The History of Modern Japanese Education: Constructing the National School System, 1872-1890

Chapter 5: The Iwakura Mission: A Survey of Western Education, 1 8 72–1873

77 5 The Iwakura Mission A Survey of Western Education, 1872–1873 On November 12, 1871, amid befitting pomp and circumstance, a high-powered delegation of government officials left Yokohama on board the U.S.S. America bound for Washington, D.C., the first major destination.1 Led by Iwakura Tomomi, titular head of government, the Iwakura Mission departed on a two-year survey of modern societies in the United States and Europe. The huge delegation of fifty members included half of the senior-ranking members of the ruling oligarchy. Upon their return in 1873, they were expected to apply those aspects of western societies deemed appropriate to modernize Japanese society. The ultimate goal was a modern state that had attained parity with, and independence from, the western world. Among the delegates was an obscure official, Tanaka Fujimaro, representing the newly founded Ministry of Education. The reason why Tanaka, a lower-ranking samurai from the Owari han, was chosen for the mission remains inexplicable to this day. Lacking foreign language ability and having no knowledge or experience in the field of education, Tanaka himself may have been surprised with his appointment . He departed Japan for the West commissioned with the awesome responsibility of implementing Japan’s first public school system upon his return in 1873. Iwakura Tomomi—The Court Noble In historical perspective, the Japanese government set a precedent by dispatching the nucleus of its ruling oligarchy overseas for a two-year study tour less than three years after the final battle at the Aizu Castle ended the war of restoration. During that short period the new government itself was transferred from Kyoto, the home of the emperor for centuries, to Edo renamed Tokyo, the new eastern capital. Leadership of the new Meiji government was quickly assigned to a tiny group of individuals dubbed the oligarchy. Among them, Iwakura Tomomi stood out from the others by virtue of personally having served Emperor Meiji before the 1868 Restoration. He did not, therefore, originate from the samurai class, as did all of the other top leaders. Rather, as a member of the imperial court in Kyoto during the Tokugawa period, he secured a privileged status among the new Meiji leadership due to his noble status, seniority in imperial service, and relationship with Emperor Meiji. When the unprecedented proposal emerged in 1871 to dispatch a ranking delegation of government officials to the West to gain a firsthand perspective of modern societies, it fell appropriately to Iwakura to lead it. 78 The First Decade of Modern Education Iwakura exhibited unique qualities during the initial opening of Japan. In spite of his secluded life among the highly ritualistic traditional customs of court life in Kyoto, he sent his two sons to study under Guido Verbeck in Nagasaki shortly after the Meiji Restoration. In a truly radical decision for the times, he then followed this by sending his boys to study at Rutgers College in America in 1870, as arranged by Verbeck. As fate would have it, they developed a close personal relationship with Professor and Mrs. David Murray, later hired by the mission to Figure 8. The Iwakura Mission Departure. From Richard Sims, Modern Japan (London: Bodley Head, 1973), 36. The Iwakura Mission 79 work in the Ministry of Education. Thus when Iwakura left for America in 1871, he was on his way to see his sons who were already there. The origin of the Iwakura Mission is of considerable importance since it illustrates how early Meiji governmental decisions that profoundly affected modern Japanese education depended on foreign advisors.2 One year after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Guido Verbeck was invited by the government to move from Nagasaki, where he had lived for exactly one decade, to Tokyo. Among his unusually prestigious assignments, one was to serve as the senior advisor to the new government that included many of his former students. Concurrently he served as head of Nankō, already referred to as the Imperial University. Among the bureaucratic leadership was his most dedicated student, Ōkuma Shigenobu, who wielded considerable influence among the higher-ranking officers. Ōkuma was destined for the prime ministership during the next decade. According to a letter to his friend, William Griffis, who was a frequent guest at the Verbeck home, Verbeck reveals how he became involved in the mission. “Influential friends spoke to me of an embassy abroad as among the probabilities of that fall or winter...