic field based on notes of Endo- and Nagai), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyu- kiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 4, no.1, 2009, pp. 13–33. Okiharu Fumiko, Kobayashi Akizo-, Yamamoto Yuta, ‘Meiji 22 ko-to--sho-gakko- jido- “ri-gaku hikki” ni ikyo shita ka ni butsuri jikken no jittai’ (Actual situation of simple physics experiments based on student’s notes in 1889), in Niigata Daigaku Kyo-iku-gakubu kenkyukiyo-. Shizen kagaku-hen, vol. 9, no.1, 2016, pp. 11–26. Shozawa Jun, ‘Meiji 10 nendai ko-han no kagaku kyo-iku – “Sho-gakkoseito-yo- butsuri-sho” ni mirareru kyo-iku naiyo- no chikuseki’ (Science education in the late Meiji Era. Accumulation of educational contents found in “Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho”), in Kyo-iku ho-ho--shi kenkyu- (History of educational methods), vol. 2, 1984, pp. 100–125. Shozawa Jun, ‘“Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho” no jidai to Ioku Sho“butsuri hikki”’ (An examination of physics notes kept by Ms Ioku Sho- at the time of the use of Sho-gakko- seito-yo- butsuri-sho), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , vol. 52, no. 268, 2013, pp. 221–230. Takahashi Hiroshi, Akabane Akira, Shozawa Jun, Tamaki Toyomi, Morishita Takashi, Takizawa Toshiharu, ‘Gunma-ken ni okeru Meiji chu- ki no kagaku rika kyo-iku no jittai to Gunma-ken shihan gakko- no kyo-iku shiso-’ (On elementary [rika] science education in the middle of the Meiji era in Gunma prefecture, Japan), in Kagakushi kenkyu- , no. 43, 2004, pp. 74–81. Takahashi Hiroshi, ‘Jikken kyo-iku koto hajime’ (Early history of laboratory lessons for engineering education), in Journal of Japanese Society for Engineering Education, 59, 2011, pp. 5–10. Wead, C.K., Aims and Methods of the Teaching of Physics, (Circulars of information, No. 7, Bureau of Education), 1884.

14

Education in Mechanical Engineering in Early Universities and the Role of Their Graduates in Japan’s Industrial Revolution: The University of To-kyo-, the Imperial College of Engineering and the Imperial University1 SUZUKI Jun

–

1. INTRODUCTION

JAPAN’S

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION began around 1886, but its universities had in fact been turning out graduates in mechanical engineering since 1879. A first intermediate-level engineering school, set up in 1881 under the name of To- kyo- Shokko- -gakko(To- kyo- Vocational School), produced graduates from 1886 on. By 1920 more than 14,000 engineers and technicians had passed through colleges of this type and through Japan’s universities. This figure equates broadly to that of America of 30 years before, of United Kingdom of 40 years earlier, and Germany ten years prior to that, though the rate of increase was somewhat higher than America’s and had exceeded that of the other two countries. A particular feature was the advance of Japan’s industrial revolution in parallel with the rapid training of engineers and technicians at

1

Translated by Nicholas Pertwee.

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its higher industrial education institutions.2 This study looks at the mechanical engineers who played a pivotal role as the industrial revolution unfolded, and examines the features of education in the early universities and the activities of their graduates before the First World War. The aim is to clarify the part played by engineers who graduated from universities during Japan’s industrial revolution. During the period of Japan’s rapid economic growth after the Second World War much research was done on the technical education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Miyoshi Nobuhiro3 and colleagues. More recently, Toda Kiyoko has produced detailed work which takes a new look at this subject,4 and Wada Masanori cites evidence to criticized previous research that focused on the success element of the Imperial College of Engineering, the first institution to produce graduates in mechanical engineering.5 In relation to the careers of engineers who enjoyed an advanced industrial education, Morikawa Hidemasa has analysed 170 specialist managers in large enterprises of the Meiji period and shown that 36 of them came from science-based higher educational institutions.6 He then pointed out that among graduates of the Imperial University and its forerunners, those who had been in the 2

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Uchida Hoshimi, ‘Gijutsu-sha no zo-ka, bunpu to Nihon no ko-gyo-ka: 1880–1920 no to-keiteki kansatsu’ (The increase and distribution of engineers and Japan’s industrialization: Statistical observations for the years 1880-1920), in Keizai kenkyu-, vol. 39, no. 4, 1988, pp. 295–296. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku hattatsu-shi no kenkyu- (Studies in the history of Japan’s industrial education), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979. Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku kikan no seiritsu to tenkai: Ko-bu-, Monbu- ryo-sho- no hikaku wo chu-shin ni’ (The establishment and development of technical educational institutions in the early Meiji period: Based on a comparison between the Ministries of Public Works and Education), in (Nara Kenritsu Daigaku) Kenkyu- kiho-, vol. 15, nos. 2–3, 2004, pp. 33–44. See also the chapter by Toda Kiyoko in this volume. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gaku-ryoko-so- to sono jisshi’ (A reappraisal of the establishment of the Imperial College of Engineering .The concept of the Ko-gaku-ryo- of the Ministry of Public Works and its implementation), in Kagakushi kenkyu- (Journal of History of Science), vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96; Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- to Teikoku Daigaku e no shu-en wo meguru hyo-ka’ (An assessment of the Imperial College of Engineering’s closure and transition to the Imperial University), in Kagakushi kenkyu- (Journal of History of Science), vol. 57, no. 287, 2018, pp. 186–200. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru senmon keieisha no shinshutsu katei’ (The emergence of the specialist manager in the Meiji period), in (Hitotsubashi Daigaku Sangyo- Keiei-kenku-sho) Bijinesu rebiyuu (Business Review), vol. 21, no. 2, 1973, p. 23.

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engineering stream became specialist managers more quickly than those who had studied the humanities. In addition, he maintained that as seven of the specialist managers from the engineering side had been university lecturers before turning to the private sector, universities of the Meiji period were ‘open-minded’ and their research-based education ‘practical’.7 Morikawa then studied alumni from To-kyo- Imperial University’s College of Engineering (To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku Ko-ka Daigaku) and its forerunners up to 1905 who had sought employment in private enterprises, selected 684 of them, and found that they accounted for 41.4% of the period’s graduates.8 Uchida Hoshimi then made a comprehensive study of employment in the private sector of persons from universities and higher industrial schools. He identified 245 university graduates and 363 who had completed high-school courses in 1900, and 778 and 1,653 respectively in 1910.9 Moving on into the 20th century, he showed that in terms of numbers, graduates from higher industrial schools outstripped university graduates and formed the mainstream. He then broadened his scope and focused on employment numbers according to sector and field at ten-year intervals, finding that in 1880 the majority of engineers were in the Ministry of Public Works (Ko-busho-), that ran the national enterprises. But in 1890 and 1900, after the Ministry was closed due to the good progress being made in the divestment of state organizations, schools that trained the next generation of engineers, and Army and Navy arsenals, came to the fore. In 1910 and 1920 these were in turn superseded by the railways (whose nationalization was well under way) and by local government, though in general there was a uniform distribution into government offices. In 1920, when persons employed in the private sector exceeded those in government offices, mining was centre-stage, with textiles and shipbuilding running second, as they had since 1910. Uchida pointed out that engineers had branched out into every industry 7

8

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Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki senmon keieisha no keisei to haikei’ (The formation and background of the Meiji period’s specialist manager), in (KantoGakuin Daigaku) Keizai-kei, no. 100, 1974, p. 133. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki “Ko-ka Daigaku” sotsu kaisha gishi no risuto’ (List of engineers graduated from ‘College of Engineering’ and employed in private companies in the Meiji period), in Keiei shirin, vol. 11, no. 2, 1974, pp. 103–124. Uchida Hoshimi, ‘Kigyo--nai gijutsu-sha soshiki no keisei-ki: 1900–1910 gijutsusha kazu no to-keiteki kenkyu- kara’ (The formative period of company engineers’ organization: From statistical research into the number of engineers from 1900 to 1910), To-kyo- Keidai Gakkai-shi, vol. 109–110, 1978, pp. 53–74.

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and that in 1920 the heavy chemical industrial sector increased markedly. In terms of social functionality, railway and communications infrastructure and related education led until 1900. According to Uchida, the fact that engineers were first deployed on the maintenance of the industrial base paved the way for the next stage of private companies in mining and industry, and a logical distribution for the long-term growth of the economy. He then divided the role of engineers into a ‘passive’ element, responsible for using equipment and leading teams of workers in daily manufacturing activities, and an ‘active’ element that designed products and equipment, improved production methods and chose what new technology should be introduced from abroad. Analysing the numbers in each sector, he maintained that the principal role of the engineer of the time was an active one to prepare for industrial growth.10 Recently Uemura Sho-ji has widened the scope to 1930 and has done detailed research into the career moves by engineers, introducing individuals by name. He basically endorses Uchida’s view.11 Considerable progress has therefore been made in research into the overall training and activities of engineering-oriented technicians. But a collective study of the engineering field looks necessarily at experts in different disciplines. So, for instance, civil engineers, who were influential in the management of the government’s public enterprises, will be seen alongside specialist engineers in shipbuilding, armaments and munitions trained according to the requirements of the military. This might be enough to understand the connection between Japan’s overall modernization and its engineers, but it does not serve to establish their link with the country’s industrial revolution.This chapter therefore concentrates on mechanical engineering, the key technically sector in what was a fundamental shift in the country’s development in the use of the steam engine and manufacturing machinery. 2. TEACHERS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COURSES

In 1870, the Meiji government made all the former feudal domains hand over their most accomplished students of West10 11

Uchida, ‘Gijutsu-sha no zo-ka’, pp. 291–292, 294–295. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no keireki to to-kei kansatsu’ (Personal histories and statistical observations of engineers in the early Meiji period), in (Do-shisha Daigaku) Shakai kagaku, (seven parts) vol. 44, no. 4, 2015, to vol. 47, no. 4, 2018.

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ern subjects. After the abolition of the feudal system the following year, it continued adding fresh pupils to middle schools and providing them with an education. Then in 1874 it founded the To- kyo- Kaisei-gakko- , a forerunner of the University of To- kyo- , to conduct specialized education in foreign languages by foreign teachers – the assumption being that this would encourage them in their studies.12 The government based its business policy on inviting in foreign engineers, and this was controlled by the Ministry of Public Works. In 1873 the latter invited a team of instructors from Scotland and England and opened the Imperial College of Engineering (Ko- bu-dai-gakko- , abbr. ICE), mainly to train engineers to work for the Ministry itself. In 1877 there was a wholesale government reorganization, and the Ministry of Education merged the To- kyoKaisei-gakko- with the To- kyo- Medical School (To- kyo- I-gakko- ) to found the University of To- kyo- . Mechanical engineering was now introduced as a subject at the ICE, and the engineering course in the University of To- kyo- ’s Department of Physics gave students the choice of specializing in either civil or mechanical engineering and of graduating in either discipline. These two universities merged in 1886 to become the Imperial University (Teikoku Daigaku). They had produced a total of 46 graduates in mechanical engineering over the previous seven years, seven at the University of To- kyo- and 39 at the ICE (see Table 1 at the end of this chapter). By way of contrast, it took the newly established Imperial University eleven years to turn out 48 graduates. This was mainly because in the early stages before the industrial revolution began, a large number of graduates had already been produced. Wada Masanori maintains that the immediate aim of the ICE, namely to train personnel to take over from the ‘hired foreign employees’ (o-yatoi gaikokujin), as they were called, in the business and education sectors of the Ministry of Public Works, was achieved around 1882.13 It was in 1896 that the cumulative number of graduates from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Imperial University’s College of Engineering exceeded the total of its two premerger forerunners. It is graduates up to that year who are the subject of the analysis in this chapter. In 1896, 13 students graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, 1.5 times 12 13

Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-’, pp. 35–36. Wada, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- to Teikoku Daigaku’, p. 194.

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the number from the previous year. This was because in 1892 the number of students from the higher middle schools (which had provided students to the Imperial University) who wanted to attend the College of Engineering exceeded the College’s scheduled intake. In 1893 the College of Engineering increased the number of students it accepted as a remedial measure.14 This increase in the numbers wishing to take mechanical engineering should be seen against the expansion of these higher middle schools and the progress of the industrial revolution. It is linked to the enlargement of the Imperial University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and to the creation of a second imperial university, the Kyo- to Imperial University, in 1897 from the University of Science and Technology (Riko- ka Daigaku) and its attendant Department of Mechanical Engineering. Throughout this period, instructors from England and Scotland were at the heart of mechanical engineering education. At the ICE, Henry Dyer (1848–1918), its Principal, who came to Japan in 1873, was in charge of both mechanical and civil engineering. George Cawley (1848–1927) was hired as a member of his staff as Instructor in Mechanical Engineering to take charge of the ‘practical part of the instruction in engineering’ and he was succeeded by William Moore Angas in 1878.The Akabane Engineering Works (Akabane Seisakusho) that was used by the Ministry of Public Works for machinery manufacture was put under Dyer from May 1874 so that it could also be used as a practical training ground for engineering students. In the following year, G.S. Brindley was hired as its Superintendent Foreman. Then in June 1881 Dyer’s stewardship at Akabane Engineering Works was terminated and Brindley transferred to the Engineering Bureau that managed the factory. No foreign instructor was invited to succeed Angas, who retired in the same month. The background to these events was the continuing reduction in employment of so-called ‘hired foreigners’ (o-yatoi-gaikokujin) for financial reasons and the ongoing running down in the number of state-run enterprises. Instead of a foreign tutor as was previously the case, Mano Bunji, who had only just graduated that year, stayed at the university as an assistant engineer and divided his time between that position and taking lectures. The following year, 1882, Inokuchi Ariya joined the staff, with Dyer retiring shortly afterwards. The ICE then changed its 14

Ryu-nan-kai (ed.), Ryu-nankai zasshi, zappo- (Ryu-nan-kai journal, Miscellaneous), no. 8, 1892, p. 78.

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system to one where Japanese professors and assistant professors were appointed; the latter was the position that Mano Bunji and Inokuchi Ariya assumed. Charles Dickinson West, who came to Japan in August 1882 to replace Dyer as professor of mechanical engineering, also taught at the Shipbuilding Department that had been created just before his appointment. He continued to teach there after it had been restructured as part of the Imperial University, until his death in 1908. At the University of To- kyo- , Robert Henry Smith (1851–1916), who had been invited in 1874 as an instructor at the Kaisei School, became its first professor of mechanical engineering. He was succeeded in 1878 by James Alfred Ewing (1855–1935), who stayed in post until 1883. Dyer came from the University of Glasgow, West from Trinity College Dublin, and Smith and Ewing studied at Edinburgh University. Apart from West, who was 35 when he came to Japan, the others were in their 20s when they took up their posts. Nonetheless, all of them had practical engineering experience.15 Their having graduated from Scottish and Irish universities was a sign of how advanced technical education in the British university system was.16 By the 1880s, moves to reduce the number of highly paid foreign instructors were intensifying, with the idea that German scholarship should be used as the basis of instruction, and the University of To- kyo- substantially reduced its number of teachers from the English-speaking world.17 This meant that in mechanical engineering there was no successor for Ewing, and specialist education was entrusted to Japanese instructors. To train Japanese teachers, in 1875 and 1876 the Ministry of Education sent 21 honour students of the Kaisei School on foreign study trips.18 In mechanical engineering Taniguchi Naosada (1858–?) and Sekiya Kiyokage (1855–1896) were sent in 1876. 15

16

17

18

Hongo- Kaoru, ‘Meiji shoki ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku no reimei’ (The dawn of the education in mechanical engineering in the early Meiji period), in Nihon Kikai Gakkai-shi, vol. 83, no. 740, 1980, pp. 63–65. Hongo- has John Perry as a full-time instructor in mechanical engineering, but he is not included here as it was civil engineering, he was in charge of in the specialist area of education. Hirose Shin, Igirisu gijutsu-sha yo-sei-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the history of engineer’s education in England), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 2012, pp. 109–151. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi henshu--iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1 (100-year history of the University of To-kyo-. Complete history 1), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku, 1984, pp. 477–487. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi henshu--iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1, pp. 328–330.

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Taniguchi graduated from Glasgow University, then acquired local experience before returning home in 1881. Sekiya studied in London but returned home in 1877 suffering from tuberculosis. Sekiya’s English was extremely good, and because he also had a basic knowledge of physics from the Kaisei School, he became Ewing’s assistant and in 1881 was appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Because he had no specialist education in that discipline, nor any factory experience, he spent his time lecturing and taking students on factory visits.19 He also helped with the seismological research that Ewing was working on with the Imperial College of Engineering’s John Milne and others. Once the Imperial University was established, Sekiya became professor of seismology in its Department of Physics.20 Following his return home in 1881, Taniguchi Naosada was appointed an instructor at the newly-established To- kyo- Vocational School. As a lecturer from February 1882, he also taught two hours a week of the machine design course that Ewing had given to third-year students at the University of To- kyo- .21 When Ewing went home in 1884, Taniguchi took charge of three specialized subjects in the mechanical engineering field. He recommended that a degree be given to Gonda Sho-zaburo- , a naval machinery officer and non-regular student.22 Although he was only equivalent to a lecturer, his position was in effect more that of the senior professor of mechanical engineering. In 1882, the Ministry of Education ordered Kuri Ryu-saku, who had graduated the previous year from the University of To- kyo- after specializing in mechanical engineering, to go to study in England. He returned to Japan after studying at London University and working at a factory in Glasgow, and in May 1885 was appointed a lecturer at the University of To-kyo- .23 In what was their final academic year at the University of To- kyo- , the lectur19

20

21 22

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To-kyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 3 nenpo- (Third annual report of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku, 1884, pp. 113–115. Hashimoto Manpei, Chishin-gaku kotohajime. Kaitakusha: Sekiya Kiyokage no sho-gai (The Beginnings of Seismology. A pioneer: The life of Sekiya Kiyokage), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1983, pp. 88–151. To-kyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 3 nenpo-, pp. 109–110. To-kyo- Daigaku dai 4 nenpo- (Fourth annual report of the University of To-kyo-), in To-kyo- Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu-kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 2, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1993, p. 363. ‘Osaka-fu heimin Kuri Ryu-saku honsho- goyo--kakari himei no ken’ (The case of a commoner of Osaka prefecture Kuri Ryu-saku and the orders given to him

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ers Kuri and Taniguchi and the associate professor Yokoi Saku ran the mechanical engineering side while assistant professor Sekiya handled the applied mechanics course attended by students of different specializations.24 The Ministry of Public Works sent eleven outstanding scholars from the first batch of graduates from the ICE to study in England in 1880. Three were chosen from its Department of Mechanical Engineering: Takayama Naomoto, Miyoshi Shinrokuro- and Arakawa Shinichiro- . Takayama came home in 1882 and in May 1883 was assigned to the College’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Miyoshi, who had studied shipbuilding, returned home in July 1883 and worked in its Shipbuilding Department . Arakawa had studied textiles, and when it was decided in 1877 that textiles should come under the Ministry of the Interior, he was employed in the Ministry of Agriculture & Commerce that succeeded the Ministry of the Interior’s Industrial Promotion Initiative.25 In March 1886, the Imperial University was founded. The University of To- kyo- and the ICE had both taught mechanical engineering as a special subject. Their courses were merged into the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Imperial University’s College of Engineering. Where foreign instructors were present in the ICE, there were no Japanese professors; but at the Imperial University it was routine for Japanese professors to be represented, too. West became an instructor with equivalent standing to a professor, and Takayama was appointed a professor but fell ill and died the following day.26 The University of To- kyo- ’s Kuri Ryu-saku, and Mano Bunji from the ICE, were appointed assistant professors, but after Takayama’s death Kuri was promoted to full professor. Mano had never studied abroad, so there was no possibility of his promotion by the standards of the time and he was also four years younger than Kuri, having been born in 1861.

