3 h 39 minAudiobook3 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a changing nation look like from a child's place at home, at school, and at play?
In A Japanese Boy, Shigemi Shiukichi opens a window on childhood in Meiji-era Japan. Home, family, school, games, and seasons bring a changing society close. The focus is everyday life: how a boy learns what others expect of him, and how the world beyond his household begins to take shape.
Japan opens to the wider world, taking up new technology and new schooling while families keep older beliefs and manners. Through one boy's early years, the memoir explores the meeting of old habits and new ideas. Loyalties to family, community, and country grow together, making childhood a way to understand a nation in change.
What you’ll discover
- The household as teacher Explore the family world where a child first learns manners, respect, and responsibility.
- School beside older learning See how changing education stands alongside familiar ways of passing knowledge to children.
- A world of play Look beyond lessons to the games that form part of a boy's everyday world.
- Old habits, new ideas Discover a society embracing outside contact while families hold to older beliefs and manners.
- A nation through childhood Follow the growing ties of family, community, and country through one boy's early years.
Who will love it
For readers who love childhood memoirs, are curious about everyday life in Japan, or enjoy exploring the Meiji period through family, school, games and customs.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A child learns life through the household
- School and play shape a growing boy
- An old world meets new ideas
- What a boyhood tells us about a nation
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Ein japanischer Junge
by Shigemi Shiukichi· 1889
A boy's home, school and games reveal how Japan's rapid changes reach the everyday world of childhood.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A child learns life through the household
Memoirs of a Japanese childhood in this period usually begin at home. The family is the first school, and a boy learns manners, respect for elders and the duties that come with his place in the household.
Daily life is shaped by routines that repeat through the year. Meals, greetings, family rituals and the care of parents and grandparents teach a child how to behave long before he reads a book.
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What is A Japanese Boy about?
It is a memoir of childhood in Meiji-era Japan. It shows family life, school, play and custom, and how a boy experiences a country moving from older traditions toward new ways.
Who wrote A Japanese Boy?
The book is credited to Shigemi Shiukichi, who died in 1928. It presents his own account of growing up in Japan, written so that readers abroad could understand ordinary Japanese life.
What was the Meiji era?
The Meiji era began in 1868, when the emperor was restored to central power. Japan rapidly modernised its schools, industry and government while opening to contact with other nations.
The author
Shigemi Shiukichi
1865–1928 · Japanese physician and writer
Shigemi Shiukichi was a Japanese physician, educator and writer. He was born in 1865 and died in 1928. He wrote A Japanese Boy, which was published in 1889. His work included medicine and education as well as writing.
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