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

LIFE AT THE JUKU 119If the entire prefecture is taken into account rather than just themajor castle town, samurai still predominated of samurai. InAkita prefecture 75 out of 85 juku were run by samurai; inNagasaki prefecture 31 out of 51 juku (9 of them in the town ofNagasaki) were run by samurai. 3 In other prefectures thetendency is less pronounced, but the samurai are usually thelargest group; 24 out of 43 in Aichi prefecture, 23 out of 73 inShimane, 77 (includes 3 rōnin) out of 166 in Ōita prefecture. Thesecond largest group is often the physicians (19 in Shimane, 16 inŌita) and/or the priests (8 in Shimane, 22 in Ōita). Physicianscame from all classes.In more rural regions the proportions could differ. In Gifuprefecture the largest number (9 out of 28) were run bycommoners (heimin), followed by samurai (8), physicians andfarmers (4 each) and priests (3). Nagano prefecture, because of itspreponderance of rural areas, had a high proportion of farmers(56 per cent) running juku and terakoya. 4 In Tajima (the remoterpart of Hyōgo prefecture), the home of Ikeda Sōan, 5 juku each outof 11 were run by samurai and heimin (Sōan’s juku being includedin the latter) and one by a priest. 5The kangaku juku was most often an establishment run by asamurai in a castle town. Usually the master had travelled tostudy with different teachers before settling in his home town, orin the town where he had studied. For example, YamamuraBenzai (1836–1907) came from a family of kangaku scholars in theservice of Hirose domain (a branch of Matsue domain), hisgrandfather and father taught at the domain school in the castletown of Hirose before him. 6 He entered the school at age six, thencontinued his studies at the domain school of Matsue, butreturned after a year to teach at Hirose. In 1863 he went to Edoand studied with Shionoya Tōin and Ōnuma Chinzan, but wasordered home at the time of the Chōshū rebellion. He spent thenext years in the service of his domain, taught at the domainschool in Hirose until it was closed in 1872 and became a teacherat the new elementary school when it opened the following year.In 1874 he opened his juku Shūbunkan in order to provideeducation beyond elementary level after the demise of thedomain school. He continued to teach at public schools, and in1896 was invited to teach at the Shimane prefectural teachertraining college in Matsue.Another example is Kunitomo Koshōken (1832–84), who camefrom a family of vassals of the Hosokawa and studied first in the