Early Life
Shiki, or rather Tsunenori (常規) as he was originally named, was born in Matsuyama city in Iyo province (present day Ehime prefecture) to a samurai class family of modest means. As a child, he was called Tokoronosuke (処之助); in adolescence, his name was changed to Noboru (升). His father, Tsunenao, was an alcoholic who died when Shiki was five years of age, but his mother, Yae, was a daughter of Ōhara Kanzan, a Confucian scholar. Kanzan was the first of Shiki's extra-school tutors, and at the age of 7 the young boy began reading Mencius under his tutelage. Shiki later confessed to being a less-than-diligent student.
At age 15 Shiki became something of a political radical, attaching himself to the then-waning Freedom and People's Rights Movement and getting himself banned from public speaking by the principal of Matsuyama Middle School, which he was attending. Around this time he developed an interest in moving to Tokyo and did so in 1883.
Read more about this topic: Masaoka Shiki
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