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Gate of the Nisshinkan

Nissinkan astronomical observatory remains in 2014-01-24

First Swimming Pool in Japan (Nisshinkan)

Nishinkan samurai training school corridor

The Nisshinkan (Nisshin-kan) (Japanese: 日新館), an Edo period school, is located in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan. It was the Aizu clan's official domain school (hankō). Completed in 1803, The school was created to educate the sons of high-ranking Samurai. The Nisshinkan dōjikun (Nisshinkan School Injunctions) written by daimyo lord Matsudaira Katanobu in 1803 was the school's textbook. The students read it daily in class. A copy was given to the Aizu Samurai's families, which allowed girls to be taught from it as well.

History

Aizu hankō Nisshinkan, which takes its name from the term “virtue daily renewed (Japanese: 徳日新) in the Book of Documents, has existed in one form or another since the 1660s. The school was expanded during the fifth daimyo, lord Matsudaira Katanobu's domain reform. Construction on the school began in 1798. Most of the funding to build the school was provided by a wealthy kimono merchant. The construction took over 18,200 men to do the work and was a community effort. Scholars, students, officials, and other community members worked side by side during the five-years it took to complete. It was located on the west side of Tsurugajo Castle.

Once completed, the campus had an observatory, an area for horseback riding, indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, large and small halls to practice fencing, spear fighting, and man to man combat with and without weapons, a swimming pool, the first in Japan, which they used to practice swimming with and without armor and classrooms.

Nisshinkan dōjikun (Nisshinkan School Injunctions)

The Nisshinkan dōjikun, written by lord Matsudaira Katanobu, was Nisshinkan's textbook. It was completed in 1803, the same year construction on the Nisshinkan campus was finished. A primer in ethics and etiquette, tt contained 53 Injunctions and was required reading at Nisshinkan. DOUBLE CHECK CITATIONS Are in the RIGHT LOCATIONS

Lord Matsudaira Sadanobu, the Edo bakufu leader who led its Kansei Reforms, wrote the forward and Furuya Sekiyō, a Kumamoto Confucian scholar, wrote the afterword.

The forward described some of the combat training areas the school had, some of the educational aspects of the school, and spoke about the Nisshinkan dōjikun and it's purpose.

"Nisshinkan School Injunctions Foreword –

Imperial Retainer Minamoto no Matsudaira Katanobu (1744-1805) carried on ancestral wishes. He enlarged the Aizu domain school through the addition of training halls for youths to study military arts—the bow, sword, and spear—as well as classical arts such as music and dance. In addition, he compiled a textbook of injunctions for the moral cultivation of pupils. In this way, he manifested the spirit of domain founder, Lord-Deity Hanitsu Hoshina Masayuki (1611-72), and he consummated efforts at edification carried on by successive heads of his house. That he discharges the onerous duties of a state ruler so assiduously is cause for gratitude.^[1] Lord Kataoki (1778-1805), successor to Lord Katanobu, approached me with an earnest plea: “Lord Katanobu wrote this primer to edify pupils in Aizu, a goal that I fervently share. Please assist us by writing an appropriate Foreword.” At the time I thought, “How can anyone so unworthy as I fulfill this behest?” Yet I enjoy reading, so I stole a glance at the text and found its pedagogical merits to be deeply impressive. Throughout the work, Lord Katanobu quotes from Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) Elementary Learning of 1181, and adds pertinent comments with detailed accounts of exemplary deeds in Japanese history that show great consideration for readers. I repeatedly protested my recent ill health and lack of erudition, but Lord Kataoki would not relent, so I had no choice but to grant his wish. Hence I submit a short Foreword to Lord Katanobu’s splendid volume in the hope that his teachings will live for countless generations and contribute to the world’s endless benefit. Minamoto no Matsudaira Sadanobu Late spring, 1803"

The school mandate, to prepare boys for future careers serving Aizu as samurai-administrators, is also contained in the Book of Documents. It was established in 1801 and finished in 1803, enrollment remained constant. at around 1000 students, from the time it opened in 1801 until the Bosnian war in 1968

"Katanobu wrote the fifty-three item Aizu Nisshinkan Dōjikun (Nisshinkan School Injunctions, hereafter cited as “Injunctions”) translated below. It boasts an Afterword by a Kumamoto Confucian scholar, Furuya Sekiyō, and a Foreword by the Edo bakufu leader who led its Kansei Reforms (1787-93), Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829), both of which are dated 1803."

