Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate how the first Japanese modern textbook, Syougaku Tokuhon, was organized and edited by Yoshikado Tanaka based on Willson's Reader（1860）．I contrasted Willson's Reader with the first version of Syougaku Tokuhon published in (1873) and the revision in (1874). This analysis shows that the first version contains several topics about health; moreover, those topics cover more than 30% of the first volume to the third volume in the revision. In fact, health education in elementary school was begun with Syougaku Tokuhon. Furthermore, it was found that Tanaka emphasized the 'play' for child growth and development, that is, he adopted the topic "The Play-Ground" from Willson’s Second Reader as the first two volumes of both the first version and the revision. Because of his background knowledge of the European medical science, Tanaka recognized that the 'play' had the important meaning for child growth and development. As a result, Syougaku Tokuhon specialized "The Play-Ground" contributed to establishing a playground or a playroom in kindergarten and a ground or a gym in elementary school.
