A critical study on the formative period of taiiku, education through physical activity

Abstract

In his treatise A reconsider about the process of forming the concept of physical education “which means an education for both the physical and the mental by means of physical exercises in modern Japan: focusing on the thoughts of the military drill by Arinori Mori” (2003), Koh-ichi Nakano asserts that the concept of physical education, education through physical activity, appeared in Japan some time during 1878-1882 or the first half of the second decade of the Meiji Era. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that the period when this occurred was not the first half, but rather the latter half of the Meiji Era, i.e. 1883-1887, as ascertained by the auther in A Historical Study on the Formation of the Concept of “Physical Education” in the Meiji Era (1971). Following analysis of Nakano's work, one can conclude that the interpretation of the documents upon which he bases his assertions is flawed for the following reasons: (1) Nakano relies upon documents written in 1879, 1880 and 1882 as grounds for his argument. However they were written from the viewpoint of physical well-being involving three facets of holistic education: 1. intellectual, 2. moral and 3. physical well-being. Nakano incorrectly interprets words taken out of context to mean education through physical activity. (2) Nakano relies upon the early works of Arinori Mori, who was Japan's first Minister of Education from 1885 to 1889. In his address Education-Physical Ability (1879) at the Tokyo Academy (present day Japan Academy), Mori suggests that Western military training may be more useful in Japanese schools than Dio Lewis's light exercises taken from America, because it is able to increase both physical ability and spiritual energy, which is neeeded to excite physical ability. The idea is fundamentally based upon the same holistic education mentioned above. Nakano, however, misunderstands that the idea is based upon the concept of education through physical activity, because he presumes that the aims of military training were to instill not only physical, but also mental ability. (3) Mori enforced military training into schools to increase physical ability and also to cultivate the mind and spirit along the lines of moral education in 1885, in the latter half of the second decade. He was the first person in Japan to describe education through military training as a kind of physical activity. However, he did not actually use the term “physical education” to describe his concept until around 1887. Thus Nakano's theory on the formative period of the concept of physical education, education through physical activity, is incorrect due to misinterpretation of the documents upon which he based his theory.