지역 엘리트 학교의 주변화― 가모농림학교(加茂農林学校)로 본 근대 일본 중등농업교육과 지리적 위계

Abstract

In the eyes of the Japanese in the interwar period, the city seemed like a magical space that expanded limitlessly, and the magic seemed to operate not only in the metropolis but also in local cities, such as Niigata. However, big cities such as Tokyo and Niigata did not expand limitlessly. Nor did higher educational institutions and business corporations appear in all other local communities as they did in the metropolis. Why was it difficult for small communities other than Tokyo or prefecture capitals to host higher educational institutions and vitalize their communities? This article analyzes the experiences of the Kamo School of Agriculture and Forest, a secondary school of agriculture located in the Kamo Town, Nakakanbara County, Niigata Prefecture. Kamo leaders managed to host this school in their neighborhood for the prosperity of their community, and this school attracted sons of landlords in the entire Niigata Prefecture. Its graduates became local elites as cultivating landlords, and sometimes surfaced as entrepreneurs and politicians. Some of its graduates envisioned a rank upgrade of their alma-mater, and managed to transform this secondary school to a tertiary school, called the Niigata Prefecture Higher School of Agriculture and Forest. However, as the Kamo School of Agriculture and Forest came to be replaced by this new school, those who lost their jobs at the old school protested this decision, which culminated in the revival of the secondary school and the relocation of the new tertiary school in the Niigata City, the prefectural capital. In this process, the initiative of some graduates of this school to host a center of higher learning failed, only to enrich the prefectural capital by adding one more higher educational institution there. By looking at this process, this article examines how local communities enmeshed their interests with local schools, sometimes resisting the incorporation into higher education system originating from the capital city.