実業教育

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実業教育

Vocational Education in the Industrialization of Japan

論文タイトル: Part II. Case Studies of Vocational Schools: Chap. 9. Commerce: The Fukushima Commercial Continuation School
著者名: Haneda, Arata
出版社: United Nations University Press
出版年: 1987
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Part II. Case Studies of Vocational Schools: Chap. 9. Commerce: The Fukushima Commercial Continuation School


Ⅰ. Development of the Raw Silk Trade

Fukushima Town, Fukushima Prefecture, established the town-run Fukushima Commercial Continuation School in 1897 as the second school in the Tohoku region to specialize in vocational education, following the commercial school established in Sendai City in the previous year. The school was then transformed into an ordinary commercial school in 1907. In 1918 it was upgraded to an advanced commercial school. In 1922 the school was expanded and its management was transferred to the prefecture. Although these changes could not have transpired without various governmental policies for the promotion of vocational education, what was more important was the involvement of the school with various aspects of local community life together with its industrial activities.
Fukushima town was a central town in a region which had continued to prosper in business from the era when it was a castle town under the Fukushima fief controlled by the Itakura family. In particular, it was well known in the country as a collection and distribution center of raw silk (especially export raw silk, the industry that acquired the greatest amount of foreign currency throughout the Meiji period). The surrounding area consisting of Shinobu and Date counties was called the Shintatsu area. This area had been known as one of the best seri-cultural centers in Japan since the end of the Tokugawa period. Due to its excellent quality, the Zaguri raw silk produced in this area gained a reputation as an export item; moreover, the silkworm eggs produced there were an improved species of the famous Oshu silkworms and were in demand all over Japan.
Compared with the other producing centers in early Meiji period, the former Fukushima province (Nakadori region) ranked second in terms of the value of raw silk production, fourth in the value of cocoon production, and third in the value of silkworm egg sheet production throughout Japan. Although this region was one of the top producing centers of sericulture and silk reeling, approximately 70 % of its production came from the two counties of Shinobu and Date.1 Because the proportion of the total production value by the silk industry was 22.5 % of the total production value of various produces, this region ranked second following the former Yamanashi Province (26.2%) and first in the value of raw silk production.2 This proportion was maintained even after the middle of the Meiji period, and seri-culture expanded throughout the entire prefecture of Fukushima excluding part of the former Wakamatsu Province and Iwamae Province.
The above prosperity of sericulture and silk reeling in the Shintatsu region naturally required the activities pursued by related dealers such as wholesalers and it also necessitated the establishment of financial agencies such as banks. Banks, involving capital and the procurement of operational capital, were of particular importance in transaction activities. The banks were located in Fukushima Town, the former castle town, which was the center of the Shintatsu region.
In 1892, there were 23 wholesalers dealing in raw silk and there were as many as 139 brokers. The transaction value of raw silk alone was about ¥3.4 million and the total transaction value including other silk-related activities was about ¥4.7 million. From the late 1890s, there was such a marked increase in the value of silk, especially raw silk, and its value doubled in only several years, increasing to ¥5.12 million in 1897, ¥7.65 million in 1898, and ¥9.00 million in 1899.3
Of the many financial agencies, five banks were founded in the period from 1876 to 1898. In addition, several banks were established in the neighboring areas of Fukushima Town, and various out-of-prefecture banks opened branches. Financing prospered, centering on activities related to raw silk transactions; in 1899 a branch office of the Bank of Japan was established for the first time in the Tohoku region.
Among over twenty companies of various kinds, many wholesale companies related to the sale of raw silk were established in the decade from 1887 to 1897. This trend continued upon entering the following decade, and excluding those engaged in financing, 15 companies had a capital of more than ten thousand yen.
Fukushima Town with raw silk transactions as its pillar flourished as a commercial and financial center in the northern part of Fukushima Prefecture and became the site of the prefectural office. The town occupied a strategic location for transportation to Tokyo and Sendai as well as to the Hamadori region, Yonezawa, and Yamagata. Its importance as a commercial center as well as the prefectural capital was furthered as a result of the opening of the Tohoku railway line in 1887 and the Ou line in 1899. The population as of 1901 was 25,695 persons with 4,355 households and 14,542 persons legally domiciled there.
The development of commerce in Fukushima Town centering on the transaction of raw silk gradually came to require a quantitative expansion and a qualitative improvement (modern knowledge and techniques regarding commerce) of the people engaged in the business. Merchant families who wanted their children to succeed to the business desired that they receive an education which was one level higher than the primary education offered by elementary schooling. Raw silk wholesalers, banks and companies needed people who had received a specialized education in business transactions. The conditions were ripe for the establishment of a secondary level commercial school.