"Aizu used this text as a primer in ethics and etiquette at its official domain school the Nisshinkan, a name adopted from the term “virtue daily renewed (徳日新)” in the Book of Documents which, as noted in Injunction 53, tells the school mandate—to prepare boys for future careers serving Aizu as samurai-administrators. Enrollment at the Nisshinkan, founded in 1801, remained constant at about 1000 students until Aizu’s defeat and liquidation by Satsuma and Chōshū in 1868 during the Boshin Restoration wars. Samurai boys aged ten to fifteen read this textbook in class.1 The domain also distributed a copy to all samurai households in Aizu, so girls as well received instruction in Katanobu's Injunctions."

"I have seen no mention in Japanese scholarship about revisions to the text, so we can assume that it remained unchanged from 1803 to 1868. The grip that its moral precepts had on their young minds is discernable in Niijima (neé Yamamoto) Yae, wife of Dōshisha University founder Niijima Jō, who could recite passages from memory in 1932.2 Katanobu’s Injunctions thus played a role in Aizu domain somewhat like that by ethics and history textbooks used up to Japan's defeat in the Asia-Pacific War of 1931-45 under its nation-wide system of compulsory schooling inspired by inspired by "Imperial Rescript on Education" of 1890."

"Katanobu grounded his primer in maxims taken from the Chinese Confucian classics, for which he supplied illustrative examples in Japanese history and contemporary society that Aizu schoo lboys could easily grasp. In general, he quoted the Chinese maxims verbatim after transcribing or paraphrasing these into Japanese for each injunction. Perhaps he did this to give pupils a taste for the intensive education in classical Chinese they would later undergo, or perhaps to exploit the authoritative ethical backing that high antiquity provided for the points he wished to convey. Ten maxims derive from the Analects and many of the rest, from two sections in the Book of Rites; that is, twelve from “Household Regulations” (Nei Ce 内側) and ten from “Detailed Ceremonials” (Qu Li 曲禮). Despite the redundancies involved, I translated both the Chinese maxims and Katanobu’s Japanese renditions so as to illustrate the subtle differences in nuance that separated ancient Zhou society (1050-770 BC) from late-Tokugawa Japan."

Education

High ranking Aizu Samurai received moral training, which started when they were very young. Samurai children were given their first sword and Samurai costumes at the age of 5 and had started the indoctrination in martial etiquette.

The boys would join a neighborhood playgroups called "asobi no ju.' when they were 6. These playgroups were made up of 10 boys between the ages of 6 and 9. In the mornings they would be taught by individual teachers. In the afternoon the playgroup would take turns meeting in each others homes. At the beginning of each play session, the senior member of the group would recite the "Ju no okite" (Rules for Samurai Children)..

The "Ju no okite" were ethical norms and were part of their moral training. Tadashi Munakata, the head of Aizu Hanko Nisshinkan, said "The precepts can be called the origin of fostering human resources." He added "There are things humans are never allowed to do. Aizu people follow the rules." double check citations

1. We must not disobey our elders.
2. We must always bow to our elders.
3. We must not lie.
4. We must not act in a cowardly manner.
5. We must not pick on those who are weaker.
6. We must not eat in public.
7. We must not talk to girls outside the house.
8. Those things that are forbidden, we must not do

After each rule was spoken, the boys would reply "Yes, yes," and vigorously nod their heads. After the last rule was spoken, the entire group would say, Those things that are forbidden, we must not do. Another translation for this precept is Do not do anything you must not do. Translations into English vary slightly in the words used but the meaning the words covey is consistent.

