The major aim of this study is to clarify the historical reasons behind education concerning animation in primary and secondary art education in Japan. This paper surveys how animation subjects were treated in school textbooks for art in junior high school education focusing on their education purposes. This research surveyed a total of 309 textbooks published from 1951 to 2016 and identified 49 animation subjects, which were divided into four periods of time for comparison. This diachronic research reveals the origin and the changes of the animation subject in the field. The oldest example was found in a textbook published in 1955 from a publisher that focused on constructive education which came from Bauhaus. The results of text analysis show 3 educational purposes for animation subjects: Constructive Education, Media Education and Education for Creativity. From the 1960s to the 1970s the number of examples was increasing and a new educational purpose, Education for Visual Communication, emerged in the 1970s. After that in the 2010s one more educational purpose, Education for Collaborative Communication, was added and currently animation subjects have become diverse and encompass in total 5 multi-faceted purposes.