Ⅱ. The Establishment of a Continuation School

Fukushima Town in the middle of the Meiji period contained the socioeconomic conditions which necessitated the establishment of a school which specialized in commercial education. Such conditions as the educational zeal extant in Fukushima and the advantage which it had by having the prefectural office in the town also must be mentioned as factors that promoted the school's founding.
Fukushima Town was noted for its educational zeal.` The head of the town at the time, Suzuki Saburobei, was a businessman and also one of the most famous progressive intellectuals in the prefecture. He contributed greatly to the town and the prefecture as a member and chairman of the prefectural assembly and subsequently became involved in educational promotion as the chairman of the Fukushima Education Board. He promoted the establishment of the Fukushima Commercial Continuation School through his endeavors in the town assembly.
The fact that Fukushima Town was the location of the prefectural office also supported the founding. The establishment of both the normal school and the middle school in the early years of the Meiji period were achieved here ahead of any of the other towns in the prefecture. The same supportive circumstances were found regarding the founding of other schools and the transfer of their management to the prefecture. Due largely to the devoted efforts made by Nakagawa Shuntaro, a prefectural official of the time (chief of the School Affairs Section), various educational institutions were founded and expanded.5
The establishment of the Fukushima Town-Run Fukushima Commercial Continuation School in 1897 was given impetus in the process of examining the Fukushima Town-Run Fukushima Ordinary Elementary School building which had become run-down. The Fukushima town authorities decided that it was appropriate to separate the boys' section from the girls' section and to make each independent. To use this opportunity to establish a higher level school which had been contemplated upon, a plan was drafted so that the boys' section would have the additional establishment of a commercial continuation school while the girls' section would have the additional establishment of a girls high school.
It was nearly impossible for the children of the townsfolk to pursue further studies, because there was only one normal school which was a special school for the training of elementary school teachers. Although a middle school had been founded in 1874, it had had a history of repeated closures and reopenings as well as transfers to other sites in the prefecture. A middle school had not existed in Fukushima Town since 1886. The situation regarding vocational schools was worse because there were none in the prefecture. In spite of Fukushima prefecture being one of the top sericultural prefectures in the country, there was not even an agricultural school. The establishment of the Fukushima Commercial Continuation School was a breakthrough for it intended to meet the demand of the Fukushima townsfolk regarding the further education of their children.
This school was successfully opened in May 1897 as an additional establishment to the Fukushima First Ordinary and Upper Elementary School. A local newspaper reported the circumstances pertaining to the establishment of this school carried by an extraordinary meeting of the town assembly in January 1897. The resolution read in part as follows:
... the matter regarding the establishment of a girls' high school arose as a result of the necessity to extend girls' education, and the additional establishment of a commercial continuation course to the boys' section of the elementary school also derived from similar reasoning. In this town which is the center of commerce in the prefecture, commercial matters are becoming increasingly more complex each year. Since many of the school-aged children who go to other prefectures to pursue specialized studies after graduating from elementary schools become engaged in business, there is a need to establish a commercial continuation course in the elementary school today ....6
Although the Fukushima Commercial Continuation School was thus started as a continuation school, those concerned expected the school to be a commercial school. Their expectation was reflected in the actual conditions governing this school. The school was tentatively formed as a continuation school, but it was presumed that the school would develop into a commercial school.
