11 might assume that this turning point was the genesis of the stub-bornness we see in Enryō’s character as an adult. People say that a child’s education is a source of worry for the parents, and in the con-text of the changing times of the early Meiji period, we can imagine that Enryō’s parents at Jikōji were especially worried. In December 1872 after Enryō had completed four years of Chi-nese classics studies, the Nagaoka School for Western Studies was established. This came about at the exact time that the new govern-ment promulgated the School System act based on the French system of defining school districts. Through this act all areas of Japan saw the establishment of elementary, middle, and advanced learning schools. This was the first time that schools catered to the learning of all citizens regardless of social class. The people working to revive Nagaoka after the war believed that Western studies was the ultimate key to cultivating new human resources. As part of this FUJINO Zenzō was called back to the region at a high salary to begin provid-ing this education. Fujino was a former clan gentry member who had been acting as the head of Keiō Academy. The school in Nagaoka was revolutionary in allowing commoners to study alongside the chil-dren of the gentry. Enryō, however, did not immediately enroll. Ultimately it was decided that Enryō would attend a private Eng-lish school in Takayama on the opposite bank of the Shinanogawa river from May twenty-ninth, 1873. He studied at Takayama Raku-gunsha for a little over two months until early August under a teacher called KURIHARA. He writes about that time in a Chinese-style poem.
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