Figure 1.--This photograph was indexed "Sotugyo". I'm not sure what this means. That photo was taken in 1926 as indicated on the tablet, literally "Showa gannen" or First Year of Showa, i.e., 1926. The Showa era corresponded to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, 1926 (Showa gannen) to 1988 (Showa 63), the last full year of Hirohito's reign. Here most of the students wear traditional clothes. During this period this was how the girls usually dressed. The boys normally wore cadet uniforms (note that some do here), but for special occassions like a school portrait wore traditional clothes. Even with the traditional clothes they wore their cadet caps.

We know nothing about the Matsuyama School at this time except that a HBC reader tells believes that it is a private school, but he is not sure about it. We do know where the school is located. Matsuyama is Shikoku's largest city and capital of Ehime Prefecture. The city is noted for Matsuyamajo, a beautiful, historical castle and the Dogo Hot Springs. Shikoku is on of the Japanese home islands. It is Japan's fourth largest island, southwest of Japan's main island Honshu. Shikoku is divided into four prefectures. Hopefully our Japanese readers will be able to tell us more. It may be that the available images are from different schools in Matsuyama. We are not entirely sure. The schools seems to have both primary and secondary sections. We note a wide range of clothing at the school over time. Before World War II we note that the boys generally wore cadet uniforms and the girls traditional clothing. The school seems to have been always coeducational which I think was not common in Japan, especially for secondary schools. Some images show the boys wearing traditional clothing as well. The class portrait here was taken in 1926 (figure 1). That may have been for special occassions. After the War the clothing became more varies. We note boys wearing blue blazers and the girls sailor outfits. Later the school seems to have dropped the uniform requirement.

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Created: 11:06 PM 12/23/2005
Last updated: 11:56 PM 12/27/2005