After becoming a bureaucrat in the Meiji government, he fully demonstrated his knowledge and spirit of inquiry and was known as "the best bureaucrat in the Meiji period" by the people, but in the Meiji government with its clannish behavior, he was often timid.
明治政府官僚となってからも、その知識と探求心を遺憾なく発揮し、民衆から「明治最良の官僚」と謳われたほどであったが、藩閥の明治政府内においては肩身の狭い思いもしばしばであった。