Figure 1.--This is the Kendo Club at the Toba Shousen High School in Mie prefecture. We are not sure if there were clubs for other martial arts, but this shows that kendo was very popular at Japanese schools. They look to be some of the older boys. This mneans that the boys began school when Japan was just beginning to build its Western-style school system. The names of the boys and some other information is written on the back of the cabinet card portrait. The boys all wear the Prussian cadet uniforms, both the cadet caps and jackets. This shows that this uniform had become standard in secondary schools by the 1900s. Click on the image to see the writing on the back.

This is the Kendo Club at the Toba Shousen High School in Mie prefecture. The area of Toba near Tokyo was noted in ancient times for a fine deep water port and relatively mild wave action. Toba once was a pirate den, but prospered as a connecting port between Osaka and Tokyo. It is best known today as the place where Mikimoto Kōkichi developed pearl culture and has a world famous aquarium. Wecare not sure what Shousen means. We are not sure if there were clubs for other martial arts, but this shows that kendo was very popular at Japanese schools. They look to be some of the older boys. This mneans that the boys began school when Japan was just beginning to build its Western-style school system. The names of the boys and some other information is written on the back of the cabinet card portrait. The boys all wear the Prussian cadet uniforms, both the cadet caps and jackets. This shows that this uniform had become standard in secondary schools by the 1900s. As the boys were Kendo devotes, we suspect they many came from traditional families. The date is given at Meiji 7th April. I don't think the year is indicated, but perhaps our Japabnese readers can better make out the riting on the text. It is clearly a 20th century image which means it was probbly taken in the 1910s. The Meiji era continued to 1912, so the early 1910s is possible. Notice their teacher wearing a bowler hat.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Main Japanese individual public school page]
[Main Japanese individual school page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Scotland]
[United States]

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[School headwear]
[Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer] [School sandals]
[Kendo]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Return to Main school uniform page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Cloth and textiles] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 1:31 AM 8/12/2012
Last updated: 1:31 AM 8/12/2012