Paper short abstract:

This article aims to examine how elementary school trips expanded to Ise jingu and Kshihara jingu from the interbellum period and into wartime, mainly focusing on the changes caused by the regional communities' events and the economic activities of a railway company.

Paper long abstract:

This article aims to examine how elementary school trips expanded to Ise jingu and Kshihara jingu - as known as the holy shrines of the Japanese Emperor- from the interbellum period and into wartime, mainly focusing on the changes caused by the regional communities' events and the economic activities of a railway company.

It is suggested that school trips contributed to the popularization of tourism in Japan. It has also pointed out that the militaristic education on elementary school made travel to Ise jingu and Kshihara jingu a widespread. However, a history of the quantitative spread of school trips before World War 2 has not been revealed.

First factor of the implementation and spread of elementary school trips is traveling expenses payment from a community. During the period from the beginning of the Showa era to the wartime, school trips conducted not only as an elementary school event but also as a community's event, which means politicians and regional influences also participated in the travel.

Second factor is a decisive role of Osaka Electric Railway (OER), a private railway company which established in the end of the Meiji era. OER not only developed railway network toward Ise and Nagoya, but also, made attempts to attract urban dwellers, by using shrines, amusement facilities, hot springs and so on. After economic crisis in the Showa era (from 1930 to 1931), OER started sales activities to attract school trips from Tokyo. There were few schools to travel to Kashihara jingu until 1935. In response, elementary schools began to travel both Ise jingu and Kashihara jingu.

We indicated that in order to analyze the implementation and expansions of school trips, it is important to focus on the following 2 aspects - (1) changes caused by the regional communities. Primary education includes students of poor parents so that it is difficult to conduct a trip for each school. (2) the economic activities of a railway company. Kashihara jingu was not a travel destination for elementary schools of Tokyo before OER seeking to be economically successful.