14 However, at the head of the temple’s congregation was the Takahashi family, leading landowners in Niigata prefecture. As the abbot, En-ryō’s father Engo was responsible for managing the temple so it seems probable he engaged in discussions with the Takahashi family about Enryō’s future. This could have been what enabled Enryō to leave the temple and study in Nagaoka. Enryō had long hoped he could study in an English immersion environment at a Western studies school. Finally, on the afternoon of May fifth this became a reality. He wrote a poem on his thoughts at that time (when the school was still in its infancy, and according to a school historian, “it was very different to the current concept of a school, being more like a private tutoring or fief school”). I came to the town of Nagaoka by myself and passed through the gate of Nagaoka School for Western Studies for the first time. All day long I would sit in the lecture hall and constantly recite out loud my “wisdoms,” “smidgens,” and “voices.” “Wisdoms,” “smidgens,” and “voices (声)” meant the ABCs, and his expression “recited out loud” shows the greatness of Enryō’s joy. Incidentally, in line with the educational methods that were practiced at the time, Western studies schools provided education on interna-tional subjects such as geography, history, and mathematics through foreign language texts, mainly in English or French. This simultane-ous teaching of foreign language and content killed two birds with one stone and was emblematic of Japan’s modernization. In Enryō’s case he focused on Western studies and mathematics.
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