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Japanese Modernization and the Imperial Universities, 1876–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

James R. Bartholomew
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In the entire body of scholarly writing—Japanese and foreign—on modern Japanese history, perhaps no subject has been treated with less care or greater indifference than the imperial universities. Western scholars, when commenting on the subject, are usually content to note their supposed indebtedness to the universities of nineteenth-century Germany and to emphasize their role in training government officials. Thus Robert Scalapino wrote in 1962: “The government … accepted a far-reaching system of education patterned essentially after German concepts….”; he was seconded in this opinion by Ronald P. Dore in 1965. And of the universities' social functions, Herbert Passin wrote in 1965 that Tokyo University had been conceived as a “training school for officials”; this was echoed by Chitoshi Yanaga in 1968.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , February 1978 , pp. 251 - 271
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1978

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References

An earlier version of this paper, entitled “Imitation or Adaptation: A Reappraisal of the Westernization of Japan,” was delivered on 25 March 1975, at the Association for Asian Studies national meeting, in San Francisco. The research on which it is based was supported, in part, by the Ohio State University Development Fund through its Faculty Summer Fellowship Program. I wish to also thank Professors Andreas Dorpalen (Ohio State), Byron Marshall (Minnesota), Benjamin Schwartz (Harvard), Bernard Silberman (Chicago), and Ann Waswo (Geneva) for their valuable comments and criticisms.

1 Democracy and the Party Movement in Prewar Japan (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press), p. 296.

2 “Education: Japan” in Robert E. Ward & Dankwart A. Rustow (eds.), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press), p. 181.

3 Society and Education in Japan (New York: Teachers College Columbia Univ., Bureau of Publications), p. 129.

4 Big Business in Japanese Politics (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press), p. 21.

5 For criticisms of the universities, see Jōji, Sakurai, Omoide no kazukazu (Herald Sha, 1940), pp. 19–20Google Scholar et passim; also Shōichirō, Ōtsuki, Tokukichi, Nojima, & Jirō, Maki, “Nihon ni okeru kagaku, gijutsu” in Sakata Shōichi (ed.), Kagaku, gijutsu to gendai (Iwanami Shoten, 1963), p.283 et passimGoogle Scholar.

6 Hall, Ivan, Mori Arinori (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973), p. 464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Miller, Frank O., Minobe Tatsukichi: Interpreter of Constitutionalism in Japan (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1965), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

8 (Note 3 above), p. 130.

9 Spaulding, Robert M., Jr., Imperial Japan's Higher Civil Service Examinations(Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967), pp. 111–15, 323Google Scholar.

10 Hiroshige, Tetsu, “Social Conditions for the Researches of Nuclear Physics in Pre-War Japan,” Japanese Studies in the History of Science, No. 2 (1963), pp. 83–84Google Scholar.

11 See Miller (n. 7 above), pp. 10–18 and Ringer, Fritz K., The Decline of the German Mandarins (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1969), pp. 23–24Google Scholar.

12 Hall (n.6 above), p. 144.

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16 For details see John Whitney Hall's report on the 1960 Hakone Conference, “Changing Conceptions of the Modernization of Japan” in Jansen, Marius B. (ed.), Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 23–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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18 Hirobumi, Itō, “Daigaku sotsugyō shōsho juyóshiki,” Tōkyō Iji Shinshi [hereafter TIS], No. 433 (1886), p. 971Google Scholar.

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20 This statement is based on an analysis of the graduation addresses and other public remarks of 25 of the 34 men who served as Education Minister between 1880 and 1920. Sources consulted include the TIS, Ikai Jihō [hereafter IJ], and proceedings of the Imperial Diet.

21 Quoted in Pittau, Joseph, “Inoue Kowashi (1843–1895) and the Meiji Educational System,” Monumenta Nipponica, xx (1965), pp. 270–82Google Scholar.

22 Nakayama, Shigeru, “The Role Played by Universities in Scientific and Technological Development in Japan,” Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, ix (1965), pp. 347–48Google Scholar.

23 The data presented here were compiled by using the following official histories of the imperial universities: Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku gojû nen shi, 2 vols. (Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku, 1932) [hereafter TTDGNS]; Kyōtō Teikoku Daigaku shi (Kyōtō Teikoku Daigaku, 1943); Kyōtō Daigaku nanajû nen shi (Kyōtō Daigaku, 1967); Tohoku Daigaku gojû nen shi, 2 vols. (Tohoku Daigaku, 1960); Kyūshū Daigaku gojû nen shi, 3 vols. (Kyūshū Daigaku, 1967); Hokkaidō Daigaku sōki hachijû nen shi (Hokkaidō Daigaku, 1965).

