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

LIFE AT THE JUKU 127The transformation of education during the Meiji period mayhave caused some teachers of kangaku to reflect on their positionas they felt themselves pushed into the defensive. MishimaChūshū’s programmatic statement for Nishō gakusha includes acareful justification for the different branches of kangaku taught athis juku. Ikeda Sōan composed a memorandum lamenting theincreasing regulation of juku in 1873.Ikeda Sōan left us more records on his thoughts about teachingthan most juku masters, but speculation about the theory ofeducation does not seem to have preoccupied the masters a greatdeal, at least not apart from their general philosophy. Just asthere was no separation between studying and living together, sopedagogy was not a specialized field apart from life as a whole.The relationship between a jukushu and those that enteredthrough his “gate” (monjin or monkasei) was in its ideal form “adaily, lived association”, akin to that found in the master-discipletradtion in Eastern religions and to a lesser degree in the systemof apprenticeship in pre-modern Europe. 31 The personality of themaster rather than his theories and methods was what made itsimpression on the students and what they remembered him for.The close relationship between master and student is perceivedas one of the most outstanding characteristics of the juku(Chapter 6). And yet, here too there must have been considerablevariations. If the master was often absent or otherwise engaged,if the students came from a long way off and did not stay long,how close was the relationship really? On the other end of thescale we have the local master who knew not only the studentsbut also their families, possibly because elder brothers, fathersand uncles had also studied with him. In such a settingYamamura Benzai could advise the father of Inagaki Saburō thathis son was more suited to the army than to follow in his father’sfootsteps as a physician, or tell the father of his most gifted daypupil, Okamura Gentarō, that he should be allowed to continue hisstudies even if he was expected to learn a trade. 32Some masters are reported to have taken an interest in theirstudents long after they had left. Yamada Hōkoku spent much ofhis last years travelling to lecture at schools his pupils wereinvolved with. They included Meishinkan, established by one ofhis students with the support of Tsuyama domain in 1870,Chihonkan, established in 1872 or 1873, 33 Onchikan, establishedin 1874, and Chishinkan, established around 1870. When he died,a few of his students strove to preserve his memory by