We Cannot Do Anything Without Precedent
Now I was ready to go to Osaka. And in applying for a permit to leave home, I was to use a most ridiculous subterfuge. While my brother was living, I cian could go anywhere at any time with only his sanction, but now that I had become the head of the family with certain duties to the lord, I had to obtain a permit for going “abroad.”
I wrote my petition without consulting anyone, for I knew better than to talk to my relatives. When I submitted the petition, the friendly secretary spoke to me privately.
“This will not be accepted,” he said gravely, “because in this clan there has not been any precedent of a samurai leaving his duty for the purpose of studying *Ran-gaku* (Dutch learning).”
“Then what shall I write?” I inquired.
“Well, you might say that your purpose is the study of gunnery. That has a precedent.”
“But,” I added, “I am going to Ogata’s school. And Ogata is a practicing physician. I am afraid it is rather out of the course of things to go to a medical man for gunnery.”
“But we cannot do anything without precedent,” kept on the friendly secretary. “It does not matter whether your statement is true to fact or not. It has to be gunnery.”
So I rewrote my petition, and in due course, was formally permitted to leave for studying “gunnery” under Master Ogata of Osaka. From this may be guessed the state of things at the time.