24 Sharp, W. H., The Educational System of Japan (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1906), p. 176. Using information given him by the Ministry of Education, he calculated that for every £7,600 spent on the Faculty of Law, £13,400 had to be spent on the Faculty of Agriculture and £29,900 on the Faculty of Medicine to sustain a staff of equivalent sizeGoogle Scholar.

25 These calculations are based on Sharp's data (note 24 above) and on Sato Kenzō's figures for the total budget of the imperial universities (see Sato, Kokuritsu daigaku zaisei seido shikō, Dai'ichi Hōki Shuppan, 1965, p. 183). As an official in the Education Ministry, Sato had access to all official records from the period; however, financial information for the universities was given only for such categories as salaries, maintenance, facilities, depreciation, student aid, etc., and was not available by faculty units. My figures for academic unit expenditures were therefore obtained by dividing the total amount expended on the universities (as reported by Sato) by the product of the number of chairs in a given faculty and the relative cost of supporting one chair in that faculty (as reported by Sharp).

26 Calculated from information given in TTDGNS, vol. II, on a fold-out chart located between pp. 1256 and 1257.

27 Compiled from information contained in the official histories of the imperial universities cited in note 23, together with (for Kyoto Imperial University) Takenobu, Yoshinobu, ed., The Japan Year Book: 1916 (Tokyo: The Japan Year Book Office, 1916), p. 253Google Scholar.

28 See TTDGNS chart cited in note 26 above. See also Passin (n. 3 above), p. 93.

29 Calculated from information in The Japan Year Book: 1916, pp. 254–55.

30 Calculated from information presented by Mitsutomo, Yuasa in Kagaku shi (Tōyō Keizai Shimpō Sha, 1961), p. 161Google Scholar.

31 Kurō, Iseki (ed.), Dai Nihon hakushi roku (Hattensha, 1930), vol. v, pp. 1–338Google Scholar.

32 Calculated from data given in Ben-David, Joseph, Fundamental Research and the Universities: Some Comments on International Differences (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1968), p. 40Google Scholar.

33 Bernal, John D., The Social Function of Science (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1939), pp. 172–73Google Scholar.

34 Ringer (n. 11 above), pp. 102–11.

35 Scott, D. F. S., Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Idea of a University (Durham, England: Univ. of Durham, 1960), p. 15Google Scholar.

36 Hachisuka Shigeakira, “Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku sotsugyō shōsho juyōshiki,” TIS, No. 1006 (1897), p. 33.

37 Paulsen, Friedrich (Thilly, F. and Elwang, W., trans.), The German Universities and University Study (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1906), p. 112Google Scholar.

38 Nakayama (n. 22 above), p. 345.

39 Ben-David, J., “Roles and Innovations in Medicine,” American Journal of Sociology, LXV (1960), p. 562Google Scholar; Billroth, Theodor (Welch, W. H., trans.), The Medical Sciences in the German Universities (New York: Macmillan, 1924), p. 179Google Scholar; and the report on Medical Education (New York: Commission on Medical Education, 1932), p. 344Google Scholar.

40 ”Ikai dantai undō shi,” Parts 12, 15, and 16, IJ (1917): No. 1211, p. 1608; Nos. 1215–1216, pp. 1757, 1801.

41 Flexner, Abraham: Medical Education in Europe (Boston: D. B. Updike, 1912), p. 148Google Scholar and Medical Education (New York: Macmillan, 1925), p. 40Google Scholar.

42 See, for instance, remarks to the Diet by the Vice Minister of Education, Matsuura Shinjirō, in Teikoku Gikai Shūgiin iinkai giroku (Shūgiin Jimukyoku, 1920), vol. 42. Cf. “Daigaku tokubetsu kaikei hōan hoka ikken,” House of Representatives Budget Committee, First Session, 42nd Diet, 12 Feb 1920, p. 2Google Scholar.

43 See Ben-David (n. 32 above), p. 40 and the university histories cited in note 23 above.

44 “Universities and Academic Systems in Modern Societies,” Archives Européenes de Sociologie, III (1962), p. 45–84Google Scholar.

