Shigenobu entered the hanko (domain school) Kodokan school when he was seven years old, and was educated in Confucianism based on "Hagakure" (the book of Bushido) which was characteristic of Saga Prefecture, but he objected to it and appealed to reform the hanko with his comrades in 1854.
重信は7歳で藩校弘道館に入学し、佐賀の特色である『葉隠』に基づく儒教教育を受けるが、これに反発し、安政元年（1854年）に同志とともに藩校の改革を訴えた。