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

LIFE AT THE JUKU 157yōgaku students answered, “from Germany”, the kangakustudents pointed their fans in his face, saying “doitsu”[Germany] […] 110Students at Nishō gakusha are also reported to have been rowdy,especially those who aspired to enter the military school. In oneincident, in the 1870s, well remembered by those who witnessedit, a group of students from Saga prefecture attacted those fromSatsuma, who lived apart from the others over the lecture hallbecause of their different customs. The conflict escalated untilhigh-ranking men outside the school were involved innegotiations with Nishō gakusha. Another student, who enteredNishō gakusha in 1891, also remembered the students fromKagoshima prefecture as particularly troublesome. 111Fujisawa Nangaku’s juku appears to have had its share ofruffians too. A grandson told the following story he had heardabout a visit Nangaku made to the shrine of Sugawara noMichizane with his students:Among the students of Fujisawa juku at the time, manywere rough and lively. In town some of them were given awide berth. The students accompanying Nangaku walkedswiftly through the crowds of pilgrims, bumping straightinto people coming towards them. My grandfather foundthis hard to handle; he dived into a hardware shop andbought the biggest rice tub, making the ruffians carry it.You cannot bump into the people walking on the street ifyou are carrying a large rice tub, so, as he expected, thesepeople were put in their place. 112The episode may illustrate Nangaku’s resourcefulness, but onewonders how these students, whom the master tamed only withdifficulty, behaved in his absence.Unsurprisingly, young women were rarely found in this kindof company, and the typical kangaku juku was an all malecommunity. Nevertheless, female students occasionally attendedkangaku juku, as day pupils, as we already saw in the case ofSuisaien. Another example is Fukunishi Shigeko (1847–98), whostudied with Yamada Hōkoku and in 1885 opened a secondaryschool for girls in Bitchū-Takahashi, her home town. 113 While shemay have been taught separately from the other students, a few