Abstract
This paper investigates the spread of the use of plaster figures in drawing education from the 1880s to the end of the Taisho era. Based on documents stored at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the role of producing plaster figures was found to have shifted from art schools to private studios along with the movement of drawing education methods, which moved from art schools to public schools. Plaster figures, which were originally imported from the west by the College of Engineering Art School, began to be to be produced domestically. With the expansion of secondary schools and drawing education in the 1880's (in the Meiji Era), the production and distribution of plaster figures by the private dealers also increased. The spread in the use of the drawing method using plaster figures in public schools was seen to be due the use of this method and materials by art teachers, rather than through the national curriculum.