Once the rules were read, each boy was asked if they had broken any of the rules. They were expected to admit if they have broken a rule. They were also expected to report other members who had broken a rule. They would be punished if they broke a rule. The severity of the punishment was based on the rule that was broken and "ranged from a slap on the hand with a bamboo rod, to holding a hand briefly over an open fire, being buried briefly in snow, or ostracism from the group. Ostracism was the most serious punishment." The only way to be readmitted to the group was for the parents to apologize.

ages 10-15

They continued to recite the "Ju no okite" every mornings at school. They started attending Nisshinkan at the age of 10,

Program of Instruction in the Nisshinkan Institute
Literary Classes (required)(page 59)

• Chinese Classics (Jugaku)
• Religion and National literature (Shintō oyobi kōgaku)
• Calligraphy (Shōgaku, Shūji)
• Etiquette (Rei-shiki)
• Classic music (Gagaku)
• Mathematics (Sūgaku)
• Medicine (Igaku)
• Astronomy (Tenmon)

Military Classes (required)(page 59)

• Art of the Bow and Arrow (Kyūjutsu)
• Various specializations of spearmanship (yarijutsu, naginata, bojutsu, etc.)
• Various specializations of swordsmanship (tōjutsu, kenjutsu, etc.)
• Art of drawing the Japanese sword (Iaijutsu)
• Art of unarmed combat with or without armor (Jūjutsu)
• Artillery and firearms (Hōjutsu)
• Art of fortifications (chikujojutsu)
• Art of horsemanship or land and in the water (bajutsu, suibajutsu)
• Art of swimming in armour (Suiei)

Optional Classes(page 59)

• Tea ceremony (Sadō}
• Poetry (Shisahu)
• Poetic Improv (Sokuseki)
• Hunting (Torioi)

BELOW IS INFORMATION TO WORK WITH

They would memorize li Housing and lunch were provided at no cost at Nisshinkan.

"In the Nisshinkan Institute, for example, samurais from the Aizu clan were required to study Chinese classics, religion and national literature, calligraphy, etiquette, classical music, mathematics, medicine and astronomy as well as military skills (archery, spear-fighting, fencing, jujutsu, the use of firearms, horse-riding, swimming in armour and the art of fortification), and, optionally, tea-making, poetry, poetic improvization and hunting."(page 59)

primarily concerned with the literary and physical education page 105 education of the provincial lords, higher retainers, and leading administrators of the ancient Aizu clan page 105

Before that, as was customary, these children had already been prepared through preliminary indoctrination in martial etiquette, and at the age of five, boys had already received their first samurai costumes and swords (which they would never again be without). #A

( Has School) Training at age of 8 or 9 #A

After receiving his first swords, a boy would join other children in groups divided according to various sections of the town and follow one or more leaders who would be responsible for him to a teacher in a temple or at the institute. page 106Under the strict surveillance of these teachers, the children memorized the literary texts of instruction (without explanation), beginning at about their tenth or eleventh years. #B

From the ages of ten to fourteen, they were taught and expected to practice official etiquette. At thirteen they began to study archery, swordsmanship, and spear fighting, which they would henceforth practice regularly throughout their lives. At fifteen they approached the Chinese Classics, and individual inclinations in the various branches of military administration were encouraged and cultivated by a personal tutor. #B

At sixteen, the group dissolved, and each youth was indoctrinated by a series of teachers in their specialties (listed in Chart 10). #B

This program continued until the boy’s twenty second year. Then, if he had satisfactorily absorbed and completed the program, he could either stay on at the Nisshinkan Institute or further his education by visiting other institutions throughout the country. #B

In general, he was encouraged to embark upon a specialized career, in accordance with the rank held by the head of his family, whom he was expected to succeed when the latter retired or passed away. #BAllowances were made for less talented students, who were given more time and extra care in order to help them catch up with the others. #BFailure, of course, meant utter disgrace, because it often entailed (in characteristically Japanese fashion) the demotion of the entire family to a lower rank in the military hierarchy, due to the son’s inability to follow in his father’s footsteps. #B

Page 6 - "From age ten, samurai boys attended schools; by the end of the eighteenth century, a variety of schools had been established for samurai of all ranks, and for commoners as well. As a part of the fifth daimyo’s reforms, a domain school, the Nisshinkan,had been built for the education of the four highest ranks of samurai. It was completed in 1803, and in the same year, the “Nisshinkan Injunctions for Children,” a textbook, was compiled for the instruction of entering students. The book contained passages from the Classic of Filial Piety and other Confucian works, stories of exemplary Japanese historical figures," Page 7 - "and detailed injunctions on proper comportment. One injunction—no doubt useful at the school was not to yawn or look bored in front of one’s elders. The school taught the Chinese classics, the Neo-Confucianism of Yamazaki Ansai, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, some Shinto studies, and the usual military subjects. The school grounds, located close to the castle, were extensive and contained a Confucian temple, two-storied lecture halls, a printing shop, a swimming pond, a teahouse, and even a rudimentary observatory. Aizu historians regard it as having been one of the finest schools in Japan at that time."

