"school mottos" in modern schooling : analysis of the rhetoric relativizing the imperial rescript on education, focusing on the meiji period

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K14076
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 09010:Education-related
• Research Institution: Soka University
• Principal Investigator: Iwaki Yusaku 創価大学, 文学研究科, 研究員 (60824042)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 校訓 / 教育勅語 / 戊申詔書 / 勅語の御趣旨 / 小学校教則大綱 / 修身教授法 / ヘルバルト派教育学 / 多方興味説

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to clarify that the school mottos of each school enacted during the Meiji period functioned to place the Imperial Rescript on Education in the context of their own school education by making it relative to the Imperial Rescript on Education. The results of a survey of school mottos during the Meiji period were analyzed, and the rhetoric used to link school education with imperial rescript was discussed, with multiple examples. I also focused on the common rhetoric in the formulation of school mottos, "Purpose of the Imperial Rescript" and hypothesized that the "Purpose of the Imperial Rescript" were translated into school mottos at each school and expressed as various moral principles and texts. Based on this hypothesis, I pointed out that the "theory of multiple interests" of the Herbart’s pedagogy had a major role in the interpretation of "Purpose of the Imperial Rescript".

Free Research Field

日本教育史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的意義は、教育勅語受容の様相を校訓という形で示そうとしたことにある。従来の研究では、教育勅語の成立史や衍義書等における解釈の変遷、不敬事件における反抗等について多くの議論がなされてきた。しかし、教育勅語発布以降に、職務として勅語に関わり実践しなければならなかった学校教員たちが具体的にどのような観点から解釈していったのかの追及はほとんど試みられなかったといえる。本研究の社会的意義は、校訓および校訓制定のレトリック分析を通じて、教育勅語の上意下達的な理解、つまり発布された理念や方針が一方的に浸潤していくような教育観・歴史観を再構築しようとしたところにある。