001	●	The Two-way Street in the History of Americanand Japanese Art Education : Akira Shirahama and Arthur Wesley Dow

	Shirahama's Study in America Shirahama was born in Nagasaki, and studied English at Nagasaki Foreign Language School during his teens. In 1884 he took preparatory courses for Tokyo Imperial University, but in 1889 changed his mind and entered the Tokyo Fine Arts School. After graduating from the school in 1895 with a major in Japanese-style painting, he became a professor at the Tokyo Higher Normal School. In 1901 he became a full professor of painting at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. The next year he was appointed a member of the Committee of Art in Education by the Ministry of Education. He was also a member of another committee that was responsible for writing the national textbooks of art education in 1903. In 1904, two national textbooks for drawing were issued by the Ministry of Education. One of them was a copybook of Western-style drawing with pencil, and the other presented Japanese-style drawing with brush and ink (called sumi-e) (Yamagata, 1967). The fact that the Ministry of Education issued both textbooks, which were completely different from each other, suggests that there were conflicting views over the best way to teach drawing. The Ministry of Education was not satisfied with the drawing books, so Shirahama was sent on a three-year art educational odyssey to the West from 1904 to 1907. Shirahama arrived in Boston on April 6, 1904, entered the Massachusetts Normal Art School in May and graduated on June 22, 1905. He left Boston on August 25 of that year and arrived in London on September 6. He visited France and Germany before returning to Japan on March 21, 1907. In the same year, the art teacher education program was established at the Tokyo Fine Arts School, and Shirahama was appointed chair of the department. Shirahama trained many art teachers at the secondary level for twenty years until his death (Kaneko, 1978). Dobbs (1983) identified three American influences on Japanese art education in its early period: the Prang books, the manual arts heritage, and Shirahama?s study in America. I believe that Shirahama?s decision to go to America was influenced by two things. One was his understanding of Tadd?s new pedagogy and methods, i.e., drawing as ?a mode of expressing ideas,? and activities like modeling, carving, woodworking, etc. as ?a mode of applying ideas? (Baker, 1985, p.81). The other was Shirahama?s knowledge that ?At the Massachusetts State Normal Art College, Anson Cross produced Free-Hand Drawing? (Wygant, 1983, p.117). Shirahama?s research on the works of both Tadd (1901) and Cross (1895) before his trip to America demonstrates that he had perceived the trends in American art education that were new at that time. During his stay in the United States, Shirahama had opportunities to visit American schools in Massachusetts and observe practices of art teaching art classes. His book, published in 1911 after his return to Japan, contains eight pictures that show several kindergarten and elementary-school classrooms, a secondary-school auditorium, and art rooms of the Salem Normal School and Lowell Normal School. His book also includes five illustrations of art works by American children, especially at the elementary level. Providing these pictures and figures for Japanese readers, Shirahama made an effort to introduce an art curriculum that had sequential instruction and a continuity of content like that of grades one to nine in the schools of Massachusetts.
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