TALES FROM HISTORY

Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmatic — Effective Education in Edo

Japan’s high literacy rate is nothing new

The Edo Era (1603–1867) was a time of cultural flourishing in Japan. This is the era that gave us the great woodblock prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, the kabuki and jyōruri puppet plays of Chikamatsu-Monzaemon, and the first popular novels for the masses.

There were no schools as we know them today and education was not compulsory until 1872, yet the literacy rate during the…