was one of the first schools organized along western lines in Japan, and was located in

Numazu, Shizuoka is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,486 in 91,986 households, and a population density of 1,014 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Numazu is at the nor ...

. Although the academy operated only from December 1868 to 1871, it made a major contribution to the development of

public education State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

in Japan. It was later merged into the

Imperial Japanese Army Academy The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...

History

During the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji govern ...

, the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

belatedly attempted to modernize its military forces with the assistance of French military advisors. The attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, and following the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

of the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

, formerly masters of the country with revenues of over eight million ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

,'' were reduced to 700,000 ''koku'', spread across the provinces of Suruga, Tōtōmi and Mikawa, with the head of the clan,

Tokugawa Iesato Prince was the first head of the Tokugawa clan after the overthrow of the Tokugawa bakufu, and a significant figure in Japanese politics and diplomacy during the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japan. When Prince Tokugawa travelled to ...

, moving to reside at Numazu. At this time, a group of ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

,'' led by

Ebara Soroku was a samurai of the late Edo period who went on to become an educator and politician in the Meiji era. Biography Ebara was born in Edo as the son of a lesser retainer of the Tokugawa shogunate, but was an exceptionally talented schol ...

, Abe Kuninosuke and Yatabori Keizō returned from studies in the Netherlands, and decided to establish a military academy along western lines within the grounds of

Numazu Castle was a Japanese castle located in the city of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was a ''hirayama-jō'', a castle built on a plains rather than a hill or mountain. During the Edo period, Numazu castle was home to the Mizuno clan, ''daimyō'' o ...

in December 1868. The curriculum of the academy included English and French language and conversation, physics and chemistry, geography, astronomy, world history and economic theory. The curriculum was also weighed towards mathematics, particularly geometry and trigonometry, where were regarded as essential military subjects due to their usage in navigation, artillery targeting and surveying. The first head of the academy was

Nishi Amane was a philosopher in Meiji period Japan who helped introduce Western philosophy into mainstream Japanese education. Early life Nishi was born in Tsuwano Domain_of_ ">DF_23_of_80">"Kamei"_at_''Nobiliare_du_Japon'',_p._19_[PDF_23_o_..._of_Iwami_ ...

, who was a driving force behind the creation and elementary school associated with the military academy, which is now regarded as Japan’s first western-style elementary school. In 1869, the first Japanese textbook on military engineering was published by the Numazu Military Academy. On November 12, 1871 the academy came under the direct control of the Ministry of War (pre-modern Japan), Ministry of War and in 1872, it was closed, and moved to Tokyo, where it was merged with the new

. Although in existence for only four years, its 210 academy graduates and 150 elementary school graduates included many who went on to serve as generals in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, admirals in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

or as noted educators or politicians. Its elementary school served as a model for other elementary schools which were soon established throughout Japan. The Numazu Military Academy was also the subject of the first film of director

Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for Social realism, social realist filmmaking informed by a Left-wing politics, left-wing perspective. His most noted films include ''An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and ''Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life ...

in 1939.
Japanese movie database

References

*Samuels, Richard J. ''Rich Nation, Strong Military''. Cornell University Press (1996) *Platt, Brian. ''Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890''. Harvard University Asia Center (2004) *Jansen, Marius. ''Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji''. Princeton University Press (2014)

External links

City of Numazu home page

Notes

{{reflist Education in Japan History of Shizuoka Prefecture