Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-30
A Japanese University.


A walk of about two miles from the foreign
quarter of Jedo brings us to the hospitable
house of Rev. G.. F. Verbeck, one of the mis-
sionaries of the Reformed DUTCH Protestant
church in America, and the president of the in
stitution. A few hundred feet from his house,
we enter the main gate of the English school,
containing nearly six hundred pupils. Into a
broad yard, covered but not paved in the usual
orthodox Japanese fashion, with round blue
pebble stones with black fences within and
without, we enter. Through the door on the
left are entering the students, making ire
mendous and numerous CHATTER with their wood
en- clogs, which are from four to- six inches
high; and are confined to their feet by a simple
loop over the foot with a string drawn between
the great and next to the greater toe. AS it is q
rainy day they carry the usual paper and bam-
boo-handled umbrellas, and each one wears two
swords. None of them have hats or head COW
erng of any sort. Most of them have their
| hair brought up and turned forward in a bunch
| which lies on their crown. Many are bare
footed, and all dressed in the Japanese costume
| of wide breeches like pettieoats, and silk or
| alpaca coats, slit up the back eight or ten
| inches. Their dress opens low in the bosom,
| and altogether is neat and becoming when not
| judged by c New York atandard. English
watches and chains are numerous, and some
have on the new japanese style of cloaks, cut
| like the old Raglan coats. Occasionally Euro
pean umbrellas are seen.
Passing out of the first and central room with
| its polished floors, on which the scribe and
| door-keeper sits O la Japanese, all day long we
pass by long corridor into passage on the
| left. Here curious instance of Japanese Gus.
toms attract our attention. There are four
| rooms. In one of them, on the floor, are ranged
bundles wrapped up in check or silk cloths
each about as large as an octave book. They
are the lunches of the students, who have
brought their dinners with them Each bundle
has in it a lacquered wooden box of rice vege-
tables or cakes; very rarely meat. In the room
| Immediately across the students are entering
| and each one takes off his clogs or rather steps
out of them. Immediately in front of this room,
| and connecting with it, sit six Scribes: one of
whom gives each student three wooden stamped
| and numbered checks, making record opposite
his name. The student casts one check TO one
of the servants attending, who loops 1t into the
fastenings of the clogs, and hangs them up on a
rack on the number corresponding to the check
Imagine a room, with ground t1oor having four
long racks, each with three rows Of hooks, every
one holding pair of japanese wooden clogs
with wooden check dangling, and four SER
wants attending to hang up the clogs, and you
| can form an idea Of the "shoe ROOM"
After passing the clerks who by means of the
novel method OF counting the shoes are able to
tell the daily attendance, the student passes i'm
mediately across the passage way, and gives an.
| other check 10 one OF four servants in waiting
| who checks his sword and hangs it upon rack /;
where on day of good attendance, the room
1
| swords Of scholars, teachers and interpreters
The third check and his shortsword kept in his
waistband, and he passes into the recitation
| room.
Now that we are in the recitation rooms, we
must speak Of the faculty. Fear not that we
shall bridge our indignant nose with any rose
colored spectacles Coming from an American
college of ancient birth and enrolling ideas,
slightly familiar with some of the grand ideas
of education, and magnifying the teachers
| Offipp than all having nrOudlx 10
teacher Of nearly all the Japanese students in
| America, before our coming to Japan, we felt
considerably disappointed in the Faculty" of
| the imperial university. A nation like the JAP
anese, who are submely trying to leap into the
| nineteenth century, and make their country the
peer and the companion to the other nations of
the world certainly deserve the best and not the
| worst of instructors. Among the Faculty" of
fifteen foreign instructors, we found half doz-
en- cultured gentlemen, including the president
| and the head instructor of the German school.
A gentleman connected with the New York
| Tribune, whose name is not unknown to
| American letters, had also accepted a TEN.
porary appointment, while Tecreating in
Japan. The other professors" were probably
not the worst that the plethoric shops of Yoke
hama, and an idle merchantile marine could fnr
nlsh. 1t would be foolish however, to be cynic-
al, since the man work of the under teachers of
languages, was to pronounce English and have
nothing to say concerning grammar. The ma
I IL.
rope or America, number about forty A glance
at the curriculum will inform us concernino
the range of studies. The regular course in.
cludes seven wears, and the university gives a
sheepskin and an A. b. The students ages are
from II to 30. One section of the school, which
the young sprouts who aspire to talk English
dub the "meaning-sch0ol," is literally college
of TRANSACTIONS. Here about one hundred men
learn the languages, simply for the purpose OF
reading and translating foreign works. A
1.ul af A.. =
Napoleon, English Military Tactics, and nu.
merous minor works, have been translated here.
Ganots "Physies, Chambers Information for
the People," will also be rendered into japanese
in due time. At present, Japan is flooded with
Japanese-English phrase and word books of all
sorts, most of which are ludicrOusly full of mis-
takes. The college prints a newspaper in jap.
anese, which is issued monthly, though not al.
| ways regularly. In lower sections, the work OF
education begins with A, b, G, though this will
S S aeegsted to the preparatory school. Start
talking and pronouncing knowledge of BeIlen.
! gei phrase DOCK IN English; thence into the
e wonders OF geography, history, moral science
aillhheuc, higher mathematics and political
economy. The practical sciences are most in
demand; Latin is studied by few Of a., ~
prefers ana teachers. A professorshin ~ chem.
, istry aho natural philosophy has been estab
lisbed, aud Will doubtless be filed nv Rev
Mr.. Feder, oil San Francisco. A bro
established chair, and application has been mad,
in Paris for French lawyer. The absolute neces
E sity for a knowledge of international law do
E mands that this chair be ably filed. In th
, French and German school the course Is sui
stantially the same. The salaries of the teacher
range from s2400 to $4,000 per year, the cor
! tracts being generally for six months. 1t mus
!. be remembered that though the students in til
fedo college are young, and not yet drilled int
the same strictness Of discipline and breadth an
i | depth OF study as in the European schools, al