Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-03-09

It was nearly 1000 years ago that
the imperial Japanese university was
opened for the instruction of youths
of the nobility, writes Rokuro Naka-
sake, in the Johns Hopkins University
News Letter. The courses offered
were in history, moral philosophy,
jurisprudence and mathematics. Be
sides, the arts Of medicine, soothsay-
ing, almanac making, writing and
painting were introduced from time to
time. Many young men were also sent
by the government to study abroad.
Later on, about 400 or 500 years ago,
the political condition of the country
had changed entirely and the country
was divided up into SO many petty
municipalities, whose heads were, al
though nominally subject to the throne
of the one and the same everlasting
royal family, continually engaged in
warfare among themselves, and who
had no leisure to pay attention to the
cultivation of art and science. Then
the education passed into the hands
OF Buddhist monks, and the higher
culture was only preserved within the
Buddhist temples. About 900 years
ago, with the unification of the coun-
try under the royal sovereignty,
schools and seminaries were again
established everywhere, and education
of the sons and daughters of the no.
bles and warriors was given, not only
In the peaceful arts and literature, but
also in military drills. Indeed, the
art of fencing was the most prominent
task in these seminaries. In the mean
while the sons and daughters of mer-
chants and peasants continued to get
education through the Buddhist monks
Thus my readers will be prepared to
understand how the religion (Budd-
hism) and the education were so in
timately interviewer among the mer-
chants and peasants, and how the war
like spirit and the belles-lettres were
SO inseparably amalgamated and de-
veloped into the spirit of chivalry
which we are so proud of and which
we call the "Yamatodamashie" In this
connection it may not be embarrassing
to quote what that great Commodore
Perry says in the introduction to his
report of the United States Japan ex-
pedition-"Xavier says that in his day
there were four academies in or near
Mako (Kyoto), each having between
5000 and 1000 pupils; and he adds
that much larger numbers were taught
at an institution near the city of Ban
done, and that such seminaries were
universal throughout the empire
There would seem to be something like
common school system, for Meylau
states that children of both sexes and
of all ranks are invariably sent to
rudimentary schools. Here the pupils
are all taught to read and write and
are initiated into some knowledge of
the history of their own country. This
much the meanest peasant child is ex-
pected to learn. There are immense
numbers Of cheap, easy books con-
tinually issuing from the Japanese
press. Books innumerable of a higher
order are provided for the rich, and
all, of both kinds. are profusely illus
trated with wood cuts, so that in our
modern inventions of stereotyping and
printing in colors and in our manu-
facture of cheap literature for the peo-
pie generally, Japan has anticipated
us by centuries. Reading is a ia
vorite occupation with both sexes, and
it is said to be common in Japan to
see. when the weather permits, a
group of ladies and gentlemen seated
by cool, running stream, or in a
shady grove, each with book"
In regard to this last point I must