Background
Jo Niijima was born on 12 February 1843 in Kanda in Edo. He was a son of a lower ranking samurai of the domain of Annaka in Kozuke, present- day Gumma Prefecture. In his youth he went by the name Shimeta; shortly after the Restoration, he used the name Joseph, but later settled on Jo. His father served as a secretary in the domain administration and was also a teacher of calligraphy
Education
As heir to his father, Niijima began the study of calligraphy at an early age. When he was thirteen, however, he was ordered by the lord of the domain to take up the study of Dutch learning, as Western science and technology were known at the time. From the age of fifteen he served as a secretary in the domain residence in Edo but at the same time attended a school called the Kaigun Denshujo, where he studied mathematics and navigation.
Around this time he read a book by an American missionary and conceived a desire to travel abroad.
Through the assistance of A. Hardy, the owner of the Wild Rover, he was able to apply himself to study and in 1870 graduated from Amherst College. He also attended Andover Theological Seminary and in 1871 was officially recognized by the Meiji government as a Japanese student abroad.
Career
Since all Japanese at this time were forbidden to leave the country, he traveled to Hakodate in Hokkaido and in 1864 managed to board an American ship bound for Shanghai. In Shanghai he boarded another American ship named Wild. Rover and eventually reached Boston.
When the Japanese inspection mission headed by Iwakura arrived in the United States in 1872, Niijima proved especially helpful to Tanaka Fujimaro, the member of the mission in charge of educational matters, and later accompanied the mission on its inspection of Europe, submitting a report on the educational systems he had observed.