Since this school was an annex of the Fukushima First Ordinary and Upper Elementary School, it used part of the elementary school building. The principal of the elementary school, Uda Saburo, also acted as the principal of the commercial continuation school. According to the school rules, the objective of the school was "to provide children who aspired to a career in business with a supplementary elementary education as well as knowledge and the necessary business techniques with the use of simple methods." The admission requirement also stipulated that students had to have completed two years of upper elementary school (revised to ordinary elementary school graduation from the academic year of 1899). The period of study was for three years with a total enrollment of 100 students (which was increased to 150 students from the 1901 academic year).?
There were as many as 33 class periods a week with the greater proportion of subjects and periods pertaining to commerce. Among regular subjects most periods were spent on English. In this regard, the educational content was closer to that of a commercial school rather than that of a continuation school. There were five teachers, of whom three also taught at the elementary school and thus only two teachers―one for commercial subjects and the other for English―worked exclusively for the continuation school.
In 1898 Kondo Setsutaro took charge of commercial subjects and in 1906 he succeeded Uda Saburo and became the second principal. Kondo was an educator of the so-called practical type who, after graduating from the privately run Tokyo Commercial School, had had many diversified experiences apart from having been a shop clerk and a company employee. He was one of the figures who solidified the foundation of the Fukushima Commercial School. At the request of Mayor Ninomiya, he became an assistant mayor in 1921, but returned to the school in 1932 as its fourth principal.
There were 30 students who entered the school in the first year. However, because there were those who transferred to the Fukushima Middle School which was established in the following year and those who dropped out in the middle of their studies, this number decreased to about one-half, and only 16 students managed to graduate from the school.8 As a result, the situation prevailed "for four to five years whereby the principal and the faculty went all over the town visiting the families with children who had completed ordinary elementary education so that they could explain the objectives and policies of the school and allocate the students according to the wishes of the students themselves and their families."9 Inclusive of the students who entered the school in later years, there were several older students who had had more than the stipulated education. Regarding the occupations of the parents, the majority were engaged in commerce followed by industry and agriculture, and there were students who came from other towns and villages.10
Each of the following reminiscences and recollections by the students from the early graduating classes clearly reveals their opinions and enthusiasm of the time:
All the teachers were first-rate.... Even as a child, I felt slightly proud and was somewhat impressed that I was taught new subjects by these different teachers." (First class)
We studied really hard because we felt that we were making history.12 (Second class)
Because the production of Zaguri raw silk was at its peak in this town back then, a dozen or so raw silk wholesalers were flourishing.... We boys were attracted by raw silk wholesaling and we studied thinking that upon graduation we would become live-in apprentices at the wholesalers and dreamt of becoming influential raw silk merchants.13 (Third class)
Although the majority (16 graduates of the first class and 30 graduates of the second class) went into their own family businesses upon graduation, nearly 40 % were employed by shops and companies such as wholesalers. This tendency was more or less found throughout the period of the continuation school which ended in 1907. A decade later, around 1917, over 60% of the graduates entered their own family business, which was followed by 25 % of the graduates who entered companies, shops, and banks. In 1905 there were so many job offers from the town itself and from other areas that it was said that there were two to three times more jobs than the number of graduates.14 It would be appropriate to say that the objective of the commercial continuation school had been virtually achieved.
In 1900 a night course was created at this school: It was opened for up to three hours a night from November to the following March every year with the objective of supplementing regular education through the teaching of ethics, Japanese, arithmetic, commercial affairs, bookkeeping, and other courses. Also taught were simple commercial knowledge and techniques. Thus education was provided to those who either were engaged in commerce or wished to enter commerce but who did not have any time to spare during the day.15 It may be said that the night course, in fact, was closer to the reality of a vocational continuation school.

