Ranking as high as Satsuma and Saga, Yonezawa was once called the Province of Navy in Japan.
This paper is intended, taking the effect of English studies into consideration, to reason why Yonezawa could produce many distinguished admirals in the days when the glory of the Japanese Navy lasted.
Without flourishing of English studies in Yonezawa early in the Meiji era, so many young men of outstanding talent would not have been ambitious to enter the Naval Academy and such a great admiral as Yamashita would not have been produced.
Yamashita was promoted to admiral and served the Japanese Navy as the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet of Japan, the Chief of the General Staff and other important posts, and also he enjoyed high popularity among Navy for his great humanity: the one proves him to have had an aptitude for Navy, while the other shows that he was the very man that put gentlemanship into practice throughout his long naval career.

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During the Meiji era many Europeans and Americans employed by the Japanese Government took a distinguished part in making up modern Japan. It is not right to belittle the influences of those employed foreigners of various nationalities in the flux of modernization. Among foreigners Englishmen exceeded in number especially in the earlier years. Foreigners employed by the Japanese Government were on duty not only at ministries proper, but proceeded to their new posts in prefectures. On the other side, a prefecture bore the personnel expenses of its own to employ foreigners from various countries.
It is on record that in Niigata Prefecture foreigners engaged by the Government and Prefecture took their posts chiefly at government-managed Sado Mine, National Niigata English School under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, and the English and the Medical schools founded by the Prefecture.
This paper is going to describe the actual circumstances of foreigners in the service of the Government and Niigata Prefecture and to know their influences upon the modernization of Japan.

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Adopting Western culture in Akita was one of the concerns of Governor Ishida, who, with Tonno, Principal of the Normal School serving concurrently as Chief of the Educational Bureau of the Prefecture, invited Carrothers to teach English for three years from 1879 to 1882 at the Preparatory Course attached to the Normal School.
What is conspicuous about Carrothers staying in this town is the four contributions he made to the local newspaper, each including an important problem, probably intended for enlightening the local people: namely, the reverence for the Emperor, the use of the newspaper, reform in agriculture, and the Christian view of the world.
He was rated rather high in the report presented to the Ministry of Education by the Governor, though in the discussion of the annual expenses in the Prefectural Assembly the opinions sharply divided as to the necessity of a foreign teacher. They did not renew his contract on his serving out his term, the reason reported to the Ministry of Education being for financial difficulties, but probably also because Ishida and Tonno were soon transferring to next posts, leaving few who would take after the matter.

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Dr. J. C. Hepburn of the American Presbyterian Mission came to Kanagawa in October, 1859. S. R. Brown of the Reformed Church of America arrived there in November, 1859. J. Goble of the Free Baptist Mission landed there in 1860. J. H. Ballagh of the Reformed Church of America arrived there in 1861. Those four missionaries stayed at the Jobutsuji Temple in Kanagawa and studied Japanese.
After moving to Yokohama, they were absorbed in translating the Bible into Japanese. Dr. Hepburn, as a medical missionary, treated many patients and made a Japanese-English dictionary ‘Waei-Gorin-Shusei’.
In 1865 Ballagh baptized Riuzan Yano, the first Protestant Christian in Japan. He established the first Protestant church in 1872.
S. R. Brown opened the first theological school in Japan, at the Bluff in 1873.
Nathan Brown of the American Baptist Mission came to Yokohama in 1873. He published the first Japanese edition of the entire New Testament by himself in 1879.
Dr. Hepburn was on both the Translation Committees which translated the Standard Japanese New Testament in 1880 and the Standard Japanese Old Testament in 1888.
After the abolition of the edict against Christianity in 1873, many missionaries came to Yokohama. Some of them founded several schools there.

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SHONEN BUNSHU (Young People's Miscellany) was first published in 1895 (the 28th year of Meiji) and lasted for three years. The aim of publishing the magazine was to improve young people's art of writing in Japanese, English and Chinese. Many students from all over Japan contributed to this and some great scholars wrote for this magazine. A considerable number of pages were devoted to English composition and the introduction of European and American literature.
In those days of Meiji when English came to be regarded as essential to pursuing Western learning, SHONEN BUNSHU and other little magazines of this kind contributed not a little to the diffusion of English language learning in Japan.