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by Central Government to act as a commissioner), in Ko-bunroku (State Archives Documents), vol. 181, 17, 1885 (Meiji 18). Meiji 18.9 To-kyo- Daigaku genincho- (List of current staff of the University of To-kyo-, September 1885), Ministry of Education Explanatory Tables 1885, University of To-kyo- Documents Centre Digital Archive S0001/Mo084, Images 569–571. Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Report on the development of the Ministry of Public Works), 1889, pp. 690, 805–811. Kanpo- (Government Gazette), 8 March 1886, p. 90. Oue Shiro-, Meiji kako-cho(An album of Meiji’s past), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Bijutsu, 1971, p. 218.

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In September 1886 though, before the Imperial University’s first academic year had started, Professor Kuri resigned. He changed his name to Godai, having married the orphaned daughter of the Kansai financier and entrepreneur Godai Tomoatsu the previous year, and immersed himself in the world of business. Mano Bunji set off in September 1886 for three years of study in England, and Inokuchi Ariya, who had transferred to being a teacher at the Naval Machinery School, was called back to take over from Mano as assistant professor. The month before Kuri resigned, Taniguchi Naosada left the To-kyo- Vocational School (To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-) and was made concurrently an engineer at the Ministry of Agriculture & Commerce and a professor at the College of Engineering. Mano returned home after studying at Glasgow University and gaining practical experience at Armstrongs and other companies, and since he was on the staff until just after having advanced to professor, a situation where there was no professor in post was avoided. For about a year from June 1887,Taniguchi travelled abroad at the expense of Kanegafuchi Spinning Company27 to find and buy machinery for the company. During this time, he continued receiving a state salary on the basis that as an engineer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce he carried out inspections of textile companies throughout the country as a way of advising private-sector businesses.28 Given all this, it is plain that Taniguchi’s work as a professor did not occupy a large proportion of his time. In the five years from the time of Takayama Naomoto’s death until Mano returned from abroad,Yoshida Tomokichi held classes in mechanical engineering with the position of lecturer.29 Like Inokuchi,Yoshida came from Kanazawa; born in 1854 he was two years older than Inokuchi and the same age as Taniguchi. He had graduated in 1881 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of To-kyo- and worked at the machinery factory of the Ministry of Finance’s Printing Bureau. But then this factory was 27

28

29

Established 1887 as Tokyo Cotton Trading Company, later often briefly called Kanebo-. ‘The History of Kanebo-’s To-kyo- Head Office’, in Shibusawa seien kinen zaidan ryu-monsha (ed.), Shibuzawa Eiichi denki shiryo- (Documents on the biography of Shibusawa Eiichi), vol. 10, To-kyo-: Shibusawa Eiichi denki shiryo- hakko-kai, 1956, pp. 188–193. ‘Santo- gishi Taniguchi Naosada jihi yo-ko- no ken’ (The case of third-class engineer Taniguchi Naosada’s self-funded overseas trip), in Ko-bun zassan (Public Records Miscellany), Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan 1887, vol. 25, 90. Ko-ka Daigaku Meiji 20 nenpo- (Annual report of the College of Engineering, 1887), in To-kyo- Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu-kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku Nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 6, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994; Teikoku Daigaku ichiran (Calendars of the Imperial University), all years.

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closed, and while working as a lecturer, he took up employment at Kanegafuchi Spinning Company.30 No doubt he took the view that he had found a post in the private sector that would give him practical experience, like Kuri and Taniguchi, but in his lectures, he probably also portrayed the university as a ‘open-minded’ one, as Morikawa put it, to his students. But it was only in this period leading up to the Imperial University taking definite shape that a move of this kind on the part of a university teacher was seen. In October 1889, after Mano had been promoted to professor, the Department of Mechanical Engineering consisted just of West, Professor Mano himself, and Assistant Professor Inokuchi – teaching staff from the former ICE, in other words. West was the only foreign teacher who carried on from the days of the ICE and was still in post in the twentieth century. Inokuchi was away from - tsuka 1894 to 1896 on a spell of study abroad, and in this time O Kaname, an engineer at Hirano Textiles, was taken on from August 1895 as an assistant professor – the first to have graduated from the Imperial University. But after a year he moved to the Preparatory Hokkaido Railway Construction Unit as an engineer. Inokuchi was promoted to professor on his return home, and with Shiba Chu-zaburo- , an engineer at the Kawasaki Shipyard, taking up his - tsuka, the increase in the teaching staff of the post as successor to O Department of Mechanical Engineering had begun.31 3. THE IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, THE UNI- KYO - AND THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY VERSITY OF TO

Mechanical Engineering in the University of To- kyo- ’s Faculty of Science had a reputation for emphasizing theory over the prac-

30

31

Iseki Kyu-ro- (ed.), Who’s Who in “Hakushi” in Great Japan, vol. 5, “Ko-gaku Hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), edited in English and Japanese, To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930. (jap. Title: Dai Nihon Hakushi Roku, vol. 5, Ko-gaku hakushi no bu). In Table 1 below, this book has been taken as the source for those who have a number in the column ‘Doctorates’, (and for Taniguchi – Doctorate No. 7 – , who does not appear in Table 1), unless there is other specific information about the career of a person. It can be examined in the Digital Collection in the National Diet Library. The instructors in mechanical engineering at this period have been written about in Demizu Tsutomu’s article ‘Nihon kikai ko-gaku no kaitakusha – Inokuchi Ariya (II) – Kikai ko-gaku kenkyu- no kiseki wo tadotte’ (Inokuchi Ariya, the celebrated pioneer of mechanical engineering in Japan (II). The evolution of the mechanical-engineering profession), in Gijutsu to bunmei, vol. 2, no. 1, 1986, 23–43, here pp. 24–29.

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tical experience valued by the ICE.32 Hongo- Kaoru, Demizu Tsutomu and Uemura Sho- ji’s examination of the curriculum of the Department of Mechanical Engineering during the same period that this chapter focuses on, is ongoing, so we will defer to that.33 Instead this chapter restricts itself to a brief survey of offcampus practical training at factories. The University of To- kyo- ’s Ewing maintained that a student should spend at least a year gaining practical experience at a fully equipped factory such as the Yokosuka Shipyard in order to make him a competent mechanical engineer.34 But the University of To-kyo-’s four-year curriculum of the time had it that a student could specialize in mechanical or civil engineering only in his senior year, and there would still be lectures in that final year.35 Sakata Sadakazu was the first of its graduates. After his four-year course, he went to the Navy’s shipyard at Yokosuka for practical training and wrote his dissertation after spending nine months there. He graduated a year later than his classmates who had studied civil engineering, but Ewing was very pleased with his results.36 Yoshida Tomokichi, who was one year behind him, spent the summer holidays of his third year at Yokosuka on practical 32 33

34

35

36

Toda, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku’, p. 39. Hongo- Kaoru, ‘To-kyo- Daigaku kikai ko-gakka ni okeru kyo-iku no hensen’ (Educational changes at the University of To-kyo-’s Department of Mechanical Engineering), in Nihon Kikai Gakkai-shi, vol. 81, no. 710, 1978; Demizu Tsutomu ‘Nihon kikai ko-gaku no kaitakusha – Inokuchi Ariya (I) – Kikai ko-gaku kenkyuno kiseki wo tadotte’ (‘Inokuchi Ariya, the celebrated pioneer in mechanical engineering in Japan (I). On the formatting [sic!] process of the education of mechanical engineering), in Gijutsu to bunmei, vol. 1, no. 1, 1985, pp. 55–76, here pp. 59–69; Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the ICE), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 48, no. 3, 2018, pp. 83–120; Uemura Sho-ji, ‘To-kyo- Kaisei Gakko- ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the To-kyo- Kaisei-gakko-), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 49, no. 1, 2019, pp. 201–236; Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Meiji-ki To-kyo- Daigaku Ri-gakubu ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku 1877–1880’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the University of To-kyo-’s Faculty of Science, in the early Meiji period 1877– 1878), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 50, no. 1, 2020, pp. 33–67. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu dai 7 nenpo- (Seventh annual report of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature), faculty publication, 1879, p. 49. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu ichiran ryaku Meiji 11 (Abbreviated calendar of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature, 1878), publisher and date of publication not known, p. 19. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu dai 8 nenpo- (Eighth annual report of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature), in Daigaku-shi

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training, and in his fourth year spent only one term at university, devoting the rest of his time to Yokosuka again. He graduated in October, three months after his contemporaries.37 The curriculum was changed in 1881, when Kuri Ryu-saku was a graduate student. It was decided that the fourth year should be spent at the Yokosuka shipyard, going through the various departments over nine months, gaining practical experience of the work done in each by actually joining in and using the machine tools. As the English version of the University of To-kyo-’s Calendar had it, ‘they will spend about nine months in passing through the various departments, gaining practical experience of the work done in each by actually taking part in it’.38 Ewing himself did not have that much experience of factory work. But like the foreign teaching staff at the ICE, he had had his first taste of a university course in engineering in England, where many engineers were trained on-site. This meant there was a shared view that adequate practical experience was necessary for a university education as an engineer. He saw to it that his students had this. The Imperial University was founded in March 1886. It provided just a three-year highly specialized course, while the contents of the first year at the University of To- kyo- and the first three years at Ko- bu-dai-gakko- were shifted to the First Higher Middle School, comprising two years.With this in place, first- and secondyear students from what had been the Imperial College of Engineering were admitted to the First Higher Middle School.39 The pattern of the University of To- kyo- ’s academic year continued with three terms starting in September. From term three of the second year to term two of the third year, there was three terms’-worth of ‘practical training’.40

37

38

39

40

shiryo- kenkyu-kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 1, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1993, pp. 158-159. To-kyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 1 nenpo- (First annual report of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-, 1882, p. 31. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu ichiran, Meiji 13, 14 (Calendar of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature 1880, 1881), publisher and publication date not known, English-language Edition, p. 52. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi henshu--iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1, pp. 985–989. Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Teikoku Daigaku ichiran (Calendar of the Imperial University), To-kyo-: Teikoku Daigaku, 1886, pp. 1, 68. Details of the entry requirements and curriculum for the Imperial University and other schools are taken from the ‘Calendars’ per year and per school that can be viewed in the

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Graduates in 1886 and 1887, during the transition period, are likely to have followed the curricula of their forerunner schools in the main. In 1888 there were two students who had entered from the ICE and had worked at the Navy’s Onohama Shipyard (at a location that is now a part of Ko- be) for a total of nearly a year, from April to August 1886 and May to December 1887.41 As the ICE’s last graduates in 1885 had trained from April 1883 to April 1884 at the Hyo- go Shipyard (near Ko- be) belonging to the Ministry of Public Works,42 it is obvious that a similar pattern of a sustained period of such training in one factory, as had been the case in the days of the ICE itself, was continued for graduates of the years 1886 and 1887. The first first-year students at the Imperial University in September 1886 were Takatsuji Narazo- , who - kubo Chu-kei, from the Unihad joined from the ICE, and O versity of To kyo . The start of the ICE’s academic year had been in April, and so the Imperial University’s beginning later meant that there was some spare time during which Takatsuji joined the practical training period that belonged to the previous academic year. Then for seven weeks starting in June 1887, both Takatsuji - kubo apprenticed at a shipyard, and they did so again from and O May to December 1888. Their example shows that the difference in timing because they had been at different schools was felt until this academic year. The pattern of the 1888 practical course changed from the previous long period of training at just one factory to shorter visits to more factories. The students went to more than 17 of them, in places ranging from Shizuoka to Nagasaki. Ten of these were cotton mills, two were textile factories in Kyo- to, and the others were Army arsenals, Navy shipyards, paper mills, copper foundries, private shipbuilders and steel mills, all of them using the latest techniques. Both during their journey, and once they had arrived at the factories they were to train at, the

41

42

National Diet Library’s Digital Library. Several years’ ‘Calendars’ can be found bound together as one volume. Ko-ka Daigaku nenpo- (Annual report of the College of Engineering), in To-kyoDaigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu-kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-) vol. 5, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994, p. 77; Ko-ka Daigaku Meiji 20 nenpo- (Annual report of the College of Engineering, 1887), in To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo-, vol. 6, 1994, p. 298. Accounts of practical training provided below are from other ‘Annual reports of the College of Engineering’ up to 1890 in To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo-, vol. 6, pp. 211–213, 377–379, 510–512. Ko-bu-dai-gakko- dai-ni nenpo- (Second annual report of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Meiji shoki kyo-iku kankei kihon shiryo-, sono 3 (Key data on education in the early Meiji period, part 3), To-kyo-: Kohokusha, 1981, p. 63.

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students were encouraged to visit other factories too.This was the first year in which this ‘pilgrimage’ to factories took place. The 1887 entrants who would graduate in 1890 would be the first graduates from the higher middle school. Their on-site training would be first at the Yokosuka Shipyard using the twomonth summer holidays between their second and third years, and then the eight-month period of factory visits from the third term of their second year to the first term of their third. This was somewhat longer than at the University of To- kyo- but shorter than at the ICE. The following year’s summer training locations differed, but the period was the same; nor did the time spent at off-campus factories differ greatly from when at the ICE. But the practice of training over a longer period at a single location giving way to visits to a succession of factories meant that by learning the methods of a number of different trades, the focus of on-site training changed. By comparing various industries and factories it was possible for students to achieve a broader grasp of the current state of Japanese industry. In 1893 practical training in the third term of the second year stopped, confirming the shift in relative importance towards academic courses. Students who went on from the University of To-kyo- to the Imperial University did not move systematically. Okubo Chu-kei, who became a first-year student in 1886, was in the top flight at the University of the To-kyo- University’s Preparatory School in 1883, so should have been admitted into the second year if the system had been followed. Twenty-two of the 28 of his contemporaries whom we can identify as having gone on to the Imperial University became second-year students, but if we restrict the sample to students who went to the College of Engineering, entry into the first year was more common, concerning four out of seven students.43 Matsubara, who enrolled in the following year, was one year below Okubo in the Preparatory School, and though he entered the University of To-kyo- in 1885, he became a secondyear student of the First Higher Middle School in 1886 and went to the College of Engineering after a year’s study there.44 As it was closer in terms of continuity to the ICE than to the University of To-kyo-, the syllabus of the College of Engineering, particularly of 43

44

To-kyo- Daigaku yobimon (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku yobimon honko- Meiji 16–Meiji 17 (University of To-kyo- Preparatory School, Main Course, 1883–1884), 1884, pp. 57–59. Dai 1 Ko-to- Chu-gakko- (ed.), Dai 1 Ko-to- Chu-gakko- ichiran (Calendar of the First Higher Middle School), 1887, p. 68.

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Fig. 1: Workshop of the College of Engineering. Even though theoretical training was now given priority over practical training, instruction in the ‘Workshop of the College of Engineering’ was by no means neglected. The size of this training workshop, as well as the comprehensive equipment with modern machines of the most diverse kind, is illustrated by this photograph. (Photo around 1900, titled ‘Workshop of the College of Engineering, Ko-ka Daigaku ko-jo-’, To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku, Ogawa shashin sei. Courtesy: The University of To-kyo-.)

its Department of Mechanical Engineering, probably meant that students from the old University of To-kyo- stream had to study one year longer than the system prescribed. 4. CHANGING EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS AMONG GRADUATES

As mentioned earlier, research into the career patterns of graduates is ongoing either at ten-year intervals or by way of research into individuals. We do not wish to ‘warp’ this timeframe, and so this chapter focuses on certain years where the changes in circumstances are obvious enough to make a study of the areas in which the graduates worked worthwhile.Table 1 lists persons who

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graduated at the same time in the order of their results, and traces stations of their working life. Table 2 (at the end of this chapter) lists the numbers of graduates in mechanical engineering by employment sector. By 1881, 25 students had graduated from the ICE in mechanical engineering, and three from the University of To- kyo- . Apart from one person who studied abroad, privately financed by a former Daimyo- family, all of them received a salary from the state. Nineteen of the graduates from the ICE worked in the Ministry of Public Works, and one each in Army and Navy arsenals. Two of the University of To- kyo- graduates were employed in the Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance. At this time, the Printing Bureau had its own machine manufacturing plant, and as this was also the case with the Telegraph Office and the Lighthouse Bureau of the Ministry of Public Works, where one each of the graduates worked, all four men can be classified as being in the machine manufacturing sector.45 In a process that started with four people being assigned to the Akabane Engineering Works, now 16 persons worked in places where there were numerous mechanical engineering graduates. But we can assume that they did not become managers immediately, instead learning business practice in workplaces which had foreign and experienced local engineers, or tackling the problem of how to ‘domesticate’ machinery production. In 1880 Yasunaga Yoshiaki and Saka Tatau, both of whom were from ICE, were assigned to the Akabane Engineering Works and at the same time ordered by the Ministry to manufacture spinning machinery. At a mill that had imported a spinning mule they watched it in action and prepared plans of it, which they completed in February 1883.46 Before Sakata Sadakazu joined the machine plant at the Printing Bureau in 1880, he had completed a paper-making machine for the Bureau’s paper manufactory. He continued this work later, with more paper-making machines and steam machinery being made. A waterwheel was made to Sakata’s design the following year.47 45

46

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Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Insatsu-kyoku enkaku-roku (The history of the Printing Bureau), To-kyo-, 1903, pp. 171–173. Yasunaga Yoshiaki, ‘Akabane ko-saku bun-kyoku seibo-seki kikai’ (Spinning machinery made at the Akabane engineering branch factory), in Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 81, 1888, pp. 782–790. Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Insatsu-kyoku enkaku-roku, pp. 172–173, 202–203; see also Watanabe Morie, Tokuno Ryo-suke-kun den (The biography of Tokuno Ryo-suke), To-kyo-: Insatsu-kyoku, 1921, pp. 78–79.

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For financial reasons, the rationalization of state enterprises was under way at this time. A first move in this process was in 1883, when the Akabane Engineering Works, one of the Ministry of Public Works’ operations, was transferred to the Navy Ministry’s Armaments Bureau. In 1884, the Nagasaki Shipbuilding Bureau was rented out to Mitsubishi. These divestments continued in 1885 with the sale of the Innai Silver Mine (in northern Japan, in today’s Akita prefecture), and at the end of that year the Ministry of Public Works itself was abolished. Table 2 shows the situation in 1885 just before this happened. By that time the Ministry’s employees had dwindled to twelve with four of them being in the Railway Bureau − not a feature in 1881 − and three who had transferred from the mining sector. Previous research has it that when state enterprises were rented out or sold, many engineers transferred to the new owners,48 but a comparison with the situation in 1881 does not bear this out. Indeed, one can say with some conviction that for mechanical engineers, the scrapping of these state enterprises led to moves that crossed sector boundaries. The Army, Navy, and the Ministry of Agriculture & Commerce (set up in 1881) became important focal points for employment. The last saw applications from six people, four of whom were 1883 graduates, and two went to work in its operations department, dealing with shipping inspections and industrial promotion. In 1884, Yokoi Saku divided his time between the University of To- kyo- and the Navy Ministry, the Navy having asked him to take charge of teaching at its new shipbuilding department. For five other people, a technical education was at centre-stage, two at the To- kyo- Vocational College, two at the Naval College and one at a middle school. In the private sector, the small and medium shipping companies that operated mainly in the Inland Sea merged in 1884 to form the Osaka Merchant Shipping Line (Osaka Sho- sen KK) which received government assistance to step up the maintenance of its fleet.49 To assist with this task, two engineers joined the company itself, while one other joined the Osaka Ironworks (Osaka Tekko- sho, founded 1881) which were responsible for building 48 49

Uchida, ‘Gijutsu-sha no zo-ka’, p. 293; Uemura, ‘Meiji zenki’, p. 32. Suzuki Jun, Meiji no kikai ko-gyo-: Sono seisei to tenkai (The machine industry in the Meiji period: Its origin and development), Kyo-to: Minerva Shobo-, 1996, pp. 59, 66.

