Friendships
In October 1839, Goryo married a daughter of Umetaro Ikenaga in Yuasa at the age of 20. After staying in Hiro-mura for another six months, he came back to Choshi via Edo in the following spring. By the time, he already mastered techniques of various martial arts, especially for swordsmanship. In addition, thanks to efforts he put in for general studies and fine arts earlier, he was very good at composing and writing poems. He accidentally met Gonsai Miyake, who became his mentor and friend for life, in his academic quest and physical training. Gonsai was originally from Shimabara in Hizen (current Nagasaki prefecture) and devoted himself in medical study since his birth in 1817 (Bunka-14). He studied science introduced to Japan by Dutch in Nagasaki and later moved to Edo. At that time, people were debating Chinese medicine and Western medicine, until the feudal government ruled in favor of Chinese medicine because of its similar environment to Japanese. Western medicine was prohibited until the following March.
Read more about this topic: Goryo Hamaguchi
Famous quotes containing the word friendships:
“A really tight friendship is when you start to really care about the person. If he gets sick, you kind of start worrying about him—or if he gets hit by a car. An everyday friend, you say, I know that kid, he’s all right, and you don’t really think much of him. But a close friend you worry about more than yourself. Well, maybe not more, but about the same.”
—Anonymous Fifteen-Year-Old Boy. As quoted in Children’s Friendships by Zick Rubin, ch. 3 (1980)
“When other friendships have been forgot,
Ours will still be hot.”
—Cole Porter (1893–1964)
“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)