a. The Imperial Will on the Great Principles of Education

During the summer and autumn of 1878, Emperor Meiji (Meiji Tenno) traveled to the Tosan, Hokuriku and Tokai districts on an inspection tour of social and educational conditions. On this trip His Majesty visited elementary, middle and normal schools and made a detailed study of their establishment, methods and curricula. Based on these investigations, the Emperor concluded that the common people did not really understand the Western-oriented educational reforms that the new Meiji government had hastily implemented, and moreover the new education had little relevance for their everyday life. Motoda Nagazane (1818-1891), a lecturer attached to the Imperial House, was charged with the responsibility of summarizing the Emperor's views.

Motoda's draft was reviewed by the Emperor, and then prepared as the Imperial Will on the Great Principles of Education (Kyogaku Seishi). The document consisted of two parts, General Observations on Education (Kyogaku Taishi) and Two Provisions for the Conduct of Elementary Education (Shogaku Jomoku Niken). The former clarifies the notions of loyalty and filial piety as they relate to the formation of the Japanese educational tradition. It also points out how the single-minded respect paid to Western technical knowledge and the concentration upon the nonessential aspects of the Civilization and Enlightenment brought about popular confusion concerning ethical values. Thus it proposes a strengthening of traditional morality and virtue in order to provide a firm base for the Empire. The latter part fitted Two Provisions for the Conduct of Elementary Education stresses the importance of instilling these virtues in the minds of children as thoroughly as possible, especially the ideas of loyalty and filial piety. Secondly it promotes practical training appropriate to the common man's station in place of the more abstractly oriented education that was then being stressed. Thus the Imperial Will presented a severe critique of the Civilization and Enlightenment thought.

After the Imperial Will was prepared, it was first shown to the then Secretary of Education, Terashima Munenori (1832-1893), and the Secretary of Home Affairs, Ito Hirobumi, and Ito, as spokesman for the new government, was asked to make some comments. Ito as he addressed the Throne argued that there still remained an urgent need to seek new knowledge from the West. However, Motoda Nagazane rejected his presentation in a dispute that characterized the antagonism between the proponents respectively of traditional and progressive modes of thought in Japan during that era.