Kōdōkan ― A Place Where the Ideology That Transformed Japan Were Cultivated

Kōdōkan

(Mito City, Ibaraki)

【Gakkō（学校）】 means “school” in Japanese. It is a place where students learn reading, writing, and academic subjects, as well as develop manners and ways of thinking. The knowledge and values acquired in school shape students’ actions and ultimately influence society.

This power of education is said to have played a major role in the Meiji Restoration, a pivotal turning point in Japan’s modernization in the mid-19th century. Japan had maintained a feudal society under a policy of national isolation for more than two centuries. When the country opened to the world, a wave of modernization swept across the nation. The people rapidly absorbed these changes, aided by a strong cultural emphasis on learning.

During this period, Japan―still under isolation―faced mounting pressure from Western nations with overwhelming military strength. In 1841, Tokugawa Nariaki founded the Kōdōkan in present-day Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, as one of the largest domain schools in Japan. As a member of one of the three branch families of the Tokugawa shogunate, Nariaki believed that “to protect the nation, one needs not only military force but also knowledge and morality.” He established a comprehensive academy where samurai could study a wide range of disciplines, including ethics, social order, martial arts, literature, history, medicine, astronomy, military science, and philosophy. Students studied late into the night by lamplight. People of all ages, from young people to adults, studied at this school, as learning was considered a lifelong pursuit.

This school became a center of the ideology known as “Sonnō Jōi,” produced many patriot activists who would propel Japan into an age of upheaval. The meaning of this slogan is that “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians.”

Its guiding belief was that if the Tokugawa shogunate, as the head of the warrior government, showed respect for and support toward the emperor, the regional feudal lords would naturally follow, thereby establishing an unwavering national order. This was the essence of “Sonnō”, or imperial reverence. Meanwhile, jōi referred to resisting the Western powers that had begun expanding into Asia through imperialism following the Industrial Revolution.

One of the notable figures who studied at this school was Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Nariaki’s son and the last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. He studied at the Kōdōkan in his youth, where he was taught the ideology of imperial reverence.

However, as Japan faced repeated foreign threats, political turmoil, and internal conflict, people began to use the term “Sonnō” as a slogan to unify the nation under the emperor. Ironically, the very ideology meant to strengthen the shogunate became the slogan that ultimately toppled it, leading to the establishment of a new, modern government under the emperor.

Yoshinobu, who served as shogun during one of the most turbulent periods in Japanese history, ultimately decided to return authority to the emperor by ending the 265-year samurai government. In this symbolic act, he demonstrated his submission to the emperor by confining himself in the Kōdōkan, the very place that had been the center of imperial-reverence ideology.

Today, the wooden buildings of the Kōdōkan remain much as they were. Classrooms and the room where Yoshinobu lived in confinement still stand, allowing visitors to feel as though the air of 150 years ago lingers there. In spring, the garden fills with blooming plum blossoms, surrounding visitors with quiet beauty. Plum trees, long associated in Chinese tradition with a love of learning, were planted here at Nariaki’s encouragement.

Please visit the Kodokan website.