Development of Local Education in Physical Education in the 1930s:

A Case Study of the Elementary School Attached to Wakayama Normal School

Abstract

    In the history of Japanese education, local education underwent a period of nationwide prosperity in the 1930s. Using the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, a pioneer in local education in physical education, as a case study, this study clarifies how Japanese elementary schools in the 1930s perceived and practiced local education in physical education, and examines the changes in local education after 1937, which have been pointed out in previous studies, from the viewpoint of physical education.
    The main historical sources are books written by the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School and the magazine Jissai Kyoiku (Practical Education) edited and published by the school.
    The results of this study are summarized as follows:
 1) At the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, physical education was positioned as a means to the universal goal of the sound development of students and the cultivation of strong and healthy Japanese people. It was not linked to recognition of the hometown, the construction of an improved hometown, or the cultivation of love of their hometown and patriotism.
 2) The following two aspects served as the foundations for the physical education department at the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School. First, the school practiced individualized instruction based on the characteristics of each student after investigating “physical examination,” “physical abnormality survey,” “physical fitness test,” and “mental characteristics.” In addition, based on the overall trend of the students, the school installed a low bar to improve their pull-up strength. Second, the school researched local exercise plays from the three perspectives of “season,” “age,” and “gender” and used them as teaching materials for physical education class.
 3) Regarding the teaching plans prepared by the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, the school’s physical education classes were very faithful to the ministry’s curriculum, which focused on gymnastics materials; the “local exercise plays” were only a supplement to the teaching materials listed in the ministry’s curriculum guideline.
 4) The original teaching materials of the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School were removed from the teaching materials in 1938 at the latest and were in line with the revised 1936 ministry’s curriculum guideline. In contrast, the surveys of the students’ actual conditions and their utilization continued as an effective practice even during the wartime period.