Talk:Imperial Rescript on Education

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Moral/ethical education

I encountered a plausibly relevant analysis in an early 20th century monograph on the Taiko and Taihō reforms -- possibly deserving to be expanded into the text of this article:

" ... [The] lack of the moral assumption of the ruler has, except in some political phraseology borrowed from China, characterized the entire history of Japan, until the new [Meiji] Constitution of 1889 has granted to the people freedom of conscience, the Emperor standing above all faiths considered as moral principles.Note 1

Note 1: [The Emperor's] performance of the hereditary Shinto rites is ethical, and lacks moral significance. His celebrated Educational Rescript of October, 1889, implies that Japan has from early times been bound together by moral ties, and exhorts himself and the people alike to virtue. It cannot be said to reflect any belief that the responsibility of maintaining the morals of the nation falls upon the Imperial person, and less that the Sovereign holds his throne by virtue of his ethical excellence. Moreover, the morals herein inculcated is, save the renewed assertion of the theory of the Imperial succession, eclectic in character and embraces Confucian, Buddhist, and Christian, as well as traditional native virtues. Even this much of the moral care of the Sovereign, still devoid as it is of exclusive moral dogmas of a purely national character, has been made possible by the progress of history. It would have been extremely anachronistic had the Rescript been issued in the pre-Reform days.[pp. 131-132, emphasis added]

• Asakawa, Kanichi. (1903). The Early Institutional Life of Japan: A Study in the Reform of 645. Toyko: Shueisha. [New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1963].

To me, this seems interesting -- appears important, but I don't quite see how there is enough in this one source to justify more than this terse posting on a Talk page. Maybe it could function as a catalyst ...? --Ooperhoofd 22:21, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Not fully abolished

As far as I know, two schools, 皇學館 (Kogakkan) and 開成幼稚園 (Kaisei Kindergarten) make students memorize the whole script. Each Oct 30, the date when the script was signed, kogakkan teachers will make students write the whole script using brush and ink. See this Kogakkan video and this Kaisei video for details (in Japanese). Minfremi (talk) 23:02, 5 January 2015 (UTC)