(1)The New Meiji Government's Plans for the Establishment of Higher Educational Institutions

The new Meiji government planned to establish higher educational institutions as the chief means of setting up leadership training to meet the demands of the new age and for the urgent task of assimilating Western arts and sciences. These institutions were also expected to serve as the chief government organs for educational administration.

But in these early Restoration days there were three different groups of scholars competing for recognition as the dominant force: those specialized respectively in National Learning, Chinese studies and Western learning. Considerable conflict arose, as stated later, as a result of their different approaches.

The new government's plans for the establishment of higher educational institutions at Kyoto were launched with the revival of the Peers' College (Gakushuin) in April, 1868. But shortly thereafter it was renamed the Daigakuryodai and soon in that same year discontinued, and in its place the Institute of National Learning (Kogakusho) and the Institute of Chinese Studies (Kangakusho) were established. These two Institutes were abolished in the following year to give way for a plan of establishing a grand school (daigakko) at Kyoto, but the plan, ultimately, had ended without expected results. Before these changes, shortly after the establishment of the Peers' College, a more ambitious plan was presented to the new government by three then famous scholars of National Learning, who had been assigned the role of planning a new educational institution in Kyoto since the time even earlier than the establishment of the Peers' College. Their plan suggested the founding of the Gakushasei, which would follow the example of the Daigakuryo, the nation's ancient higher educational institution, with the exception that in the plan there was the primary emphasis on National Learning. This plan, however, was side-stepped by the government and never brought to realization.

With the transfer of the place of government, Tokyo became the center for the planning of the establishment of higher educational institutions. The schools of the former Shogunate,the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, the Kaiseijo and the Igakujo, were restored by the new government in 1868 as stated below.

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