Isawa Shūji facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Isawa Shūji
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| Born | 30 June 1851 Shinano province, Japan
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| Died | 3 May 1917 (aged 65) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Known for | Establishing various universities |
Isawa Shūji (伊澤 修二, 30 June 1851 – 3 May 1917) was an important Japanese educator during the Meiji era. He played a big role in shaping Japan's modern school system, especially in music education.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Isawa Shūji was born in 1851 in a place called Shinano Province in Japan. His family were samurai, but they weren't very rich. His father, Isawa Katsusaburō, was a secretary and also an artist.
As a teenager, Isawa joined a Dutch-style military band, playing drums and fife. He also studied at a local school called Shintokukan.
In 1869, Isawa moved to Tōkyō to live with his uncle, a famous doctor. In Tōkyō, he started learning English. He even studied with Nakahama Manjirō, who was one of the first Japanese people to travel to America. In 1870, Isawa was chosen to study at a new university called Daigaku Nankō, which later became the University of Tokyo.
In 1872, Isawa began working for the Japanese Ministry of Education. He became the director of a teachers college in Aichi, but he left that job after a disagreement. He worked for the Ministry of Industry (Japan) for a short time before returning to the Ministry of Education in 1874. That same year, he married Mori Chiyo.
Studying in America
In 1875, Isawa was sent to the United States to learn about training teachers. He studied at the State Normal School in Massachusetts.
While in Boston, Isawa met a music teacher named Luther Whiting Mason. This meeting was very important! Isawa started taking music lessons from Mason. Later, Isawa and his boss invited Mason to Japan. Together, they created the very first music lessons for Japanese schools.
Isawa also studied how to pronounce English words with Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Isawa even taught Japanese to Bell! Isawa also briefly studied at Harvard University before he had to return to Japan because his father passed away.
Isawa and the Telephone
Before January 1877, Isawa Shūji became the first person to speak a language other than English on the telephone! Alexander Graham Bell himself told the story:
"A young Japanese student named Isawa came to me to learn English pronunciation. When he heard about the telephone, he was very interested. He asked, 'Mr. Bell, will this thing talk Japanese?' I said, 'Certainly, any language.' He was very surprised and wanted to try it. Mr. Isawa went to one end of the telephone line, and I stood at the other. He spoke in Japanese, and I told him what I heard."
Return to Japan and Educational Impact
Isawa returned to Japan in 1879. He became the head of the Tokyo Normal School, which is now the University of Tsukuba. He also helped create the Tokyo School for the Deaf in 1880. In 1887, he helped start the Tokyo School of Music, now known as the Tokyo University of the Arts. Later, in 1895, he helped set up the public school system in Taiwan.
When it came to music education, Isawa didn't just want to copy Western music. He wanted to find a "compromise" between Western and Japanese music. He learned ideas from Europe and America, and also from Christian church music that was new in Japan.
At first, Isawa thought music education was good for children's minds and bodies. But over time, he became more interested in how music could help build good character. He believed music could teach important moral lessons.
Isawa was a great writer and thinker. He wrote some of the first books in Japanese about teaching methods, educating deaf people, language, and how living things change over time.
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Spelling of His Name
The correct spelling of his family name is Isawa, with an "s," not Izawa. Documents from his time, including those written by Isawa himself and official records from his studies in America, always show the spelling as Isawa. Music scores from that period also confirm this spelling.
Isawa's family came from near a village called Isawa in Japan. His ancestors were warriors for the Takeda clan there.
Sometimes, when Isawa was in the USA, he spelled his first name "Shuje." This can be seen in some documents from that time.
When writing his own family name in Japanese, Isawa always used the traditional and more complex way of writing the character for "-sawa." Later in his life, Isawa used the pen name Rakuseki.
