著者

岩田 高明

出版者

教育史学会

雑誌

日本の教育史学 (ISSN:03868982)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, pp.19-31, 2006

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This article analyzes information on Western education contained in several records, namely "A British Inquiry," "A Dutch Inquiry," "A French Inquiry," "A Prussian Inquiry," and "A Portuguese Inquiry" (called collectively "A European Inquiry" hereafter), found in The Notes of Fukuda Sakutaro (27 vols.). This work, housed in the Historiographical Institute The University of Tokyo, was recorded during the Tokugawa shogunate's 1861 mission to Europe. This article discusses the following : 1. The legation of the 1861 mission and the inquiry into European educational systems; 2. The participation of Mitsukuri Genpo in the inquiry into European educational systems ; 3. Circumstances surrounding the composition of The Notes of Fukuda Sakutaro ; 4. Information about the establishment of schools and forms of administration as described in "A European Inquiry ;" 5. Information about national educational systems as described in "A European Inquiry;" 6. Information about schools of every country visited during the Mission as described in "A European Inquiry." There are five particular points made in this article. First, The Notes of Fukuda Sakutaro has not been used as a source prior to this, with the exception of "A British Inquiry," published in Seiyo Kenbunshu (A Collection of Observations of the West), in Nippon Shiso Taikei. vol. 66. Second, it was exactly ten years later that the new Meiji Ministry of Education followed in the footsteps of the Tokugawa Shogunate and began its own investigation of educational systems. The 1861 mission, in addition to its primary function of improving foreign relations, included an inquiry into European matters, under orders to "conduct an investigation into each nation's government, educational system, and military organizations with particular care." In other words, the 1861 mission was Japan's first investigation into the state of Western education, and "A European Inquiry" was the formal report. Third, it was likely because of the involvement of Mitsukuri Genpo, chief instructor of the shogunate's Bureau of Western Learning, that educational systems came to be the most important topic for the 1861 mission's inquiries. At that time, Mitsukuri Genpo, with his strong connections to shogunal leaders, was the scholar most familiar with Western education through his knowledge of Dutch and Chinese translations of foreign books. Fourth, this article discusses the analysis of the surveys of various European countries included in "A European Inquiry," on topics like the establishment of schools and the forms of administration, administrative and educational expenses. Fifth, this paper analyzes information regarding various European states' national educational systems. Information about countries with more fully developed systems, namely Prussia and the Netherlands, is particularly abundant.