As my last essay dealt with the education supplied at Oxford
University, it will be well to begin by considering the Universities
of Tokyo and Kyoto. Six colleges comprise the former and five the
latter. But, unlike the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge these
colleges are schools for the highly specialized study of some art or
science. At Tokyo the colleges are those of Law, Medicine,
Engineering, Literature, Science, and Agriculture; at Kyoto of Law,
Medicine, Literature, Science, and Engineering. At both Universities
there is also a University Hall established for the purpose of
facilitating original investigation in Arts and Science.
One thing is very noticeable in comparing the University of Tokyo with
the University of Oxford. Amongst the least popular of the Honour
Schools at the institution on the banks of the Isis is the Law School.
At Tokyo the College of Law, in which the student has the option of
specializing on Law or Politics, is by far the favourite. After Law
comes the College of Engineering, and the College of Literature is a
bad third.
It is to the College of Literature (the equivalent of which at Oxford
are the Honour Schools of Languages, dead or living, and the School of
Modern History) that I would call the reader’s special attention. The
Modern History School is the most popular of the Honour Schools at
Oxford; but at Tokyo between 1890 and 1900 there were only 106
students who devoted their time to General History, and 87 to Japanese
History. On the other hand, no less than 651 were engaged in
preparing themselves in Law, and 390 in Politics.
In September 1901, 567 undergraduates were attending a Law course, 409
lectures on Politics; but only 28 were listening to teachers of
Japanese History, while 48 were enrolled in the classes for General
History.
The advocates of Greek insist that the Greek language is the finest of
all instruments for training the human mind. The Japanese do not agree
with our retrogrades. Greek, apparently, is not taught at any School
or University, though Latin is amongst the subjects which a Japanese
medical student is expected to have mastered.
Another great distinction between the Japanese and the English system
is, that only picked men are permitted to avail themselves of a
University education. Further, before proceeding to the University the
undergraduate must have passed through a school specially preparing
him for one of the University Colleges.
“This type of school,” observes Professor Sawayanagi, “is exclusively
peculiar to the educational system of Japan, as there is no equivalent
either in Europe or America.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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