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and repairing the company’s ships. Other than this there were no sectors in which more than one engineer was employed. We now turn to the situation at the end of 1889 to understand the rise of capital-based enterprises, which was the first real ‘surge’ in the industrial revolution that started in about 1886. Over 60% of the engineers changed their employers, with a sharp increase to 25 engineers in the private sector (see Table 2). Uchida has pointed out that in 1920 there were more university-graduate engineers registered in the private sector than in government and public agencies, but if we restrict their number to mechanical engineers, we see that there had been a similar change 30 years before.50 The biggest contribution to the increase in the private sector came from the eight who went into the spinning industry. Uemura Sho- ji has it that there were only a few engineers in the textile field as a whole, despite its rapid growth led by the spinning industry,51 but this does not hold good where mechanical engineers are concerned. Morikawa has indicated that university-educated engineers in the spinning industry often became specialist managers, and four of the eight mentioned just now conform to this pattern. Kikuchi Kyo- zo- , technician engineer at Hirano spinning factory in Osaka, whom Janet Hunter has researched (see the chapter in this volume), was one of these. Takamura Naosuke has shown how spinning companies sent four employees to England to select and buy machinery, while Okamoto Yukio has provided numerous examples of people who worked for only a relatively short time in this industry.52 When new businesses were being set up, they played a dynamic role in the way that Uchida suggested for 1920. After this there was no particular change in the total number of people taking up employment in the spinning industry. The railways were different, where employment of engineers continued to rise until 1901. However, at this stage there were only three engi50

51 52

Uchida, ‘Gijutsu-sha no zo-ka‘, p. 293. In Table 4 on p. 292 of that same article university graduates specializing in machinery and registered with government agencies outnumbered those in the private sector, the reason for this being that shipbuilding is included under machinery. Uemura, ‘Gijutsusha no zo-ka’, p. 32. Takamura Naosuke, Nihon bo-sekigyo--shi josetsu, jo- (An introduction to the history of the Japanese spinning industry – vol. 1), To-kyo-: Hanawa Shobo-, 1971, pp. 141–142; Okamoto Yukio, Meiji-ki bo-seki gijutsu kankei-shi. Nihon no ko-gyo--ka mondai e no sekkin (The history of Meiji-period spinning technology. Approaching the question of Japan’s industrialization), Fukuoka: Kyu-shu- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1995, pp. 131–137.

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neers in the private sector, compared to five in government-run companies. Job seekers in the private sector did not reach the level seen in the spinning industry. By 1893, the crisis that had marked 1890 was over and industrial development had stabilized to some extent, even though war with China was imminent. There was, however, an increase in the total number of engineers because of new graduates. In the private sector, four more engineers worked on the railways and, at last, there was an upswing in mining. However, in the private sector as a whole there was no change compared to the previous period due, for instance, to a decline in the spinning industry, and the public sector and the military went back to having the largest number. In the administrative field, where shipping inspection had had none previously and patents just one, these numbers rose to two in both areas. In 1901 however there was nobody to follow on in either of them, and it seems that engineers educated at universities did not think highly of employment in government agencies. By 1901, Japan had put the Sino-Japanese War behind it. This was when its industrial revolution assumed definite shape, with the textile sector at its heart. As the figures of our sample only go as far as the graduates of 1896, the increase in the number of university-educated engineers is reflected only up to halfway through this period (1893–1901). Partly due to the doubling of the interval between the two selected years, the rate of movement between 1893 and 1901 was 51%, second only to that of the 1880s, indicating the significant impact of the industrial revolution. The 45 individuals in the private sector accounted for the majority. Factory construction in the spinning industry resumed apace, and the number of mechanical engineers in this field recovered to nine. Engineers from England went home in 1897, after which the design and manufacture of locomotives on the government railways under Japanese supervision accelerated and the private railway system expanded. These developments brought about an increase in engineers to 19, nine on the government railways and ten on private lines, bringing the latter to the level seen in the spinning industry.53 53

For the part played by mechanical engineers on the railways and their employment there during this time see Nakamura Naofumi, Umi wo wataru kikansha. Kindai Nihon no tetsudo- hatten to guroobaru-ka (Locomotives across the seas. The development of Japan’s railways and her globalization), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 2016, pp. 94–102, 153–156.

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Where shipbuilding is concerned, in 1885 there were five engineers in the Navy Yards, two at the Ministry of Public Works, and only one in the private sector. In 1901, there were three engineers in the Navy Yards and seven in the private sector, and shipbuilding came third only to the railways and the spinning industry in the number employed. Shipyards also manufactured land-based machinery, though employment at factories making only this kind of machinery was static at three individuals, apart from those at state-owned plants. Employment in Army arsenal and Navy armament factories is included under machinery manufacturing and there were four people in these in 1885, but by 1901 all of them had moved on and engineers did not have any particular wish to stay with the armed forces. In this year, engineers working for the military were Otake Taki (who had applied for a position in the Ministry of Agriculture & Commerce’s Woollen Textile Mill, only to find the mill transferred to the Army), and Usui To- ichiro- , Ko- saka Suetaro- and Kondo- Motoki, who joined the Navy as new graduates before the Department of Shipbuilding had been set up. The Navy’s shipbuilding sector was a stable workplace for a university-educated engineer. Once the Department of Shipbuilding, whose main purpose was to train engineers in building ships for the Navy, was in place, students whose aim was employment in this area of the Navy’s activities no longer entered the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Though there were few examples of machinery manufacturers employing university-educated engineers, there were instances of engineers with a university background running their own operations in the steel industry. The first was Nakahara Junzo- in Kumamoto. By 1889 he had been followed by Satachi Jiro- in Hakodate and Ieiri Yasuchi in Moji. These early provincial business start-ups did not carry on for long, but they did at least show that there were pioneering attempts to encourage a broader use of machinery in such outlying areas. From about 1900, businesses had started up in the major cities, with Oka Saneyasu, Kawakami Shintaro- and Yoshimi Kuro- in Osaka, To- kyo- and Kyo- to respectively, and the prospects were that this would last. Kawakami was a part-time engineer at the To- kyo- Water Board (To- kyo- -shi, Suido- -bu) and so is included under government agencies in Table 2, but he held the same post at the Ministry of the Interior’s Civil Engineering Department at times between 1896 and 1901, which probably meant that he was virtually running his own business and only employed by the government for

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specific projects. Self-employment now increased in major cities in professions like consultant engineer and patent lawyer. Engineers were employed in ‘transplanted’ industries that imported their main equipment and were amply capitalized, and independent businesses like this catered for the wide-ranging demands of domestic industry, which included the introduction of machinery. There were more educational opportunities available now, but also major changes in their content. In 1885, technical education was at the centre of things, but in 1889 three, and in 1893 half of the graduates namely five, became middle-school teachers. Four of these were students of the former University of To- kyo- who graduated just after it changed to the Imperial University in 1886. This was probably due to the fact that Hattori Ichizo-, who had presided over the three faculties of Law, Science and Literature at the University of To- kyo- and whose connection with it could hardly be closer, ran the Ministry of Education’s General Educational Affairs Bureau from 1889 to 1891, which had jurisdiction over middle schools.54 By 1901, none of these individuals were still working as teachers in middle schools. Instead, the trend was now towards looking for employment in advanced industrial education. This is illustrated by the four professors and assistant professors created when Kyo- to Imperial University’s College of Science and Technology opened. Then there were Sakata Sadakazu and Nakahara Junzo- at the To- kyo- Higher Technical School (To- kyoKo- to- Ko- gyo- -gakko- ), reorganized by the To- kyo- Vocational School; Kawai Seizaburo- at the O saka Technical School (O saka Ko- gyo- -gakko- ) that in 1899 had altered its entrance qualifications from the higher primary to the middle school graduation level; and Suzuki Chiyokichi in the Fifth High School’s Engineering Department. These were all the state-run higher technical educational outlets in the country. It is very possible that from this date, 1901, Mano Bunji, who also supervised higher technical schools and other such schools below that level in his capacity as Head of the Ministry of Education’s Vocational Training Bureau, had a hand in having highly experienced people with a university background spread around mechanical engineering courses at advanced technical schools. After this, YasunagaYoshiaki, Nakahara Junzo- and O take Taki became headmasters at 54

‘Hattori Ichizo- jushaku no gi ni fujo-so- no ken’ (Report to the Throne in relation to the ceremony of elevation of Hattori Ichizo- to the peerage), Shozo- ko-bunsho (Miscellaneous Public Documents), Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan 1923.

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the higher technical schools in Osaka, Kumamoto and Yonezawa respectively. Following Mano’s move to the presidency of the Kyu-shu- Imperial University, Nakahara was made head of its College of Engineering. This was a sign that engineers who had graduated from the ICE at around the same time as Mano and had acquired much practical experience in the meantime tended to occupy important positions in higher industrial education. This was the reason for the increase in the number of graduates who went into education up to 1913. At the same time, there were no takers for positions in the middle-ranking industrial schools that were also supervised by Mano, and the range within which university graduates sought employment in education was restricted to the higher-level industrial schools. Where administrative posts are concerned, Miyoshi Shinrokuro- , professor at the To- kyo- Imperial University since 1897, was also given responsibility for ship inspection as acting head of the Maritime Control Bureau’s Shipping Section. Although this is not included in the tables, there was a close connection between the Imperial University and specialized administration in related fields. For example, Mano also served as an arbitrator in the Patent Office. Nevertheless, only a few students went into the administrative field. The exam results of an 1895 graduate who worked for an unusually long time at the Patent Office were the lowest among his contemporaries, which could be an indication that administration was not a particularly attractive goal for students. After 1907, the transfer rate between types of employment falls significantly, and in that year, influenced by the nationalization of the railways the year before, positions in public offices increased. In the railways, 13 individuals were assigned to the National Railways and one of the remaining five candidates went to the South Manchuria Railway Company, taken over after the Russo-Japanese War, which ran its operations in China. The other four were all with nationalized companies. The effects of these organizational changes and company mergers have not been included in the calculation of the employment transfer rates. 5. ADVANCED TECHNICAL SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

Going by Teikoku Daigaku ichiran (the Imperial University Calendar) published shortly after that institution was founded, it is

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

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difficult to make out how things stood with the professors in its Department of Mechanical Engineering. The reason is that the names Yamada Yo- kichi and Taniguchi Naosada appear as professors in connection with the College of Engineering. However, they belonged to the staff of To- kyo- Vocational School, which was affiliated with the Imperial University from April 1886 to October 1887, and never taught courses at the College of Engineering.55 By the standards of the time though, teachers at the To- kyo- Vocational School had the degrees and overseas study experience that meant they could be appointed professors at the Imperial University. When in August 1882 the To- kyo- Vocational School started advertising for preparatory students, the aim then was to train persons who ‘had prospects as instructors at the school or as the head of vocational training or, elsewhere, as directors of manufacturing facilities’.56 Since this was a school to train teachers for vocational courses in the middle-range educational facilities being set up all over the country, it had to provide an education superior to the average vocational school. Taniguchi Naosada was there from the start, and in August 1883 he was joined by Yamada Yo- kichi in charge of teaching mechanics. Yamada had been to America in 1870 as one of the overseas students from the Tokushima domain (Awa province in today’s Tokushima prefecture). After the feudal domains were disbanded in 1871, he stayed there until 1875 as a Ministry of Education overseas student, and achieved the grade of Mechanical Engineer at the Stevens Institute of Technology. After his return to Japan, he worked at the Akabane Engineering Works belonging to the Ministry of Public Works, and alongside engineers from England gave students instruction in technical drawing and was highly rated by no less a person than Dyer.57 When the Akabane Engineering Works closed he was a Senior Technician, the highest rank an engineer could rise to there. Then in 1887, a year after Taniguchi had moved to the College of Engineering, Sakada Sadakazu from the Ministry of Finance’s Printing Bureau took up an assistant professorship in the College of Engineering with teaching obligations at the To- kyo- Vocational School. The Printing Bureau’s machine shop, where he had been in charge 55

56 57

To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi (60-year history of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology), To-kyo-, 1940, pp. 137–140. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi, p. 66, 80. Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) Tokei, General Report by the Principal for the period 1873–1877, To-kyo-, 1877, p. 4; see also Hanabusa Yoshitaro-, Nihon hakushi zenden (Gazetteer of holders of doctorates in Japan), Hakubunkan, 1892, pp. 290–294.

414

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

as Senior Technician, had also closed the year before. The To-kyoVocational School set great store by the practical training it gave at the factory it had built in its grounds. Its teachers were engineers, who in addition to their academic attainments had gained comprehensive experience by playing an important role in the experiments in machinery manufacturing made by the Ministries of Public Works and Finance. The importance the ICE and the University of To- kyo- attached to practical training on-site was inherited by the To- kyo- Vocational School. The emphasis the College of Engineering brought to its extracurricular hands-on training should be viewed in this light, as it changed from spending an extended period of time at just one factory to learn the practicalities of machine manufacture to visiting a whole range of factories to broaden the students’ outlook. Yamada died in 1892, but Sakata carried on teaching at this same school until he died as headmaster in 1920 in the Spanish influenza epidemic. When it was founded, the To- kyo- Vocational School accepted pupils from the age of 16 and gave them an education with one preparatory year and three years as a main course.The ICE and the University of To- kyo- ’s Preparatory School, with its three-year system, both canvassed for students of the same age and used English in their courses.Their entrance examinations were also in English, and English was also taught after a student had been admitted. In contrast to this, the To- kyo- Vocational School was set up so as not to use English in its entrance examinations, nor to teach in English following admission. However, in May 1885 it changed its policy to one of teaching English so that new graduates would be able to study the latest technology; in other words, its first batch of graduates already had a knowledge of the language.58 Once the education system had been regularized, the To- kyoVocational School added English to its entrance examination in August 1888, putting it on an equal footing with the higher middle schools, which students who had completed their primary middle school education usually joined. It then assigned in its three-year system two hours a week in each year to English, or ‘six hours a week over the whole three-year course’.59 58

59

To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- dai 3 nenpo- (Third annual report of the To-kyo- Vocational School), in Monbusho- dai 13 nen nenpo- (Thirteenth annual report of the Ministry of Education), 1886, p. 476. To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- ichiran – Meiji 21, 22 (Calendar of the To-kyo- Vocational School 1888, 1889), pp. 5, 2, 16–18, 80, 81.

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

415

For those who would go on to study engineering, English in higher middle school classes took a full eight hours per week, plus five hours for a second foreign language. But the higher middle schools had actually set up a three-year preparatory course for teaching English for ten hours a week in each of those years, and there were many students who had completed their primary middle school education who fitted this preparatory course into a suitable academic year. This meant that the average graduate from a primary middle school, if that extra year is added in, went on to university having had something like an aggregate 18 hours per week of instruction in English.60 Charles Dickinson West, following Dyer in 1882, therefore taught in English in his mechanical engineering course and half of Inokuchi’s classes were also conducted in English.61 And it was obligatory until 1915 to write graduation theses in English.62 At the University of To- kyo- , from 1881, these could also be written in Japanese, and in 1884 the Ministry of Education directed that courses should not be in English but mainly conducted in Japanese.63 The attitude of the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering towards English then followed that of the ICE and not the University of To- kyo- ’s. This education system meant that the English ability of its students was way ahead of the graduates from the To- kyo- Vocational School and they could understand the latest advances in mechanical engineering written in English. In 1894, the higher middle schools were changed to high schools, which had a three-year curriculum that built in the top year of the preparatory course. High-school students who were earmarked for university engineering courses learned English for 16 hours a week and a second foreign language for nine, and in 1900 this figure increased to a total of 19 hours a week for English, taken with either French or German. The To-kyo- Vocational School (To-kyo- Shokko--gakko-) changed its name first to the To-kyo- Technical School (To-kyo- Ko-gyo--gakko-) and then, in 1901, to the To-kyo- Higher Technical School (To-kyoKo-to- Ko-gyo--gakko-). In the following year it increased its English 60

61 62 63

Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- (ed.), Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- ichiran Meiji 28.9–Meiji 29.8 (Calendar of the Third High School, September 1895–August 1896), 1894, pp. 29–30. Demizu, ‘Nihon kikai …Ikuchi Ariya (I)’, pp. 69–70. Hongo-, ‘To-kyo- Daigaku Kikai Ko-gakkai’, p. 68. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun- – san gakubu ichiran (Calendar of University of To-kyo-’s three Faculties of Law, Science and Literature), various years; To-kyoDaigaku, To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1, p. 484.

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ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

classes to nine hours a week in all. Up to then the emphasis had been on translation, but now conversation and essay writing were added.The thinking was that graduates would on occasion need to negotiate with foreigners, and that as time went by these situations would occur more frequently, meaning that they should at least be able to converse with them in English on commercial and technical subjects.64 Conversation and essay writing had always been on the syllabus in a university’s preparatory education, but it was only after the start of the twentieth century that they were introduced at the To-kyo- Higher Technical School. Even then, the number of hours remained at half the level of other high schools. Language ability, including in a second language, was a forte of alumni of the Imperial University, with the combination obviously helping when it came to document searches and overseas visits. According to the records, at Kyo-to Imperial University (established in 1897), the selection of instructors for the Department of Mechanical Engineering at its College of Science and Technology was based on discussions between the authorities at the Ministry of Education and in the appropriate departments of the university itself.65 This shows that thought was being given to what form the teaching of mechanical engineering at universities should take in future.The engineering department at the Third High School, the forerunner of the College of Science and Technology, offered a four-year higher engineering education, with Ohira Matsujiro- its 66 professor of mechanical engineering. His colleague in civil engineering, Professor Futami Kyo-saburo-, was instructed to set up a faculty in that discipline at the university, whose professor he later became.When it came to establishing the Department of Mechanical Engineering, though, it was Tomonaga Sho-zo-, not Ohira, who was asked to do this in 1895; Tomonaga had worked in the Patent Office at the Agriculture and Commerce Ministry. At this time Oscar Goeriz, a German engineer who acted as a representative of German companies in Japan, was employed by the Japanese Ministry of Education since 1897/98 to teach mechanical design and hydraulic motors, was later invited to act as Senior Teacher, 64

65

66

To-kyo- Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko- ichiran Meiji 35–Meiji 36 (Calendar of the To-kyo- Higher Technical School 1902–1903), 1902, pp. 17, 23. Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku-shi (History of Kyo-to Imperial University), 1943, p. 20. Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- (ed.), Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- ichiran 28.9–29.8 (Calendar of the Third High School, September 1895–August 1896), 1894, p. 88.