45 Zloczower, A., “Career Opportunities and the Growth of Scientific Discovery in 19th Century Germany; With Special Reference to Physiology” (M. A. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1960), pp. 20, 43Google Scholar.

46 Ibid., pp. 92–93.

47 Kyōiku seido ron (Fuzambō).

48 “Daigaku kyōjū zōhō mondai,” IJ, No. 369 (1901), p. 456.

49 For details see Masao, Terasaki, “Teikoku daigaku keisei ki no daigaku kan” in Masao, Terasaki et al. (eds.), Gakkō kan no shiteki kenkyū (Nōma Kyōiku Kenkyū Jō, 1972), pp. 205, 228–29Google Scholar.

50 “Okuda Bunshō to kataru,” IJ, No. 990 (1913), p. 1099.

51 Ibid., pp. 1098–99.

52 Masao, Terasaki, “Kōtō kyōiku” in Tokiomi, Kaigō (ed.), Inoue Kowashi no kyōiku seisaku (Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppan Kai, 1969), p. 366Google Scholar.

53 “Eiseigaku no reimei O kataru,” Nihon Iji Shimpō, No. 1956 (1961), pp. 30–34.

54 Terasaki (n. 52 above), p. 378.

55 Nakayama (n. 22 above), pp. 347–52.

56 See Kyōtō Teikoku Daigaku shi (n. 23 above), pp. 9–10.

57 Nakayama (n. 22 above), pp. 349–50.

58 Based on information in Sato (n. 25 above), p. 183 and Sharp (n. 24 above), p. 176.

59 ”Kikuchi Bunshō no Kyūshū Ika Daigaku dan,” TIS, No. 1230 (1901), p. 39.

60 See Dai Nihon Teikoku Gikai shi (Dai Nihon Teikoku Gikai Shi Kanko Kai, 1926–30), vol. 4. Cf. “Gakusei chōsa kai setchi ni kansuru kengi an,” House of Peers, 14th Diet, 2 Feb 1900, pp. 119–25.

61 Kumakichi, Uzaki, Aoyama Tanemichi (Aoyama Naika Dōsō Kai, 1930), pp. 139–48; quote is from p. 145Google Scholar.

62 Compiled from: Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku gakujutsu taikan: Igakubu, Densembyō Kenkyū Jō, Nōgakubu (Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku, 1942)Google Scholar; TTDGNS; and Mitsutomo, Yuasa, Kagaku gojū nen (Jiji Tsūshin Sha, 1950), pp. 54–56Google Scholar.

63 Yuasa (n. 62 above), pp. 54–56.

64 Compiled from statistics presented in Watanabe, Minoru, “Japanese Students Abroad and the Acquisition of Scientific and Technical Knowledge,” Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, IX (1965), pp. 283–85Google Scholar.

65 Nagayo Matarō den (Nagayo Hakushi Kinen Kai, 1944), p. 115Google Scholar.

66 Kitajima Ta'ichi jiden (Kitajima Sensei Kinen Jigyō Kai, 1955), pp. 35–36Google Scholar.

67 Tokujirō, Mitamura, “Tanemichi no sekai dōtoku” in Kenji, Kumagai (ed.), Omoide no Aoyama Tanemichi Sensei (Aoyama Sensei Tanjō Hyakunen Sai Jumbi Iinkai, 1959), p. 164Google Scholar.

68 “Japanese Culture and the Problem of Modern Science” in Thackray, Arnold & Mendelsohn, Everett (eds.), Science and Values (New York: Humanities Press, 1974), pp. 135–37Google Scholar.

69 Katsusaburō, Yamagiwa, “Ko Nihon Byōri Gakkai meiyō kaichō Miura Moriharu Sensei tsuitō no ji” in Matarō, Nagayo (ed.), Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku Byōrigaku Kyōshitsu gojū nen shi (Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku, 1939), 1, p. 208Google Scholar.

70 Quoted in Nakamura Seiji, Tanakadate Aikitsu Sensei (Ōbun Shorin, 1943), p. 227.

71 Ibid., p. 230.

72 “Preconditions of Development: A Comparison of Japan and Germany” in Dore, Ronald P. (ed.), Aspects of Social Change in Modern Japan (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967), pp. 53–54Google Scholar.

73 Billroth (n. 39 above), pp. 216–43, discusses this and similar cases at other German universities.

74 Compiled from information in Tōkyō Daigaku Igakubu hyakunen shi (Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppan Kai, 1967), pp. 135–36. See also my article cited in n. 68 above, pp. 134–35Google Scholar.

