He became a boarding shosei (a student who is given room and board in exchange for performing domestic duties) of a clinic of his relatives (younger brother of his grandfather) when he went to Tokyo after graduating from high school in 1919 and commuted to Meiji Pharmaceutical School.
1919年、高等小学校卒業後、上京して親戚（祖父の弟）の家系の医院に住み込み書生となり、明治薬学校に通う。