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

417

a rank equivalent to professor at Kyo-to Imperial University. He taught machine design and hydrodynamics, hydraulics and crane technology until 1904.67 A German was picked because of the significant advances Germany had made in mechanical engineering, and perhaps also because Kyo-to Imperial University used the metric system. Goeriz later worked in America,68 so he probably lectured in English, though it is more than likely that teaching materials in German were also used. Foreign instructors did not simply impart knowledge of new academic subjects or technology; they also stimulated their students’ language ability and gave them the chance to use it. Starting in October 1898, Tomonaga Sho- zo- spent two years studying in Germany and America and by the time he took up his post as professor, three young 1893/94 graduates of the Imperial University had been appointed assistant professors or lecturers. They were among the first to enter the Imperial University from the Third Higher Middle School in Kyo- to, when most of the students were from To- kyo- ’s First Higher Middle School. It is assumed that they played an active part in the establishment of the Imperial University in Kyo- to. This was not the only point of similarity, though. After graduation, they had also spent two or three years working in private spinning mills and shipyards, or on the government railways, and two of them had had experience in two different workplaces. Tomonaga also worked for a railway company. As the number of students increased, it became more difficult to find long-term practical work in factories, or to visit a number of different ones for shorter periods, and at Kyo-to Imperial University only the autumn term was allotted to on-the-spot experience out of both the spring and autumn terms of their three-year course.69 All the more important, therefore, was the teaching staff ’s experience in imparting knowledge of what private-sector industry was really like. In the meantime, O hira Matsujiro- had moved to the engineering department at the new Fifth High School in Kumamoto.70 He had been the first graduate of the Imperial University in 1886, after which he had gone from being an inspector at the Patent Office to 67 68 69

70

Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku, Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku-shi, pp. 407–409, 436–449. US Patent No. 890, 356, June 9, 1908. Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku ichiran Meiji 30–Meiji 31 (Calendar of Kyo-to Imperial University 1897–1898), 1899, pp. 35–38. Kanpo- (Government Gazette), May 15, 1897, p. 6.

418

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

a teacher at a primary middle school in Toyama Prefecture. There followed a spell as a professor at the Naval Machinery School, before he went to the Third High School, also as a professor. He had achieved a position in the patent office and various schools in line with what a university graduate was entitled to expect, but he was not given an equivalent position at the Imperial University, probably because at the former University of To- kyo- he had learned his mechanical engineering in Japanese, taught by Japanese instructors.71 It could be that Hattori Shunichi helped four contemporaries of his, all of whom were middle-school teachers in 1893, to obtain those positions out of a sense of responsibility that the Ministry of Education and the University of To- kyo- had taught them in Japanese. None of them had found adequate recognition in industry or at government work-sites like railways despite the fact that they had graduated from university as mechanical engineers.Whatever the reason, O hira Matsujiro- had no field experience. Given the standards of the time, this alone would have made it difficult for him to stay on as an instructor at a university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. 6. CONCLUSION

The government had seen the results of the industrial revolutions in Western countries and was intent on effecting internal modernization by promoting the enterprises it controlled. At the same time, not a few young people, released from the constraints of the class system, had acquired Western learning and wanted to share in what this new era had to offer. The ICE trained the personnel who would support the government-owned enterprises, and the University of To- kyo- was set up so that the government could respond to the expectations the teaching Western studies had brought. It was here that mechanical engineering began to be taught at university level even before the industrial revolution began. Until the 1880s, university students taught by English and Scottish instructors 71

According to Ohira’s graduation certificate he learned civil engineering from foreign instructors but mechanical engineering from Taniguchi and Kuri. See ‘Ko-ka Daigaku sotsugyo--sei Ohira Matsujiro- Tokkyo-kyoku shinsa-kan shiho hinin no ken, Meiji 21 kanri shintai 15, Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan’ (The case of Ohira Matsujiro-, a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his being appointed as a probationer Patent Examiner at the Patent Office, 1888, Movements of Government Officials 15, kept in the National Archives).

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

419

did actual on-site work following the English practice. After graduation too, in the few years before the government’s businesses were cut back, the students gained a wealth of experience, which included tackling machinery manufacture head-on in a factory environment. As the industrial revolution gained pace, the skills they had acquired in the classroom – proficiency in English and a knowledge of engineering and technology, and in factories – ‘dirty-hands’ experience, enabled them to understand foreign machinery and the means of obtaining it. In other words, they became seasoned engineers able to supervise inexperienced workers so that these new machines could be put to their intended use. They were the ones who made possible the rapid growth of the railways, spinning mills and other transplanted industries that imported their machines and machinery. By way of their management of private machinery manufacture and mining businesses in the regions outside the major cities, these entrepreneurs extended the boundaries of the industrial revolution. The Akabane Engineering Works was hived off from the ICE, and the number of government installations that had been used for hands-on training was now fewer. But at the same time, the To- kyoVocational School came into being, and with its emphasis on the practical aspects of technology it changed the direction of engineering studies in universities. It was acknowledged that the central role of university graduates in engineering was to support technology and the introduction of machinery from advanced countries by linking their engineering expertise with a high degree of proficiency in English and a knowledge of other foreign languages like French and German. Language instruction continued, mainly by way of English, and foreign teachers were still in evidence. In this sense it was acknowledged that the University of To- kyo- ’s policy in its latter days of teaching in Japanese was a failure. If job-site experience was to be successful, it was obviously important to have a complete picture of the state of industry in Japan, and steps were taken to see that this was the case. This presented problems, as did broadening the scope of education itself, but things were made easier by employing instructors with practical experience. In mechanical engineering after the turn of the twentieth century, more attention was paid to research and experimentation that took note of the latest inventions. This pattern was followed in training university-educated engineers who had supported the Meiji-era

420

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

industrial revolution to the point where their talents were of real benefit in the industrial workplace. By concentrating on the machinery sector, it is apparent that behind the rapid development of the industries introduced from overseas there were engineers with university degrees active in all areas, moving smoothly from one sector to another. All credit should be given not just to them, but to the universities and government-run enterprises that trained them. A number of factors led to this. At the start of the industrial revolution, most applications for employment were in new businesses like spinning, and not in the basic business conglomerates (zaibatsu)-controlled operations such as mining and shipbuilding. After the start of the twentieth century, however, higher industrial education had expanded, which led in turn to more engineers with factorybased experience being available. Another factor was that attention was not necessarily focused only on the civil service in, say, the patent office or the marine inspectorate, or on industrial administration – areas where a university degree was an advantage – but also on employment in the private sector or in one’s own business or, if in government, in outdoor service sectors like the railways. The workplaces where graduate engineers who had left university during the industrial revolution sought employment, those that could give them stable positions and use their talents to the fullest extent, were mainly in amply capitalized, transplanted industries and government businesses. After the turn of the century the places where these engineers habitually taught were limited to universities and a part of the higher technical schools. But the new technology they brought into play via the machinery used, or through higher industrial school-education, in turn encouraged its further technical development and modernization of traditional industries. Another aspect of their activities was that they decided on how effective a piece of machinery might be, in their capacity as judges at exhibitions or as engineers employed in firms that actually used it. This study also draws attention to the significance of university graduates as factory owners, engineers or patent lawyers who, having experienced the complexities of machinery and its uses, advised a whole range of inventors and machinery manufacturers and users. Their role in sectors outside the transplanted industries is a topic for further in-depth study.

Imperial College of Engineering

University/ college

May 1880

Nov. 1879

Graduation

ᐑᓮ⯟ḟ

Miyazaki Ko-ji

Meng gov Mining gov Admin gov Ship gov Meng gov

Mining gov priv Ship gov

䟾к⭡䋎

⸨⏣㔜㐨

ዑሖᓧ

ྜྷぢ஑㑻

᪩⏣႐ຮ

ᐙධᏳ

Nogami Yoshisada

Fujita Shigemichi

Oka Saneyasu Yoshimi Kuro-

So-da Kiben

,eiri Yasushi

Rail priv

Elec priv

Self priv

Ship priv

Meng mil Educ gov

1889

Marit priv Self priv

Mining gov

priv

Meng gov

mil

➉⏣㜝 ኴ㑻

Ship gov

Marit priv

mil

Takeda Kantaro-

బ❧ḟ㑻

Ship gov Meng gov

57

ཎ⏣⹡୕

ᆏ‣

Harada Torami

Saka Tatau Satachi Jiro-

Meng gov

ᏳỌ⩏❶

Yasunaga Yoshiaki

Mining gov Rail gov

Meng mil

௒⏣Ύ அ㐍

Abroad gov Educ gov

Imada Seinoshin

52

1885

Abroad gov Educ gov

Abroad gov

23

1881

Field/sector

Ⲩᕝ᪂ ୍㑻

୕ዲ᫴ භ㑻

㧗ᒣ┤㉁

Entry** number of doctorate

Arakawa Shinichiro-

Takayama Naomoto Miyoshi Shinrokuro-

Name

Educ, Admin gov

1901

Rail priv

Admin gov

Meng mil

Ship priv

Rail priv

Self priv

Rail priv

Admin gov

gov

Mining priv

Other priv Self priv

1893

Table 1: Professional careers of graduates in mechanical engineering by graduation year*

Self priv

Self priv

Educ gov

Self priv

Admin gov

1907

Admin gov

Self priv

1913

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 421

⢖ᒇ᪂ ୕㑻

ᏊᏳ㞞

⏣୰ᯘ ኴ㑻

Awaya Shinzaburo-

Koyasu Masashi Tanaka Rintaro-

஬௦㱟స

Mining gov Rail gov Meng gov

ෆ⸨ᨻඹ

Naito- Masatomo

Godai Ryo-saku

Mining gov

㡲⏣฼ಙ

Suda Toshinobu

July 1881

Ship gov

㈗ᚿὈ

Kishi Tai

University of To-kyo-

Meng gov

31

┾㔝ᩥ஧

54

Const gov

Ship mil

Admin gov

Abroad gov Educ gov

Abroad priv

Educ gov mil

Ship gov

174

᭹㒊ಇ୍

Hattori Shunichi

Mano Bunji

64

Ship mil

⮻஭⸨ ୍㑻

Meng gov

Usui To-ichiro-

May 1881

Meng gov

195

ྜྷ⏣᭸ྜྷ

Educ gov

58

㜰⏣㈆୍

1885

Yoshida Tomokichi

1881

Field/sector

Sakata Sadakazu

Entry** number of doctorate

Oct. 1880

Name

July 1880

Graduation

Imperial College of Engineering

University of To-kyo-

University/ college

Self priv

Meng priv

priv

Marit priv

Spin priv

Spin priv

Educ gov

1889

priv

Rail priv

Self priv

Spin, Meng priv

1893

Const gov

Educ, Admin gov

Meng priv

1901

Mining priv

1907

Self priv

Educ gov

Spin priv

1913

422 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

University of To-kyo-

Imperial College of Engineering

University/ college

Nov. 1884

July 1883

May 1883

May 1882

Graduation

㰻⸨ᜏ୕

Saito- TsunezoKo-saka SuetaroMeng gov

Educ gov Educ mil

⏣㑔୕⏨

Ḓ⏣ṇ ୕㑻

Educ gov

Tanabe Mitsuo Gonda Sho-zamuro-

39

ᕝୖ᪂ ኴ㑻

Kawakami Shintaro-

Ship mil Educ gov

Ship mil

Spin gov

ᶓ஭బஂ

228

Yokoi Saku

90

㏆⸨ᇶᶞ

Mining, Rail gov

ᒾᓮᙪᯇ

Iwasaki Hikomatsu

኱➉ከỀ

Admin gov

✄ᇉ㖩ᖹ

Inagaki Senhei

Otake Taki Kondo- Motoki

Admin gov

ᰩሯཪ㑻

Ỉୖᙪ ኴ㑻

Kuritsuka Mataro-

Mizukami Hikotaro-

84

231

Educ gov

Self priv

Educ mil

1885

Spin priv

Spin priv

Educ gov

gov

1889

Trade priv

Spin mil

Rail priv

Trade priv Rail gov

Ἑ஭Ύ ୕㑻

Kawai Seizaburo-

89

68

1881

Field/sector

Ship mil

୰ཎ῟ⶶ ࠉ

Entry** number of doctorate

㤶ᆏᏘ ኴ㑻

஭ཱྀᅾᒇ

Inokuchi Ariya

Nakahara Junzo-

Name

Admin mil

Const gov

priv

Educ gov

1893

1901

Self priv

1907

Educ gov

1913

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 423

Imperial University

Ex-University of To-kyo- / Imperial University

⳥ᆅᜤ୕

Kikuchi Kyo-zoHata Seikichiro-

Educ priv

㕥ᮌ༓ ௦ྜྷ

ᘅ⏣⌮ ኴ㑻

ᮅỌṇ୕

㧗஭ຓ ኴ㑻

㧗㎷ዉ Ⰻ㐀

Suzuki Chiyokichi

Hirota Ritaro-

Tomonaga Sho-zo-

Takai Suketaro-

Takatsuji Narazo-

July 1887

July 1888

July 1889

Okubo Chu-kei

኱ஂಖ ᛅᩗ

Educ gov

ր࠶࡙䲶

Saburi Takashi

198

77

Admin gov

኱ᖹᯇ ḟ㑻

Educ gov

Spin priv

Admin gov

Rail priv

Spin priv

Ship priv

ୗᒣ⚽ஂ

Shimoyama Hidehisa Ohira Matsujiro-

Rail gov

Spin priv

Ship priv

1889

Ᏹ㒔ᐑ ㈏୍

Rail gov

Ship mil

Abroad priv

1885

Utsunomiya Kanichi

1881

Field/sector

Educ priv

335

236

98

Entry** number of doctorate

῿⨾㈆ᖿ

⏿Ύྜྷ㑻

㐍⥂ኴ

Shin Tsuneta

Name

Atsumi Sadamoto

Apr. 1885

Graduation

Ex-ICE/IU July 1886

Imperial College of Engineering

University/ college

Admin gov

Mining priv

Educ gov

Educ gov

Admin gov

1893

Educ gov

Admin priv

Educ gov

Trade priv

gov

Spin priv

Spin priv

Marit priv

1901

Spin priv

Admin gov

Self priv

Educ gov

1907

Self priv

1913

424 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

University/ college

107 155

኱ሯせ

ᯇᮧ㭯ⶶ

ᓥᏳḟ ஧㑻

o-tsuka Kaname

Matsumura TsuruzoShima Yasujiro-

July 1894

July 1893

Rail priv Marit priv

ᙪ㒊ㅬⶶ

⏣ῡ⢭୍

Ἑୖ㑥ᙪ

Tabuchi Seiichi

Kawakami Kunihiko

Educ gov

115

㔠ᏊⓏ

Kaneko Nobori Hikobe Kenzo-

Educ gov

101

᪁Ἴᛅ ୕㑻

Rail priv

Educ gov

Educ gov

Rail priv

Rail gov

1901

Shiba Chu-zaburo-

81

Mil. Service

Rail gov

243 235

᳃ᙪ୕

స㛫⥘ ኴ㑻

Mori Hikozo-ࠉ

Rail gov

ᯟ⌒℺ཚ 䛾ǂ

Shiba Gontaro-

Sakuma Tsunataro-

Spin priv Admin gov

℧ᮧ➉⏨

⏣୰ᐩ ኈኴ

Takimura Takeo

Tanaka Fujita

Rail gov

1893

㕥ᮌᗄ ᙗኴ

1889

Suzuki Ikuyata

1885 Mining priv

1881

Field/sector

ᯇཎᔾ

Entry** number of doctorate

Matsubara Takashi

Name

July 1892

July 1891

July 1890

Graduation

gov

gov

gov

1907

Rail, Educ gov

1913

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 425

University/ college

July 1896

July 1895

Graduation

Ship priv Rail priv Meng priv

Rail gov Spin priv

⸨ᯘᚨᯇ

ᕝ⏣㇔ྜྷ

㕥ᮌ㗀 ḟ㑻

㯮⏣ᜏ㤿

‫‮‬ὸ⸨ ᕷ㑻

ྜྷ㔝ཪ ᅄ㑻

ᣢ⏣ᕴ

Fujibayashi Tokumatsu

Kawada Toyokichi Suzuki So-jiro-

Kuroda Tsunema

Yuasa To-ichiro-

Yoshino Matashiro-

Mochida Tatsumi Yano Kiichiro-

Tomoshima Tsuneo Shinoda Tsunetaro-

Mining priv

┾㔝ឡ ୕㑻

Mining gov Rail priv Ship priv

ලᓥᜏ㞝

⠛⏣ᜏ ኴᮁ

Admin gov

Spin priv

▮㔝㨣 ୍㑻

242

320

Meng priv

Ship priv

Matono Aisaburo-

179

168

Educ gov

1901

㛗㇂ᕝ ṇ࿃

1893

Ụᓮ୍㑻

1889

Hasegawa Sho-go

1885

Esaki Ichiro-

1881

Field/sector

୙◚⇃㞝

Entry** number of doctorate

Fuwa Kumao

Name

Mining priv

Mining priv

1907

gov

Self priv

Self priv

gov

1913

426 ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Rail gov Rail gov Spin priv Trade priv Rail priv Other priv

ᶓ஭ᐿ㑻

ᯇ㔝༓຾

㜝ᮏⱥస

㜝⸨ᅧຓ

ྂ⏣஬㑻

᪥ẚᏕ୍

Sekimoto Eisaku Sekito- Kunisuke

Furuta Goro-

Hibi Takakazu

Ship priv

1901

Matsuno Senkatsu

1893

Yokoi Jitsuro-

1889

㫽ᒣᔢ ᓚྜྷ

1885

ෆ⏣ᚨ㑻

1881

Field/sector

Toriyama Sagakichi

Entry** number of doctorate

Uchida Tokuo

Name

gov

1907

Other priv

Self priv

1913

Field: Admin: administration; Educ: education; Rail: railways; Marit: maritime; Ship: shipbuilding; Meng: mechanical engineering; Spin: spinning; Mining; Elec: electricity; Const: construction; Other: other industries; Trade: trading; Self: self-employed; Abroad: studying abroad; Sector: gov: government, mil: Army & Navy, priv: private

Graduation

** Doctor (hakushi) of Engineering, numbers arranged according to the order of entries in the official register at the Education Department. See K.R.Iseki (ed.), Who’s Who in “hakushi” in Great Japan. A Biographical Dictionary of Representative Scholars in Various Branches of Learning and Holders of the Highest Academic Degree “Hakushi’, vol. 5, “Ko- gaku hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), To-kyo-: Hattensha 1930.

