明治時代の英語副読本 (II)

外山正一と東京大学刊行英語テキスト

抄録

In 1877 (the 10th year of the Meiji Era), the first three English supplementary readers in Japan were published at the newly organized Tokyo University. Over the next eight years, about a dozen more were also published by Tokyo University. Among those readers were T. B. Macaulay's essays, “Warren Hastings”, “Milton” and “Clive”, and S. Johnson's Rasselas which were to be regarded as models of English supplementary readers and reproduced in facsimile by the hands of the newly established publishers, such as, Sanseido, Kaishindo and Yuhikaku. Thus they became the most popular English textbooks throughout the Meiji period and were a conduit for Japanese students to realise what Western novels were like and how Western people tended to think.
No one has ever tried to examine by whom or on what originals these Tokyo University textbooks were compiled, or what place they took in the overall curriculum at the university, or how they might have affected the careers of the young elite who studied there, even though these same works played important roles in early English or literary education. This article will make these basic facts clear and present sufficient evidence to warrant a reevaluation of the textbooks.