Amongst the lower classes (peasants or shopkeepers) there was generally one or other private person, in village or town, who could teach elementary writing and reading, and who taught the children in his neighbourhood by establishing a sort of private school. This was very commonly done by a priest of the Buddhist or Shinto temple of the place. It seems that at one time this was done almost universally by the priests of Buddhist temples; so much so, that we have the term _Tera-ko-ya_. _Tera_ means a Buddhist temple, _Ko_ means children, and _Ya_ means a house--_Tera-Ko_ came generally to mean children who go to learn elementary writing and reading, and _Tera-ko-ya_ to mean the place where such children were taught. We have a famous tragedy, one act of which is called _The Scene of Terakoya_. There is a translation in German of that act by a German scholar. It is a scene which represents a tragic incident taking place in the tenth century A.D., in a private school for children opened by an old retainer of a nobleman. It has nothing to do with a temple; and yet it is called _The Scene of Terakoya_. It was, however, only after the inauguration of the Meiji era that education became thorough and universal. In the earliest days of this era there was an officer called _Daigaku-Betto_ (Chancellor of the University), who was a functionary of great dignity. In the course of a few years a special Ministry was instituted for education, with a Minister of State, who, of course, had a chair in the Cabinet; and that system has ever remained the same. The Minister of Education controls the educational affairs of the whole country. At first the sphere of direct control of the central Government was naturally limited to higher education; but, with the abolition of the feudal system and the gradual consolidation of local administration, the sphere has extended step by step, and has culminated in the present system of universal education.