*

University/ college

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 427

428

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Table 2: Numbers of graduates in mechanical engineering by employment sector, 1881–1913 Subjects of study

1881

1885

1889

1893

1901

1907

1913

Government

25

26.5

16.5

22

30

34

29

Army & Navy

2

11.5

7.5

8

4

2

1

Private

1

7

25

25

45

40

37

4

3

6

6

6

3

1

9.5

10.5

10

14

13

14.5

Sector

Field Administration Education Railways

4.5

8

12

19

18

11.5

Maritime

2

2

2

3

2

2

Shipbuilding

7

8.5

7

5

10

8

6

Mechanical engineering

10

9

3.5

4.5

4

2

1

1

9

6.5

9

10

9

5

2.5

1

3

4

7

5

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

Spinning Mining Electricity Construction

1

Other industries

1

Trading Self-employed

1

1

1

3

1

1

1

2

2

2

3

4

6

11

Studying abroad

5

1

Workplace known

28

45

49

55

79

76

67

Workplace not known

0

1

3

3

5

3

5

Total

28

46

52

58

84

79

72

Subjects of continuing study

26

38

49

51

75

71

Of whom, numbers who changed jobs

14

23

13

26

18

12

53.8

60.5

26.5

51

24

16.9

Other

Rate of change %

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

429

NOTES TO TABLES 1 & 2 Table 1 The month and year of graduation are taken from To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku ichiran, Meiji 30 – Meiji 31 (Calendar of the To-kyo- Imperial University 1897–1898), To-kyo- 1897. Amendments have been made in the case of Yoshida Tomokichi from To-kyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 1 nenpo- (First annual report of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-, 1882, p. 31, and for Gonda Sho-zaburofrom Monbusho- o-fuku (Correspondence with the Ministry of Education), 1884, vol. 1 of 3, held in the Archive of the University of To-kyo- under S0001/Mo077/0023. Places of employment are based on the following groups of materials: ķ List of permanent employees in government offices; ĸ Lists giving details of employment in the private sector; Ĺ Iseki Kyu- ro- (ed.), Who’s Who in “Hakushi” in Great Japan, vol. 5, “Ko-gaku Hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), edited in English and Japanese, To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930. (Dai Nihon Hakushi Roku, vol. 5, Ko-gaku hakushi no bu), 1930, for persons who obtained the academic rank of “Hakushi” (doctor); ĺ Other sources of information. As the times when studies were made differ in ķ between central and regional government offices and between ķ and ĸ, there is a degree of latitude rather than a fixed date having been set.Where the private sector is concerned and the same place of work appears for different years, those have been taken as the actual years. Confirmation of dates of death is based on the lists of graduates in various issues of the To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku ichiran. 1881 ķ Hikone Sho-zo-, Kaisei kanin roku Meiji 14.8 (Revised civil servants’ lists, August 1881), To-kyo-: Hakko- Shoin, 1881. ĸ (Ko-gakkai hakko-) Ko-gaku so-shi, no. 1, June 1880, no. 7, April 1881; To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-san gakubu ichiran, Meiji 14, 15 (Calendar of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law- Science- and Literature 1881, 1882),To-kyo-: 1882. 1885 ķ Hikone, Kaisei kanin roku, vol. 1, November 1885; ĸ None. (Ko-gakkai hakko-) Ko-gaku so-shi vol. 32 (Nakahara); (Ko-gakkai hakko-) Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 33 (Oka), vol. 36 (Ieiri), vol. 38 (So-da), vol. 53 (Kuritsuka); To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun- san gakubu ichiran Meiji 16, 17 (1883, 1884) (Tanabe).

430

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

1889 ķ Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku (Directory of employees), Meiji 22.12 (December 1889), and Meiji 23.1 (January 1890). ĸ Matsumoto Tokutaro- (ed.), Nihon teikoku ko-gyo- yo-ran (Industrial directory of the Japanese Empire), To-kyo-, 1889. To-kyo- Shibaura Denki (ed.), To-kyo- denki KK 50nen-shi (50-year history of Tokyo Electric), To-kyo- 1940 (Nogami); Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo-gyo- no keisei (The formation of the Japanese railway industry), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998 (Fujita); Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 92 (Ieiri); Sugimoto Sho-jiro(ed.), Kazoku retsuden Kuninomoto, chu- (Biographies of noble families. Kuninomoto, vol. 2), Kazoku retsuden Kuninomoto Hakko-sho, 1892 (Naito-); To-kyo- Shibaura Denki KK (ed.), Shibaura Seisakusho 65nen-shi (65-year history of Shibaura Manufacturing), 1940 (Tanaka Rintaro-, also 1892). Fujimoto Tetsuo, Kindai bo-sekigyo- no senkusha Kikuchi Kyo-zo- den (The biography of Kikuchi Kyo-zo-, the pioneer of the modern spinning industry) Matsuyama: Ehime Shinbunsha, 2001; Ruuburusha Shuppanbu (ed.), Dai Nihon jinbutsu meikan (Who is who in Imperial Japan), vol. 5, Ruuburusha Shuppanbu, 1922 (Saburi). 1893 ķ Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku (Directory of employees) Meiji 26.1, 2 vols. (as of 1 and 31 January 1893). ĸ Hiraba Tokutaro(ed.), Ko-gakkai kaiin meibo (Membership list of the Engineering Society), Ko-gakkai jimusho, 1892. ĺ ‘Ryo-mo- Tetsudo- Kaisha dokuritsu’ (Ryo-moRailways independent), in To-kyo- Asahi shinbun, 11 September 1892 (Kuritsuka); Ruuburusha Shuppanbu (ed.), Dai Nihon jinbutsu meikan (Who is who in Imperial Japan), vol. 4, Ruuburusha Shuppanbu, 1921 (Shiba Gontaro-). 1901 ķ Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku Meiji 34.4 (Directory of employees as of 1 April 1901), 2 vols., 1901. ĸ Gakushikai jimusho (ed.), Gakushikai kaiin shimeiroku Meiji 34 (List of members of the Gakushikai (1901). ĺ Jinji Ko (ed.), Jinji ko-shin directory), 1903 (Noga- shinsho - roku (Personnel -sen KK 50nen-shi (50-year history mi); Osaka Sho sen KK (ed.), O saka Sho of the Osaka Merchant Shipping Line), Osaka, 1934 (Atsumi). 1907 ķ Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku Meiji 40.5 (Directory of employees as of 1 May 1907), vols. 1, 2, 1907; ĸ Wada Sukekazu (ed.), Nihon kogyo- yo-ran dai 2 ban (Japan industrial directory, 2nd Edition), Ko-gyo- no Nihonsha, 1907. ĺ Kitamura Takeshiro- (ed.), Nihon dengyo-sha ichiran dai 3 ban (Directory of persons in Japan’s electrical industry, 3rd edition), Nihon Denki Kyo-kai, 1908 (Nogami); Makino Motoyoshi (ed.), Nihon

GRADUATES IN JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

431

zenkoku sho kaisha yakuin roku (Japan-wide directory of executive officers of various companies), Sho-gyo- Ko-shinsho, 1907 (Matsubara). 1913 ķ Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku Taisho- 2.7 (Directory of employees 1 July 1913). ĸ Wada Sukekazu (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- yo-ran dai 6 ban 1913. ĺ Kawanishi Makoto (ed.), Nihon dengyo-sha ichiran dai 5 ban (Directory of persons in Japan’s electrical industry, 5th edition), Nihon Denki Kyo-kai, 1912 (Nogami); Noguchi Masami, Shin Nihon no kensetsu to seimei hoken no dai shimei (Building new Japan and the mission of life assurance), 1929 (Sekimoto). Table 2 As regards changes of employment, if a workplace is known in Years A and C, but not in Year B, I have assumed that the person concerned moved in Year B. Retirement is not regarded as a move and so if a death is confirmed in Year C it has not been included in the figures for ‘numbers who changed jobs’. ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS: ‘Hattori Ichizo jushaku no gi ni fujo-so- no ken’ (Report to the Throne in relation to the ceremony of elevation of Hattori Ichizo- to the peerage), Shozo- ko-bunsho (Miscellaneous Public Documents), Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan, 1923.‘Ko-ka Daigaku sotsugyo--sei Ohira Matsujiro- Tokkyo Kyoku shinsakan shiho hinin no ken, -Meiji 21 kanri shintai 15’, Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan (The case of Ohira Matsujiro-, a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his being appointed as a probationer Patent Examiner at the Patent Office, 1888, Movements of Government Officials 15, kept in the National Archives). Meiji 18.9 To-kyo- Daigaku genincho- (List of current staff of the University of To-kyo-, September 1885), Ministry of Education Explanatory Tables 1885, University of To-kyo- Documents Centre Digital Archive S0001/Mo084, Images 569–571. Monbusho- o-fuku (Correspondence with the Ministry of Education), 1884, vol. 1 of 3, held in the Archive of the To-kyo- University under - S0001/Mo077/0023 ‘Osaka-fu heimin Kuri Ryu--saku honsho- goyo--kakari himei no ken’ (The case of a commoner of Osaka prefecture Kuri Ryu-saku and the orders given to him by Central Government to act as a commissioner), in Ko-bunroku (State Archives Dokuments), vol. 181, 17, 1885 (Meiji 18). ‘Santo- gishi Taniguchi Naosada jihi yo-ko- no ken’ (The case of thirdclass engineer Taniguchi Naosada’s self-funded overseas trip), in

432

ACCESSING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN

Ko-bun zassan (Public Records Miscellany), Kokuritsu Ko-bunshokan, 1887, vol. 25, 90. REFERENCES: ‘College of Engineering report 1887’, in To-kyo- Daigaku-shi shiryokenkyu- kai (ed.) To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (Yearbooks of the University of To-kyo-), vols. 5 and 6, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994. Dai 1 Ko-to- Chu- gakko- (ed.), Dai-Ichi Ko-to- Chu-gakko- ichiran (Calendar of the First Higher Middle School), 1887. Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- (ed.) Dai 3 Ko-to-gakko- ichiran Meiji 28.9 – Meiji 29.8 (Calendar of the Third High School – September 1895–August 1896), 1894. Demizu Tsutomu, ‘Nihon kikai ko-gaku no kaitakusha – Inokuchi Ariya (I) – Kikai ko-gaku kenkyu- no kiseki wo tadotte’ (‘Inokuchi Ariya, the celebrated pioneer in mechanical engineering in Japan (I). On the formatting [sic!] process of the education of mechanical engineering’), in Gijutsu to bunmei, vol. 1, no. 1, 1985, pp. 55–76. Demizu Tsutomu, ‘Nihon kikai ko-gaku no kaitakusha – Inokuchi Ariya (II) – Kikai ko-gaku kenkyu- no kiseki wo tadotte’ (Inokuchi Ariya, the celebrated pioneer of mechanical engineering in Japan (II). The evolution of the mechanical engineering profession), in Gijutsu to bunmei, vol. 2, no. 1, 1986, 23–43. Fujimoto Tetsuo, Kindai bo-sekigyo- no senkusha Kikuchi Kyo-zo- den (The biography of Kikuchi Kyo-zo-, the pioneer of the modern spinning industry), Matsuyama: Ehime Shinbunsha, 2001. Gakushikai jimusho (ed.), Gakushikai kaiin shimeiroku Meiji 34 (List of members of the Gakushikai 1901). Hanabusa Yoshitaro-, Nihon hakushi zenden (Gazetteer of holders of doctorates in Japan), Hakubunkan, 1892. Hashimoto Manpei, Chishin-gaku kotohajime. Kaitakusha: Sekiya Kiyokage no sho-gai (The beginnings of Seismology. A pioneer: The life of Sekiya Kiyokage), To-kyo-: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1983. Hikone Sho-zo-, Kaisei kanin roku (Revised civil servants’ lists), To-kyo-: Hakko- Shoin, various years. Hiraba Tokutaro- (ed.), Ko-gakkai kaiin meibo (Membership list of the Engineering Society), Ko-gakkai jimusho, 1892. Hirose Shin, Igirisu gijutsu-sha yo-sei-shi no kenkyu- (A study on the history of engineer’s education in England), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 2012, pp. 109–151. ‘The History of Kanebo-’s To-kyo- Head Office’, in Shibusawa seien kinen zaidan Ryu- monsha (ed.), Shibuzawa Eiichi denki shiryo- (Documents on the biography of Shibusawa Eiichi), vol. 10, To-kyo-: Shibusawa Eiichi denki shiryo- hakko-kai, 1956, pp. 188–193. Hongo- Kaoru, ‘To-kyo- Daigaku kikai ko-gakka ni okeru kyo-iku no hensen’ (Educational changes at the University of To-kyo-’s

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Department of Mechanical Engineering), in Nihon Kikai Gakkai-shi, vol. 81, no. 710, 1978, pp. 62–69. Hongo- Kaoru, ‘Meiji shoki ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku no reimei’ (The dawn of education in mechanical engineering in the early Meiji period), in Nihon Kikai Gakkai-shi, vol. 83, no. 740, 1980, pp. 62–68 (826–832). Imperial College of Engineering (Ko-bu-dai-gakko-) Tokei, General Report by the Principal for the period 1873–1877, Tokei, 1877. Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku (Directory of employees), various years. Insatsu-kyoku (ed.), Insatsu-kyoku enkaku-roku (The history of the Printing Bureau), 1903. Iseki Kyu- ro- (ed.), Who’s Who in “Hakushi” in Great Japan, vol. 5, “Ko-gaku Hakushi” (Dr. of Engineering), edited in English and Japanese, To-kyo-: Hattensha, 1930. (jap. title: Dai Nihon Hakushi Roku, vol. 5, Ko-gaku hakushi no bu). Jinji Ko-shinsho (ed.), Jinji ko-shin roku (Personnel directory), 1903. Kanpo- (Government Gazette), 8 March 1886. Kawanishi Makoto (ed.), Nihon dengyo-sha ichiran dai 5 ban (Directory of persons in Japan’s electrical industry, 5th edition), Nihon Denki Kyo-kai, 1912. Kitamura Takeshiro- (ed.), Nihon dengyo-sha ichiran dai 3 ban (Directory of persons in Japan’s electrical industry, 3rd edition), Nihon Denki Kyo-kai, 1908. Ko bu-dai-gakko- dai-ni nenpo- (Second annual report of the Imperial College of Engineering), in Meiji shoki kyo-iku kankei kihon shiryo-, sono 3 (Key data on education in the early Meiji period – part 3), To-kyo-: Kohokusha, 1981. Ko-ka Daigaku Meiji 20 nenpo- (Annual report of the College of Engineering), in To-kyo- Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu- kai (ed.), To-kyoDaigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 6, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppan-kai, 1994. Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku ichiran Meiji 30 Meiji 31 (Calendar of Kyo-to Imperial University 1897–1898), 1899. Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Kyo-to Teikoku Daigaku-shi (History of Kyo-to Imperial University), 1943. Makino Motoyoshi (ed.), Nihon zenkoku sho kaisha yakuin roku (Japanwide directory of executive officers of various companies), Sho-gyoKo-shinsho, 1907. Matsumoto Tokutaro- (ed.), Nihon teikoku ko-gyo- yo-ran (Industrial directory of the Japanese Empire), To-kyo-, 1889. Miyoshi Nobuhiro, Nihon ko-gyo- kyo-iku hattatsu-shi no kenkyu- (Studies in the history of Japan’s industrial education), To-kyo-: Kazama Shobo-, 1979. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki ni okeru senmon keieisha no shinshutsu katei’ (The emergence of the specialist manager in the Meiji period),

434

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in (Hitotsubashi Daigaku Sangyo- Keiei kenku- sho) Bjinesu rebiyuu (Business Review), vol. 21, no. 2, 1973, pp. 12-27. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki “Ko-ka Daigaku” sotsu kaisha gishi no risuto’ (List of engineers graduated from ‘College of Engineering’ and employed in private companies in the Meiji period), in Keiei shirin, vol. 11, no. 2, 1974, pp. 103–124. Morikawa Hidemasa, ‘Meiji-ki senmon keieisha no keisei to sono haikei’ (The formation and background of the Meiji period’s specialist manager), in (Kanto- Gakuin Daigaku) Keizai-kei, no. 100, 1974, pp. 128-140. Naikaku Kanpo--kyoku (ed.), Shokuin roku (Directory of Employees), To-kyo-, various years. Nakamura Naofumi, Nihon tetsudo-gyo- no keisei (The formation of the Japanese railway industry), To-kyo-: Nihon Keizai Hyo-ronsha, 1998 Nakamura Naofumi, Umi wo wataru kikansha. Kindai Nihon no tetsudohatten to guroobaru-ka (Locomotives across the Seas. The development of Japan’s railways and its globalization), To-kyo-: Yoshikawa Ko-bunkan, 2016. Noguchi Masami, Shin Nihon no kensetsu to seimei hoken no dai shimei (Building new Japan and the mission of life assurance), 1929. Okamoto Yukio, Meiji-ki bo-seki gijutsu kankei-shi. Nihon no ko-gyo--ka mondai e no sekkin (The history of Meiji-period spinning technology. Approaching the question of Japan’s industrialization), Fukuoka: - - Kyu shu Daigaku Shuppankai, 1995. Okurasho- (ed.), Ko-busho- enkaku ho-koku (Report on the development of of Public Works), 1889. - the Ministry - sen KK (ed.), O-saka Sho-sen 50nen-shi (50-year history of the Osaka Sho Line), Osaka, 1934. - Osaka -Merchant Shipping Oue Shiro, Meiji kako-cho (An album of Meiji’s past), To-kyo-: To-kyoBijutsu, 1971. Ryu- nan-kai (ed.), Ryu-nankai zasshi, zappo- (Ryu- nan-kai journal, Miscellaneous), no. 8, 1892, pp. 73–80. Ruuburusha Shuppanbu (ed.), Dai Nihon jinbutsu meikan (Who is who in Imperial Japan), vol. 5, Ruuburusha Shuppanbu, 1922. Sugimoto Sho-jiro- (ed.), Kazoku retsuden Kuninomoto, chu- (Biographies of noble families. Kuninomoto, vol. 2), Kazoku retsuden Kuninomoto Hakko-sho, 1892. Suzuki Jun, Meiji no kikai ko-gyo-: Sono seisei to tenkai (The machine industry in the Meiji period: Its origin and development), Kyo-to: Minerva Shobo-, 1996. Takamura Naosuke, Nihon bo-sekigyo--shi josetsu, jo- (An introduction to the history of the Japanese spinning industry, vol. 1), To-kyo-: Hanawa Shobo-, 1971. Teikoku Daigaku (ed.), Teikoku Daigaku ichiran (Calendar of the Imperial University), To-kyo-: Teikoku Daigaku, various years. (Teikoku Daigaku changed its name to To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku in 1897, and the Calendar became accordingly To-kyo- Teikoku Daigaku ichiran).

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435

Toda Kiyoko, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu kyo-iku kikan no seiritsu to tenkai: Ko-bu-, Monbu- ryo-sho- no hikaku wo chu- shin ni’ (The establishment and development of technical educational institutions in the early Meiji period: Based on a comparison between the Ministries of Public Works and Education), in (Nara Kenritsu Daigaku) Kenkyukiho-, vol. 15, nos. 2–3, 2004, pp. 33–44. Tokyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 1 nenpo- (First annual report of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-, 1882. Tokyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku dai 3 nenpo- (Third annual report of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku, 1884. To-kyo- Daigaku dai 4 nenpo- (Fourth annual report of the University of To-kyo-), in To-kyo- Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu- kai (ed.), To-kyoDaigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 2, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1993. To kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu dai 7 nenpo- (Seventh annual report of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature), faculty publication, 1879. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bungakubu dai 8 nenpo- (Eighth annual report of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law, Science and Literature), in Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu- kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo- (Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), vol. 1, To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1993. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu ichiran ryaku Meiji 11 (Abbreviated calendar of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law- Science- and Literature, 1878), publisher and date of publication not known. To-kyo- Daigaku Ho-- Ri- Bun-gakubu ichiran, Meiji 13, 14 (Calendar of the University of To-kyo-’s Faculties of Law- Science- and Literature 1880, 1881), publisher and publication date not known, Englishlanguage Edition. To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi henshu- -iinkai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku hyakunen-shi. Tsu-shi 1 (100-year history the University of To-kyo-. Complete history 1), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku, 1984. Tokyo- Daigaku-shi shiryo- kenkyu- kai (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku nenpo(Annual reports of the University of To-kyo-), To-kyo-: To-kyo- Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994, To-kyo- Daigaku yobimon (ed.), To-kyo- Daigaku yobimon honko- Meiji 16– Meiji 17 (University of To-kyo- Preparatory School, Main Course, 1883–1884), 1884. To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-gyo- Daigaku rokuju-nen-shi (60year history of the To-kyo- Institute of Technology), 1940. Tokyo- Ko-to- Ko-gyo- Gakko- (ed.), To-kyo- Ko-to- Ko-gyo--gakko- ichiran Meiji 35–Meiji 36 (Calendar of the To-kyo- Higher Technical School 1902– 1903), 1902. To-kyo- Shibaura Denki (ed.), To-kyo- denki KK goju-nen-shi (50-year history of To-kyo- Electric), To-kyo-, 1940.

