A Japanese scholar fostered education in general and women’s education in particular. Tokugawa’a philosophies were neo-Confucian wherein he challenges “the plausibility of continuing to assert that women’s lives were shaped by one hegemonic discourse throughout the more than two hundred fifty years of Tokugawa governance.” (Ko, Haboush and Piggott 195). The life of women in Japan was dominated traditionally by the philosophies postulated by Tokugawa. These female archetypes yielded an important “symbolic and cultural” ideology legalized by society. In these numerous rules for women was a highly acclaimed publication by Tokugawa called The Greater Learning for Women (Lu). The book pointed at the education of women in Japanese society. However, there were constraints to imparting education to the fairer sex, even though the importance of imparting teaching to them was acknowledged. The reasons lay in Oriental ideologies. The oriental ideas were strict regarding the position of men and women. Men were considered superior and according to the cultural construct, eastern women could not be allowed to gain prominence to the menfolk. It was feared that the fairer sex may gain a greater hand on men as the eastern philosophers realized that women will be capable enough to subordinate men if provided complete freedom. Thus, the Confucian teaching insisted that men and women should not sit in the same apartment after they attain seven years of age. This was the first instance of the demarcation of the sexes in Japanese society. Thus, the oriental society was obsessed with the idea of separating women from men while another school insisted on the sinful nature of women.
Thus this oriental teaching crept into the Japanese culture too where the position of women in Japanese social structure sank deep into obscurity.
Apart from the low rung social status of women in Japanese society, there were more philosophies, which were thought to impair women’s education (Takaishi). First was mentioned by Kaibara Ekken where he calls women’s mind full of stupidity and silliness. Thus, he attributed to the inferiority of women and her understanding to her male counterparts. This inability of women to understand her duties and responsibilities makes her incapable of going through a formal educational system. The greater learning of women in Japan exerted that parents must teach women to be able to appropriately marry and enter a household and maintain the rigid boundaries that men make for them. The philosophy regarding women during the time was to subjugate women to ill time’s subordination and teaching them not be extraordinarily expensive, gossipy, or envious, or arrogant.
The gender difference in the teaching of the Japanese philosophers was so acute that it made women to a mere commodity rather than an individual. In a way, women were non-existent. The learning for women in Japan was restricted to moral guides and learning of etiquettes that would make them desirable wives. Thus, the greater learning of women in Japan imparted the teaching of subjugating women and rather than to empower them.
The teaching of children in Japan was governed by the philosophies laid down by Kaibara Ekken (Murdoch). The philosophies of the scholar strictly marked the time when teaching should be imparted to children and in what nature. The children were supposed to learn numbers at the age of six from 1 to 10. They were taught four direction viz. east, west, north, and south. Then he instructed to differentiate between the students who were naturally intelligent and the ones who were slow learners. Then they were taought Japanese syllabary (kana) within the age of six to seven years. This shows that Japanese education system was marked by rules and regulations laid down by age old philosophy leaving no space for natural grasping of the child or natural learning. Therefore, there was very little space for common sense learning. Learning was regulated by theme and age. Throughout their tutorial age, children were taught to learn and follow the teacher. It was after their attainment of adulthood were they allowed to apply their sense. This greatly impaired the capacity of children to use their common sense.
Therefore, the society in Japan was greatly constricted through the philosophies, which were followed strictly. Women in one hand were taught to stay subjugated and men to rule over them. They were commoditized as wives to respect their husbands and a strict sex division was enforced on them. The greater learning for women was to make them better wives rather than scholars. The main constraint in the true greater learning was the philosophy itself, which barred women from being anything else but obedient household pets. Women remained as house makers and did not receive any education as they were dubbed stupid. As for learning of children was concerned, they were not allowed to apply their understanding, instead they were tutored through a strict set of rules that made them believe in the rules rather than engaging in understanding the sense behind it. They were taught to follow a set of rules without understanding why they were following them. Thus, this constricted the development of common sense among children in Japan.
Reference
Ko, Dorothy, JaHyun Kim Haboush and Joan R. Piggott. Women and Confucian cultures in premodern China, Korea, and Japan. London: University of California Press, 2003.
Lu, David John. Japan: a documentary history. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.
Murdoch, James. A history of Japan, Volume 3. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Takaishi, Shingoro. Women and Wisdon of Japan. London: John Murray, 1909.