Study Abroad in Japan

With KCP International, you can earn more Japanese credit than you would in an entire year at your university. Plus, you can pick your start date!

Find out more

Learn Japanese Online

Immerse yourself in the heart of Tokyo with a wide variety of courses, flexible schedules and convenient packages you keep your experience easy!

Apply Now

Join Our Newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!

Shizutani School

The Shizutani School

Japan has always valued education. In fact, Japan’s literacy rate is almost 100%, and it has produced 18 Nobel Prize winners over the years. Japan’s education system has played an integral part in its recovery and economic growth in the years after World War II.

Formal education in Japan began in the 6th century with the adoption of Chinese culture. The usual teaching in Japanese courts such as Heian, Nara, and Asuka were sciences, divination, calligraphy, literature, and Buddhist and Confucian teachings. Scholars were initially chosen through an Imperial examination system, but later on, titles and posts remained hereditary and within the family. The rise of the military class (bushi) during the Kamakura period ended scholarly influence, and Buddhist monasteries became the primary centers for learning.Shizutani School grounds

Shizutani School grounds.

During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate and the Daimyō competed for power on the basis of economics. The samurai class, who were also practicing bureaucrats, learned not only the ways of military strategy but agriculture and accounting as well. The prosperous merchant class prepared for their continued growth in business, which enabled them to be patrons of the arts and sciences. Temple schools were largely responsible for educating the peasant class. It was estimated that by the end of the Edo period, 50% of the male population and 20% of the female population possessed some degree of education.

The Shizutani School (閑谷学校 )  or the shizutani gakkō, is the oldest surviving school for the common people. It was built and opened by the Okayama Domain during the early Edo period, in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture.  The idea for the school began in 1666 when the feudal lord of the Bizen Area, Ikeda Mitsumasa, came across Kidani Village in Wake. He thought the area had an ideal atmosphere for educating people. In 1670, Ikeda Mitsumasa gave his chief vassal Tsuda Nagatada the task of completing Shizutani School.  Ikeda Mitsumasa is remembered today for his resounding belief: “Better public morality is all up to the education of the common people.”Shizutani School

Shizutani School

The school’s building stands today the way it was completed about 300 years ago. The stone wall is in Tang style, a Chinese style in an era when China was called Tang. The roof tiles of the building are made of bizen ware. The Shizutani School is ideally located in a beautiful place surrounded by maple and gingko trees, where time seems to stand still.

The Shizutani School  Auditorium has been designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan as a National Treasure in the building/structure category.

Sign-up for our newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!