Historical materials for this study were acquired from the List of Personnel of Secondary Schools (published in 1921, 1926). In the late Taisho Era the number of schoolgirls increased while at the same time the number of male teachers who taught gymnastics at girls’ high schools outpaced the number of female teachers. The average number of both male and female teachers who taught gymnastics per school was less than one, with fewer still at practical girls’ high schools. Those numbers were less compared to the late Meiji Era. The Girls’ High School Syllabus of 1903 states that: “We will, to the best of our ability, have girls’ gymnastics taught by female teachers.” This was to be gradually realized in the late Meiji Era. However, by 1921 female teachers who taught gymnastics had not been assigned to 43.3% of girls’ high schools and 68.7% of practical girls’ high schools. By 1926 that percentage had fallen to 25.0% of girls’ high schools and 57.9% of practical girls’ high schools. Female teachers who taught only gymnastics at girls’ high schools increased to 65.8％ by 1926. There were higher numbers of female teachers who taught two subjects compared to male teachers. For teachers who taught two subjects in conjunction with gymnastics, music was the most common second subject. From 1911 to 1937, no female physical education teachers were trained at National Women’s Higher Normal School. Instead, the National Sixth Provisional Teacher-Training Institute assumed that role and female physical education teachers were trained there beginning in 1915. In last years of the Taisho Era two new private schools opened which brought the number of private schools that trained female physical education teachers to four. Teachers who graduated from private schools and taught only gymnastics or music and gymnastics in conjunction, became normal.
