Many foreign teachers were employed either by the Japanese Government or by local governments, and played important roles in modernizing Meiji Japan. Only a little has been known, however, about their lives and careers, especially about those who worked in the provinces. This paper tries to throw light on De Tronquois, an unfamiliar figure to Japanese people in general, making the most of the official documents and historical materials at hand.
De Tronquois worked for two private schools in the provinces : at Meishinkan in Hyogo and O-gakusha in O-gaki, during the very early period of Meiji, from March 1872 to September 1875. He was a Frenchman, but taught the English languages and probably English studies at both schools, and endeavored to meet local expectations that they wanted him to educate the new generation of useful young men.
De Tronquois was invited to Meishinkan after Yukichi Hukuzawa had criticized the conservative educational policies of the school. The founders of Meishinkan were inspired by Hukuzawa's critical remarks and made efforts to modernize their school. The school was financially supported by some influential persons and many local inhabitants. It was also positively patronised by the Hyogo Prefectural authorities. However, the details of De Tronquois's teaching have been unknown.
He was then invited to O-gakusha, but he did not receive the same enthusiasm in O-gaki. He taught English to forty-one students at O-gakusha. A Japanese interpreter was appointed to work for him, though he had already been familiar with the Japanese language. So the students must have benefited much from his teaching. At one time, he contributed an English recommendation to a book on medicine; Iji-Mondou (Questions and Answers on Medical Problems). It was followed by its Japanese version, which added, to our interest, that De Tronquois was from a medical family in France.

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