A series of government schools for design education opened in rapid succession during the Meiji era. Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), who formulated the policy for the Tokyo Fine Arts School, emphasized design education from its opening in 1889. At the Tokyo Technical School (est. 1890, renamed as Tokyo Higher Technical School in 1901), Principal Seiichi Tejima (1850-1918) established the Department of Industrial Designs in the Training Institute of Industrial Teacher in 1897, and the main school followed suit by establishing the same department in 1899. The Tokyo Higher Technical School actively adopted Western (particularly British) design theories and teaching methods. This influence is evident in the articles published in Zuan, the journal of the Dainippon Zuan Kyokai, a group founded by teachers and alumni of the school. Shinzo Komuro (1870-1922) further theorized the design methodology of benka or conventional treatment of plant motif and developed it into his book Ippan Zuanho (1907). This study identifies conceptual changes in the word zuan. Komuro distinguished between art and design (applied art), defining zuan as the result of careful consideration of an object’s use, materials, and manufacturing process. In this sense, he was a pioneer in the modernization of zuan.