"In 1805, a further set of seventeen rules was drawn up.Known as the “Instructions for the Very Young,” it bid children to rise early, wash their hands, rinse their mouth, not to begin eating until their parents had picked up their chopsticks, and soon. Little was left to chance. The rules no doubt applied tosamurai daughters, as well as to sons, though books about Aizuare uniformly silent on the subject of their education. Girls presumably learned their letters at home. One authority does mention, however, that mothers made their children rehearse ritual suicide (seppuku) in front of the household Buddhist altar and gave their daughters daggers as a part of their trousseaus." "Every Tokugawa domain had institutions to educate and discipline its samurai, but historians of Aizu view that domain’ssamurai as having had an especially strict training. The consciousness of the domain’s close ties to the Tokugawa house, the founder’s injunction to serve it with unconditional loyalty, and the stress on hierarchy and self-discipline are seen as having shaped a distinctive ethos. Aizu samurai were known to be proud, austere, narrow-minded, and, above all, stubborn. Such was the character of the “Aizuppo.”" "Samurai boys aged ten to fifteen read this textbook in class.1 The domain also distributed a copy to all samurai households in Aizu, so girls as well received instruction in Katanobu's Injunctions."

About 1000 students attended Nisshinkan every year until the Bosnian war in 1968.

"Page 125 - 43. A typical example of bunbu-ryodo training is that of the Nisshinkan Academy of Wakamatsu that many teenagers, like the Byakko-tai members, attended. The Nisshin-kan was conceived of by Lord Matsudaira Katanobu in 1787 — a period of affluence and easy life — to stimulate discipline, produce creative personnel, and inculcate pride. The curriculum consisted of reading Chinese and Japanese classics as well as training in a variety of martial arts. Granting that the curriculum was provincial and a far cry from what we now consider a liberal education today, it nevertheless contributed to personal growth by cultivating both body and mind. But the crucial issue here is that the Nisshin-kan educational policy made no status distinctions on the basis of students' family background, a significant issue considering the fact that the - Page 126 - academy was established during a feudal period. Furthermore, it promoted students according to personal achievement, not in terms of how many years a student spent in the academy as it is in today's Japanese college education. Most important of all, it presupposed that the discipline cultivated in martial arts can be applied in the study of the classics. For details, see Nakagawa Koi, "Nisshin-kan no kyoiku to Byakkotai," in Aizu-Byakkotai, comp. and published by the Rekishi Shunju-shuppansha, Aizu Wakamatsu (1987), pp. 33-41."

page 145 -"Sons of samurai families in the Aizu domain above a designated rank entered Nisshinkan at the age of ten to begin the arduous task of studying Chinese characters. The ultimate goal was learning the moral teachings contained in the Confucian Analects. It was the common goal of all clan schools, although many students did not reach a high level of literacy in Chinese. However, the method of teaching samurai students the Confucian teachings of jin (benevolence), gi (jus-tice), rei (manners), chi (knowledge), and shin (trust) at Nisshinkan was standard.13 The formal class routine involved the repetition of passages with teacher explanations of the meaning of the texts. In this manner even those students who could not achieve a high level of literacy in the original Chinese script gained some understanding of the ethical teachings of Confucian thought that became official doctrine of the Tokugawa government. They played a significant role in maintaining a level of social harmony that Confucian teachings undergirded with its concern for the respect for one’s elders, being truthful in all relationships, and always acting in a proper manner."