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To-kyo- Shibaura Denki KK (ed.), Shibaura Seisakusho goju-rokunen-shi (65year history of Shibaura Manufacturing), 1940. To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- dai 3 nenpo- (Third annual report of the To-kyoVocational School), in Monbusho- dai 13 nen nenpo- (Thirteenth annual report of the Ministry of Education), 1886. To-kyo- Shokko--gakko- ichiran – Meiji 21, 22nen (Calendar of the To-kyoVocational School 1888, 1889). Uchida Hoshimi, ‘Kigyo--nai gijutsu-sha soshiki no keisei-ki. 1900–1910 gijutsu-sha kazu no to-keiteki kenkyu- kara’ (The formative period of company engineers’ organization. From statistical research into the number of engineers from 1900 to 1910), To-kyo- Keidai Gakkai-shi, vol. 109–110, 1978, pp. 53–74. Uchida Hoshimi, ‘Gijutsu-sha no zo-ka, bunpu to Nihon no ko-gyo-ka. 1880–1920 no to-keiteki kansatsu’ (The increase and distribution of engineers and Japan’s industrialization. Statistical observations for the years 1880-1920), in Keizai kenkyu-, vol. 39, no. 4 (1988), pp. 289–297. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Meiji zenki ni okeru gijutsu-sha no keireki to to-kei kansatsu’ (Engineers’ careers and their statistical observations in the early Meiji period), in (Do-shisha Daigaku) Shakai Kagaku, (seven parts) vol. 44, no. 4, 2015, to vol. 47, no. 4, 2018. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the Imperial College of Engineering), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 48, no. 3, 2018, pp. 83–120. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘To-kyo- Kaisei Gakko- ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the To-kyo- Kaisei School), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 49, no. 1, 2019, pp. 201–236. Uemura Sho-ji, ‘Meiji-ki To-kyo- Daigaku Ri-gakubu ni okeru kikai ko-gaku kyo-iku 1877–1880’ (The education of mechanical engineering at the University of To-kyo-’s Faculty of Science, in the early Meiji period 1877–1880), in (Do-shisha University) Shakai kagaku, vol. 50, no. 1, 2020, pp. 33–67. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- so-setsu saiko-: Ko-busho- ni yoru Ko-gaku-ryo- ko-so- to sono jisshi’ (A reappraisal of the establishment of the Imperial College of Engineering: The concept of the Ko-gakuryo- of the Ministry of Public Works and its implementation), in Kagakushi kenkyu- (Journal of History of Science), vol. 50, no. 258, 2011, pp. 86–96. Wada Masanori, ‘Ko-bu-dai-gakko- to Teikoku Daigaku e no shu- en wo meguru hyo-ka’ (An assessment of the Imperial College of Engineering’s closure and transition to the Imperial University), in Kagakushi kenkyu- (Journal of History of Science), vol. 57, no. 287, 2018, pp. 186–200.

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Wada Sukekazu (ed.), Nihon ko-gyo- yo-ran (Japan industrial directory), Ko-gyo- no Nihonsha, various years. Watanabe Morie, Tokuno Ryo-suke-kun den (Biography of Tokuno Ryo-suke), To-kyo-: Insatsu-kyoku, 1921. Yasunaga Yoshiaki, ‘Akabane ko-saku bun-kyoku seibo-seki kikai’ (Spinning machinery made at the Akabane engineering branch factory), in Ko-gakkai-shi, vol. 81, 1888, pp. 782–790.

List of Contributors –

CHEN Hailian is an engineer-sinologist trained at the Universities of Tsinghua and Tübingen (Ph.D. 2018). Before joining the faculty at Leipzig in 2019, she held a university lecturer position at the University of Trier and taught various courses on modern China; she has also worked as a research fellow on a DFG (German Research Foundation)-Project at the University of Tübingen as well as on an exhibition project at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. She is currently working at the University of Leipzig on a project titled The Pioneers of China’s Rise to technological Power: Technical Educational Institutions and Their Students in the Age of Global Transformation, 1860–1911, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This project examines the role of technical education in the making of modern China. Chen is particularly interested in the history of technology and knowledge as well as the interaction between technology, society, culture, and nature through the actions of human agents. She is the author of Zinc for Coin and Brass: Bureaucrats, Merchants, Artisans, and Mining Laborers in Qing China, ca. 1680s–1830s (Leiden: Brill, 2019. 788 pp., and several articles on the history of zinc and coal in early modern China. Janet HUNTER has a BA from the University of Sheffield and a DPhil. from Oxford University. She taught at the University of Sheffield, and then at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she became the Saji Professor of Economic History in 2003 and Emeritus Professor in 2019. She has taught on Japanese and comparative economic history, and was head of the Economic History Department. She was also involved with the Suntory-Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) and was a member of the LSE’s governing body 2010-16. She has been President of the British Association for Japanese Studies, a council member of the Economic History Society, and is currently co-editor of the Journal

439

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of Japanese Studies. Janet Hunter’s research has spanned a number of areas of the economic and social history of modern Japan. She has published widely on the female labour market in Japan, with special reference to the textile industry; on the history of economic relations between Britain and Japan; on the development of modern communications, in particular on the postal service; and on the development of consumption. More recently she has been researching on the evolution of business ethics in comparative perspective, and is currently completing a monograph on the economic impact of the Great Kanto- Earthquake of 1923. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and of the Academy of Social Sciences, as well as a Trustee of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. She was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon) in 2014. Regine MATHIAS is Professor Emerita of Japanese History, at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. She has studied Japanese History and History at the Ruhr-University Bochum and Kyu-shuUniversity and obtained her PhD from the University of Vienna with a thesis on the development of wage labor in Japanese coal mines. After her retirement from the Ruhr-University, she is currently working at the Centre Européen d’Études Japonaises d’Alsace (CEEJA). Her main field of research is Japanese social and economic history, with a focus on Japanese mining and labor history. She has published on labor in Japanese coal-mines, Japanese mining scrolls and their value as historical sources as well as on German-Japanese relations and gendered working patterns in prewar Japan. Ruselle MEADE is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Japanese Studies at Cardiff University since 2015 where she teaches Japanese history, language and translation. She obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester in 2013. She was originally trained as an engineer but during her work for an intellectual property translation firm in To-kyo- her interest in history of technical translation and the development of science and technology grew. Presently her primary area of research is modern Japanese history. In this field she is particularly interested in the relationship between science and national identity in Japan since the midnineteenth century. Her research focuses on the circulation of technical and scientific knowledge in modern Japan, particularly through the processes of translation and popularization. She is cur-

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441

rently working on a project that explores how and why non-state actors became involved in the public dissemination of science in the Meiji period. Christine MOLL-MURATA is chair professor of Chinese History at the Department of East Asian Studies of Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. She specializes in the socioeconomic history of China from the Song to the Republican Her recent publication is State and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty, 1644–1911 (Amsterdam University Press 2018, open Access: http://www.oapen.org/searc h?identifier=1001705;keyword=9789462986657). Her interest in technical history arose from research on the history of the crafts and state handicraft regulations at Tübingen University. At present, she participates in a research team on the History of Industrialization in Northeast Asia conjointly conducted within the AREA network of the Ruhr University Bochum and University Duisburg-Essen. NISHIYAMA Takahiro studied sociology, ethnic studies and intercultural didactics with the focal points on industrial and cultural sociology at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in Japanese Studies from the University of Marburg, Germany, in 2009 with his dissertation on “Technical Human Capital Formation in the Yokosuka Shipyard at the Beginning of the Industrialization of Japan». It dealt with the questions about the technology transfer and the transfer of the vocational education and training system from the West to Japan in the period from the end of the Tokugawa era to the end of the 19th century. He was research fellow at the University of Marburg, Germany, from 2006 to 2008, and lecturer at the University of Bonn, Germany since 2008. His main research area is the social and industrial history of modern Japan and Germany, and the socio-technical transformation of contemporary Japan and Germany. NAKAMURA Naofumi is professor at Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo. He obtained a Ph.D. in history from Kyu-shu- University in 1997. His main research field is the economic and business history of modern Japan. His publications include Nihon Tetsudo-gyo no keisei (The Formation of Japan’s Railways: 1869-1894) (Nihon Keizai Hyoron-sha, 1998), Chiho- karano Sangyo--kakumei (Reconsidering the Japan’s industrial revolution:

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A local perspective) (The University of Nagoya Press, 2010), Umi wo wataru Kikansha (Trading locomotives: The first globalization and the development of Japan’s railways, 1869-1914) (Yoshikawa Ko-bun-kan, 2016), ‘Diversification and Convergence: Development of locomotive technology in Meiji Japan’ in M. Sawai ed. The Development of Railway Technology in East Asia in Comparative Perspective, Springer 2017, and Iwanami-ko-za Nihon Keizai no Rekishi (The Iwanami Series to Japanese Economic History) 6 volumes (co-eds. with K. Fukao and M. Nakabayashi, Iwanami Shoten, 2017–2018). OKIHARU Fumiko is associate professor at To-kyo- University of Science since 2018. She obtained her Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from Nihon University in 2005, where she studied nuclear physics. From 2005–2007, she was an assistant at Nihon University and 2007–2018, associate professor at Niigata University. Her main research field is currently education of physics. Erich PAUER is Professor emeritus at the University of Marburg, Germany. Born 1943 in Vienna he majored in Japanese studies at the University of Vienna (PhD, 1972). After his post-doctoral research at the University of To-kyo- he took up a lectureship at the University of Vienna in 1974 and later moved to the University of Bonn, Germany, in 1977. He became full professor at the University of Marburg in 1987, where he established the Centre for Japanese Studies. He retired from this university in 2008. His main interests lay in the field of history of technology in Japan in early-modern period and the period of Japan’s industrialization, and Japanese economic history. He also published on GermanJapanese relations in pre-war Japan. SASHINAMI Akiko is a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Letters at Ho-sei University and Japan Women’s University. She has studied Japanese history at the University of To-kyo- and obtained her PhD from this university in 1997. She has researched mainly on the economic and social history of modern Japan. She has published articles on how changes in the social system, increased trade and the introduction of Western science and technology during the Meiji Restoration affected domestic commerce, brewing and silk production. She also wrote a short biography of the famous women’s liberation activist, Hiratsuka Raicho-.

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443

TODA Kiyoko is professor in the Faculty of Area Creation of Nara Prefectural University. She is a graduate of Ko-be University and is engaged in research and education at Nara Prefectural University since 2001. She specializes on modern Japanese history, especially history of technology and technical education in the Meiji period. She is a Member of the Museum Management Council of the Ko-be City Museum and is also engaged in activities concerning the Foreign Settlement in Ko-be. SUZUKI Jun is currently Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and the Faculty of Letters at the University of To-kyo-. He has studied History at the University of To-kyo- and earned his PhD from this university in 1995 with a research work on the “Machine industry in the Meiji-era”. Later he focused on the industrial policy in the Meiji period and published on the Ministry of Public Works (Ko-busho-), on engineers and on science and technology policy in modern times. WADA Masanori is currently Associate Professor (Lecturer) at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Mie University, Japan. He has earned his B.A. and M.A. in Bioengineering from So-ka University and an M.S. in Science and Technology Studies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, in 2007. He studied History of Science and technology at the To-kyoInstitute of Technology and received his PhD in 2013. A PostDoctoral Fellowship was granted from the D. Kim Foundation for Research on the History of Science and technology in East Asia in 2014-2015. From 2013 to 2015 he was Research fellow at the To-kyo- Institute of Technology before proceeding to Mie University. His main interest is the engineering education in the Meiji era.

Index – Note: Page numbers followed by “n” refer to notes, “t” refer to tables and, “f ” refer to figures. Agricola, Georgius, 44 agriculture, xii, 52, 178, 296, 298, 308 Aikawa Museum, 325, 327 Aikawa, 321–2, 325f Akabane Engineering Works, 395, 406–7, 413, 419 Akaike coal mine, 333 Akaike Mining School, 333–4 Akita Mining College, 305–6, 327– 32, 329f Akita University, 328 Akita, 258, 328 Alexander, Thomas, 130 alumini association/alumni bulletin (silk production), 269–70, 270f, 272–3 Amagasaki, 203, 207, 212 Amano Ikuo, 168, 218 amendment (1882), of school regulations, 284–9 America. See United States (US) Angas, William Moore, 395 Anglo-Chinese school, 45 Ani silver mine, 147, 319 Aoi-cho¯ Silk Mill, 255 Aoyama Tadashige, 117, 119 apprenticeship schools, 296, 297–8 Arakawa Shinichiro¯, 398 Arithmetic of Electricity, The, 29 Army, 392, 407 Ashio copper mine, 153 Asia, 5, 89 Astronomy Bureau (tenmonkata), 2 atoms and molecules (teaching term/ principle), 360, 374–5, 385, 386 Atsumi Teiji, 10 Australia, 56

445

Ayrton, William E., 171, 180 Ayutthaya, 271 Bangkok, 271 Baozang xingyan, 54 Barr, William, 182 Batavia, xix Beijing School of Foreign Languages, 38 Beijing, 6, 62 Bergakademie Mining Academy (Freiberg), 304 Besshi (copper mine), 320 Bickford, Dana, 14 Biido seiho¯ shu¯setsu, 3 Bingo province, 153 Blake, William Phipps, 309, 310–11, 312 botany, 78, 256 Bowu xinbian (‘Broad Learning’), 21, 23, 24, 26, 27 Braguinsky, Serguey, 192 Bray, Francesca, 44 Brest (city), 73, 83 Brewster, David, 28 Brindley, G.S., 395 Britain, 3, 6, 11–12, 103 Broek, Jan Karel van den, 5 Brunat, Paul, 253 Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 1 Buijs, Johannes, 5 Bureau of Mines, 152, 153 Burg, Pieter van der, 5 business education, 296, 297–8 business policy, 394 Butsuri kaitei (Introduction to physics), 350, 352

446

Butsuri sho¯shi, 361, 365 Butsuri zenshi (Complete Introduction to physics), 350, 361, 362, 363 Butsuri-gaku hikki (Physics notes), 374 Buys, Egbert, 3 Calendar, xxv, 101, 104, 106, 107, 122, 136, 138 Calypso, xix Cambridge Dictionary, 42 Cawley, George, 395 Chambers, Robert, 23 Chambers, William, 23 Charter Oath, xix Chemical Engineering Department, 284, 286–7, 292, 358 chemical history of a candle, The (Faraday), 375 chemical industrial sector, 393 chemistry notes, 358–60, 366, 367, 375, 386 chemistry, 7, 25, 52, 53, 77 Chicago, 201–2 Chikuho¯ Ko¯zan High School, 341 Chikuho¯ Sekitan Ko¯gyo¯-kumiai, 339 Chikuho¯ Technical High School, 341 Chikuho¯, 339 Chikuho¯ Mining School, 306, 333, 338 –41 China revolution (1911), 275 China, 3, 19–21, 30, 38–9, 275 Chinese education, 121 Chinese scholars, 6, 38 Chisui so¯ron, 10 Chisui tekiyo¯, 9–10 Chisuigaku shuka hen, 9, 10 Cho¯shu¯ domain, 11, 72, 154, 166, 167 ‘Cho¯shu¯ Five’, xxii, 11, 165 Choi, Eugene K., 192, 204, 210–11, 212 Chomel, Noël, 2, 3 Christmas lectures (UK), 375 Civil Engineering Branch, 170 Civil Engineering, 218, 221, 224, 226, 410 Clark, F.W., 376

INDEX

coal mining, 5, 46–7, 48–9, 54, 55–7, 306, 338 Coignet, Jean Francisque, 315–17, 316f, 319, 320 College of Engineering, xxiii, 161, 236, 288, 296, 300, 395, 404–5, 405f, 414, 415 colliery, 333, 340 cotton (Chinese), 205, 207 cotton industry/spinning industry, 204–13, 408 cotton mixing, 205–6 cotton production, 191–213 Cotton Spinning: Its Development, Principles, and Practice (Marsden), 200 craftsmanship, 283, 289, 290, 298 craftsmen/craftsman/foremen, 280, 281, 285, 288, 289, 291, 295 curriculum (vocational education), 284–6, 330–1, 340, 402 Dai-Nihon Bo¯seki, 189, 203, 210 Dai-Nippon, 92, 101 Davy, Humphry, 22 De Maio, Silvana, 93 De Re Metallica, 44, 60 de Rijke, Johannis, 10 denwa (‘telephone’), 26 Department for the Promotion of Industry, 14 Department of Mechanical Crafts, 174 Department of Surveying, xxiii descriptive geometry, 77, 80f Diannan kuangchang tulüe, 43, 61 Dianxue (‘Electrical science’), 27, 28–9 Dianxue cesuan, 29 Dianxue gangmu, 29 Dictionary of Engineering Terms, A (K o¯gaku jii), 15 Dictionnaire Œconomique, 3 Divers, Edward, 180, 193 Dixon, G., 136 ‘dual education system’, 82–3

INDEX

Dupont, Adolphe François Eugene, 79 Dutch learning, xiii, xiv, 341 Dutch scholars, 3, 5–6, 16 dyeing and weaving engineering, 292 dyer factory, 286 Dyer, Henry, xxiii, xxv, 11–12, 90–4, 101, 102, 103, 104, 107, 109, 110, 129, 133, 136, 137, 138, 140, 164, 167, 168, 182, 189, 395, 396, 413 Dyer’s Calendar, xxv, 101, 104, 106, 107, 122, 136, 138 East Asia, xiii, 19 École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, 78, 79, 85 École d’Application du Génie Maritime, 71, 73, 78, 79, 82, 85 École des Mineures, 315 École Polytechnique, 71, 73, 75, 75n9, 77, 137 Edinburgh University, 396 Edo (city), 2, 4, 30 Edo period, xii, xvi, xxvii, 178 Education Ordinance, 286–7, 289, 299 education policy, 279–80 Education System Ordinance (mining), 314 Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical (Spencer), 375–6 Educational Course, 23–4 electrical engineering, 29 electricity, 21–6, 24n11, 365 electrisator, 24f, 25 electro-metallurgy, 47, 48 Elman, Benjamin, 30 employments, 410–11 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 28 Endo¯ Shunkichi (notes/notebooks), 347, 348, 348f, 349f, 352–3, 354, 358–60, 359f, 367, 386 Engineering Institution, xxiii Engineering Promotion Board, 99 engineering schools, 95 Engineering Society (Ko¯gakkai), 15 England, xxii, 47, 56, 72, 129, 195, 394, 395, 397, 398, 399, 402, 413

