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4 - Literacy and Orality in Support of Christian Beliefs in Early Modern Japan
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- By Kimura Masanobu translated by Richard Rubinger
- Edited by Richard Rubinger
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- Book:
- A Social History of Literacy in Japan
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 23 February 2022
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2021, pp 55-78
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Recent research on early modern Japan (roughly the Tokugawa period, 1603– 1868) has documented a proliferation of schools of all kinds and a moji shakai (lettered society) deeply penetrated and administered by written materials. This makes it easy to believe that in one way or another people came to be able to read and write. However, the history of early modern society is more than a story of the broadening and deepening of written communication. It is essential to consider two contrary possibilities.
The first is the existence of groups that did not depend primarily on written documents at all. For example, in a number of religious sects and in the arts, oral transmission was the primary means of communication. Since ancient times, oral means of communication have continued to thrive alongside written media, and there have continued to be ways for those who could not read or write to communicate orally.
The other exception to the enlargement or extension of written communication was reduction or changes in it, even limits or bans placed on certain forms of literacy. For example, Chinese studies, which in the early modern period was essential training for the leadership group above the middle level, underwent changes after Meiji, then saw its importance diminish and eventually disappear. Similarly, Dutch studies, which had been at the center of Western studies for technocrats during the Tokugawa period, was replaced by English following the opening of the country, and went almost entirely out of existence as technical training for elites.
As a result, schools for Chinese language and culture, Dutch language and Dutch studies suffered sharp reductions. In such ways the notion of what literacy means can change according to time, location and class. Sometimes this can include the possibility of restrictions and outright bans on certain forms of written expression by political authorities. In this chapter we will focus on an example of the latter case: how opportunities for the written transmission of Christianity were both restricted and dramatically transformed during the early modern period.
In sixteenth-century Japan the arrival of Jesuit missionaries led to the establishment of a systematic school system for the training of priests.
1 - Estimating Literacy in Premodern Japan
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- By Kimura Masanobu translated by Richard Rubinger
- Edited by Richard Rubinger
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- Book:
- A Social History of Literacy in Japan
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 23 February 2022
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2021, pp 1-16
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- Chapter
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Summary
There was a time when the “modernization of Japan” was highly touted, especially in the West, and the spread of education in the premodern period was given much of the credit. The books of Herbert Passin and R. P. Dore in particular are often cited in this regard. Dore, in Education in Tokugawa Japan (1965) in the final chapter entitled “The Legacy,” asks the fundamental question: “Why was Japan, alone of all Asian countries, able to keep her independence and carry through the process of politically directed change which has made her a highly industrialized nation?” In his conclusion Dore highly praises the traditions of school education and literacy which spread among non-samurai commoners in premodern society as the basis for Japan's modernization.
Similarly, in Herbert Passin's Society and Education in Japan (also 1965), “Japan of 1855 was already a society showing every disposition and readiness for a modern transformation.” Along with already being a highly centralized nation-state she had a high standard of literacy, particularly among the upper classes, and it was widely diffused. Citing estimates from various scholars Passin also says, “If we can assume that ‘schooling’ equals ‘literacy’ we have the basis for some estimate of the extent of literacy in pre-modern Japan. Taking into account home tutoring, 40 to 50 percent male literacy would not appear unreasonable.”
It is not the purpose of this chapter to go into the issues associated with the “modernization theory” debate. The aim is rather to provide empirical data on the spread of literacy and education in particular social contexts in early modern Japan. We will survey the methods used to estimate literacy up to now, pointing out achievements and limitations.
The focus here will be on research on Tokugawa period literacy. Compared to the relatively easy collection of data on popular schooling and literacy after Meiji, when national systems were established in education and the military, data in the earlier period was not kept in a systematic way and this has made possible a variety of research methods and themes.