Bansho Shirabesho

A marker denoting the site of the institute

The Template:Nihongo, or "Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books," was the Japanese institute charged with the translation and study of foreign books and publications in the late Edo Period. Founded in 1857, it functioned as a sort of bureau of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was renamed Template:Nihongo (institute for the study of Western books) in 1862, and Template:Nihongo in 1863. After the Boshin War, it was again renamed, and became the Template:Nihongo. As the Kaisei gakkō, the institute became one of the predecessor organizations which merged to form Tokyo University.

References

• Perkins, Dorothy. Japan Goes to War. (n.p.: DIANE Publishing, 1997), p. 28.
• ffortune.net: "Who was the first president of Tokyo University?" (retrieved 28 January 2008)