Mutsu Munemitsu
Arimatsu Hideyoshi was born in Mino-gun in Bizen Province as the child of a samurai named Arimatsu Masayoshi of the Okayama Domain. In 1881, after graduating from Okayama Normal School, he became a disciple of Sinologist Nishi Kiichi while teaching at Obie elementary school in Kuboya County. The book of Mutsu Munemitsu made him aspire to study Western learning in Tokyo, and asked advice from Komatsubara Eitarō who also had studied with Nishi. Concerned that Arimatsu was deeply influenced by Nishi who was immersed in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, in 1884 Komatsubara supported Arimatsu to enroll at Doitsugaku Kyōkai Gakkō college to study German law and politics that was opened by Doitsugaku Kyōkai, or "Verein für deutsche Wissenschaften", founded in line with national policy in 1881.