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

150 PRIVATE ACADEMIES OF CHINESE LEARNING IN MEIJI JAPANLearning) and miscellaneous items: gomashio (salt with sesamyseeds), irigashi [a sweet made from popped rice or beans andsugar], an ink pot and a brush stand. One hopes that Shōheitareceived what he wanted and soon settled down at San’yo juku(although the P.S. in the last letter, cited above, suggests that he didnot expect to stay long).Food seems often to have been basic. A common pattern wasthat students cooked rice for the whole group in turns, and thatstudents supplemented this with their own vegetables, as inMurakami Butsusan’s Suisaien. The students at Suisaienprovided their own rice, as they did at the juku of KunitomoKoshōken, where two students cooked rice for all of them. 91 Inother juku the rice was bought from upkeep fees. Katayama Sen(1859–1933), who entered Oka Senjin’s juku in 1882 or 1883,reports that for 3 yen a month students received basic foodstuffs,rice, miso and soy sauce, imported from Sendai (where Oka camefrom) and of good quality. They would supplement this withvegetables and sometimes fish they bought and cookedthemselves. Katayama himself could not afford to buy anythingextra. 92 Tani Kanjō’s diary frequently mentions that he boughtfood items like roast potatoes during outings into town. 93 InTokyo, students could also supplement their diet with trips to thenumerous restaurants in the student quarters when they werepermitted to leave the grounds.Abe Isoo reports about student life in the kangaku juku heattended that students bought their own rice and that a share ofrice from each was cooked in a large pot given out to thestudents. They did not receive much else, pickles for breakfastand lunch and fish or miso soup with shellfish in the evenings.Why did the students lead a life of such extreme frugality?That was apparently because it was the rule at the jukuOnishi-sensei went to in his youth, and sensei thought thiswas one method of training. Of course, we did not dream ofclamouring that this was unfair. At that time our standardof living was very low. Especially the samurai classexperienced a sharp decline after the Restoration, so thiskind of student life may have seemed natural. Since weeven regarded buying pickles as a luxury, we attempted tonegotiate directly with a farmer in the neighbourhood andbought a lot of vegetables, which we took to the juku andpickled in one or two large tubs. There was a river not far