The purpose of this study was to investigate the “gymnastics” for children with physical disabilities, developed and practiced by Kashiwakura Matsuzo in the prewar period. We first referred to Kashiwakura's career from 1901 to 1918 and analyzed his reflections and the doubts he had as a physical education teacher, based on his memoirs, while taking into account the institutional background of the time. A look into his background revealed that he was not the typical military, sportsman, or martial arts type of physical education teacher that dominated the prewar period, and has been considered a major influence on physical education in historical studies. Furthermore, we confirmed that these factors led to his decision to study the possibility of medical gymnastics for children with physical disabilities as one measure to improve school gymnastics.
We then reviewed Kashiwakura's efforts to apply the results of his research on medical gymnastics to school gymnastics, focusing on the period around 1923, when he began to concentrate on running Kashiwa Gakuen. As a result, we were able to clarify that even after the establishment of Kashiwa Gakuen in 1921, the school gymnastics department pursued the use of medical gymnastics. However, since his efforts did not have as wide an impact as he had first assumed, we found that he was forced to devote himself exclusively to the management of Kashiwa Gakuen. Despite this, when Kashiwakura as a physical education teacher is evaluated historically, his legacy as a practicing-researcher is evident.
Finally, we attempted to create an illustration of the “circular back correction exercise/scoliosis correction exercise” that Kashiwakura developed. We have illustrated his concept in the light of his commentary to give a more visual grasp of his gymnastics. As a result, it became clear that, from today's perspective, the medical gymnastics he arrived at was a series of exercises (gymnastics) for warm-up, stretching with back strength training, and massage as a cool-down. Note that “gymnastics” as defined by Kashiwakura was interpreted as being synonymous with “exercise” and “treatment”, and was interpreted as “medicine” prescribed according to an individual's symptoms. He was involved in practical medical gymnastics research as a physical education teacher. From this perspective, it was suggested that “clinical physical education research” would be an appropriate term for comprehensively describing his achievements.
