Shizutani School
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The Shizutani School (閑谷学校, shizutani gakkō) was a school for the common people opened by the Okayama Domain in the early Edo period. It is located in Bizen in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan. The Auditorium (講堂, kōdō) has been designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan as National Treasures in the building/structure category.
Shizutani school goes back to 1666 when Ikeda Mitsumasa, the feudal lord of the Bizen Area, made an inspection tour throughout the country and came across Kidani Village in Wake, which turned out to be provided with better conditions as a site of education than anywhere else. He then made up his mind to found a school there for the commoners. In 1670, after two years' trial, Tsuda Nagatada, his chief vassal, was set to the duty to complete the school. Since then, this place has been called "Shizu-tani" instead of Ki-dani, meaning "quiet and peaceful valley". Also, he put the fief he had in Kidani Village under the direct rule of the school, so that the school might support itself with what Kidani Villagers offer and pursue the cultural development concentratedly, free from politics, in case the Ikeda family should be shifted. The Lecture Hall was completed by Ikeda Tsunamasa (Mitsumasa's son), the Lord of Bizen Province, in 1701.
In that feudal age, there were few cases in which public schools were established by regional lords to educate the promising aristocratic bushi. It is a surprising thing that a school open to the public existed there. Ikeda is attributed with the idea, "Better public morality is all up to the education of the common people".
