Former Kaichi School, Education museum in Matsumoto, Japan
Kaichi School is an education museum in Matsumoto housed in an 1876 building that now displays school desks, teaching materials, and documents from the early modernization era. The rooms preserve the layout of a Meiji-period elementary school with polished wooden corridors and tall windows that let in natural light.
The school opened its doors in 1876 to provide children from non-samurai families with access to education during the rapid changes of the Meiji Restoration. It served as an elementary school until 1963 and was then converted into a museum to preserve the history of public schooling.
The name comes from a phrase in the 1872 proclamation issued the day before the education system took effect: one cannot cultivate oneself or open one's wisdom without learning. The school was the only one in the prefecture to teach English studies. Its 2,500 panes of imported coloured glass earned it the nickname "Giyaman School".
The grounds sit in a quiet residential neighborhood of Matsumoto, about a ten-minute walk from the city center. Most exhibition texts are in Japanese, though some rooms offer multilingual explanations at the entrance hall.
The schoolhouse was shown at the 1884 New Orleans World Exposition and the 1893 Chicago World Exposition, and its name plaque takes its design from the masthead of the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun. Some 2,500 panes of imported coloured glass earned the building the nickname "Giyaman School".
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