Ⅲ. Transformation into a Commercial School

The town of Fukushima changed status t othat of a city on 1 April 1907. To commemorate this event, the Fukushima Commercial Continuation School was changed to an ordinary commercial school. The other underlying reason for this change was that capable men with a more advanced commercial education were required in Fukushima which had grown as a commercial city centering on the transaction of raw silk. The townspeople such as the merchants longed for the establishment of a commercial school equivalent to the Fukushima Middle School where their children could be educated.
It was a natural course of events for this plan to be promoted by the Fukushima town authorities who were noted for their educational zeal. Kondo Setsutaro, the principal directly in charge of the school, made the original proposal. The school was reopened as an ordinary commercial school in April 1907 under the revised name of the Fukushima City-run Fukushima Commercial School. In March of the following year the school moved to a newly completed one-storied school building with a floor space of 1,181.4 m2 (358 tsubo). For about a decade until 1918 when the school was upgraded to an advanced commercial school, the school kept improving its educational standard as a secondary educational institution and it cultivated a unique school atmosphere.16
The number of students exceeded two hundred during the Taisho period. As during the period of the commercial continuation school, the majority of the students came from a merchant background but those from a civil service background were on the increase. The employment pattern of the graduates was virtually the same as before, but there were slightly more graduates entering railway-related jobs.17 Due to the increased number of graduates in the early years of the Taisho period, an alumni association was organized.
The city-run Fukushima Commercial School steadily established itself as a middle school from the end of the Meiji period to the early years of the Taisho period, during the period when conditions pertaining to industry, the economy, vocational education et cetera were also changing greatly at the national level. Japan's capitalistic economy had entered its establishment period at the end of the Meiji period, and the industrial revolution progressed as the emphasis shifted from light industries to heavy industries. Concurrently, enterprise management began to be modernized and there was a need for capable men with advanced education who had the knowledge and skills in many aspects of management. On the other hand, what became more indispensable for the improvement of an enterprise was the training of mid-level businessmen to take charge of actual business affairs.
For this purpose, the government, upon entering the Taisho period, endeavored to improve both ordinary and advanced commercial schools. In conjunction with the 1920 revision of the Vocational School Act, the Regulations for Commercial Schools were also revised in the following year, and ordinary and advanced commercial schools were amalgamated, thereby abolishing their distinction. At the same time, the period of study and the course requirements were increased, and more regular subjects were added giving heed to character building. The number of secondary commercial schools in the Taisho period was 67 advanced schools and 32 ordinary schools in 1912. In 1925 the number grew to 196 advanced schools and 38 ordinary schools. There was a distinct tendency to establish, or to be upgraded to, advanced schools. The number of students also grew rapidly from 21,597 students in the advanced schools and 4,589 students in the ordinary schools in 1912 to 55,358 students in the advanced schools and 8,099 students in the ordinary schools in 1921.18
It can be seen that people in general had great expectations for commercial education and the same expectations prevailed in Fukushima City and Fukushima Prefecture. Due to the advancement of large capital investment, sericulture, silk reeling and the silk fabric industry in the Shintatsu region centering on Fukushima City came to be controlled by large capital investors. Raw silk wholesalers faced a recession as a result of a great change epitomized by the transformation from Zaguri reeling to mechanical reeling. The nature of the demand made of the school from the raw silk wholesalers had been changing as demands subsequently came from various companies, banks, and government offices.19 However, the function of Fukushima City as a commercial and industrial center and the prefectural capital was even more significant than ever and likewise the expectations and the demands for a secondary commercial school became increasingly greater. It was only a matter of time for the school to be upgraded to an advanced commercial school.
