Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meiji Japan: The Decline ...

98 CASE STUDIESAt times up to 60 pupils are said to have lived in the juku, in twoboarding houses of two floors each. The surviving building,situated on the side of a hill, is reached by a flight of stone stepsbuilt in 1856. The lower storey has a kitchen and six rooms ofdifferent sizes. The upper storey also has six rooms. The two backrooms on the lower floor were added later. On the ground floormuch of the original materials can still be seen. The studentsslept on the second floor. Students cooked their own meals,buying their own rice, salt, firewood and coal, fetching water andusing vegetables grown in the fields nearby. Sōan ate with hisstudents. The students also did their own cleaning and preparedtheir bath six times a month. 66The numbers show that Seikei shoin thrived even after theintroduction of the Education Law in 1872. The number of entrantsremained high until 1877, the year before Sōan’s death, and manyentrants came from outside Tajima. The isolation of the regionand the lack of alternatives may well be the main reason, but thehigh number of students from other regions suggests that Sōan’sperson and teaching attracted students and contributed to theenduring success of Seikei shoin.After Sōan’s death there was no one to take over Seikei shoin,so it ceased to exist as a juku. Sōan’s second son had died young,in 1896, his eldest daughter had died childless and his seconddaughter’s son also died young. So in 1900, Shionoya Kumejirōwas adopted into the Ikeda family. He taught kanbun at Toyookamiddle school. Meanwhile, Sōan’s students had begun activitiesto keep the school’s memory alive. 67 In 1880 a memorial to IkedaSōan was erected with Chō Sanshū providing the writing. In 1887a group of former students formed the Society to Preserve Seikeishoin (Seikei shoin hozon kai), which became a foundation (zaidanhōjin) in 1910, and from 1917, when he retired from teaching,Sōan’s heir ran it. In 1907 preparations began for celebrating the30th anniversary of Sōan’s death, and Toyoda Shōhachirō, aformer pupil and now headmaster of Toyooka middle school,wrote a biography entitled Tajima Seijin [The Sage of Tajima].Two years later, in 1909, the publications of Sōan’s works, underthe title Seikeizenshū, began. It was completed in 1929 withsupport from Hyōgo prefecture. In 1932 Kumejirō died. Hiseldest son Kumerō (Shisei) was a journalist in Tottori at the time.He returned to Tajima in 1944 and has written a biography ofIkeda Sōan.