TRENDS OF THE THOUGHT IN GEOGRAPHY IN JAPAN FROM THE 1870'S TO THE 1920'S: A PERSONAL VIEW

Abstract

The author outlines the major trends of the thought in geography from the beginning of the Meiji Period, to the end of the Taisho Period. The account does not list the scientific achievements or works published during the period, but concentrates on clarifying the academic background or climate in Japan's geographical circles.
1. Japanese Geography for the Public and in Education
Japan's geography began with the Fudoki, written in the eighth century ; and later from the 12th to the 14th centuries, rough maps of the whole territory were drawn. Geographical accounts of foreign countries increased after the arrival of the Europeans in Japan in the six-teenth century. Knowledge of this kind, however, was limited to the intellectuals of the Imperial court or of the samurai class. Commoners' conception of the world, dating from the medie-val age, was that consisting of the three countries : Japan, China and India. This belief lasted until the arrival of the “black ships” of Commodore Perry in 1853.
After the opening of the country, it became necessary for the samurai class and govern-ment officials to have an adequate knowledge of world geography and recent history a diplo-matic and political tools, for the Opium War of 1840-42 had provided a warning of the danger of colonisation by the Europeans. Thus numerous European and American books, firstly on geo-graphy and history, and then, on munitions engineering and modern military organisation were introduced, some being in translation from Chinese translations or in direct translations.
For old countryf olk or for children, accounts of world geography easy to understand and to memorise their verse form appeared and spread widely. The Sekai-Kuni-Zukushi (Countries of the World Without Exception) by Yukichi Fukuzawa, an eminent writer of the early Meiji Period and the founder of Keio University, was the first book of this kind. In school educa-tion, at both the primary and secondary levels, geography has remained to be an important subject up to the present When a modern education system was set up in 1872, the Ministry of Education published lengthy textbooks of Japanese and world regional geography for teachers' use, and later numerous publishers produced pupils' textbooks. All books for school use have been examined and approved by the Ministry of Education from the beginning of this century to the present day. With the establishment of geography and history courses in the Higher Normal School in 1897, geography teaching was centred on regional geography, both domestic and foreign, and lessons in geography qenerally meant the memorisation of place names with figures for population and products. It was an unattractive school subject. Moreover, detailed syllabuses were established and there was little to choose from among published textbooks. It was almost impossible to introduce any variation in descriptions due to the government policy of the times. At one period, international co-operation was emphasised in textbooks, while at another, nationalistic sentiments were stressed. Geography teachers for middle schools were fostered at four national higher normal schools and a number of private schools, all of which taught the same course, and they had to pass an annual, licensing, examination conducted by the Ministry of Education. They were trained to follow the contents of the textbooks without any special individual thought. In the latter half of the 1920's, however, two journals of academic geographical associations, were inau-gurated as well as a geography teaching magazine by a private publisher. These provided school teachers with materials for study The situation improved with the successive publication of a complete series of systematic geographical work from 1929-30 onwards.