The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual conditions of the equestrian education introduced as extracurricular activities and part of the physical exercises, a requirement at Kenkoku University (1938-1945) in Manchukuo. The results can be summarized as folows:
1. Equitation training, which was caled as kido, as part of the physical exercise program began in August,1938 it was the year when the university was established. Kido was conducted by Shiratori, an officer in Manchukuo, or Matsuoka, a jokyo-rank instructor. Students were divided into year-groups, and about ten training sessions were held during the first three years to help students have cultural experience in Manchukuo. There might have been a hundred and several dozen horses prepared for the classes.
2. Hisaya Ogura, the first-term student at the university, established the equestrian club and led members with his own philosophies until he graduated in 1943. According to Moriguchi Kenji, the second-term student, there were ten to 25 students. Almost all of them were Japanese. Most of them seemed to have joined the club to learn a new skill, which was easier than Japanese martial arts although some members like Ogura tried to take on equestrian very seriously. The activities were not always hard, and the emphasis was on individual student's autonomy just in the same way as in other clubs.
3. The word kido during that period had the meaning of attaining the state of selflessness through practice in addition to the mastery of horse riding'skill. In other words, kido was almost like a Japanese budo. Ogura suggested that members learn a spiritual discipline like Zen Buddhism. But at the same time he encouraged his students to join the club as part of the dormitory life, because it was the place for students from five different races to live together in harmony. Ogura's movement was significant even from a universal point of view in that he tried to prepare his students to serve purposes in society, instead of just teaching them horseback riding as a sport to let off steam.
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