Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education in 'Kobu-daigakko' (the Imperial College of Engineering), which had been called 'Kogakuryo' in the early period, and clarify the significance it had in the history of school physical education in Japan. The materials analysed were collected at the National Diet Library, the National Archives, the Archives and the Central Library in the University of Tokyo, and Numazu City Archives of Meiji. The results of this study are summerized as follows: 1) Judging from T. Hayashi's proposal to adopt military drill, 'Kobu-daigakko' founded by Ministry of Public Works in 1873 had been concerned about physical education since the early period of 'Kogakuryo'. 2) However, 'Kobu-daigakko' did not have physical education as a subject, while students had an hour of exercise as their daily routine which the college urged them to observe. They were free to select the kind of sports and could have a good time and find the beginning of the friendship. It Was a feature of physical education for 'Kobu-daigakko' to have introduced various kinds of sports. 3) A physical education teacher employed by 'Kobu-daigakko' was Ituro Shimo who had been a gymnastic teacher at Numazu Military Academy before. He seemed to have experienced military gymnastics at the closing period of the Tokugawa shogunate and to have taught the same system of gymnastics. 4) Physical education in 'Kobu-daigakko' was an intermediate form between a regular subject and an extra-curricular sports. 5) Physical education in 'Kobu-daigakko' had a significance in Japanese history of school physical education to be an experiment for physical education in higher education, which contrasted with physical education consisted of formal gymnastics in schools under the administration of the Ministry of Education.
