According to the traditional prevailing view, it was considered as a group centered on Western learning, but it seems to have been actually a group based not only on the Dutch, but also on a wide range of varied learning as the promoter, Katsusuke was a Confucianist.
従来の通説では西洋の学問を中心にした集まりとされたが、主宰の勝助は儒学者であり、蘭学に限らない、より幅の広い集団であったようである。