Former Kuramochi Elementary School built in 1888 in Mie Prefecture. The school was later moved to Nabari City before eventually being reconstructed at Meiji-Mura. Like most schools of this period, it is a mix of Western and more traditional Japanese architecture.

Think back to when you were young.  Did you ever go, perhaps with family or as a school trip, to visit a school from a previous era?  I can think of a few times when I was a kid that I had the chance to visit the old frontier school houses of the late 1800s and early 1900s in the U.S..  It was always something to see how different they were to the schools I went to growing up in the 1980s and ’90s.  It was always interesting to see how small, wooden one room schools, huge desks, wood stoves, heavy, shared school books, and shale student writing boards became large brick and concrete schools with libraries, science labs, multi-media rooms, and central air conditioning.  And the schools being built today are often quite different from what I experienced when I was a kid, as blackboards are being replaced with interactive media displays and textbooks are replaced by tablet computers.  In Japan, however, that really isn’t the case.

A Meiji Period elementary school student’s desk. Today’s desks are made from much lighter plywood and steel tubing but the function is much the same.

Over the last year, Mr. Krigbaum and I have had the opportunity at different times to visit various preserved schools from different eras in Japanese history.  This has been of particular interest to me since I’ve been teaching for a few years in the Japanese school system.  And the thing I’ve noticed more than anything, is how little Japanese school architecture has changed in the last hundred plus years.  Sadly, due to privacy laws and company policies, I can’t take or show photos of the schools I’ve worked at, but I assure you, they look almost identical to the photos you’ll see here.

Sitting in the reconstructed classroom of Kuramochi Elementary School. The general classroom layout in today’s schools are not all that different. Only the construction materials have really changed. Note the large pedal driven organ on the far right of the image. Every classroom from the 1890s to the modern day has one of these or a modern equivalent.

As with most things in modern Japan, the current education system got its start in the early days of the Meiji Period.  The Meiji Emperor and his government wanted to modernize the country, bringing in western industry, technology, and government which required an educated populace, but throughout the Edo period, schools were owned by the local Daimyo for the exclusive use of the samurai class or they were attached to temples for the education of monks and priests.  Wealthy merchants hired tutors for their children while the farmers and peasants simply remained uneducated.  Therefore, the Meiji Government had a monumental task on their hands.  Early on, local cities tried to build completely western schools, mostly copying Prussian or early American designs, as a symbol of how great and advanced they were.  The central government realized very quickly though, that these schools were expensive and took a long time to build.  As a result, the government began urging the new prefectures to build schools that were a mix of western and traditional Japanese design that could be build quickly and cheaply.  These hybrid schools were standardized in 1890 when the Meiji Government issued guidelines for the construction of elementary schools.  These guidelines set standard classroom dimensions and layouts, the number of students per class, and lecture halls.  In 1895, the design was further refined when the government released a model school plan.  This plan features classrooms lined up along one side of a main corridor, all oriented in the same direction.  Both the corridor and the classrooms featured large windows to let in plenty of light and fresh air for the students health.  There is also a separate library, a school office, and entrances for students and staff.  These features are still prominent Japanese in schools built today.

The main corridor of Toyosato Elementary School. Built in 1939, the long hallway, the row of classrooms on the left side, and the large windows that were put forward in the 1895 model layout are clearly visible and are still in use today.  The schools I teach at (built in the 1960s and 1970s) use more traditional sliding doors in the classrooms.  – Photo by D. Krigbaum

The corridor of Tono-cho Elementary School in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. This school may be closed now, but it is only a few years older than the schools I teach at. The corridors and classrooms still look the same.  – Photo by D. Krigbaum

Even in the classroom, not much has changed.  I haven’t been able to find much direct documentation about why they are the way they are, but I can share what I have observed.  Obviously, there are the rows of desks, blackboard at the front, a podium, and often a large desk for the teacher to use.  Most schools have storage boxes in the back of the class for book bags, and additional blackboards and cork-board walls for posting class schedules, calendars, school announcements, and student artwork.  Interestingly, every class has an organ.  In the reconstructed classroom of Kuramochi Elementary School (1888), the first thing I noticed was the old pedal driven organ beside the front platform and podium.  Even today, every class has an electric organ, and even if the teacher can’t play it, there is almost always at least one student who can.  These days, these organs are being replaced with smaller, cheaper electric keyboards as they wear out.  Each classroom also has its own independent heater.  There is no central air, and the hallways and common areas are usually not climate controlled at all.  These days, there are also TVs, computers, and tablets that have found their way into the classrooms, carving out their own little modern corner of a classroom design that has persisted largely unchanged for over a hundred years.

A classroom in Toyosato Elementary School. Whether built in 1939 or 1975, the classrooms are practically identical.  – Photo by D. Krigbaum

In spite of the longevity, however, it seems that the days of the traditional Japanese school building may be coming to an end.  In 2010, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) put out new guidelines and chose 10 schools throughout the country (5 Elementary, 5 Junior High) to remodel as test-beds for new styles of education, new classroom layouts and technologies, and radical new school designs.  If these changes become the new normal, the classic Japanese school may become a thing of the past, and 20 years from now, the children of today may not recognize the schools their will children attend.  As a teacher, I find both the unchanging nature of Japanese schools in the past and the rapid changes that may be coming to be fascinating.

Reference

Yanagisawa K. (2015) Historical Background of the Japanese School. In: Walden R. (eds) Schools for the Future. Springer, Wiesbaden