| Popis: |
This paper examines the regulations that the Ministry of Education promulgated to restrict songs sung in schools as well as the departments within the Ministry of Education charged with the laws and regulations, starting from the Meiji Era to the early Showa Era. In 1891 the Ministry of Education issued Instruction No. 2 of the Ministry of Education, which imposed restrictions on songs that could be sung on national holidays and festival days. Following the promulgation of this instruction, in 1894, the Ministry of Education issued Instruction No. 7, which stated that all songs sung in school must have “approval from the Ministry of Education.” This placed school songs established in each school as well as other songs under the control of the Ministry of Education. Songs other than school songs accounted for the majority of the total number of annual approvals after this promulgation. However, from the 1900s onward, school songs accounted for more than 60% of the total number of approvals, and from 1930 onward, school songs accounted for more than 90% of all approvals. Although Ministry of Education Instruction No. 7 and its successors, Ordinance No. 21, No. 49, and No. 4 of the Ministry of Education, were formally enacted to control all songs sung in schools, they in effect functioned as regulations to provide “approval from the Minister of Education” to school songs established in each school. In addition, the duties related to “approval from the Minister of Education” were handled by the Books Division of the Secretariat of the Minister of Education (–May 1911), the Books Bureau (–June 1913), the General Education Affairs Bureau (–June 1916), the Library Division of the Secretariat of the Minister of Education (–April 1920), the Books Bureau (–November 1943) and the National Education Bureau within the Ministry of Education. |
