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

72 CASE STUDIESthe capital were for him a time of comparative leisure after aperiod of duties that had allowed little time for study. In 1875 hereturned to the Tokyo court and in 1876 he was appointed to thenew Supreme Court. Much of his time in the service of the Meijigovernment was spent studying French law. In 1877 his post wasabolished and he resigned from government. Thereafter, hedevoted himself to education, although he held anotherappointment at the Supreme Court in 1888. Not only did heestablish his own juku, Nishō gakusha, but he also taught at theTōkyō Normal School (Tōkyō shihan gakkō) and at TokyoUniversity. In 1896 he was employed by the imperial court,becoming a lecturer to the emperor the following year.Nishō gakusha began as a small, informal organization namedKeikoku bunsha, founded in September 1877. In October 1877Chūshū renamed it Nishō gakusha and put in a formalapplication. 19 An announcement in the Chōya newspaper stated,“Even if Western studies are flourishing at present, if one doesnot realize their meaning through kanbun, they cannot serve theordering of the state. But kanbun has a method, and if one doesnot study it, one cannot realize their meaning […]”. 20 Accordingto a letter Chūshū wrote to Shibuzawa Eiichi in his later years, hefounded his juku to make a living, but also to stop the decline ofkangaku in a climate of Westernization. 21 Kangaku is named as theonly subject. The number of students is given as 50. The schoolrules begin with a list of the texts to be studied: the Four Booksand Five Classics, histories of China, collections of models forwriting, histories of Japan (Nihon shi, Nihongaishi, Kokushiryaku)and “histories of all the Western countries”, as well as“translations of texts on economics, law and so forth”. The schoolregulations continue: “This school makes training kanbun its mainaim, but since it is impossible to compose texts without beingwell read, we will, in addition to meetings for writing anddiscussing compositions, prescribe time for the Japanese, Chineseand Western texts mentioned above and teach them by means oflectures (kōshaku), group reading (kaidoku), giving opportunitiesfor questions (shitsumon) and simple reading (sodoku)”Next follow the school regulations. Entry was from fifteenyears upwards, and entrants needed a guarantor resident inTokyo who had to submit an application in the prescribedformat. If a student wanted to leave the school, the guarantor hadto notify the school. Students who broke the rules three times orwere lazy and misbehaved could be asked to leave after the