When he was 10 years old, he entered Seitoku Shoin, a hanko (domain school) in the Sakura Domain (forerunner of the present Chiba Prefectural Sakura Senior High School), where he studied Confucianism under Sokken YASUI, who had been invited to the hanko by the domain.
十歳で佐倉藩の藩校である成徳書院（現在の千葉県立佐倉高等学校の前身）に入り、藩が招いた安井息軒から儒学を学んだ。