It is possible to see the description about the classroom system in the book "Didactica magna" which was written by the educational scholar, Johannes Amos Comenius (1592-1670) in the 17th century. The classroom system was developed later in German gymnasiums in the 19th century. The development of elementary school architecture in England in the latter half of the 19th century was strongly influenced by gymnasium architecture. The Johnson Street School, designed by the architect Roger Smith and completed in 1871, was experimentally built to prove the effectiveness of the system.
Eventually the classroom system also spread to elementary school buildings in Scotland. In 1906, the Scottish Street School was completed in Glasgow, with the design of the architect, Charles Rennie McIntosh, in which the classroom system was adopted and the similarity to German gymnasium architecture was also recognized.
In Japan, "Drawings of Primary Schools' construction estblished by the Ministry of Education (文部省制定小学校建設図)" emerged, in which 6 types of elementary schools were indicated. These schools had classrooms and their plans were not similar to American ones, but similar to German and British schools which had corridors.
On the other hand, the architect Josiah Condor, who was a son of Roger Smith's cousin and worked at Smith's office when the Johnson Street School was built. He was invited by the Meiji government and came to Japan in 1877 (Meiji 10). So Condor taught architecture to Masamichi Kuru and Kingo Tatsuno and others, that the concept of classroom system might be transmitted to them from him. Apart from this, there was an explanation about classroom system was seen in "New book of Elementary Education (小学教育新篇)" written by Tei Nishimura in 1881 (Meiji 14), who was a bureaucrat of the Ministry of Education and had studied in Glasgow.
In 1895 (Meiji 28), the Ministry of Education promulgated "School Architecture Drawing Explanation and Design Compendium (學校建築図説明及設計大要)" which was said to be written by the accounting department building manager, Masamichi Kuru. The 60 children's classroom indicated within the compendium was exactly the same size as the German classroom of 60 children explained in Robson (1874). In addition, the compendium presented the plan of elementary school "virtual design", which adopted the classroom system and was similar to the plan of the Gymnasium Andreanum published in Robson (1874).
In 1895 (Meiji 28), under the guidance of professor Kingo Tatsuno who had been educated by Roger Smith at the University of London, Tadashi Sekino wrote a graduation thesis "School Architecture" written in English which quoted Robson (1874). The thesis clearly expressed that a classroom was the one of main elements in a school building.
In 1901 (Meiji 34), the Karatsu elementary school was completed by the design of Professor Kingo Tatsuno. It was a plan that adopted a classroom system, and was familiar to the characteristics of the Johnson Street School and the Gymnasium Andreanum which were described in Robson (1874).
