A was a type of card used in a punishment system of Japanese regional schools in the post-

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

to promote the Tokyo dialect of Japanese in favor of other

Japanese dialects The of the Japanese language fall into two primary clades, Eastern (including modern capital Tokyo) and Western (including old capital Kyoto), with the dialects of Kyushu and Hachijō Island often distinguished as additional branches, the latter ...

and other

Japonic languages Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan () is a language family comprising Japanese language, Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and sig ...

. A student who spoke in dialect would be forced to wear the card until another student also spoke in dialect, and then it would pass to the new transgressor; the student wearing it at the end of the school day received

corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...

by the teachers.

Background

During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, most Japanese people could not travel outside of their home domain. As a result, regional

were relatively isolated and became increasingly distinct. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

the government, in emulation of the European nation states, sought to create a standard Japanese speech. A Tokyo dialect, specifically that of the upper-class Yamanote area, became the model for

Standard Japanese is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

, widely used in schools, publishing, and radio broadcasting. By the early twentieth century, the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

and other authorities instituted various policies to reduce or suppress regional differences.

Implementation

The use of ''hogen fuda'' was most prominent in the Tōhoku,

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

and

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

(including Okinawa) as they are geographically and linguistically most distant from the Tokyo dialect. The issue is most prominent in regard to

Ryukyuan languages The , also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. Ju ...

as there are groups, such as the Kariyushi Club, which advocate the languages to be officially recognised by the Japanese government as a language (and Ryukyu as a nation). In Okinawa, the card was initially voluntarily adopted by Okinawan students at the start of the 20th century, but became mandatory as assimilation policies increased following 1917.

Cultural interaction

In 2024, the Welsh message of 1923 Welsh Women's Peace was translated into

Okinawan language Okinawan (, , , ), or more precisely Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, K ...

from the perspective of the similarities between the Okinawan dialect card and the Welsh Not policy in Wales. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan claimed that the reconstruction of the Okinawan language can be taken as a reference from the reconstruction of the Welsh language. Keiichiro Nemoto also created a short film inspired by the similarities between the history of Okinawan dialect card and Welsh Not in Wales.Japanese singer to shoot video inspired by the Welsh Not in Cardiff
/ref>

References

{{reflist Linguistic rights Linguistic discrimination Ryukyuan languages Okinawa Prefecture School punishments Education in Japan Punishments Language policy in Japan

Background

Implementation

Cultural interaction

See also

References