In the end of the Edo period, Shigenobu Ōkuma encountered a certain foreigner in Nagasaki: Guido H. F. Verbeck, a Christian missionary who not only preach Christianity but also opened Juku, a school, and taught Western learning. Verbeck possessed extensive knowledge and virtues, and Ōkuma learned a great deal from him about the international situation. At the time, the political situation was in the midst of tempestuous changes, and there was a great yearning for new Western knowledge, so Ōkuma planned to open a new Juku (school) to teach English and Western knowledge to Japanese youth. Together with friends and senior colleagues from the Saga han, Ōkuma opened “Chienkan school” in Gotō-cho, Nagasaki. With Ōkuma's honored teacher Verbeck as Principal, and Taneomi Soejima (Jirō was later adopted and changed his name to Taneomi) serving as Dean, the school made its start with about thirty students. Students did not have to be from Saga, of course, and were accepted irrespective of age, class, or domain. It was said over a hundred students were enrolled in the school's heyday. Ōkuma handled the actual management of the school, and also taught some English classes.
The idea of “independence of learning,” which would become one of the founding principles of Waseda University, was undoubtedly based on what Ōkuma, who loved people and teaching, learned from his study of Western learning and management of Chienkan school.
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