AbstractThis study was conduct to understand how women's physical education was promoted during the development of Japan, focusing especially on the Taisho era (1912 1926). First, I reviewed critical opinions about physical education for women prevalent during this period, in order to reveal details of di‹culties in promoting it. Secondly, through collection of relevant documents, I examined the measures for promotion of women's physical education that had been discussed during this period. Thirdly, I reviewed the criticism of these promotion measures, in order to reveal the tendencies and problems prevalent at the time.On the basis of these reviews, I consider that the main reasons why the promotion of women's physical education was not successful in the Taisho era were: 1) women's physical education was not consistent with the traditional social norm of the time, 2) theoretical studies of physical education had not yet been developed, and 3) people at that timetended to regard`unhealthy-looking' women as beautiful (for example in the works of Takehisa Yumeji). Since it was di‹cult to solve these problems, some advocates tried to promote women's physical education by emphasizing the beneˆcial eŠects of gymnastics rather than conducting theoretical studies. This was promoted by proactively creating a new concept of women's physical education such as appreciation for`health and beauty'. The measures for promotion of physical education for women in the Taisho era placed emphasis on advertising physical education more eŠectively rather than improving it qualitatively. The promotion of women's physical education in this manner was criticized by other advocates of physical education, and I consider that this was one reason why the quality of women's physical education remained low.

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The purpose of this paper was to consider the image of woman physical educator in the secondary school at the Meiji era. It is generally agreed that the evaluation of the woman physical educator was lower than the other woman during the prewar period. On the contrary, it is clear that the highly educated woman became a physical educator. These two facts are mutually incompatible. The question now arises: is it true that the evaluation of the woman physical educator of secondary school was lower than the other woman? Three points seem to be helpful in attempting to sketch out that question: (1) the aspects of the academic evaluation of physical education for female; (2) the social status of woman physical educator; (3) the human relations of teachers in the secondary school.Result of consideration, the image of woman physical educator has been molded by many reasons. One is that the unfavorable view of female's physical activity and exercise. Another reason is the low opinion for women educator. Added to these reasons, the academic evaluation of physical education for female was an important factor.These results lead to the conclusion that the social status of the woman physical educator was not necessarily lower than the other women.

The purpose of this study was to clarify how women's physical education was promoted in Japan, particularly around the Taisho era (1912)(1913)(1914)(1915)(1916)(1917)(1918)(1919)(1920)(1921)(1922)(1923)(1924)(1925)(1926). Before commencing the main discussion, the circumstances leading up to the promotion of women's physical education around the turn of the twentieth century are reviewed, along with the status of women's physical education at that time. Then, the following three points are considered as speciˆc topics for the present study: First, critical opinions on women's physical education are reviewed to examine the details underlying the problematic nature of its promotion, hitherto assumed. Second, measures for promoting women's physical education in view of these di‹culties are examined through arguments for promoting measures put forward by leadingˆgures in physical education. Third, the tendencies and problems surrounding proposed measures for promoting women's physical education in the Taisho era are clariˆed through an examination of critical opinions on these promotion measures. The study found that, against a backdrop of problematic conditions caused by various factors, measures for promoting physical education for women in the Taisho era placed greater emphasis on eŠectively advertising physical education than on improving its quality. Conducted in this way, the promotion was also criticized by some leadingˆgures in women's physical education and can be regarded as one of the reasons why the quality of women's physical education remained low.