Stigmatized as an Emperor's enemy, Yonezawa produced, after the Restoration War (BOSHIN-SENSO), more men of advanced view than other clans (_??_) in the Tohoku districts.
I think Yonezawa owes the effect worth notice to repletion of school education in Kojokan (_??__??__??_), the school founded by Uesugi Yozan (_??__??__??__??_) in 1776, and to progressive ideas spread among the doctors here by RANGAKU and EIGAKU (English studies) that had been promoted before and after the Restoration, respectively.
‘The Genealogy of Western Learning in Yonezawa’ consisting of five sections is a series of papers on the representative families of Yonezawa that had produced distinguished members since the Meiji Restoration a Section I is on the members around Tsuboi Ishun (_??__??__??__??_), section II on the members of Ito (_??__??_) family, section IV on the members around Kashimura Kiyonori (_??__??__??__??_) and section V on the members of Amakasu (_??__??_) family.
This paper, section III is on the members of Ikeda (_??__??_) family who were conspicuous among the contemporaries in their ideas and view of life: each of them was a rationalist, a man of spirit and high intelligence. We learn, through their walk of life, how descendants of middle-class samurais of the Yonezawa clan shook off the feudalistic ideas to cut brilliant figures in the modern Japan. It was through Western learning that they could awake to advancement of Western thought and civilization and that they could take the lead of their contemporaries.