ABSTRACT
The transition from Tokugawa to Meiji was no smoother in education than it was in other important spheres. There does seem to have been a consensus among the majority of Meiji leaders from the outset in favor of radical educational reforms. Schooling for these Meiji reformers was about inculcating morality, especially those civic virtues that would mobilize support for the new government in its efforts to save the nation from decline and perhaps conquest. The Education Ministry in 1874 did add to its textbook list two Tokugawa-period works on ethics, and closer inspection indicates that actual lessons in classrooms were not necessarily so sharp a departure from previously nor so Western as some reformers may have wished. As the Ministry of Education planned for a primary school system, different educational programs were created by other government bureaus also concerned with reforming Japanese institutions with the aid of Western models.
