A historical study of the elementary school teachers in Iwate prefecture
　　　　who graduated from gymnastics schools in Tokyo during 1884-1892

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Hideaki OHKUBO (Kanazawa University)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Abstract

　　According to documents at the Iwate prefectural record office, 24 local people went to Tokyo for
the purpose of getting training in gymnastics during 1884-1892.
　　The purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of people they were and what kind of background
they had, based upon the personal resumes among the documents at Iwate prefectural record office.
Most of them were elementary school teachers, and they continued their jobs after their training
in gymnastics in Tokyo. That is to say, this period brought gymnastics to elementary schools all over
Iwate prefecture.
　　However, most of the places in Tokyo that allowed the trainees to enter were crude private
gymnastics schools. So most of the trainees could not acquire the arts of gymnatics sufficiently, and
consequently they did not seem to play as active a role as had been expected of them when they
returned to their own districts.
　　The reason why they entered such schools was that the National Gymnastics School (Taiso
Denshujo) had been abolished in 1886. So the national policy for educational training in gymnastics
was not suitable for elementary schools in Japan at that time.