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Shizutani School

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

조사·집필 Hinato

Shizutani SchoolNational TreasureEdo educationBizenautumn colour

Photo: AlphaBetaGamma / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) · original

Ikeda Mitsumasa, lord of Okayama, founded this school in 1670 in a valley deliberately chosen for its quiet, and made it open to commoners as well as samurai. That combination — a domain-funded public school teaching farmers' sons alongside retainers' — makes it the oldest school of its kind in the world, and it kept running for close to three centuries.

The lecture hall, completed in 1701, is a National Treasure: a single room floored in polished zelkova, wrapped in shutters that fold away so the whole building opens to the valley, with a roof of Bizen tiles fired down the road. Around the compound runs a 765-metre wall of curved stone, laid without mortar, that has needed no repair in three hundred years. Two Chinese pistache trees in front of the Confucian shrine turn a violent red and yellow in late November.

기본 정보

영업시간

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

휴무일: Open year-round

입장료

¥400 adults | ¥200 aged 65 and over | ¥100 elementary and junior high school

베스트 시즌

Late November for the Chinese pistache trees | April for cherry blossom in the valley

방문 소요 시간

1–1.5 hours

가는 방법

교통 정보

Shizutani 784, Bizen City. By car from Yoshinaga Station on the JR Ako Line; from Bizen Interchange. Admission ¥400 adults, ¥100 elementary and junior high school, ¥200 for those aged 65 and over. Free parking. The lecture hall interior is entered barefoot.

인사이더 가이드

**Look down at the lecture hall floor.** Three hundred years of use have polished the zelkova to a mirror, and the reflection of the coffered ceiling in it is the reason the room is famous. **Late November for the Chinese pistache.** The two trees in front of the Confucian shrine turn at the same time, one red and one yellow, and it is the single busiest fortnight here. **The wall is the quiet marvel.** 765 metres of curved dry-laid stone with no mortar and no maintenance record. Walk the outside of the compound as well as the inside. **It was for commoners, and that was the point.** Domain schools across Japan taught samurai. Mitsumasa's decision to educate farmers' sons in the same room is why this site is designated a Special Historic Site rather than just an old building. **Combine with Bizen ware at Imbe.** The kiln town is nearby and the roof tiles here were fired there, which makes the pairing more than an itinerary convenience.

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