"The classroom scene of a clan school in feudal Japan as depicted at Nisshinkan illustrates what David Murray, writing in New Brunswick in 1872, described as an"

page 146 - "institution where “lads are trained who when grown to be young men are such models of courtesy, honor and diligence.”14 Although never having observed a clan school classroom, the conclusions of a professor of mathematics from the campus of a small American college proved to be an accurate description of the graduates of the Nisshinkan hankō far beyond his imagination. For example, that institution produced the first professor of physics in the nation’s history, Yamakawa Kenjirō, included in the portrait of samurai students taken at New Brunswick in 1871, when Murray was on the faculty of Rutgers College, carried in chapter 2. Yamakawa studied physics at the Sheffield School of Science at Yale University before joining the faculty of Tokyo University where, coincidentally, Murray gave the congratulatory address to the first graduating class, considered in a later chapter. Yamakawa Kenjirō later became president of the nation’s most advanced institution of higher education when the name of Tokyo University was changed to the Imperial University."

"Sitting in the Nisshinkan clan classroom with Yamakawa Kenjirō during the Bakumatsu period was one of the most remarkable young samurai who Murray would encounter in both Japan and America. Takamine Hideo would go down in the history books of Japan as the founder of progressive education, introducing the most advanced theories in the world into Japan as developed by the great educational reformer Johann Pestalozzi in Switzerland. Murray, as Superintendent of Education in the Ministry of Education, was destined to play a critical role in Hideo’s professional education during the early Meiji period by"

Destruction and Reconstruction

Six years after the Boshin War, which was in 1868, Nisshinkan was burned down.

"until Aizu’s defeat and liquidation by Satsuma and Chōshū in 1868 during the Boshin Restoration wars."

"Six years after the defeat, the original castle was dismantled. The original building of Nisshinkan, which was located on the west side of the castle, was also burned down."

Reconstruction

"In the city's north Aizu Hanko Nisshin-kan is a reconstruction of the school where samurai would send their children to be educated." Established in 1803 and said to have been one of the best of over 300 Edo-era clan schools in Japan at that time (and the first school in Japan to serve kyushoku, school lunches) Nisshin-kan organized classes according to neighborhood groups in order that younger students could learn respect for their elders and good manners, with teachings often reflecting the influence of Confucianism in Japan at that time."

"Entrepreneurs in the city proposed re-creating the educational institution of the Aizu clan, and more than 200 companies offered to cooperate. In 1987, a reproduction of the clan school was built on a hill with a clear view of Mt. Bandai."

"The institute was precisely reproduced based on historical documents, at a total cost of 3.4 billion yen. Taiseiden, a hall that enshrines Confucius, stands as the central part of the wooden complex."

"Suiren Suiba Ike, which is believed to be Japan's oldest swimming pool, an artillery training ground and an astronomical observatory of the school were also reproduced."

"The current Nisshinkan functions as a museum and an educational institution."

"In the archery hall, competitions and training camps are held. Visitors can feel how bushido (the spirit of the samurai) is practiced."

"An official of Nisshinkan said, "Recently, seated Zen meditation is popular." Annually, students from about 400 schools from all over the nation visit Nisshinkan as part of their school trips."

"The educational spirit of Aizu can be found in the work of schools." "The young samurai have long since graduated but like many of the city's clan treasures, local people bring them to life and class at Nisshin-kan is still in session today -- visitors here can try their hand at kyudo (the Japanese martial art of archery) and zazen, a Buddhist meditative discipline practiced by many samurai."

"From Samurai legacy source of pride, identity for residents of Aizuwakamatsu"'

""The admonition, "Do not do what you must not do," is seen here, there and everywhere in the city. The phrase is printed on signboards near train stations, on a corner of a gate of an elementary school, and on souvenirs."

"The words are carved or printed in many places as local people have kept it as their important heritage. The phrase is one of the "Ju no Okite" (group precepts) that were learned by children of samurai warriors of Aizu."

JHTI JapanNews GoroIntro Kiyota2002 SamuraiCity

Kyodo2020

Duke2018

See also

• Byakkotai
• Iimori Hill
• Aizu-Wakamatsu

Notes

Several of the sources have a one year discrepancy in the age children had to be during various points of their education in order to move to the next level. Japan used a lunisolar calendar until 1873 and three different calendar systems during the Edo period. The difference between how age counted using the Gregorian calendar and the various calendar systems Japan used may help to explain the age discrepacies.

External links

• Official Website(in Japanese)