Examples of Fröbel Gifts (Fröbelgaben) compiled by a kindergarten teacher in-training

ENQUIRE

[Untitled set of volumes on kindergarten play methods]

Maeda, Rie [transcribed by].

[Japan, ca. Meiji 29 (1896)]. Manuscript.

A collection of three manuscript volumes providing samples of four paper play methods and instructions for kindergarten teachers. The volumes are numbered "two", "three", and "five", and it is unclear how many volumes were in the original set. Volume two details shokushi, a form of play in which paper strips are "woven" into different patterns. Volume three contains examples of senshi paper-cutting, the examples held in by tipped-in corner slips. Volume five features two sections; the first is on tsumiki (toy blocks) designed by the German educator Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-1852), founder of the kindergarten system, and the second on Fröbel's ita narabe (parquetry tablets). Each of the four sections spread over the three volumes features a description of the play method pictured. A recent article by Yukiyo Nishida, Missionary Froebelians’ Pedagogy and Practice: Annie L. Howe and Her Glory Kindergarten Teacher Training School (2022), sheds light on the dissemination of information about Fröbel's pedagogical materials - the so-called "Gifts and Occupations" - in Meiji period Japan. Nishida shows "how Froebel's theory was used to disseminate Christianity and to create Froebelians in the spirit of Christian pedagogy" and emphasises that Western missionary women "established the foundations of a kindergarten teacher training and early childhood qualification system that exists today [in Japan]". The notes and examples in this set were compiled by Maeda Rie, no doubt a kindergarten teacher in training and recorded in volume one, issue seven of the magazine Fujin to Kodomo as having been a member of Japan's Fröbel Association founded in 1896.

Three manuscript volumes only of an unknown number of volumes, on double leaves, fukurotoji style. Original wrappers, lightly soiled and bumped, some abrasion, ex-ownership signature to lower wrappers. Occasional internal marks, stains, and annotations. [13; 17; 36] leaves. Volumes 2 and 3 measure 23.5 x 16 cm; volume 5 measures 24.3 x 16.2 cm

Examples of Fröbel Gifts (Fröbelgaben) compiled by a kindergarten teacher in-training
SOLD