Brocade Pictures for Moral Education, 1882-1884

錦絵修身談 Nishiki-e shūshindan 

Six volumes of text with illustrations (1882-1884)

and ninety-two supplemental color woodblock prints (1883 and 1888)

A collaborative effort of Yoshitoshi, his students

and the Tokyo publishing house Fukyūsha

The Six Textbooks "Nishiki-e shūshindan"  錦絵修身談 

(Brocade Pictures for Moral Education)

「幼童の最も喜び易く感じ易き錦絵を附け、仁義・孝弟・忠信等の行を示し、本文にも図画を挿入し児童をして倦怠の心を発せざらしめんと欲す」

- from page 2 of the publisher's preface

Young children’s favorite and easy to understand color woodblock prints are presented with short stories, highlighting loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, etc. Pictures are also inserted in the text, eliminating boredom and enabling children to read and practice.

- Tsuji Keiji, publisher  (translation of the above)

In 1882 the Tokyo educator and publisher Tsuji Keiji 辻敬之 (1851-1891), of the publishing house Fukyūsha 普及舎, with the writer Yamana Tomesaburō 山名留三郎, the editor Masukawa Kanyū 増川蚶雄, and the artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) undertook the creation of a six volume set of primary school moral instruction textbooks titled Nishiki-e shūshindan 錦絵修身談, or Brocade Pictures for Moral Education.1 Volumes 1,2 and 3 were originally issued in March 1882 and volumes 4, 5 and 6 were originally issued in July 1884. As summarized in the below chart, each volume contained from one to three full-color aiban-size prints folded in half and placed in the beginning of the book and between four and eight black and white illustrations, all by Yoshitoshi. The books contained a total of ninety-one stories from Japan, China and the West that were promised to hold the attention of the young child. 

Volumes 3 through 6 also list Inagaki Chikai 稲垣千穎 (1845-1913), an instructor at the Tokyo Normal School and poet involved with the creation of the first elementary school song book, as an editor (校閲).

These books were in keeping with the Ministry of Education's embracing of the theories of developmental education, which looked away from wrote learning and memorization to a curriculum more tailored to the individual child's needs. Isawa Shūji 伊澤修二 (1851-1917), an influential proponent of developmental education, argued for moral textbooks that would "include stories, the words and deeds of wise and virtuous men, proverbs, and ethical principles. Instruction in morals should begin with easy stories and gradually proceed to more sophisticated discussions."2 These primary school texts did exactly that.

The volumes were issued with at least two different styles of covers as pictured below.

1 The publisher's name 辻敬之 is also seen romanized as Tsuji Keishi and Tsuji Takayuki. His given name was Moriyuki.

2 Principle, Praxis, and the Politics of Educational Reform in Meiji Japan, Mark Elwood Lincicome, University of Hawaii Press, 1995, p. 209.

Notes:

All six volumes may be viewed online on the website of the National Diet Library Digital Collections. Go to https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?pageNum=0&pageSize=20&sortKey=SCORE&fullText=true&includeVolumeNum=true&displayMode=list&accessRestrictions=internet

and search on the term "錦絵修身談" in the Title box. The NDL images are in black and white only and volumes 1 and 2 in the NDL collection are each missing one of the inserted color prints. [accessed 3-25-24]

Colophon from Volume 1 of Brocade Pictures for Moral Education 

"Shūshin" and Brocade Pictures for Moral Education

Sources: Moral Education in Japan; Implications for American Schools (Thesis Research), Taku Ikemoto,
May 10, 1996 and "Moral Education in Japan", Klaus Luhmer, appearing the Journal of Moral Education, vol. 19 no. 3, Oct. 1990, p. 172-182.

In the 1870s the Japanese government embarked on a program of modernization that included the establishment of a new educational system based on Western models. The 1872 Government Order of Education (Gakusei) which established a system of compulsory education stated, "We look forward to a time when there will be no illiteracy in any village house, no illiterate in any home." Ethics instruction [and moral education]—which used teachings drawn from Japanese, Chinese, and Western sources—became an important component of the new curriculum.

Moral education was called shūshin 修身, which literally means "self-discipline," a word taken from one of the classics of Confucianism. In the early days of the Meiji era there were no prescribed course of study or textbooks, tests or school marks, leaving it to the imagination of the individual teacher how to handle this subject. 

In 1879, most "Western sources" were removed from the moral education curriculum as a result of the Imperial Rescript on Education ("The Great Principles of Education" [kyōgaku taishi]), in which the "Emperor lamented the general decay of public morals, for which he blamed the influx of Western learning. Moral education, based on traditional spirit, was listed at the top of all subjects at elementary schools."

"Teachers were encouraged to enforce strict discipline, calling attention to the Confucianist moral concepts which enjoyed a long tradition in Japan. Shūshin received increased attention and its content and purpose was more clearly defined. A number of guides were published to serve teachers and school administrators as aids for enforcing the national spirit by means of this subject."

This six volume series of textbooks, produced in 1883 and 1884, found classroom and, likely, home use for teaching shūshin. The moral lessons put forth in these volumes are mostly drawn from Confucianism with the addition of a few stories based on the exploits of Westerners and a few illustrations depicting Western characters illustrating exemplary moral concepts such as honesty.

In 1890 the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo) re-introduced the teaching of Western concepts and clarified the pillars of shūshin as State Shinto, Confucianism and modern political and social ethics, which included respect for the Constitution, observation of laws and calls for dutiful citizens who, should emergency arise, offer themselves "courageously to the State..."

The Rescript was invalidated in 1948.

The Twelve Aiban-size Color Prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Inserted in the Textbooks

click on image to enlarge