Modern Schools and Media in Regional ‘Enlightenment’: Interplay among Schools, Newspapers and Expositions

Abstract

  This paper, through a case study of Chikuma Prefecture during the 1871-1876 period, sheds new light on a modern school by examining its development within regional society as a function of the interplay among schools, newspapers and expositions.

  First, I show the active stance of regional notables towards the new ‘civilized’ age, as reflected in their often-overlapping involvement with schools, newspapers and expositions. I then clarify the ‘cooperative’ and ‘complementary’ interplay among the three activities. I use ‘cooperative’ in the sense that schools acted as a sort of ‘enlightenment’ media in which newspapers were read and expositions were held. I use ‘complementary’ in the sense that these activities gradually became specialized in their functions, focusing on specific information dedicated to a specific audience.

  On the basis of on the above analysis, I argue that modern schools were not originally conceived as institutions comprising children and teachers, but were started out as one of several ‘enlightenment’ media, through which regional notables aimed to convey information about ‘civilization and enlightenment’ (bunmei kaika). Only in the process of the specialization of these different media did the role of schools become defined and restricted to that of the ‘modern school’.