Japan was a feudal nation before it rapidly modernized itself in the 19th century. The Tokugawa was a period of peace and it was during this time that schools first began to emerge in Japan. Monks and priests were the first teachers in these early schools. By the end of the Tokugawa period in the mid-nineteenth century there was a literacy rate of 50 percent for boys and about 20 for girls even though only a small percentage of the population is said to have attended school before the reformation took place (Cleaver 205). The upper classes were taught literature and military arts on a strong basis of Neo-Confucian learning while the less privileged studied reading and writing and arithmetic at schools called terakoya located in urban areas and supported by nobility or the

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Tadashi Fukutake, Study Project, Ministry Education, Japan Education, Donald Richie, Grinnell Cleaver, Law Education, Japan Monks, Japanese Society, Project United, educational system, japanese educational system, japanese educational, entrance exams, students teachers, ministry education, study project, school system, tokugawa period, reform japanese, tadashi fukutake, reform japanese educational, meiji restoration 1868, educational system effective, charles grinnell cleaver,