Seikyo-sha (政教社)
Seikyo-sha was an opinion group and publishing house, which was established with a total of thirteen people as Dojin (coterie). They included Enryo INOUE, Setsurei MIYAKE, Ichiro TANAHASHI, Seiran OOUCHI, Mokurai SHIMAJI and others from the Tetsugakukan (the predecessor of Toyo University) Group and Shigetaka SHIGA, Jugo SUGIURA and others from the Tokyo Eigo School (Tokyo English School, the predecessor of the Nihon Gakuen Junior High and High Schools).
Outline
Seikyo-sha founded a magazine, "Nihonjin (The Japanese)", in April 1888 to promote nationalism in defiance of the Meiji government's policy that overemphasized on Europeanism. Setsurei MIYAKE later played a central role in editing the magazine. Konan NAITO also joined, and Ryoun TAOKA and Shusui KOTOKU often contributed to the magazine. In January 1907, Shinbun Nihon (a newspaper) fell into financial difficulties and when the president Katsunan KUGA resigned, many of the employees revolted against the profit-chasing style of Kinsuke ITO, the new president, and joined "Nihonjin" edited by MIYAKE, who was a close friend of Katsunan. As a result, the magazine changed its title from "Nihonjin" to "Nihon oyobi Nihonjin (Japan and the Japanese)".
"Nihon oyobi Nihonjin" of Seikyo-sha competed with "Kokumin-no tomo (friend of the people)" published by Soho TOKUTOMI's Minyu-sha, and both won and shared popularity in the opinion world. Minyu-sha saw the Rokumeikan-bunka Culture, led by the government, as an aristocratic Europeanism and continued to criticize the government from the position of the commoners' Europeanism.
In 1920 Seikyo-sha published "Josei Nipponjin (The Japanese Women)" and discussed the position of the Japanese women in the world. Following examples can be given for the ways in which Seikyo-sha's Dojins involved themselves in the society. Toyo University (successor of the above-mentioned Tetsugakukan, built in 1887) established by Enryo INOUE, was a boys-only private school that became Japan's first coeducational private university; the school admitted girls (in 1916) for the first time in Japan and also produced women teachers. Joshi Bungei Gakusha (established in 1888 and was the predecessor of the Chiyoda Jogakuen) which was created by Mokurai SHIMAJI, was the pioneer in women's education based on Buddhist teachings, and the Tokyo Koto Jogakko (built in 1903 and was the predecessor of Tokyo Joshigakuen Junior High Schools) built by Ichiro TANAHASHI was the first private women's school for comprehensive higher education in the Tokyo prefecture.
After Setsurei resigned from Seikyo-sha in a reorganization after the Great Kanto Earthquake, Seikyo-sha began to be dominated by nationalists such as Ryozo IOGI and Koshi MITSUI, and was finally dissolved in April.