was a
han school located in the
Chōshū Domain
The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81
The Chōshū Domain was base ...
of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. The school was one of the three major educational institutions in Japan, along with the Kōdōkan in
Mito Domain and
Shizutani School
The was a school for the common people opened by the Okayama Domain_in_the_early_ _retrieved_2013-4-25.
#_.html"_;"title="DF_18_of_8_..._in_the_early_Edo_period">DF_18_of_80/nowiki>_retrieved_2013-4-25.
#_.html"_;"title="DF_18_of_8_..._in_the_e ...
in
.
History
The school was established in 1718 by the 6th Chōshū Domain daimyō Mōri Yoshimoto, located in the ''sannomaru'' (third bailey) of Hagi Castle, and covered an area of 940 ''Japanese units of measurement#Area, tsubo'' (approx 3,102 square meters). It was later moved to the lower Hagi Castle area (part of current
Hagi, Yamaguchi) by the 14th daimyō
Mōri Takachika in accordance with han reforms, where it covered a total area of 15,184 ''tsubo'' (50,107 m²). 3,020 ''tsubo'' (9,966 m²) of the area were used as military training grounds. The han office was moved to
Yamaguchi in 1863, and renamed Yamaguchi Kōdo, a school founded there by Hōyō Ueda, as Yamaguchi Meirinkan, creating two Meirikan schools located in Yamaguchi and Hagi.
Meiji Restoration intellects
Yoshida Shōin and
Takasugi Shinsaku were both students at the Meirinkan. Other distinguished graduates include
Japanese Imperial Army officer
Miura Gorō, diplomat
Aoki Shūzō and
Kido Takayoshi
, also known as , was a Japanese statesman, samurai and '' shishi'' who is considered one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration.
Early life
Born Wada Kogorō in Hagi, Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) as ...
, Meiji Restoration hero and Meiji statesman.
Hagi Meirinkan
is currently part of Hagi City Meirin Elementary School, and its ruins were decreed a
historic site by the Japanese government on December 7, 1919. Manga artist
Yū Koyama's debut title, is set in Hagi Meirinkan.
Yamaguchi Meirinkan
was moved to a large site called in 1861, when the school was called Yamaguchi Kōshūdō. It was surrounded by a
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
, located in central Yamaguchi City. The Kameyama Campus continued to serve as an educational facility for over 110 years as the current
Yamaguchi University School of Business. The moat was filled in order to build a
prefectural road after the school was merged into the Yoshida (Hirakawa) campus in 1973, but parts of the moat were later restored. The
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art is located within the former campus grounds.
Ōmura Masujirō served as an instructor for the Yamaguchi Meirinkan before the Chōshū civil wars.
References
External links
Yamaguchi University
{{coord, 34, 24, 34, N, 131, 23, 57, E, region:JP_source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title
Schools in Japan
Tourist attractions in Yamaguchi Prefecture
Buildings and structures in Yamaguchi Prefecture
Historic Sites of Japan