75 “Ika daigaku genjō daha no gi,” IJ, No. 1076 (1915), pp. 268–69. The editorial specifically stated: “This description applies to portions of Tokyo Imperial University besides the Faculty of Medicine.”

76 “The Small Industrialist in Japan,” Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, VII (1954), p. 81Google Scholar.

77 “Prospectus and Summary” in Lockwood, William W. (ed.), The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1968), PP 3–4Google Scholar.

78 “Introduction” in Ward, Robert E. (ed.), Political Development in Modern Japan (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1968), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

79 Japanese Economic Growth: Trend Acceleration in the Twentieth Century (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1973), p. 217Google Scholar.

80 Ibid., pp. 48–69. Daniel Bell has noted the inability of contemporary economic theory to account adequately for the contribution of scientific knowledge to economic development; see The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (New York: Basic Books, 1976), pp. xiv–xvGoogle Scholar, et passim. Readers interested in this problem may also wish to consult two papers cited by Bell: Arrow, Kenneth, “Limited Knowledge and Economic Analysis,” American Economic Review, LXIV (March 1974), pp. 1–10Google Scholar and Spence, Michael A., “An Economist's View of Information,” Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 9 (Washington, D.C.: American Society for Information Science, 1974)Google Scholar.

81 (Note 79 above), p. 44.

82 Ibid., p. 48.

83 Representative of such views, in varying degrees, are Hajime, Nakamura, The Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples ([Wiener, Philip, trans.], Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1964)Google Scholar and Yukawa, Hideki, “Modern Trend of Western Civilization and Cultural Peculiarities in Japan” (in Moore, Charles A. [ed.], The Japanese Mind, Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1967, pp. 52–65)Google Scholar.

84 On the validation of science by Neo-Confucian thought, see Craig, , “Science and Confucianism in Tokugawa Japan” in Jansen, Marius B. (ed.), Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 149–51Google Scholar. On the emergence of a scientific culture in general, see Harootunian, , Toward Restoration (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1970), pp. 325–50Google Scholar and Najita, , “Intellectual Change in Early Eighteenth-Century Tokugawa Confucianism,” JAS, XXIV (1975), pp. 931–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 The classical statement of the “primitive mind” thesis is that of Lucien Levy-Bruhl, Les Fonctions mentales dan les sociétés inférieures (Paris: Alcan, 1910).Google Scholar

86 Some modem anthropologists would accept Emile Durkheim's thesis that scientific thought resulted from a gradual process of evolutionary development from “primitive” religious thought. More would probably associate themselves with the view of Claude Lévi-Strauss: that one ought to define the problem in terms of “two distinct modes” appropriate to the “two strategic levels at which nature is accessible.” On Durkheim's position, see Horton's, Robin important essay “Levy-Bruhl, Durkheim and the Scientific Revolution” in Horton, & Finnegan, Ruth (eds.), Modes of Thought: Essays on Thinking in Western and Non-Western Societies (London: Faber & Faber, 1973), pp. 249–305Google Scholar. For Lévi-Strauss's views, see his The Savage Mind [ist pub. 1962] (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1966), pp. 1–33Google Scholar.

87 Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme latin au XIII me siécle (Louvain: Institut Supèrieur de Philosophie de l'Université, 1911), p. 2Google Scholar.

88 (Johnston, Leonard, trans.), Aristotle in the West: The Origins of Latin Aristotelianism (Louvain: E. Nauwelaerts, 1955), p. 16. I am indebted to Professor Joseph H. Lynch, my colleague in medieval history at the Ohio State University, for calling my attention to van Steenberghen's book.Google Scholar

89 Clark, Terry N. (ed.), Gabriel Tarde on Communication and Social Influence (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 22–26Google Scholar.

90 Gerschenkron, Alexander, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 3–29Google Scholar.

91 (Parsons, Elsie C., trans.), The Laws of Imitation (New York: Henry Holt, 1903), pp. 189–254Google Scholar.

92 Schutz, , Collected Papers (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), I, p. 149Google Scholar; Berger, & Luckmann, , The Social Construction of Reality (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1967), pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

93 Vucinich, Alexander, Science in Russian Culture: A History to 1860 (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1963), pp. 75–122Google Scholar.

94 Bell (n. 80 above), pp. xvi, 25–26.