ABSTRACT
For the student of late imperial Chinese land tenure, the experience of the Japanese government in occupation in Taiwan from 1895 is inherently interesting. This chapter shows how in its plans to finance primary education in the counties in order to promote Japanese language and culture, the Japanese colonial government came to terms with communal educational institutions over their land holdings. During the Qing dynasty, the major educational institutions in Taiwan included prefectural or county Confucian schools, academies, charity schools, and community schools. When in 1901, the Temporary Taiwan Old Customs Investigation Association launched its celebrated investigation into customary practices in Taiwan, it has to be understood that the investigation was conducted in a setting in which the nature of communal properties such as school land was still being contested. School land was very much a subject within its investigation and it came to some definite views on its ownership.
