Izawa Shūji

Izawa Shūji

Izawa Shūji ( Japanese 伊澤 修 二 ; born July 27, 1851 in Takatō (高遠 町) in Shinano Province ; died June 29, 1917 ) was a Japanese educator and developer of modern Japanese Braille and sign language.

Live and act

Izawa Shūji was born as the eldest son of a minor samurai of the branch of the Naitō clan residing in Takato . From 1870 he studied the Daigaku Nanko (大学 南 高), one of the forerunner institutions of the University of Tokyo . In 1875 he traveled together with Takamine Hideo (高嶺 秀 夫; 1854-1910) and Kōzu Sensaburō (神 津 専 三郎; 1852-1897) the USA and studied the educational system there. After his return in 1878 he became director of the Tōkyō Normal School and at the same time head of a department in the Ministry of Education. In 1888 he became director of the Tōkyō music school, which he organized with the help of his former teacher Luther W. Mason . In 1890 he founded the "National Society for Education" (国家 教育 社, Kokka kyōiku-sha), whose first president he became. In Taiwan, Izawa worked from 1895 as head of the education department in the local governor's office.

Izawa actively supported the education of the blind and deaf. He was involved in adapting the Braille system to Japanese circumstances and supported the adoption of sign language from the West. His work includes "True method of education" (教授 真 法, Kyōiku shimpō) 1875, "Methodology of school administration" (学校 管理 法, Gakkō kanri-hō) 1882 ， "Education" (教育学, Kyōiku-gaku) ​​1883 and "Method of lip reading" (視 話 法, Shiwa-ō) 1901. 1958 a collection of selected writings (伊 沢 修 二 選集) was published.

Remarks

1. ↑ Today Ina , Nagano Prefecture .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Izawa Shūji . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 644.

Web links

• Short biography, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Izawa is the family name, Shūji the first name.