At the time of the transfer to prefectural management, due to a sudden rise in the number of applicants seeking admission to the middle school or other types of secondary school in the prefecture in the latter half of the Meiji period and in the early Taisho period, the admission rate into the prefectural middle school was around 60 %, and the situation was such that the admission rate at times was 51 %.20 The prefectural authorities, therefore, made a plan to increase and expand the prefectural middle school. They promoted this plan by giving the utmost priority to vocational educational institutions. The plan was carried out during the Taisho period, and as a result, many cases pertained to the transfer of agricultural public schools to prefectural management and the establishment of a middle school. The fact that only Fukushima Commercial School out of the two public commercial schools was chosen to be transferred to prefectural management was most likely due to its long history and its location in the prefectural capital.
What were the changes faced by the Fukushima Commercial School as a result of its upgrading to an advanced school and its transfer to prefectural management? To put it succinctly, due to the rise in the status of the school, the educational content and quality of students improved greatly. As a secondary school, this school was given equal status with the prefectural middle school and the content of the curriculum was enriched. The number of full-time teachers was gradually increased, and at its peak there were as many as 19 full-time teachers. In 1919 the school moved to take over the school building which used to be the former Fukushima First Upper Elementary School (with a ground of 9,042 m2 (2,740 tsubo) and with a floor space of 1,983.3 m2 (601 tsubo).
Since this was the only prefecturally managed advanced level commercial school in the prefecture, applicants came from not only Fukushima City, the Shintatsu region, and all over the prefecture but from other prefectures as well. At one point there were more than three times the number of applicants than the number who could be admitted. Consequently, a dormitory was established in 1923 and it remained in operation until 1930. In the latter half of the Taisho period this school competed against Fukushima Middle School as a preparatory school, and the caliber of the students admitted to this commercial school was so high that the students were even better than those attending Fukushima Middle School.21
The family background of the students remained virtually the same, as the bulk of them came from merchant families, but as far as the rest of the students, there was a shift from those with an agricultural and civil service background to the children of company workers. The employment situation of the graduates changed drastically and more graduates were employed by companies, banks, government and public offices, and schools rather than entering family businesses. There was also a tendency for the graduates to go out of the prefecture. Compounded by the fact that the Fukushima Commercial High School had been established in Fukushima City in 1922, the number of graduates pursuing further studies was on the increase.22
The role of the Fukushima Commercial School had been primarily to train the successors of merchant families and clerks for raw silk wholesalers and the like. In the process of transfer and upgrading to an ordinary commercial school and an advanced school, it can be said that the above role was changed to that of training various kinds of salaried men (mid-level white-collar workers). In this regard, it is believed that the changing nature of Fukushima City as a local community greatly affected the school. In other words, from the middle of the Taisho period onwards, the nature of Fukushima City changed in such a way that it played a central role in the region as the prefectural capital with related organs and urban commercial and industrial functions rather than because it once prospered as a collection and distribution center for raw silk.
In the process of its transformation and upgrading to a commercial school, the Fukushima Commercial Continuation School underwent changes in its nature and in its role in the local community. It should be kept in mind, however, that commercial continuing education trends in Fukushima City which had started in the late 1890s were continued uninterrupted to the prewar Showa period even though the school underwent repeated changes. This point will be briefly touched upon in the next section.