447

English (language), 2, 12, 16, 57, 231, 414–16 English and Chinese dictionary (1866), 26 English cotton, 195–6 Ensei kiki jutsu, 5, 25–6 enterprise boom, 241, 244, 246 Entrance Examination Paper, 124f, 125f entrance examination system, 231, 293–4, 414 erekiteriseeru mashine, 24f, 25 Erekiteru, 22, 25 etsurekitekirishiteita (‘electricitator’), 26 Europe, xiii, 22, 41, 42–3, 61, 195, 257, 294, 296, 304–5, 350 Ewing, James Alfred, 396, 397, 401, 402 experiments (shaken/jikken) science, 375–85 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1900), 260 ‘external-type’ education, 218 factory training (mechanical engineering), 403–4 Faculty of Arts and Crafts of the University of To¯kyo¯, 89 Faculty of Engineering and Design (Ko¯gei-gakubu), 161 Family Dictionary (Chomel), 2–3 Faraday, Michael, 375 Fast Track Course, 288 Federation of Engineering Societies (Ko¯gakkai), 153 Feng Lisheng, 21 Filature Department, 260–1, 261t, 262t, 266 First Higher Middle School, 403 foreign mining engineers, 57 Foremen’s School, 82–3, 83t, 85 ‘formal type’ education, 218 foundries, 46, 75 France/French, xix, xx, 70, 72, 73, 80, 82, 83, 101, 149, 255, 257, 316, 317, 318f, 319

448

Franklin, Benjamin, 22 Freiberg (town), 43, 304, 322 French (language), xxv, 2, 57, 77 French engineers, 78, 149 French machine (silk), 258–9 Fryer, John, 27, 41, 45–8 Fujita Densaburo¯, 154, 240 Fujita-gumi, 154, 155, 156, 329 Fukuishi, 155 Fukumoto Gennosuke, 208 Fukuoka prefecture, 315, 337 Fukuoka Takachika, 283 full engineer (gishi), 222, 233, 235 furigana, 23, 25 Furukawa Ichibei, 153 Furukawa Sakajiro¯, 170 Futami Kyo¯saburo¯, 416 Fuzhou, 29 Gakusei (Government Order of Education), 168, 376 Galvani, Luigi, 22 Ganetsu Railway, 244 gassed yarn (cotton), 208–9 general education, 294 geology, 46, 49, 52 German (language), xxv, 57 Germany, 316 Gezhi huibian (Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine), 55 Gilbert, William, 22 Gillespie, William, 15 girls’ vocational schools, 296 Glasgow University, 11, 101, 129, 130, 133, 399 Goeriz, Oscar, 416–17 Golas, Peter, 44 Goldsmith, Oliver, 136 Gonda Sho¯zaburo¯, 397 Gordon, Lewis D B, 101 Goto¯ Makita, 350 Goto¯ Motoharu, 97 Government Bureau for Mining, 313–14 Government of Siam. See Thailand

INDEX

Gower, Erasmus, 321 Grace’s Guide, 202n34 graduates (Chinese), 274t graduates (vocational period), 286–91, 290–1n33, 292–3, 403 Great Britain. See Britain Gronden der toegepaste werktuigkunst (Principles of applied mechanical engineering), 4 Gunma Normal School, 373 Gunma prefecture, 373, 378, 384, 386 gunpowder, 310, 312 Hagiwara Genji, 373 Hakodate Magistrate, 309, 312 Hakubutsu shinpen, 21, 24f, 25f handicrafts (vocational system), 294–6 Handleiding Tot De Kennis Der Waterbouwkunde, Voor De Kadetten Der Genie, 9–10 Hanyeping Iron and Steel Company, 62 Hara Silkworm Breeding Factory (Korea), 272 Haraguchi Kaname, 233, 233n29 Haruko, Empress, 269 Harvard University, 376 Hasegawa Kinsuke, 243, 245 Hashimoto, 309 Hattori Ichizo¯, 411 Hattori Shunichi, 418 Hayashi Tadasu, 101, 102, 103 Hédon, Augustin, 319 Henderson, J., 56 Henry S. King Co., 46 Herschel, John, 21 Heywood, Oliver, 198 Hi Tatsu¯sei, 275–6 high schools, 414–15 higher middle schools, 395, 404, 414–15 Himeji, 314, 317 Hiraga Gennai, 22, 25 Hirano Mill/Hirano Company, 195, 202, 203, 206, 210f Hirano Seiichiro¯, 380–4

INDEX

Hiraoka Hiroshi, 223 Hitsusan kunmo¯, 9f Ho¯-gakko¯ (Law School), 183 Hobson, Benjamin, 6, 21, 23 Hokkaido¯, 308, 312, 342 Holland, xiii, xviii Holtham, Edmund G., 223, 247 Homma Eiichiro¯, 223, 244 Homma Railway Office, 244 Honda Iwajiro¯, 257, 260, 269, 270, 273 Hong Kong, 23, 29 Hosoya Toshio, 173 Hounshell, David A., 192 Hua Hengfang, 48, 53–4 Huaxue jianyuan (Mirror of the origins of chemistry), 54 Hubei Province, 56, 62 human capital theory, 71 Hyo¯go Shipyard, 403 ICE Calendars, 126, 141 ICE. See Imperial College of Engineering (ICE, Ko¯bu-daigakko¯) Ichikawa Seisaburo¯, 367 Ieiri Yasuchi, 410 IGR. See Imperial Government Railway (IGR) Iida Toshinori, 222–3, 223, 231, 239, 243 Ikuno silver mine, 314–21, 342 Ikuno, 146, 148, 149 Illustrated Instructions for Setting Up and Running the Bickford Family KnittingMachine, 14, 14f Imai Iwao, 322 Imanishi Naojiro¯, 260–1 IME Membership, 202 Imperial College of Engineering (ICE, Ko¯bu-dai-gakko¯), xxiii, xxiv, xxviii, 85, 88–94, 88n3, 97, 110, 115, 118, 119, 120, 121, 129, 130, 138, 140, 142, 143, 153, 161, 163, 167, 168, 178, 181, 182, 183, 184, 194–5, 217, 223, 224, 225, 234,

449

236, 239, 240, 241, 246, 279, 280, 296, 296–7n54, 305, 306, 337, 342, 391, 394, 395–6, 398, 400–5, 406, 414, 418 Imperial College of Engineering Library Manuals, 12–13t Imperial Diet, 235, 242 Imperial Government Railway (IGR), xxix, 217, 219–21, 220f, 221–34, 223f, 232–3, 234–47, 237–8t Imperial Household Agency, 314 Imperial Tokyo¯ Sericultural Institute. See To¯kyo¯ Sericultural Institute (To¯kyo Higher School of Sericulture) Imperial University Ordinance (1886), 89 Imperial University, 161, 162, 183, 236, 287–8, 296, 296–7n54, 333, 394, 397, 398, 400–5, 412–13, 417 Inagaki Manjiro¯, 271 India, 61, 196, 209 industrial development policy, 280 industrial education, 280–301, 411–12 industrial revolution. See Mechanical Engineering Department ‘industrial teachers’, 291 industrialization, 75, 85, 89 ‘informal-type’ education, 218 Innai Silver Mine, 407 Innai, 147 Inokuchi Ariya, 395, 399, 400, 415 Inoue Kaoru, 108, 167, 179 Inoue Masaru, 166, 219, 222–3, 234– 5, 239, 242, 245, 246 Inoue Takeshi, 297–8 instructors (science education), 377 instructors/teachers (vocational school), 280–1, 286, 291, 299 intermediate level engineers, 174, 280, 281 intra-firm vocational school. See Training School for Railway Engineers (TSRE, Ko¯gisei Yo¯sei-jo) Introduction to Mathematics, An (Shuxue qimeng), 6

450

Introduction to Science (Kakubutsu nyu¯mon), 6–7 Irie Hisayuki, 372 Ishibashi Ayahiko, 172 Ishiguro Tadanori, 383 Ishikawa Seisho¯ (1872–1945), 60 Ishikawajima, 70 Ishizuka Hiromichi, 280–81 Itakura Kiyonobu, 175 Italy, 255, 257 Ito¯ Hirobumi, 94, 97, 99, 101, 169 Ito¯ Shunsuke, 166 Iwakura Mission, 97, 99, 101, 102 Iwakura Tomomi, 99, 166 Iwami, 155 Iwo Amelung, 27 Janin, Alexis, 321 Japanese (language), 2, 12, 21 Japanese Governor-General of Korea, 272 Japanese mathematics, 142 Japanese Sericultural Advisory Mission, 271 Japan-US Treaty of Amity and Commerce, 271, 357, 366 JCEC (Japan Civil Engineering Company), 240 Jesuit, 20, 39, 45 Jiangnan Arsenal, 27–8, 29, 38, 48n52 Jiaohui xinbao (Church News), 55 jiaokeshu (textbook), 42 Jinbo¯ Kotora, 60 Jinshi shibie, 48, 53–4 Joko¯ Denshu¯jo, 173 Kagoshima (city), 4 Kagoshima prefecture, 156, 319 Kaijo¯ ho¯jutsu zensho, 4f Kaimei yaofa, 48, 54, 56–7 Kakubutsu nyu¯mon, 7, 7n18, 7f, 8f Kamisaku Hamakichi, 336 Kanda Reiji, 325 Kanegafuchi Spinning Company, 399, 400 Kanekiyo Masanori, 93

INDEX

Kaneko Tsunesaburo¯, 326 Kansai, 219 Karakuri zui, xvi Katayama Junkichi, 350 Kawakami Shintaro¯, 410–11 Kawamoto Ko¯min, 5, 6, 25–6 Kenchiku Shoin, 15 Kikai kanran ko¯gi, 5, 26 Kikuchi Kumataro¯, 374 Kikuchi Kyo¯zo¯, xxix, 189–90, 193f, 193–213, 408 Kimura Hatsuo, 347 Kimura Tsutomu, 231, 232, 244 Kiwa Railway Company, 244 Kiyokawa Yukihiko, 204, 205, 212, 253, 269 Kleist bottle, 22 Ko¯bu-dai-gakko¯. See Imperial College of Engineering (ICE, Ko¯bu-daigakko¯) Ko¯gakkai-shi ( journal), 153 Ko¯-gakko¯, xxiii Ko¯gisei Yosei-jo, 181 Ko¯gyoku-sha, 174 Ko¯shu-gakko, 174 Ko¯gaku-ryo¯, 96, 103, 161 Ko¯saka Suetaro¯, 410 Ko¯be, 117, 118, 233 Ko¯bu-ryo¯, 10, 14–15 Ko¯busho¯ enkaku ho¯koku, 319 Ko¯gaku-ryo¯, 88, 101, 102, 104, 105, 107, 120 Kondo¯ Motoki, 410 Ko¯no Seiichiro¯, 82 Korea, 272–3 Korean Imperial Family, 272 Korean Imperial Silkworm Training Centre, 272 Ko¯sha engineering school, 80, 84t, 85 Ko¯sha technical school, 71, 76–7 ko¯shin-sei (government-supported students), 96 Kuangshi tushuo, 53 Kuangwu, 60 kuangxue (study of mining), 40–1, 63 Kuangxue xinyao xinbian, 61–2

INDEX

Kuangxue xuzhi, 53 Kuangxue zhenquan, 54, 61, 62, 63 Kuchinoyama Shrine (mining branch), 317, 319 Kumamoto, 156 Kunyu gezhi. See De Re Metallica Kurashige Gohachi, 379, 384–5, 387 Kure (city), 70 Kuri Ryu¯saku, 397–8, 399 Kurihara Miho¯, 379 Kurobe Gentaro¯, 223 Kuroiwa Kyu¯taro¯, 331 Kurokawa Yu¯kuma, 82 Kyo¯to¯ Imperial University, 395, 411, 416, 417 Kyo¯to, 117, 221, 353 Kyo¯iku rei (Education Order), 328, 377 ¯ tsu, 232, 245–6 Kyo¯to¯ O Kyu¯ Ko¯bu-daigakko¯ shiryo¯, 102, 166 Kyu¯shu¯, 154, 156 Kyu¯shu¯ Imperial University, 333 Lancashire, 195–7, 204, 206 law (raw silk), 263–4 Le nouveau dictionnaire complet des arts et des sciences – tome 4/1013, 3 ‘Learning Students’ system, 98 Lectures (Noad), 28 Lessons in Elementary Physics (Stewart), 350, 364 Leyden jar. See Kleist bottle Li Shanlan, 21 light industries, 297 Lippert, Wolfgang, 20 Little, R.W., 29 Liu Mingchuan, 30 Lobscheid, Wilhelm, 26 London, 62, 97, 99, 101, 102, 103 Longford, Joseph, 195–6 Lyman, Benjamin Smith, 131, 311–12 Lyon Textile School, 260 Macgowan, Daniel Jerome, 48, 53–4 Maebashi Higher Primary School, 373

451

Maebashi Silk Mill, 255 magnetism, 22, 28, 29n29 Manchester Guardian (newspaper), 196 Manchester Technical School, 197f, 197–8 Mano Bunji, 130, 395, 398, 399, 400, 411, 412 Manual of Civil Engineering, A, 13, 13f Manual of Land Surveying (Sokuchi shinpo¯), 15 Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers, A, 13 Marsden, Richard, 200–1 Martin, W.A.P (William Alexander Parsons), 6–7 Marunaka Bunsuke, 255, 256n5 Masaki Taizo¯, 281–2 Masuda Reisaku, 233, 233n29 Matheson, Hugh M., 92, 97, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105 Matsubara, 404 Matsuda Shu¯ji, 233 Matsumoto Kenjiro¯, 333, 337 Matsumoto So¯ichiro¯, 233, 243 Matsunaga Toshio, 23 Matsuoka Toyokichi, 374 Matsuzawa Yo¯, 373, 374–5 Mauser smallbore guns, 27 measles outbreak, 310 mechanical engineering (foreigners), 395–6, 413, 416–17 Mechanical engineering (graduates), 392, 394–5, 398, 403–8, 411, 412, 421–7t, 428t Mechanical engineering (instructors), 395–400 Mechanical Engineering Department, 284, 285, 286, 292, 390–413 Mechanical engineers, 241, 391, 394–5, 409–12 mechanics, 30, 77 Mechanics’ Institution (Manchester), 197, 198 Meiji (era/period), 8–9, 13–14, 23, 37, 93, 155 Meiji Coal Mining Company, 337

452

Meiji government, 8, 10, 13, 78, 90, 94, 154, 155, 158, 165, 167, 168, 174, 184, 252, 303, 315–16, 393–4 Meiji Restoration, xx, xxix, xxx, 71, 191, 308, 321, 342 Meiji Specialized School (Meiji Senmon-gakko¯), 315, 333, 337–8, 339f Mei-sen students, 338, 339f Meishin-kan, 118 metallurgy, 46, 49, 75, 328 middle schools, 294, 305 Mie Spinning Mill, 195 Miike coal mine, 146, 149 Miike colliery, 335, 336 Miike Higher Technical School, 337 military engineering, 52 Milne, John, 129, 131 Minami Kiyoshi, 212, 233, 233n29 mineralogy, 46, 49 miners, 306–8 Ming period (1368–1644), 39, 44 mining (Edo period/ancient times), 306–8 mining (instructors/teachers), 313, 325–6, 326t, 331–2, 336 mining (Main course), 323, 338, 340 Mining (Preparation Course), 323, 324 mining academies, 304, 315, 342 Mining Academy (Freiberg), 322 ‘mining administration’ (kuangzheng), 41 ‘mining affairs’ (kuangwu), 41 Mining and Metallurgy Departments, 305 Mining Bureau Branch Office, 95n27 mining engineers (foreign), 303–4, 309–12, 316, 321, 341–2 mining engineers (Japan), 305, 308, 313, 343 mining schools, 304–6, 309, 313–27 mining sector, 39, 48, 49–51t, 305, 313 Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, 256, 263, 398, 407

INDEX

Ministry of Civil Affairs (Minbusho¯), 94, 95, 165, 313 Ministry of Education, xxi, xxiii, xxiv, 88, 263, 280, 288, 328, 343, 376–7, 394, 396–7, 415, 416–17, 418 Ministry of Home Affairs, 255 Ministry of Public Works (Ko¯busho¯), xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxv, 10–11, 88, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 99, 102–8, 110, 117, 130, 152, 161, 162, 163, 167, 168, 172, 173, 179, 180, 181, 184, 185, 233, 279–80, 392, 394, 398, 406–7, 414 ¯ kurasho¯), Ministry of the Treasury (O 317 Minorikawa Naosaburo¯, 258–9, 264, 265, 271, 277 Minorikawa Silk-making School, 258–9, 279 Mito (city), 3 Mitsubishi Company, 314, 329 Mitsui Bussan, 201, 204, 212 Mitsui Gennosuke, 331 Mitsui Technical School, 333, 335–7 Mitsui zaibatsu, 335 Mitsukuri Genpo, 3–4, 5, 6, 309 Miyake Yonekichi, 358 Miyamoto Seichiro¯, 207 Miyoshi Nobuhiro, 92, 93, 269, 391 Miyoshi Shinrokuro¯, 398, 412 modern science, 341, 376 Mondy, Edmund, 182 Monge, Gaspard, 77 Morel, Edmund, 94 Mori Arinori, 287 Mo¯ri Shigesuke, 233, 233n29 Morikawa Hidemasa, 391–2, 408 Morioka, 308, 309 Morse, Samuel, 22 mulberry cultivation, 255, 256, 257 mule spindles, 204, 206 Muller, Caspar, 255 multi-strand spinning machine/multistrand looms, 264–6, 264f, 265f Musha Manka, 231, 232, 244

INDEX

Nagai Genshin (physics notes), 360–6, 361t, 362t, 378, 386 Nagai Michio, 169 Nagasaki Naval Training Centre, xvii Nagasaki, xvi, xix, 5, 22, 70, 309 Naito¯ Shinjuku Experimental Station, 255–6, 260 Nakae Tanezo¯, 319–20 Nakagawa Kenjiro¯, 358 Nakahara Junzo¯, 410, 411–12 Nakamura Masanao, 119 Nakamura Naofumi, 218 Nakamura Satoshi, 23 Nakamura Teikichi, 180 Nakaoka Tetsuro¯, 175, 190–1, 204 Nakasendo¯, 232–4 Nakayama Shigeru, 178 Nanbu domain (Morioka prefecture), 308 Narita Railway Company, 244 National Industrial Exhibition III (1890), 259 National Sericultural Experimental Station, 263 Natural Philosophy (Parker), 350 Natural Philosophy, 171 Natural Philosophy, A (Quackenbos), 350 natural science, 376, 378 Natural Studies, 59 Natuurkundig schoolbook, 5 Naval Arsenal, 73, 86 Naval Engineering School (Ko¯sha), 165 Navy Ministry, 86, 225 Navy, 392, 407, 410 naya-system, 344 Netherlands, xix, 70 Netto, Curt Adolph, 10, 322, 322n44 New Essay on Scientific Knowledge, A (Bowu xinbian), 6 Nicholas, Tom, 191 Nihon Doboku Kaisha. See Japan Civil Engineering Company (JCEC) Nihon kagaku gijutsu-shi taikei, 305

453

Nihon Ko¯gyo¯kai, 154 Nihon ko¯zan hen, 10 Nihon Railway Company, 235, 243, 244 Niigata English School, 357–8 Niigata Normal School, 357 Niigata prefecture (students notes/ archives), 355–66, 356f, 357f, 368–9, 378 Niigata Western School, 357 Ningbo (city), 72–3 Nirayama, 3 Nishigahara Joshi Sanyu¯-kai, 269–70, 272–3 Nishikawa Makoto, 166 Nishiwaki Ko¯taro¯ (notes and textbooks), 368–9, 369t Noad, Henry Minchin, 27 Nobutake Shimada, 232 Nomura Ryu¯taro¯, 15, 239, 239n37 Northern Kyu¯shu (mining education), 333–41 Notes of a Course of Seven Lectures on Electrical Phenomena and Theories (1870), 29 notes/notebooks (Japanese science), 347, 348, 348f, 349f, 352–3, 354–85 Numazu Hei-gakko¯ (Numazu Military Academy), xx Numazubon, 8 ¯ saka Merchant Shipping Line, O 407 ¯ hara Gen’emon, 117 O ¯ hara Junnosuke, xxviii, 114–15, O 116f, 117–23, 127–8, 133, 135, 140–9, 151–8 ¯ hira Matsujiro¯, 416, 417–18 O ¯ ki Takato¯, 95 O ¯ kubo Chu¯kei, 403–4 O ¯ kubo Toshimichi, 99 O ¯ mori silver mine, 155 O ¯ saka Arsenal, 203 O ¯ saka Eigo¯-gakko¯, 118 O ¯ saka Higher Technical School, 328 O

