TEE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITIES OF JAPAN 247 



received from the study of " Greek, Latin and Philosophy," in the early 

 American colleges. When studying the rapid progress of Japan in the 

 acquirement of western science, it is more nearly correct to think of 

 men with B.A. and M.A. degrees derived from the study of Greek, taking 

 to engineering, than to think of a wholly uneducated people suddenly 

 turned loose to browse in the whole field of knowledge. Indeed, in the 

 later days of the Shogunate, Western knowledge had already begun to 

 penetrate the hidden country. Books brought in by the Dutch and 

 translated into Japanese, by scholars working as did our own when first 

 deciphering the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had a large influence if small 

 circulation. Soon after the visit of Commodore Perry, the Shogun 

 established in 1857 an institution for the translation of foreign books, 

 which by easy transition became first a school of foreign languages and 

 finally a component part of the present Tokyo Imperial University. 

 Similarly the medical school of the university had its roots in the 

 Seiyo Igakujo, established under the Shoguns. In the early years of the 

 Meiji era there was a bewildering succession of organizations and reor- 

 ganizations in the higher educational institutions as in other branches 

 of the public service, but with the issuance of Imperial Ordinance No. 

 3 (March 1, 1886), providing for the organization of imperial univer- 

 sities, the institution in Tokyo took essentially its present form. In 

 1890 an existing agricultural college there was consolidated with the 

 faculties of law, medicine, engineering, literature and science already 

 organized. In 1897, with the establishment of the sister institution at 

 Kyoto, the name was changed from Teikoku Daigaku, or Imperial Uni- 

 versity, to its present form, the prefix Tokyo being added to indicate the 

 place of its establishment. 



The imperial ordinance already mentioned is a remarkable docu- 

 ment, warranting careful attention from educators. It evidences a 

 close study of existing universities and their fitness to the needs of the 

 people in both Europe and America, and a nice critical sense in the 

 selection of those features best suited to conditions in Japan. In it, 

 as throughout contemporary Japanese institutions, there is at the same 

 time the germ of new things, for Japan is far from being content to 

 adapt, and purposes to originate as well. The object of the imperial 

 universities is stated to be " the teaching of such arts and sciences as 

 are required for the purposes of the state, and the prosecution of original 

 research in such arts and sciences." This article foreshadowed con- 

 cisely and accurately what has become the essential characteristics of the 

 great universities that have been established under the ordinance. 

 Essentially the schools were to be, and are, sources of information rather 

 than devices for mental training. They had for their field all knowl- 

 edge " required for the purposes of the state " and were to be frankly 

 utilitarian branches of the government. This, however, was not to be, 

 and has not been, interpreted in any narrow spirit since — and in this 



