Katsumi Masuda's Progress in Editing School Textbooks(<Special Issue>Teaching Literature amid the "Affuence")

Abstract

In this paper, I have traced the thirty years' progress made by Katsumi Masuda as editor of textbooks for senior high schools. I have pointed out excellent materials discovered by Mr. Masuda throughout the three decades respectively characterized by their textual format as Sogo Kokugo (the General Learning of Japanese) Period and Gendai Kokugo (Contemporary Japanese) Period, as well as the years preceding and following the Kokugo periods. At the same time, I have tried to indicate what sort of teaching Japanese language and literature is given rise to through the application of such materials. In brief, I argue that Mr. Masuda's achievement is one of the best among the attempts of teaching Japanese in the postwar education.