“The Military Academy, together with the Military Preparatory School, occupies an elevation contiguous to that where the Hachiman Shrine above mentioned stands and is the only institution in Japan where military cadets are educated. The school is on the site formerly occupied by a mansion of the House of Owari, the grounds standing about 100 ft. above the level of the sea.”

– An Official Guide to Eastern Asia, Vol. III. by The Imperial Japanese Government Railways, 1914

Central Military Preparatory School (Chuo Yonen Gakko), Ichigaya, Tokyo, c. 1910. Until 1945, cadet achools (Yonen gakko) were preparatory institutions that prepared individuals for the ensign examination. The War School (Shikwan gakko) prepared candidates for the army officers’ examination.

See also:
The Military Academy (Shikwan Gakko), Ichigaya, Tokyo, c. 1920.

“The Central Military Preparatory School was in Tokyo, but at that time there was a district cadet school at each of the six army division headquarters. The central school taught the main curriculum while the district schools taught preliminary courses … After having the military spirit instilled in them at the district school for three years, all students went on the central school in Tokyo.

“… The third-year students were extremely hard on the students in the class immediately below theirs – that is, the second-year students – but were kind to the first-year students. After I became a member of their group, these veterans made me one of their favorite ‘companions’ – perhaps even more favored than others. If you were a ‘companion’ of these veterans, you could get away with anything, no matter how wrong. Smoking, for instance, was a guardhouse offense if you were caught. But they had a special place where it was safe.”

– The Autobiography of Osugi Sakae, by Sakae Osugi, translated 1992

Front gate of the Chuo Yonen Gakko (Central Military Preparatory Academy), Ichigaya, Tokyo, c. 1921.

“In all military nations, and in Japan particularly, the army is a school of the highest quality in which the habits of discipline and self-respect are formed and the principles of honor and patriotism are taught. In the public schools there is a military color given to the conduct and to the sports of the students which prepares them for their military service. Bushido is taught, and Honor occupies the first place in the list of studies. The military educational system is based on the German.

“Cadet Schools are of two grades, a senior and a junior grade. The junior cadet schools are six in number, and are located at Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto with an aggregate of about 127 instructors and administration officers and 900 students. Pupils are admitted at the age of thirteen years, and remain three years … At the end of three years the cadets are transferred to the senior cadet school at Tokyo, where the course is for two years.

“The Tokyo institution has about 530 cadets and a corps of 76 officers and instructors, a part of whom are attached to the junior cadet school at the same place. About 80 per cent of the cadets pay their own expenses. The five years at the cadet schools may thus be supposed to have been completed at the eighteenth year.”

– A Cyclopedia of Education, Volume 4, edited by Paul Monroe, 1918