As an aspect of the Kansei Reforms at the end of the eighteenth century initiated by the Councilor of the Elders, Matsudaira Sadanobu, the Tokugawa bakufu officially took over the administration of the Shōheikō (The Confucian University in Edo). The Shōheikō had been operated as a private school by the Hayashi family, who held the hereditary position of education councilors to the bakufu. With the expansion of the faculty and facilities under the new administration, ways were opened even for the children of any domain retainer and for those of peasants and merchants.