Ⅳ. The Trend in Continuing Education

The town-run Fukushima Commercial Continuation School created a night course in 1900 to offer learning oportunities for working youth. The night course, however, was abolished in 1907 when the school was transformed into an ordinary commercial school. As a result, to start the night course as an independent organization, in 1909 Fukushima City decided to establish the Fukushima City-run Fukushima Commercial Continuation School (to be opened seasonally and at night) as an addition to the City-run Fukushima Commercial School.23 The principal of the City-run Fukushima Commercial School also acted as the principal of the continuation school, and the teachers of the commercial school and the elementary school taught there as well. Nevertheless, for commuting convenience part of the preschool building attached to Fukushima Second Upper Elementary School was used for classrooms.
The number of students enrolled, with the number of students graduating in parenthesis is as follows: 35 (17) in 1909, 24 (14) in 1910, 30 (18) in 1911, 27 (18) in 1912, and 37 (24) in 1913. The main occupation in which the students were engaged was banking with 48 bank and company employees (31.4 %), followed by 24 civil servants (15.7 %), and 24 family businessmen (15.7 %). As for the age distribution, while the oldest student was 28, the youngest was 13. The average age was 17 years old. The enrollment from 1914 onwards was 32 in 1914, 29 in 1915, 15 in 1916, 22 in 1917, number unknown for 1918, 49 in 1919, and 36 in 1920.24
This continuation school made further improvements even after the upgrading of the City-run Fukushima Commercial School to an advanced school. In conjunction with the transfer of the Fukushima Commercial School to prefectural management in 1922, the annexed continuation school faced the misfortune of being discontinued. As a substitute, however, Fukushima City started a new form of school which contained a day section as well as a girls' section. This was the newly created Fukushima City-run Commercial and Technical Vocational School. This school was annexed to the Fukushima City-run First Ordinary Elementary School in 1922. It was renamed the Fukushima City-run Commercial Vocational School in 1931.25
At this school there was a day course with a two-year boys' section and a three-year girls' section, a night course, and a two-year advanced level course (full-year). Each of the above had one class. There was also an ordinary course (seasonal) with a two-year preparatory course and a two-year regular course (two classes.) In 1924 when all the classes were in operation, the number of students was 234, which increased to 319 students in 1927. Subsequently, the school system was revised so that the regular course had a two-year boys' section and a two-year girls' section. In addition, the two-year advanced course, the special course with a two-year first term and a two-year second term, and a four-year domestic science course were established. In 1930, there were 338 male and female students attending the above courses, and the cumulative number of alumni reached 653. Although the principal of the First Ordinary School jointly served as the principal of this vocational school, there were more full-time teachers and part-time teachers. The number of full-time teachers, which was eight at the time of the school's founding was increased to 13 in 1926.26