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Eugene Van Reed was born in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1835 (the date and month are as yet unknown) and in 1851 moved to San Francisco with his family where the heady days of the 1849 gold-rush were disappearing fast. In San Francisco he met a Japanese castaway, Hikozo Hamada who was later baptized and became known as Joseph Heco and under his guidance studied Japanese. Van Reed's motives are not clear but possibly as a result of his studies and the influence of Heco he formed a liking for Japan and Japanese civilization.
Van Reed's first visit to Japan was in 1859 when the country was opened to the West, after a long period of isolation, forced by the Matthew C. Perry expedition of 1853. He spent the next 13 years in Yokohama apart from two brief visits to America. He contracted tuberculosis and in 1873 left Japan for the last time dying at sea on February 2nd of the same year. A prophecy he had made in his earlier writings was fulfilled. “Is not the broad, boundless sea our open grave?” (“California to Japan, ” Berks & Schuylkill Journal, June 25, 1859).
During his time in Yokohama he worked as a clerk with the American Consul at Kanagawa, a salaried salesman with Augustine Heard & Co., an independent merchant and as an auctioneer of imported rice. He also authored Japanese-English lexicons, the world topography and so forth, wrote some articles for newspapers in his hometown, Reading, published a newspaper in Japanese, the“Moshihogusa”and at the peak of his career served as the Consul-General for the Kingdom of Hawaii. Van Reed has been condemned by some as an unscrupulous merchant but praised by others as a pillar of good standing.
The latter opinion was held by some newspapers in his hometown. “His present residence is at Yedo, where he takes a prominent part in all the Court proceedings and pageantries of the extroadinary young Prince the Mikado who seems to be the instrument for the advance of civilization and christianity in the oriental world, ” (“Late news from Japan, ” Berks & Schuylkill Journal, December 28, 1872). The former opinion was voiced by Mr. Hideo Ono in 1934 who later became a professor in Tokyo University. He wrote as follows, “Van Reed was one of those foreigners who made money as a broker dealing in (emigrant) labor and like many other foreign merchants at the time, he also trafficked in arms and imported rice. He sold the (emigrant) labor into slavery and apparently was ostracized by the foreign community. Whatever the case may be, he did not move in the company of such excellent Americans as Hepburn and Ballagh (two scholarly missionaries in Japan in the mid-19th century-A. A.) and did not possess a particularly fine character. ” (The translation quoted from Albert Altman's thesis, “Eugene Van Reed, a Reading Man in Japan 1859-872, ” Historical Review of Berks County, winter, 1964-65).
These two opinions lack factual basis and do not reflect the real Van Reed. Both were dependent to some extent on sources which were, to say the least, far from reliable and indicate that the writers wrote what they wanted to believe rather than what actually happened. To assert that Van Reed played an active role in the court of the Mikado is far from the truth. In reality Van Reed as the Consul-General for the Kingdom of Hawaii attended the Japanese New Year Celebrations (10th February, 1872) when his Majesty the Tenno received the foreign representatives in a body. (Letter of Charles O. Olipand to Charles C. Harris, Hawaiian Minister for Foreign Affairs, February 27, 1872). With respect to the charges flung at him as a wicked trader selling humans into bondage the “Japan Times' Overland Mail”, October 7, 1868 writes of Mr. Van Reed's philanthropic attempt to improve the position of the serfs of this country.

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“Japan's past educator is Yukichi Fukuzawa but her future counterpart is Inazo Nitobe” said once Shigetaka Shiga, a leading geographer of modern Japan.
Incidentally, since November 1, 1984, the faces of both Fukuzawa and Nitobe, have been appearing on the newly-issued 10, 000 yen bill and 5, 000 yen bill respectively, along with another leading man of culture, Soseki Natsume on the 1, 000 yen bill. Both Soseki and Nitobe belong to more or less the same generation with the latter being five years senior to the former.
Fukuzawa, however, is 27 years older than Nitobe, thus making the latter a member of the “future generation”. Yet, the present writer is not interested in a mere comparison of their ages; he is to explore the figurative and real meaning of what Shiga once said in this monograph.
Utilizing the youthful Nitobe's letters from abroad both in the U. S. and Germany in 1880's to his best friend in Sapporo, the writer is to try to analyze how Nitobe's proposals had been materialized successfully in versatile educational institutions, especially in Enyu Yagakko (Night School). Established in 1894 in Sapporo by Mr. and Mrs. Nitobe, this pioneer private school, which lasted for half a century, was for children of poor families and for adult workers.
The writer also wishes to demonstrate the everlasting importance of liberal educator Nitobe: in 1947, 14 years after his death, Nitobe's practical ideas of character building and internationalism were formally incorporated in the Fundamental Law of Education under the present “peace” Constitution of Japan. We, his “future generation”, should from now on uphold and put to work his liberal ideas in this important field of education.

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The purpose of this paper is to make something unknown known by describing concisely the contents of the above-named Calendar in terms of the teaching of English in the early years of the Meijiera.
The description begins with the historical outline of the Tokio Kaisei-Gakko, or Imperial University of Tokio, which derives its origin from the Bakufu institutions for Western learning and studies. The following sections deal with its organization, admission, teachers both oyatoi and Japanese, catalogue and analysis of students enrolled.
Much has been written about the curriculum of the General Course, especially about the syllabuses of English Language and Literature, Logic and Rhetoric. English textbooks used in the Course are also mentioned.
The final section is given to some illustrations of questions set at the annual examination in July, 1876 by oyatoi professors. Additionally, the books located in the Kaisei-Gakko Library is classified and counted.

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Okurashoten was established on September 15th in the 8th year of Meiji era. It developed from Kin'eidb Publishing Company (Ezoshi-ton'ya Kin'eido) which was a branch of Yorozuya Publishing Company. Kin'eido was acknowledged as the Publishing Company of Nishikie in the last days of Edo era.
Okurashoten published various dictionaries; English, German, French, Russian dictionaries, Japanese dictionary ‘Gensen’, biographical dictionaries, Buddhist dictionary, etc. Even today its publications are reprinted by many publishing companies, with many influences on our time's thought and ideas.
The aim of this treatise is. with the above historical sketch of Okurashoten in mind, to demonstrate the following three themes:
(1) what kinds of books Okurashoten published according to its own thought for introducing Anglo-American political and economical ideas to Japan, and for realizing peaceful Japan in the 20's of Meiji era.
(2) what parts Okurashoten played for safeguarding Japan's independence and interests against European and American nations.
(3) what parts Okurashoten played in modernization of Japan's publishingbusinesses, and in publishing modern school textbooks.

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Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was already imported to Japan in the 3rd year of Genwa (1617) as noted by Richard Cocks in his diary during his stay in Japan. So, it is said that The Canterbury Tales is the first flower of English literature in Japan.
In 1917, 300 years later, The Canterbury Tales was translated into Japanese completely by Kenji Kaneko.
In this thesis, I gave careful consideration to the value of Kaneko's Japanese translation of The Canterbury Tales through his attitude towards it, the process of accomplishing his work, some book reviews in those days and the differences in the styles of each of the four versions.

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