A typical day
In addition to academic subjects, children were also given lessons in some art, such as traditional dance and music. In the Ukiyo-buro (The Communal Bath), a late Edo-period novel by Shikitei Sanba depicting the life of townspeople and their children, a girl who is about to enter the bath describes a typical day to a friend: "After I get up, I go to the terakoya to prepare for the calligraphy lesson. Then I have a shamisen (a banjo-like three-stringed instrument) lesson before I come home for breakfast. I go to the terakoya again after my dance lesson, and it's already 3 o'clock by this time. I go to the bath and then go to my koto (zither) lesson. I come home to practice the shamisen and dance parts I learned that day. I play for a while, and after the sun sets I practice the koto."