ABSTRACT
In 1875, Izawa Shūji (1851-1917) was sent by the Meiji govern ment to a school in the U.S.A. in order to create a blueprint for instructors of music in Japanese primary schools. He started his official career as a civil engineer and became the headmaster of the teachers’ school in Aichi Prefecture at the age of 23. Izawa, then 24 years old, enrolled in an American teachers’ school, and of course, did well in all his studies, but failed music. Izawa records in his autobiography that he begged to be allowed to continue music, pleading that it was for this that he had been sent by his government.