454

INDEX

¯ saka Ironworks, 407–8 O ¯ saka Mint, 319–20 O ¯ saka Spinning Company. See O ¯ saka O Cotton Spinning Company ¯ saka Spinning Mill) (O ¯ shima Fukuharu (Fukuji), 309 O ¯ shima Takato¯, 94, 95–6n27, 96, 97, O 101, 105, 308–9, 310, 311, 312–13, 321, 344 ¯ take Taki, 410, 411–12 O ¯ tsuka Kaname, 400 O Obana Fuyukichi, 329–30, 330f, 331 Ogata Ko¯an, 3 Ogawa Masakata, 367 Oguri Ko¯zukenosuke Tadamasa, xviii, 72 Oguri Tadanobu, xviii Okamoto Yukio, 408 Okayama Ko¯gyo¯-gakko¯, 174 Okumura Seiichi, 7 ¯ kura Kihachiro¯, 240 O Ono-gumi, 255 Onohama Shipyard, 403 Opium War I (1839–1842), 3 ores (mining), 307, 308 ¯ saka Cotton Spinning Company O ¯ saka Spinning Mill), 195, 204, (O 207, 212 ¯ saka, 117, 155, 217 O ¯ saka, English school, 231 O ¯ saka-Kyo¯to railway line, 246 O Osakayama tunnel, 221, 222f ¯ shima Michitaro¯, 322n45 O ¯ tsu, 221 O Otsuka, Katsuo, 209, 210 ¯ ya Gombei, 239 O o-yatoi (foreign employees), 10, 120, 129 Pacific Ocean, 235 Padua, 255 Paris, 22, 77, 103, 260 Park Mill (Wood, Thomas Broadbent), 199–200, 199f Parker, R.G., 350 Parkes, Harry Smith, 72

Pasteur, Louis, 255 pebrine epidemic, 252, 255 Perry, John, 171, 180 Perry, Matthew, 5 Philadelphia, xxi, xxii Physics (butsuri), 347–8, 348f, 350–2, 361, 368, 377 Physics (Stewart), 361 physics notes, 348, 348f, 349f, 352–3, 354, 358–66, 359f, 368, 369, 373–5, 386 physics, 30, 53 Platt Brothers (Platt Bros), 199, 201, 205, 206, 208–9, 211 Pluche, Noël-Antoine, 3 ‘practical business education’, 298 practical training (mining), 288, 300, 340 practical training (silk production), 259, 265–6, 271, 272 Prague, 43 preparation course/preparatory course (vocational education), 284, 287, 338 primary middle school, 414, 415 Primary School for ICE (Ko¯gaku-ryo¯ sho¯gakko¯), 171 primary schools, 294, 298, 347 principal engineer, 219 Printing Bureau (Ministry of Finance), 399–400, 406, 413, 414 ‘A proposal for railway strategy’, 242 Provincial Girl’s Sericultural School of Jiangsu Province (China), 275–6 Pumpelly, Raphael, xiv, 131, 309–11, 312 Qing dynasty, 45, 53, 56, 59, 62, 63 Qing era/period, 39–40, 51, 62 Quackenbos, George Payn, 350 railway (foreign engineers), 218, 219, 221, 231, 245 railway (graduates), 218, 223–4, 225, 234, 236, 239, 240, 241, 243–5

INDEX

railway assistant engineers (gishu, gite), 219, 221, 222, 224t, 233–4, 236, 241 railway assistants (kenchiku joyaku), 219, 221, 232, 243 Railway Board. See Railway Bureau railway boom II, 244 ‘railway boom’, 239, 240–1 Railway Bureau, xxix, 217, 218, 225, 224, 226, 231, 242 railway classes (students), 218, 225, 231–2 railway companies (private), 239, 240–1, 244 railway engineers (groups), 218, 219, 221–34, 239, 241–3 railway engineers (Japanese), 217–19, 221, 226, 233–47, 408–9 Rankine, William John Macquorn, 11, 133 raw cotton (US), 208 raw silk (European), 252 raw silk (Japanese), 252, 257–8, 263–4, 276 reeling method, 253, 253f, 257 regular engineers (gishi), 219, 221 Reh, Adolph, 321 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 233n29 Richard, Timothy, 58 Rika hikki (Science notes), 374 Rika sho¯shi, 377 ring spindles (technology), 204–6 Rochefort, 83 Roches, Léon, 72, 74 Roscoe, H.E., 367 Royal Institution (UK), 375 Royal School of Mines, 129 Russo-Japanese war (1904–1905), 245 Saburi Takashi, 209 Sadayoshi, Baba, 3 Sado island, 146 Sado Mining Administration, 325 Sado mining school, 321–7, 324f, 342 Saga (city), xv, xvi, 3

455

Saiga shokunin burui, 2f Saitama prefecture (rika notes), 374, 378, 384 Saito¯ Tsunezo¯, 195 Saka Tatau, 406 Sakata Sadakazu, 401, 406, 411, 413–14 Sakamoto Sadayoshi (rika notes), 373–4, 378 Sakata Hatsue, 373 Sakuma Sho¯zan, xiv Sakurai Sho¯zo¯, 82 Sangu Railway Company, 244 Sanjo¯ Sanetomi, 283 Sarda, Pierre Paul, 79 Sarton, George, 42 Sasaki Nagaatsu, 255 Sasaki Takayuki, 166 Sasayama domain, 117, 118, 119, 122 Satachi Jiro¯, 410 Sato¯ Kensuke, 245 Sato¯ Ryu¯ji, 7 Satsuma domain, xvi, 3, 4, 72, 315 Sawa Ichiro¯, 77 Schall von Bell, Johann Adam, 44 Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia), 43, 304 Schets der natuurkunde (A synopsis of physics), 5 School and Textbook Series Committee, 42, 53, 58 science (rika), education, 348–87, 370–2t science education law, 351 science textbooks (foreign), 350, 361, 364, 374, 375, 376, 377 Scott, Walter, 137 Seiyo¯ sarasa senho¯ sho (Western Cotton Dyeing Methods), 14 Seiyo¯ senshoku ho¯ (Western Dyeing Methods), 14 Sekiya Kiyokage, 396–7, 398 Self strengthening Movement, 37 self-employment, 411 self-learning, 54 Sendai Higher Technical School, 328

456

Sengoku Mitsugu, 235 senior engineers, 239, 280, 288 Senko¯ shinsho kagaku jikken (Chemical Experiments in Dyeing), 14 Sericultural Institute, 256–8, 256n7, 261 sericultural school (Japan), 255 sericulture (education), 255–76 sericulture (graduates), 266–70, 273 sericulture (training courses), 254, 256, 259, 260–76, 340, 341 Series of Rudimentary Works, 46, 53 Settsu (Kikuchi company), 203, 212 Sevoz, Denis, 320 Shanghai Electric (company), 29 Shanghai Polytechnic Institutes, 58 Shanghai, 29, 42, 45 Shanxi University, 58 Shenbao (Shanghai Journal), 54–5 Sheng Xuanhuai, 56, 57, 62 Shervinton, Thomas R., 223, 247 Shiba Chu¯saburo¯, 337, 400 Shibata Takenaka, 73 Shida Rinzaburo¯, 109 Shimazu Nariakira, 3–4, 5 Shimizudani refinery, 156 Shimoda port, 366 Shimonoseki campaign, 319 Shimonoseki Straits, 103 Shinbashi, 221, 233 Shinbo Banji, 358 Shinmachi Spinning Mill, 255 Shintoku-do¯, 117 Shipbuilding Association (Zo¯sen Kyo¯kai), 86 Shipbuilding Bureau (Nagasaki), 407 Shipbuilding Department, 396, 398, 407–8, 410 shipbuilding, xviii, xix, xx, xxviii, 46, 72, 73, 78, 80, 80f, 120, 328, 393, 410 Shirai Satoko, 315, 319–20 Shirasawa Miki, 275 Shitoka-shi butsuri-gaku (Kawamoto Seiichi), 364 shizoku, 178

INDEX

Shizuoka (city), 8 Sho¯gakko, 98 Sho¯gun Tokugawa Yoshimune, xiii Sho¯gakko¯ kyo¯soku ko¯ryo¯ (General Plan of Rules for Primary Education), 376, 377 Sho¯gakko¯ seito¯yo¯ butsuri-sho (physics for primary school), 354, 365, 365f, 378–9, 379f, 380–5 Sho¯gaku kagaku-sho (Chemistry for primary schools), 367 Shogunate, 314, 321 Shokko¯-gakko¯ (Verny) , 77 Shu Gaodi, 52, 58 Sichuan province, 61 silk industry (instructors/teachers), 252, 253, 256, 260–1, 263–6, 267, 269, 271, 275 silk industry (students), 255–6, 257, 260, 261, 261t, 262t, 263, 264, 267, 273–4 silk industry, 252–76 silk mills (European-style), 252–3, 254–9, 267 silk spinners, 254 Silk-testing Department, 255–6 Silkworm Department, 260, 261 Silkworm Disease Experiment Station, 256 silkworm schools (China), 273 Silkworm Testing Centre (Korea), 272 silkworm, 252, 255, 272 Simple Theory of Dynamics, A (Zhongxue qianshuo), 6 Sino-Japanese war (1894–1895), xxix, 39, 58, 245, 246, 273, 409 Sloane, Thomas O’Connor, 29 Slovakia, 304 Smith Elder Co., 46 Smith, Robert Henry, 396 Smyth, Warington Wilkinson, 48 So¯bu Railway, 244 Society of Architects (Zo¯gakkai), 15 sock makers, 208 Sokuryo¯ kyo¯kasho, 15, 16f Sone Tatsuzo¯, 180

INDEX

Song Gengping, 61–2 Song Yingxing, 44 specialized schools, 294 Spectacle de la nature – tome (Pluche), 3, 7 Spencer, Herbert, 375–6 Spinners’ Federation, 210–11 St. Etienne, 304 ‘Statement of Opinion’, (mining school), 307, 313–14 steamships, 5 steel industry, 410 Steelmaking Board, 173 Stewart, Balfour, 376 Stewart’s Science Primer (Stewart, Balfour), 376 students (vocational school), 280, 285–6, 290, 292, 293–4 Students’ Textbook of Electricity, The, 27, 28 Sugita Seikei, 3 Suijo¯sen setsuryaku (An outline of steamships), 4 Suwon industrial complex, 272 Tachi Akira, 92, 163 Taipei, 30 Taiwan, 30, 61, 156, 245 Takahashi Haru, 372–3 Takamatsu Toyokichi, 285–6 Takamura Naosuke, 408 Takashima Tokuzo¯, 320 Takatsuji Narazo¯, 403–4 Takayama Naomoto, 180, 398 Takayama Yasutsuna, 82 Takeda Ayasaburo¯, xiv Takeda Kyo¯saku, 155, 156 Tanaka Hisashige, xv, xvi Tanaka So¯ichiro¯, 366–8, 366t, 367n25, 386 Taniguchi Naosada, 396–7, 398, 399, 413 Tashiro Juemon, 207–8 Tatsumi Hajime, 80, 81f, 82, 82f teachers (mechanical engineering courses), 393–400

457

technical training schools (shu¯giko¯), 164 technology (knowledge sharing and knowledge diffusion concept), 209–13 Teibo¯ ryakkai, 10 Teikoku Daigaku ichiran (the Imperial University Calendar), 412–13 Tejima Seiichi, 281–2, 289, 290–301 Telegraphy Board, 173 telegraphy, 5, 22, 29 terakoya (temple schools), 142 Tetsudo¯ fusetsu-ho¯ (Railway Construction Law), 242 Tetsudo¯ kaigi (Railway Council), 242 tetsudo¯ sahai-nin (railway director), 219 Textbook on the Elements of Physics for High Schools and Academies, A (Gauge), 374 textbooks (mining), 41–2 textbooks, science (Japanese), 350, 354, 359–60, 368–9, 373, 378 Thai Royal Family, 271 Thailand, 259, 271 theology, 52 ‘Theory of Industrial Education’, 296 thermodynamics, 30 Third High School, 416 three bands (IGR), 222–4, 223f, 224t three-track education system, 77 Tiangong kaiwu, 43 Tianjin, 57, 62 Tibet, 61 Times of India (newspaper), 196 To¯kaido¯, 219, 219n8, 221, 235, 239, 243 To¯kyo¯ Denshin-gakko¯, 173 To¯kyo¯ Higher Technical School, 415–16 To¯kyo¯ Imperial University’s College of Engineering, 392 To¯kyo¯ Institute of Technology (To¯kyo¯ Ko¯gyo¯ Daigaku), 93, 282, 289 To¯kyo¯ Kaisei-gakko¯, 173 To¯kyo¯ Sho¯gyo¯-gakko¯, 183

458

INDEX

To¯kyo¯ Shokko¯-gakko¯. See To¯kyo¯ Vocational School To¯kyo¯ Technical School, 282, 290, 292, 294, 295, 296, 415 To¯kyo¯ University, 236 To¯kyo¯ Vocational School, xxix, xxx, 174, 281–301, 390, 413–14, 419 To¯kyo¯ Kaisei-gakko¯, 394 To¯kyo¯ Sericultural Institute (To¯kyo Higher School of Sericulture), 253, 259, 260–70, 267f, 267t, 272, 273 Tokugawa government, xiii, xiv, xvi, 71–2, 73, 85, 157 Tokugawa shogunate (military government), xvii, xx, 3, 5–6, 21, 72, 117 Tokyo¯ Imperial University, 127, 130 Tomioka Silk Mill, xxix, 253 Tomonaga Sho¯zo¯, 416, 417 Tonegawa (river), 9 Tongwenguan, 6 Toulon (city), 83 Toyama Kametaro¯, 271 Toyohara Jiro¯, 165 Toyooka, 122 traditional industries, 297 Training School for Railway Engineers (TSRE, Ko¯gisei Yo¯sei-jo), xxix, 217–18, 221–34, 239, 243–7 training schools (shu¯giko¯), 172, 173 transitional period, 158 Translation Bureau (Jiangnan Arsenal), 38, 45 Treatise of Astronomy, 21, 23 Treatise on Coal and Coal Mining, A, 48 Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Japan-US), 271, 357, 366 trigonometry, 79, 140 TSRE (graduates), 218, 223, 226, 234, 243–7 TSRE (trainees), 226, 227–30t, 231–2, 245–6 TSRE. See Training School for Railway Engineers (TSRE, Ko¯gisei Yo¯sei-jo); TSRE (graduates); TSRE (trainees)

Tsukahara Shu¯saku, 7 Tsukamoto Akikata, 8 Tsukiji Silk Mill, 255 Tsutsumi Ichiro¯, 218–19 twisted thread/twisted yarn (spinning cotton), 207, 209 Tyndall, John, 29 Uchida Hoshimi, 392–3 Udagawa Junichi, 7, 350, 365 Ueda Sericultural School, 275 Uemura Sho¯ji, 393 Uemura/Kamimura Takikuma, 372 Ueno–Aomori railway line, 244 United Kingdom (UK), xxiv, 70, 101, 316 United States (US), 6, 52, 56, 60, 61, 200, 201, 204, 253, 257, 276, 342, 350, 376 University of Kyo¯to¯, 305 University of Kyu¯shu¯/Fukuoka, 305 University of To¯kyo¯, xxiii, xxiv, xxv, 10, 96, 144, 157, 161, 181, 183, 185, 305, 342, 394, 396, 398, 400–5, 406, 414, 415, 418, 419 Unko¯-maru (steamship), 4 Ushio mine, 156 Usui To¯ichiro¯, 410 van Doorn, Cornelius Johannes, 10 Verdam, G.J., 4 Verny, François Léonce, xix, 70, 72–5, 85 Vienna World’s Fair (1873), xxi, 255 Virtue Brothers & Co, 47–8 Viscount Hayashi, 103 vocational colleges (mining), 305 Vocational School Ordinance, 328 vocational Training Bureau (Ministry of Education), 411 Vogel, Hans Ulrich, 43 Volledige verhandeling over de stoomwerktuigen, 4 volta column (first battery), 22 Volta, Alessandro, 22

INDEX

Wagener, Gottfried, 173 Wakayama Genkichi, 82 Wang Ruhuai, 61, 62–3, 62n95 Wang Ruran, 51 Waseda University, 305 Watanabe Kaichi, 236 Watanabe Senjiro¯, 212 Watanabe Wataru, 321, 322–6, 323f, 327 Waterboukunde, 10 Wead, C.K., 376 Weale, John, 46–7, 52 Wei Yungong, 27 West, Charles Dickinson, 193, 396, 415 Western Learning (Nisshin-do¯), 309, 312 Western learning, 6, 40, 58, 62 Western mining engineers, 311 –12, 341–2 women workers (silk production), 264–5, 267, 276 Wood, Thomas Broadbent, 199–200 ‘working practice system’ (vocational school), 293 World War I, 209 World War II, 203, 332, 337, 339 World’s Fair (Philadelphia, 1876), xxi, xxii Wu Qijun, 44, 61–2 Wylie, Alexander, 6, 21 Xinhai Revolution, 62 xixue dongjian’, 39 Xu Huakun, 27 Xu Jiabao, 51–2 Xu Jianyin, 27, 51–2 Xu Shou, 51–2, 54 Yale, 342 Yamada Kunihiko, 60, 339–40

459

Yamada Naoya, 336 Yamada Yo¯kichi, 413, 414 Yamaguchi Tatsuya, 82 Yamanobe Takeo, 209, 212 Yamao Yo¯zo¯, xxii, 11, 90, 92, 93, 94, 97, 99, 101, 107, 165 Yanagigawa Shunsan, 7 Yasuda Jirokichi, 7 Yasukawa Keiichiro¯, 333, 334, 337–8 Yasunaga Yoshiaki, 406, 411–12 Yatsumimi Toshifumi, 23 Yizhi shuhui, 42 Yo¯gakusho (Institute of Western Study), 5–6, 5–6n14 Yodogawa (river), 9 Yokobori Jisaburo¯, 331 Yokoi Saku, 398, 407 Yokosuka (city), xix, xx, 70, 74, 76, 77 Yokosuka kaigun sensho¯shi, 77, 78 Yokosuka Marine Shipyard, xxviii, 76t, 78t Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, 86 Yokosuka Naval Shipyard, 165 Yokosuka Navy Dockyard, 71, 73, 74f, 75, 79t, 86 Yokoyama Matajiro¯, 59 Yoshida Kensuke, 7 Yoshida Mitsukuni, 178 Yoshida Tomokichi, 399–400, 401 Yoshii Tomozane, 95 Yoshimi Kuro¯, 325 Zhang Zhidong, 58 Zhao Yuanyi, 51 Zhili Province, 56 zinc (baiqian), 53–4 zoology, 78, 256