Dogs and Education — Multilayered Roles and Cultural Meanings in Prewar and Wartime Textbooks

1. Introduction: Why Were Dogs Consistently Chosen as Teaching Materials?

A survey of modern Japanese education reveals few animals that appeared as widely in teaching materials as the dog. In arithmetic, moral education (shūshin), music, drawing, and science—virtually every core subject—dogs figured prominently, making them exceedingly familiar to pupils.

Why dogs? First, dogs were embedded in everyday life in both rural and urban settings and thus close to children. Second, as animals symbolizing virtues such as “loyalty,” “diligence,” and “friendship,” dogs could be readily aligned with national ideology. Third, because dogs were frequently used in overseas instructional materials, Japanese schooling could easily incorporate these international trends.

2. Dogs in Science Education

2.1 Dogs in Science Texts

A Brief Outline of Zoology (1883) defined the dog as “the domestic animal most accustomed to humans, distinguished by profound fidelity and affection,” and described its functions as night watch and hunting dog. Such phrasing was not merely zoological description; it already carried ethical valence. In other words, even within science, the dog served as a dual teaching tool—for “scientific knowledge” and for “morality.”

2.2 Juxtaposing the Wolf

Some upper–elementary science readers also discussed the Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax) and the Ezo wolf (Canis lupus hattai), formerly present in the archipelago. By contrasting the wolf’s “wildness” with the dog’s “domestication,” these texts positioned the dog as a symbol of civilization and order.

3. Moral Education (Shūshin) and the Dog

3.1 Aesop’s Fables and Dogs

Fables such as “The Greedy Dog” and “The Dog and Its Shadow” were widely used to teach regulation of desire and the virtue of sincerity. Adapted versions were incorporated into textbooks and connected to Japanese moral outlooks.

3.2 Tales of Faithful Dogs and Moral Instruction

In the Shōwa period, “Hachikō, the faithful dog” was adopted as a teaching text, providing a concrete exemplar of “loyalty” and “reciprocal obligation.” Through the dog, loyalty to the nation and the Emperor was naturalized.

3.3 Military-Dog Materials

During the war years, accounts of the military dogs “Nachi,” “Kongō,” and “Mary” were incorporated into moral readers, through which children learned idealized images of the soldier. The dog thus became an optimized militarist teaching aid readily accessible to children.

4. Dogs in Arithmetic Textbooks

4.1 Dogs in Early Number Learning

Elementary arithmetic textbooks frequently presented problems such as, “There are three dogs. Two more arrive. How many are there in all?” Familiar animals—dogs, cats, and chickens—served as introductory material for teaching number concepts.

4.2 Teaching the Classifier -hiki

When learning the counting classifier for animals (e.g., ippiki, nihiki), the dog became a representative example. Because classifiers are bound to Japanese linguistic and cultural conventions, dog-related problems also functioned to connect arithmetic with language education.

5. Music Education and Dogs

Dogs were also familiar subjects in songs.

• The Meiji-era song “Dog” depicts children playing with a dog, lending the scene warmth.

• In the winter song “Snow,” children frolic with a dog amid falling snow, celebrating coexistence with nature and animals.

These pieces were more than music materials; they served as arts education that cultivated sensitivity and empathy.

6. Drawing and Handicrafts with Dogs

6.1 Animal Sketching

In drawing lessons, dogs appeared frequently as subjects. Close at hand and easy to observe, with expressive movement, they were ideal for training observation and depiction.

6.2 Materials with a Strong Militarist Coloring

By the Shōwa period, assignments such as “Let’s draw a military dog” appeared. Even art education became linked to the arousal of wartime spirit through the canine figure.

7. Children’s Literature and Dogs

7.1 The Introduction of Western Works

Translations such as Lad: A Dog and Seton’s animal stories fostered in children the image of the dog as “loyalty and friendship.”

7.2 Dogs in Japanese Literature

In works by Nankichi Niimi and Kenji Miyazawa, dogs often symbolize human bonds and a tone of pathos. These texts were also adapted as classroom materials and integrated into reading instruction.

8. International Comparison: The Universality of Dog Materials and Japanese Particularity

8.1 Cases from Europe and America

• Germany: Education for national loyalty conveyed through the German Shepherd.

• Britain: Humanitarian education via rescue stories of Saint Bernards.

• United States: Family ethics taught through tales of “household dogs,” epitomized by Lassie.

  
  

8.2 Japan’s Specificity

In Japan, the direct linkage “faithful dog = loyalty to the Emperor” stands out. While dogs were widely used as teaching materials worldwide, prewar Japan in particular instrumentalized them as vessels of state-loyalty ideology.

9. The Pedagogical Multivalence of Dog Materials

The defining feature of dog-centered materials lies in their multilayered nature:

1. Science: ecology, classification, observation.

2. Morality: loyalty, regulation of desire.

3. Arithmetic: acquisition of number concepts and classifiers.

4. Music: cultivation of sensibility.

5. Art: development of observation and creativity.

As a cross-curricular “character,” the dog functioned as a symbolic presence running through the entirety of schooling.

10. Synthesis and Research Tasks

In prewar Japan, dog-centered materials formed a hub connecting science, ethics, affect, mathematics, and the arts from the child’s familiar surroundings. At the same time, in the Shōwa era they became vessels of national ideology, with faithful-dog tales and military-dog materials used to stoke wartime sentiment.

Future research tasks include:

• Frequency analysis of dog-related materials in textbooks;

• Diachronic changes in representation;

• Relations with dog-preservation movements and the military-dog system;

• Comparative history with Western materials;

• Postwar influences (the shift to the “dog as friend”).

Conclusion

The history of dog-centered materials is more than a history of instructional resources; it is a mirror of how state, culture, and society sought to cultivate children. Dogs were used to teach scientific knowledge, foster moral sense, introduce mathematical concepts, cultivate affect, and ultimately embody loyalty to the state.In short, “dog materials” constitute a microcosm of modern Japanese educational history and an essential subject for understanding the shared history of humans and dogs.