562 



NATURE 



{Oct. 13, 1 88 1 



— to trace step by step the progressive stages by which 

 the prothalloid phase has been diminished, and the ever, 

 though gradually, increasing approach in the complexity 

 and mode of reproduction to the Phanerogams — has 

 demanded the most patient and prolonged research. The 

 promised second volume will further diminish the hiatus 

 still left between Phanerogams and Cryptogams, and 

 make clear, the authors believe, the precise lines through 

 which the evolution of the one from the other has been 

 accomplished. 



J. Starkie Gardner 



MUSEUMS AND EXHIBITIONS IN JAPAN 



THERE is probably no function of Government which 

 the rulers of new Japan have performed so ade- 

 quately and thoroughly, with such persistence and such 

 unvarying success, as that which consists in the education 

 of the people. It would be impossible in the space at our 

 disposal to describe the course and results of education 

 under the usurpation of the Shogun ; suffice it to say that, 

 though learning of a peculiar kind always received sup 

 port and encouragement, these were given on no sound or 

 general system. The masses were neglected as beneath 

 consideration, while literary labour of the best kind was 

 always rewarded. No Japanese Horace need ever have 

 lacked a generous MecECnas. But it was not until the 

 restoration of the Mikado and the overthrow of the feudal 

 organisation that a system of universal education which 

 should reach the lowest classes of the people was intro- 

 duced, and the Government of Japan then looked abroad 

 to those Western lands, to which the eyes of all Japanese 

 were then turned, for models on which to base their new 

 scheme. American teachers of eminence were first 

 brought to the new University established in Tokio ; 

 these were soon followed by subordinate instructors for 

 the various schools in the local centres, and in six years 

 after the restoration there were two large educational 

 establishments — the University and the College of En- 

 gineering — besides numerous smaller ones in the capital, 

 while every administrative division had its central school — 

 all provided with competent foreign professors or teachers. 

 A large normal college in Tokio trained instructors for 

 the schools in the interior in Western knowledge and 

 Western methods of teaching ; and from that time to the 

 present the wise and beneficent system of general educa- 

 tion adopted by the Government has gone on extending 

 itself into the remotest parts of the country. As men- 

 tioned in a previous article, the number of foreign 

 instructors was gradually reduced, first in the interior, 

 afterwards at the capital, as Japanese trained at home or 

 abroad became competent to take their places. The 

 history of this remarkable spread of education in Japan 

 will be found in the annual reports of the Minister of 

 Education to the Emperor, and in an excellent series of 

 papers published by the Japanese Commissioners to the 

 Philadelphia Exhibition. The spirit in which this work 

 is carried out is well shown in a circular recently issued 

 by the Minister of Education for the guidance of teachers 

 in elementary schools. According to the Japan Mail 

 this document contains sixteen clauses, embodying a 

 number of directions for the conduct of school officials. 

 The chief points are (i) "the importance of imparting a 

 sound moral education to the students, both by precept 

 and example, since the condition of a man's heart is of 

 far greater moment than the extent of his knowledge ; (2) 

 the necessity of proper hygienic arrangements, which have 

 more effect upon the health of the students than gymnastics 

 or any other physical training; and (3; the value of mental 

 energy in a teacher, for without it he cannot possibly 

 support the fatigue and trouble of really careful tuition." 

 The circular goes on to advise teachers not to constitute 

 themselves advocates of any particular religious or political 



doctrines, and to take every opportunity of increasing 

 their own stock of knov.-ledge.^ 



But while thus caring for the education of the youth of 

 the country, that of its risen generation has not been 

 neglected. Besides annual and triennial domestic exhi- 

 bitions, museums have been established in most of the 

 large towns in the country, and it is to these we would more 

 particularly refer in the present article. It should be 

 remarked at the outset that the Japanese are a nation of 

 sightseers; not the vulgar, pushing, noisy mob to which 

 we are too much accustomed in this country, but a quiet, 

 orderly, pleased, and pleasing crowd. They are always 

 anxious to see something new ; failing this, they are con- 

 tent with their own temples and ancient festivals. In a 

 visit to any of the numerous museums of Tokio or a 

 Sunday or other holiday, the stranger from the West 

 cannot fail to be struck with the order, good humour, and 

 never-failing interest manifested by the people. The 

 descriptions of the objects are generally very full and 

 clear, so as to bring them within the meanest comprehen- 

 sion ; and when these are read out to a group by some 

 one more learned than the rest, the exclamations of won- 

 der, admiration, or delight are incessint, and form a 

 pleasing contrast to languid or imperfect interest fre- 

 quently taken by our own crowds in their museums. 



The first museum in Japan — the Hakiihutsu-kuivan — 

 was opened, as an experiment, in 1873. A few objects of 

 Western manufacture and some Japanese productions 

 «ere placed in the Confucian Temple, situated in one of 

 the prettiest suburbs of Tokio. Vast crouds, attracted ,J 

 chiefly no doubt by the foreign exhibits, visited the place ■ 

 daily ; and the Government, acting, we believe, on the ^ 

 advice of the governor of the city, determined to enlarge 

 the exhibition considerably and make it permanent. It 

 was accordingly removed to a more central position, the 

 partially-dismantled residence of one of the old nobles 

 being chosen for this purpose. Here the collection was 

 deposited and gradually increased, until at the present 

 time it fills a range of narrow buildings nearly a quarter 

 of a mile in length. This may be called the permanent 

 museum of the capital. A visit to it would strike one 

 accustomed to the museums of Europe with a certain 

 sense of incongruity. Close to the lacquered bullock- 

 carts and chairs of the emperors of a thousand years ago 

 we find English machinery of yesterday : in one com- 

 partment we see art treasures of a remote antiquity ; in 

 the next, Minton and Wedgwood ; a corridor containing 

 a large and valuable collection of the old paper currency 

 brings us, it may be, to a collection of modern glassware. 

 This jogging together of the ancient and modern, of articles 

 familiar in the homes in the West with the priceless art 

 rarities of the East ; of the products of the skill and j 

 loving care of old Japanese artists with, we may almost j| 

 say, Brummagem, jars unpleasantly on foreign taste. But ■ 

 it must be remembered that this establishment is founded, 

 not for the educated foreigner or even native, but for the 

 Japanese shopkeeper, farmer, artisan, and labourer, 

 whose interest is not a whit diminished when he passes 

 from a beautful antique relic to a Bradford loom or a 

 copy of the Milton shield. Indeed, we are not sure that 



^ As an instance of the general spread of elementary education, the 

 present writer may take this opportunity of mentioning what he saw during 

 an examination of some of the principal Japanese prisons in the summer and 

 autumn of last year He found all the children and youths in gaol — in 

 some cases numbering a few hundreds— attending the prison schools for four 

 or six hours each day, while the adults attended in the evenings and on 

 Sundays. He saw in the chief penal settlement in Tokio about three 

 hundred boys learning reading, writing, and the simple rules of arithmetic. 

 In the senior class the boys were learning ciphering luith European Jignres 

 frum one of their own number. In the large prisons a teacher or teachers 

 form portion of the staff; they are assisted by convicts who act as ushers or 

 munitijrs. In the smaller ones an inmate —generally a political prisoner — is 

 selected as master, and enj.iys in return certain small advantages. The 

 prison system of Japan, theoretical and practical, would well repay examina- 

 tion at the hands of a C-inpetenc authority on penal discipline. Ihe present 

 Governor of Hongkong. Sir John Pope Hennessy, who has had much experi- 

 ence in the subject in his various tovernments, has expressed his high 

 appreciation of the excellent condition of Japanese prisons. 