Notes

1. Fukushima-ken shi [Fukushima Prefectural History] vol. 19 on Various Particulars 5 and Industry and Economy 2, Fukushima Prefecture, 1971.
2. Ibid.
3. Fukushima-shi shi [Fukushima City History] Vol. 4, Modern 1, edited by the Fukushima City Historical Compilation Committee, Fukushima City Education Board (1974), p. 632 and p. 634.
4. Fukushima kyoiku [Fukushima Education] no. 24 by Fukushima Kyoiku-sha, 1897, p. 34; Fukushima-shi shi, extra volume II, Fukushima no kyoiku [Education in Fukushima], 1979; Fukushima-shi shi, volume 4. In the budget for Fukushima Town in 1889 when the municipality system was implemented, the educational costs occupied 61 % of its ordinary expenditure. When the preschool costs are added to the educational costs, the sum was as much as two-thirds of the ordinary expenditure, epitomizing the emphasis placed on education. Although there was an obvious lack of funds for other projects, the town depended on the contributions made by influential members of the town most of whom were merchants. Moreover, the majority of the merchants were related to raw silk dealings (the so-called sambutsuya). A group of these people promoted the establishment of the commercial continuation school. Incidentally, the town head, Mr. Suzuki, was one of the influential merchants who operated an apothecary. It was later recorded that he contributed by spending his private funds for road repairs and others necessities. In this regard, see Fukushima-shi shi, vol. 4, pp. 445-46, p. 488; Fukushima-ken shi, vol. 22, Various Particulars 8 on Persons, 1972, pp. 293-94 and others.
5. Fukushima-ken shi, vol. 22, p. 359 and Fukujo 80 nen shi [An 80-Year History of Fukushima Girls' High School] by Fukushima Prefectural Fukushima Girls' High School, 1977, pp. 15, 24.
6. Fukushima Mimpo [Fukushima People's Daily], 13 January 1897 issue.
7. Fukushima Kyoiku, no. 25 (1897), pp. 38-39.
8. Shoyu [Commercial Friends], no. 3, Fukushima City-run Commercial School Shoyu Association (1918), pp. 5-7.
9. Gakuji [Learning] no. 4, Fukushima Prefectural Fukushima Commercial School Gakuji Association (1928), pp. 3-4.
10. Fukushima Kyoiku, no. 87 (1902), pp. 20-21.
11. Shoyu, no. 3, p. 6.
12. Koko fudoki [A Description of High Schools], Mainichi Shimbun (Fukushima ed.), 17 Sept. 1974.
13. Soritsu 60 shunen kinenshi [A Commemorative Issue on the 60th Anniversary] Fukushima Prefectural Fukushima Commercial High School, 1957, p. 7.
14. Shoyu, no. 3 and Fukushima Kyoiku no. 110 (1905), p. 21. Incidentally, according to Fukushima-shi shi zairyo [Sources of Fukushima City Record] vol. 2, Fukushima City Library, 1914 (manuscript), it is recorded that there had been a total of 165 graduates including the seventh graduating class. Although Shoyu no. 3 gave a list of names of 20 students in the first class, 30 in the second class, 13 in the third class, 25 in the fourth class, 23 in the fifth class, 29 in the sixth class, and 32 in the seventh class, the total (which came up to 172 students) appears to have included those who actually did not graduate from the school.
15. Fukushima-shi shi [Fukushima City Records], Fukushima City, 1942, p. 337.
16. Gakuji no. 4; Fukushima kenritsu Fukushima shogyo gakko ichirampyo [Fukushima Prefectural Commercial School Catalogues] 1925 ed.; Koko fudoki (1). During the period of the commercial continuation school, emphasis was placed on the enhancement of merchant ethics, which had been put forth by the first principal, Uda Saburo. In addition, from the time of the following principal, Kondo Setsutaro, the school began to emphasize sound character building which was expressed by such slogans as "Utmost Observance of Fidelity" (or "Maintenance of Faith and Honor") and "Doing One's Best" and "Tenacity." Nevertheless, the school atmosphere was not stiff and formal. A renowned composer, Koseki Yuji, who is a unique alumnus of this school, reminisced during an interview with this writer that he owes a great deal to the liberal student life experienced at the Fukushima Commercial School for having made him what he is.
17. Refer to Fukushima-shi shi zairyo, vol. 2; Fukushima-ken Fukushima-shi gakuji ichirampyo [A List of School Affairs in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture] 1913-17 ed., Fukushima City Office, Fukushima Prefecture. Incidentally, the total number of alumni of the ordinary level school from the first to the tenth class was 354 (according to Shoyu, no. 3).
18. Nippon kindai kyoiku 100 nen shi [A 100-Year History of Japanese Modern Education], vol. 10 on Industrial Education 2, National Education Research Institute, 1973, from p. 492 ff.
19. Fukushima-ken shi, vol. 19, pp. 58-85; Fukushima-shi shi, vol. 5, Modern Ⅱ (1975), Chapter 2.
20. Fukushima-ken kyoiku shi [The Educational History of Fukushima Prefecture], vol. 2 (1972), Fukushima Prefectural Education Board, p. 166 ff.
21. Ibid., pp. 168-69; Soritsu 60 shunen kinenshi, p. 8.
22. In this regard, refer to Fukushima-ken Fukushima-shi gakuji ichirampyo, 1913-30 eds. ; Fukushima kenritsu Fukushima shogyo gakko ichiran [Fukushima Prefectural Fukushima Commercial School Catalogue] 1925, 1927, 1933, 1937, 1941 eds.; Shoyu, nos. 3, 7, 13.
23. Fukushima-shi shi zairyo, vol. 2.
24. Ibid., and Fukushima-ken Fukushima-shi gakuji ichirampyo, 1914-20 eds.
25. See Fukushima-shi shi, Extra Vol. Ⅱ.
26. Refer to Fukushima-ken Fukushima-shi gakuji ichirampyo, 1922-30 eds.