is a Japanese high school in

Matsuyama, Ehime 270px, Matsuyama City Hall 270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan and also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243541 househo ...

founded in 1878 as Matsuyama Middle School.

History

The high school was founded as Matsuyama Middle School in 1878. Although the school was founded during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, it has earlier roots in the

Iyo-Matsuyama Domain 270px, Matsudaira Katsushige, 13th daimyō of Iyo-Matsuyama Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now central Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Matsuyama Castl ...

Han school The was an educational institution in the Edo period of Japan, originally established to educate children of ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) and their retainers in the domains outside of the capital. These institutions were also known as ''hangaku' ...

, Kōtokukan, Shūraikan and Meikyōkan. Among the first students at the new school was Masaoka Tsunenori, later known as

Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...

. As Seishi Shinoda and Sanford Goldstein explain, :In the 1870s and 1880s, the democratic movement was at its height, and one of its chief leaders was

Taisuke Itagaki Count was a Japanese politician. He was a leader of the "Freedom and People's Rights Movement" and founded Japan's first political party, the Liberal Party. Biography Early life Itagaki Taisuke was born into a middle-ranking ''samurai'' ...

(1837-1919) from Kochi Prefecture... The prefectural governor of Ehime and the principal of Shiki's school. Though the principal had to resign in the summer of 1879 because of his radical views, his influence remained strong at Matsuyama Middle School. For some years after his departure, democratic thought reigned at the school; yet after the principal's departure many students left, and their numbers decreased from 213 in 1879 to 102 in 1881. Among those strongly influenced by the former principal was Shiki. He neglected most of his schoolwork, so caught up was he in the excitement of making political speeches night after night with ten or so of his classmates.Masaoka Shiki, ''Songs from a Bamboo Village: Selected Tanka from Take no Sato Uta'', translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda (Rutland, VA: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1998), 9. Undoubtedly the most famous teacher at Matsuyama Middle School was Natsume Kinnosuke, better known as

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', '' Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

, who arrived in 1895 and taught for only a year, but later memorialized the experience in one of Japan's most popular novels, ''

Botchan is a novel written by Japanese author Natsume Sōseki in 1906. It is one of the most popular Japanese novels, read by many during their school years. The central theme of the story is morality, but the narrator serves up this theme with gener ...

'' (1906). ''Botchan'' describes the comically unfortunate experiences of a young teacher fresh from Tokyo (called, euphemistically, "Botchan" or "little master") as he attempts, with little enthusiasm or success, to adapt to the academic regime and the local culture. In the novel, Botchan's colleagues are given comical names such as Tanuki (

Japanese raccoon dog The Japanese raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes viverrinus''), also known as the ''tanuki'' ( ja, , , ), is a species of canid endemic to Japan. It is one of two species in the genus ''Nyctereutes'', alongside the common raccoon dog (''N. procyonoides'') ...

), Akashatsu (Red-shirt), etc., prompting continued speculation as to which of Sōseki's fellow teachers might have been their real-life models. The school name was changed to the present one in 1949.

Notable students and teachers

Akiyama Saneyuki was a Meiji-period career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was famous as a planner of Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese general Akiyama Yoshifuru was his elder brotherDupuy, Encyclopedia of Military Biography an ...

Akiyama Yoshifuru was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and is considered the father of modern Japanese cavalry. He was older brother to Vice Admiral Akiyama Saneyuki Biography Early life Born as the third son to a poor samurai in the Matsuyama Domain ...

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

Mansaku Itami Mansaku Itami (伊丹万作; real name Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi 池内義豊; 2 January 1900 – 21 September 1946) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for his critical, sometimes satirical portraits of Japan and its history. H ...

Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agricul ...

* Noburu Katagami *

Yoshiyuki Kawashima was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and Army Minister in the 1930s. Biography Kawashima was a native of Ehime prefecture. He graduated from the 10th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1898 (where one of his classmates was Sa ...

Hisui Sugiura was a Japanese graphic designer who was a pioneer of modern Japanese graphic design. Early life He was born in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture in 1876. He graduated from the Japanese-style painting department of Tokyo School of Art, which is ...

Kyoshi Takahama was a Japanese poet active during the Shōwa period of Japan. His real name was ; Kyoshi was a pen name given to him by his mentor, Masaoka Shiki. Early life Kyoshi was born in what is now the city of Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture; his father, Ike ...

Moritake Tanabe was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, commanding the IJA 25th Army from April 1943 until the surrender of Japan. He was the brother-in-law of General Hitoshi Imamura. After the war, Tanabe was charged with war crimes ...

Kenzaburō Ōe is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, i ...

Masataka Ogawa was a Japanese chemist mainly known for the claimed discovery of element 43 (later known as technetium), which he named nipponium. In fact, he might have discovered, but misidentified, element 75 (later called rhenium). After graduating from th ...

Ryūtarō Ōtomo (5 June 1912 – 27 September 1985) was a Japanese film and television actor most famous for his starring roles in jidaigeki. In 1936, he made his debut in movies with the film ''Aozura Roshi''. He ended his life by leaping from the top of a b ...

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to Mi ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Ehime Prefecture Education in Ehime Prefecture High schools in Ehime Prefecture Educational institutions established in 1878 Schools in Ehime Prefecture 1878 establishments in Japan