Later he secretly learned the Chinese language and customs under the name of 菅仲甫 with the help of Gen Watanabe, a merchant in Nagasaki, and in 1895 worked at the Qing mercantile house in Yokohama City with his hair shaped in benpatsu, a Chinese hairstyle in the Qing era.
その後、長崎の商人渡辺元の援助を受け、「菅仲甫」という変名を用いて中国語や風習などを密かに学び、1895年に辮髪を結って横浜市の清国商館に勤務する。