Although it was a tough weekend, during the autumn cultural festival season, I went to the school festival of Nihonbashi Jogakukan, the only private junior and senior high school in Chuo-ku, the Jogakukan Festival.
A hand-made signboard placed at the entrance of a beautiful school building (left) newly built in 2009 (right)
We interviewed Dr. Yukiko Fujii, the principal, (hereinafter referred to as Dr. Fujii, based on Dr. Fujii's story, referring to the materials we received).
Q: What is the history of Nihonbashi Jogakukan?
A: In 1905, Nihonbashi Women's School was established by the Nihonbashi Ward Education Association at the time. The well-known long-established store involved in the establishment has since supported school management as a member of the board.
Q: What did your early school look like?
A: There are many young women from local long-established merchants, and they went to school by rickshaw, and at lunchtime, used people came from home to deliver lunch boxes. The gorgeous appearance of female students wearing silk kimonos at the time of leaving school was once mentioned in a popular radio program at the time, saying, "3:00 pm, flowers bloom in Asakusabashi."
Q: What is the current number of students? Is there a lot of local students?
A: There are about 400 people in total. At the beginning of the establishment, there were many local students, but now the number of students from nearby Edogawa-ku and Katsushika-ku is increasing.
Q: Do you have a unique curriculum?
A: There are three courses in high school: a difficult university entrance course, an entrance course, and an art entrance course (drama, art / design, music). In addition to class hours, students can work on individual studies through tutor systems and night studies, and at the same time learn specialized knowledge from an early stage in the art study course, and at the same time prepare for admission to arts universities and undergraduates while receiving direct guidance from experts who are active in each field.
Q: How about extracurricular activities?
A: He is active in both cultural and athletic fields, such as the figure skating club to which Haruka Imai, a silver medal at the Asian Games, the baton club for the silver prize at the national tournament, and the brass band who won the gold prize at the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition.
Q: Do you have any initiatives that take advantage of the local nature of Nihonbashi?
A: We carry out career education called Nihonbashi studies. With the cooperation of participating companies and organizations, junior high school students can interact with society by creating a Nihonbashi map, interviewing professionals, participating in company product development, and making proposals to the mayor of Chuo. I will be able to think about my career firmly when I become a high school student.
We talked about various other educational programs and student life, but unfortunately we cannot introduce everything. For more information, please visit the website of Nihonbashi Jogakukan.
＊The section called "This week's Issues" by teachers in each subject on the website is also fun and recommended.
Thank you very much to Mr. Fujii for sharing various stories despite the busy time of the first morning of the Jogakukan Festival.
After that, we visited the exhibition in the school.
Presentation about Fossa Magna (left) Students' paintings (right)
Theatre was being performed in the multi-purpose hall. It's a pity that I can't show a hall with fine facilities that I can't imagine as a school with photos.
The Chuo-ku Tourism Association also participated in the exhibition and challenged the mini-Chuo-ku sightseeing test.
When I visited the room of the alumni association "Sakurayukai", I was able to hear from Mr. Higuchi, the chairman of the alumni association, and Mr. Miyata, the vice chairman. The two female school days are just in war. I heard a valuable situation at the time when I worked hard while escaping to an air raid shelter.
Mr. Higuchi (left) and Mr. Miyata (right)
The name Sakura Yukai was named in 2005, the 100th anniversary of its founding, and "Sakura" represents the cherry blossoms of the Sumida River and "Yu" represents the eternal Yu.
Every year, there is an opportunity for alumni to gather. It's really wonderful to have a alma mater that can return for decades after graduation.
Many works of Sakura Yukai were also exhibited (left)
The 90th anniversary (blue), the 100th anniversary (red) commemorative magazine (right). It was very interesting to me who was not a graduate, such as the essays of former female students, tanka poetry, and round-table talks about memories of those days, and I ended up reading it after returning home.
It seems that there are graduates of the second and third generations of mothers and daughters at Nihonbashi Jogakukan. In Chuo-ku, which has a long history, schools are also long-established.
It seems that school briefings and hands-on sessions are scheduled in October. . Please visit the website for details.
School information full of color photographs
