The capital had the fewest public schools and they were the poorest?
Not exactly; the way Seidensticker explains it, when the Meiji educational reforms started and they started establishing public schools, Tokyo already had so many private schools that they didn't seem to need any new ones, so the government just sort of ignored them for a while. Once Tokyo *did* start to get new public schools, they were considered higher-prestige than the old private ones.
Since they're temple schools, does that mean they were taught by Buddhist monks?
I don't think so-- while the term terakoya is based on the word for "temple", at this point it seems to be used for any private elementary school, like the farmboy's school below where the teacher was just a retired merchant. It also looks like terakoya is a good websearch term-- here's a set of woodcuts (http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/117/173.html) from 1805 showing New Year's activities inside one, with the students writing out auspicious calligraphy (on paper; I have no idea how that slate-on-slate stuff works).
...wrt RK, I think some of the questions that still need to be answered are how did students match up with schools in the first place-- whatever was closest, or anywhere they wanted to go? how much did things like tuition or entrance qualifications enter into it?
This article abstract (http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED060318&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED060318) suggests another factor-- private schools were more traditional/Confucian; public schools were more Westernized/secular (except for the growing influence of nationalistic State Shinto throughout the society). While Kenshin himself was clearly traditionalist, I don't know whether he'd object to Kenji learning about a more modern lifestyle... he might just go along with whatever Kaoru preferred.
no subject
Not exactly; the way Seidensticker explains it, when the Meiji educational reforms started and they started establishing public schools, Tokyo already had so many private schools that they didn't seem to need any new ones, so the government just sort of ignored them for a while. Once Tokyo *did* start to get new public schools, they were considered higher-prestige than the old private ones.
Since they're temple schools, does that mean they were taught by Buddhist monks?
I don't think so-- while the term terakoya is based on the word for "temple", at this point it seems to be used for any private elementary school, like the farmboy's school below where the teacher was just a retired merchant. It also looks like terakoya is a good websearch term-- here's a set of woodcuts (http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/117/173.html) from 1805 showing New Year's activities inside one, with the students writing out auspicious calligraphy (on paper; I have no idea how that slate-on-slate stuff works).
...wrt RK, I think some of the questions that still need to be answered are how did students match up with schools in the first place-- whatever was closest, or anywhere they wanted to go? how much did things like tuition or entrance qualifications enter into it?
This article abstract (http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED060318&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED060318) suggests another factor-- private schools were more traditional/Confucian; public schools were more Westernized/secular (except for the growing influence of nationalistic State Shinto throughout the society). While Kenshin himself was clearly traditionalist, I don't know whether he'd object to Kenji learning about a more modern lifestyle... he might just go along with whatever Kaoru preferred.