A wall chart is a large educational illustration displayed on a classroom blackboard or wall. Wall charts were imported to Japan from the U.S., Germany, and other countries during the Meiji period, and were also translated and produced in Japan. This paper focuses on the Hakubutsu-zu (Natural History Illustrations) wall charts published by the Ministry of Education between 1873 and 1871 and the “Educational Wall Charts for Home Use,” which were reprinted in a reduced size and are held by the National Museum of Nature and Science. It examines their painters, revisers, and publishers.
As a result, the biographies of the painters revealed that most of them were responsible for creating Hakubutsu-zu drawings that were appropriate for each subject. The revisers and painters worked with the naturalist on fieldwork at the Natural History Bureau. It is believed that this collaboration deepened the knowledge of natural history for both the revisers and the painters, enhancing the value of the Hakubutsu-zu and various other natural history paintings. The flora and fauna in the Hakubutsu-zu were artistically represented by the painters, giving them aesthetic value. I conclude that the “Educational Wall Charts for Home Use,” which are scaled-down versions of these charts, were high-quality prints from the esteemed Izumoji publishing house and met the intellectual curiosity of children about natural history.
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