Hita, Oita (大分県日田市) – Kangien Academy Site (咸宜園跡 ) 2024 Dec. 24, All in Japanese (日本語)
* Note – the local guide did all of his explaining in Japanese *
Kangien was a private academy established in 1817 by Hirose Tanso, a Confucian scholar and nationally renowned composer of Chinese poems, in the Tenryo-Hita area. In an era strictly governed by class and social hierarchies, Kangien accepted students from all walks of life. Over the course of its long, eighty-plus-year history, some five thousand students from more than sixty provinces across Japan came to study at the school, which became widely known throughout the country for its entirely merit-based program that started with the admission process itself. At its height, more than 230 students were studying at Kangien, making it exceptionally large for a private academy. Those who came to Kangien not only recived one of the best private educations in the country, but also experienced the environment that the school created and the rich culture of the surrounding town.