Bungaku-Bandai_no-Takara-Terakoya-School-by-Issunshi-Hanasato

were private educational institutions that taught reading and writing to the children of Japanese commoners during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

History

The first ''terakoya'' made their appearance at the beginning of the 17th century, as a development from educational facilities founded in Buddhist temples. Before the

, public educational institutions were dedicated to the children of

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

and ruling families, thus the rise of the merchant class in the middle of the Edo period boosted the popularity of ''terakoya'', as they were widely common in large cities as Edo and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, as well as in rural and coastal regions. The ''terakoya'' attendance rate reached 70% in the capital Edo at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The ''terakoya'' were abolished in 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 ...

, when the government instituted the in 1872, when attending public schools was made compulsory to give basic education to the whole population.

Curriculum

''Terakoya'' focused on reading and writing, but they dealt with extra subjects and disciplines, as counting with the

abacus The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hi ...

(''

soroban The is an abacus developed in Japan. It is derived from the ancient Chinese suanpan, imported to Japan in the 14th century. Like the suanpan, the soroban is still used today, despite the proliferation of practical and affordable pocket electr ...

''), history, and geography. They taught girls sewing,

tea ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'') practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The tea ceremony (), literally transl ...

rituals,

flower arranging Floral design or flower arrangement is the art of using plant materials and flowers to create an eye-catching and balanced composition or display. Evidence of refined floristry is found as far back as the culture of ancient Egypt. Professionally ...

techniques and other arts and crafts. The classes usually took place in private homes of samurai, Buddhist priests, or even commoner citizens. The instructors, called ''shishō'' () or ''te-narai-shishō'' () were mostly commoners, but samurai and Buddhist clergy also taught at ''terakoya''. The administration tasks were often taken care of by the teachers themselves. A few ''terakoya'' were administered by

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

priests and medical doctors. Unlike centers of popular education that taught mainly skills needed in everyday life, ''terakoya'' offered a higher level of education. The curriculum began with calligraphy courses, as pupils imitated their instructor examples, the so-called ''tehon'' (). Once the basics of writing were mastered, the pupils advanced to textbooks known as ''ōrai-mono'' (), which dated back to the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

and were mainly used for

education. These copybooks were compiled by Japanese men of letters and were written in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

combined with

kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most p ...

. They contained useful information about the daily lives of people, as household precepts, conversation skills and moral values, as well as historical and geographical contents, which showed a wider scope of social life to the students. Although only a handful of ''terakoya'' offered commercial courses for the children of the merchant class, calculating with the abacus became more and more popular at the end of the Edo period. Through the system of ''terakoya'' and ''han'' schools, the Japanese population had achieved a high degree of literacy at the end of the Edo period. There are no reliable statistics, but it is estimated that 50% of men and 20% of women nationwide were literate and possessed basic calculation abilities.

Contemporary

Today, there have been instances of organisations and events bearing the name of ''terakoya'' in modern Japan, such as the Nichiren-affiliated Hosei-ji temple in Tokyo which held a two-day ''terakoya'' gathering in which elementary schoolers engaged in religious practices such as the copying of Buddhist images (写仏 ''shabutsu'') and disciplined study of

sutras ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

while seated in the seiza style, in addition to many recreational activities. In Honjō, Saitama, the ''Honjō Terakoya'' organisation brings together volunteers, young students, and Buddhist clerics to provide both exposure to spiritual practices, such as the aforementioned ''shabutsu'' and

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...

, but also personal and social development for the youths. The Terakoya Network promotes the creation of modern-day ''terakoya'' and have thus far helped to establish more than 40 such institutions around the entire country. These ''terakoya'' involve cooperation between university student volunteers, local business leaders, religious figures, and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

professionals with a heavy emphasis on community and regional engagement in addition to personal and interpersonal development.

References

{{Authority control Edo period Schools in Japan School types Commoners of Edo-period Japan Social history of Japan Educational institutions established in the 17th century Buddhism in the Edo period History of education in Japan

History

Curriculum

Contemporary

See also

References