Meiji Period Overview
The Meiji Period is also known as the Meiji Restoration. It began in the year of 1868
and ended in the year of 1912 when Emperor Meiji died of cancer. Meiji schools were
definitely not the best of the century. The main focus was on kanji and learning all
of the symbols. Because of this, many of today's main courses were not enforced on the
Japanese people, such as history and social studies. Also if even one student didn't do
as was requested, he was either brutally beaten or not punished at all. Surprisingly,
when a student would misbehave, the teachers would all blame themselves for not being
good role models. This is greatly expressed in the book Botchan.
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