Compulsory Education: A Tough Lifestyle

Two rural girls carried their younger siblings as they made their way to school.

In this photographic print entitled “Two girls carrying children”, Kusakabe Kimbei depicted a rural scene after the implementation of compulsory education. Kusakabe Kimbei, who lived from 1841 to 1934, worked as a commercially successful photographer who catered to Western customers. Professionally known simply as Kimbei, his photographs were the most commonly used Japanese souvenir images from the Meiji period, allowing him to become much more popular outside of his homeland.[1]

Presumably marketed to the curious Western customers and clients, the photograph—colored carefully—displays two young Japanese girls carrying younger siblings who were strapped to their backs. The infants are sleeping well in the early morning; the one on the right has the face tilted towards the sky and the one on the left leans comfortably on the shoulder of the older sibling. Why were children this young responsible for infants? And where are the parents?

Understanding that this photograph was taken after the institution of compulsory education, one can see how adamantly this policy was enforced or followed. The sleeping infants signals how early students were to arrive to school. In addition, they also evince the parents of a rural family were occupied with other responsibilities. As such, this image captures the hindrance to consistent attendance at new elementary schools, the clashing notion of a revitalizing compulsory education and the blunt reality of rural life. The photograph serve to allude to the waves of local rioting that destroyed new elementary schools.[2]