As we have seen, the coming of the Meiji era saw the opening of Kumamoto to the west, with the It is important to introduce the Miyazaki brothers, who were born in Arao. Four of the brothers were Hachiro, Tamizo, Yazo, and Torazo (Toten), who are known for their support of modernization and equality, especially with respect to China. The youngest of these four (Toten) is especially famous for his support of Sun Yat-sen, father of the Chinese revolution. He was greatly influenced by his older brothers: Hachiro, who was killed in the Seinan rebellion, and Tamizo who tried to reorganize land ownership for equality. Their childhood home is in Arao, and you can still see a diorama of Toten and Sun Yat-sen there.
Toten was born in 1871 (Meiji 4), the same year as the beginning of the Yogakko. He was a student of Oe-gijuku, the school run by Tokutomi Soho, where he studied about freedom and christianity until it closed in XXX. He then went to Tokyo Senmon School (forerunner of Waseda University) but quit soon thereafter, continuing his studies at a local church. In Nagasaki, he met a Swedish man, Isaac Abraham, and tried to build a school for him. Later, he rejected Christianity and instead became interested in the development of Asia.