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

EDUCATION IN TRANSITION FROM THE TOKUGAWA TO THE MEIJI PERIOD 13relationship to his students influenced them for life. The Shōkasonjuku, which only existed from 1857 to 1859, differed fromother schools of the time; Shōin’s students had more freedom andwere not bound by a strict hierarchy. Shōin built up a personalrelationship with every student. His teaching was a mixture ofthe various ideas of his time, and although Shōin himself was ascholar, he placed more importance on character developmentthan on academic achievement. He spent much time discussingcurrent events with his students and emphasized the closerelationship between thought and action. 10Another famous juku of the Tokugawa period was the Kangien,was established by Hirose Tansō (1787–1856) in the town of Hita(Ōita prefecture), an important political and financial centre forthe domains in the southwest and the seat of a daikan (localadministrator). 11 The Hirose family was one of a group of eightmerchant families patronized by the daikan as money changersand intermediaries between emissaries of feudal lords and themagistrate’s office. Tansō himself was physically weak andbookish and became a Confucian scholar. He was taught byrelatives and private tutors until 1797, when he went to Fukuokato the juku of Kamei Nanmei (1741–1814) and his son Shōyō(1773–1836).Tansō began tutoring students on his return to Hita, rentingrooms for the purpose in 1805 and moving to purpose-built roomsin 1807. In 1817 a school building was constructed and given thename Kangien. Hirose’s juku, although private, had officialsupport from the daikan and the daikan repeatedly attempted tointervene in the running of the school. But Kangien remainedindependent, and by 1820 could exist on the income fromstudents.A remarkable feature of Kangien was its merit system;although in most juku merit was given more importance thanrank, few had a formal system of grades and examinations, andKangien may have been the first to introduce such a system. Onentry everyone started at grade 0 regardless of status andprevious schooling. Students advanced through the 19 grades bycollecting points. This system, called gettanhyō, is often cited asone of the “modern” features of Kangien. It was imitated, at leastin a simplified fashion, by other scholars, such as Tsunetō Seisō(Chapter 3), who had studied at Kangien, and it may haveinfluenced the educational policies of the Meiji period through