was one of the first schools organized along western lines in Japan, and was located in

Numazu, Shizuoka is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,486 in 91,986 households, and a population density of 1,014 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Numazu is at the n ...

. Although the academy operated only from December 1868 to 1871, it made a major contribution to the development of

public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

in Japan. It was later merged into the

Imperial Japanese Army Academy The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...

History

During the

Bakumatsu period were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunat ...

, 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 ...

belatedly attempted to modernize its military forces with the assistance of French military advisors. The attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, and following the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

of 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

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty which produced the Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868 during the Edo period. It was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of ...

, formerly masters of the country with revenues of over eight million ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

,'' were reduced to 700,000 ''koku'', spread across the provinces of Suruga, Tōtōmi and Mikawa, with the head of the clan,

Tokugawa Iesato Prince was the first head of the Tokugawa clan after the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate, and a significant figure in Japanese politics and diplomacy during the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period of Japan. When Prince Tokugawa travel ...

, moving to reside at Numazu. At this time, a group of ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...

,'' led by

Ebara Soroku was a samurai of the late Edo period who went on to become an educator and politician in the Meiji era. Biography Ebara was born in Edo as the son of a lesser retainer of the Tokugawa shogunate, but was an exceptionally talented schol ...

, Abe Kuninosuke and Yatabori Keizō returned from studies in the Netherlands, and decided to establish a military academy along western lines within the grounds of Numazu Castle in December 1868. The curriculum of the academy included English and French language and conversation, physics and chemistry, geography, astronomy, world history and economic theory. The curriculum was also weighed towards mathematics, particularly geometry and trigonometry, where were regarded as essential military subjects due to their usage in navigation, artillery targeting and surveying. The first head of the academy was

Nishi Amane was a Japanese philosopher. He studied law and economics in the Netherlands. He became a political advisor to Tokugawa Yoshinobu before and after the Meiji Restoration. He served as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Educati ...

, who was a driving force behind the creation and elementary school associated with the military academy, which is now regarded as Japan’s first western-style elementary school. In 1869, the first Japanese textbook on

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

was published by the Numazu Military Academy. On November 12, 1871 the academy came under the direct control of the

Ministry of War Ministry of War may refer to: * Ministry of War (imperial China) ( 600–1912) * Chinese Republic Ministry of War (1912–1946) * Ministry of War (Kingdom of Bavaria) (1808–1919) * Ministry of War (Brazil) (1815–1999) * Ministry of War (Esto ...

and in 1872, it was closed, and moved to Tokyo, where it was merged with the new

. Although in existence for only four years, its 210 academy graduates and 150 elementary school graduates included many who went on to serve as generals in the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

, admirals in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

or as noted educators or politicians. Its elementary school served as a model for other elementary schools which were soon established throughout Japan. The Numazu Military Academy was also the subject of the first film of director

Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for social realist filmmaking informed by a left-wing perspective. His most noted films include '' An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and '' Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life Although leaning towards left-win ...

in 1939.
Japanese movie database

References

*Samuels, Richard J. ''Rich Nation, Strong Military''. Cornell University Press (1996) *Platt, Brian. ''Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890''. Harvard University Asia Center (2004) *Jansen, Marius. ''Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji''. Princeton University Press (2014)

External links

City of Numazu home page

Notes

{{reflist Defunct Japanese military academies Military history of Shizuoka Prefecture Numazu, Shizuoka 1868 establishments in Japan 1871 disestablishments in Japan State schools