Abstract
This study aimed to examine the educational wallcharts published in the Meiji period by analyzing the existing natural history and science wallcharts issued by the Ministry of Education and the Tokyo Zogakan and clarifying the characteristics of these illustrations. The natural history wallcharts, that is, “Hakubutsu-Zu”, published by the Ministry of Education in the early Meiji period were enumerated specimen drawings, but the “Science Wallchart for Elementary Schools” and “Science Wallchart for High Schools” published in 1908 were pictorial, including skillful depictions by the Japanese painter HIDA Shuzan that gave a sense of transparency. Simultaneously, the Tokyo Zogakan published “Wallcharts for the Latest Science Teachers,” which were richly colored and were depicted three-dimensionally as well as pictorially. The illustrations in the textbooks were simple specimen drawings; however, the wallcharts were colorful and contained animal life drawings, thereby leading to the conclusion that they formed the childrenʼs image of objects in this period and were recalled by them when they drew pictures.
