What waited Tomizo, who took the first step forward, was apprenticeship system. In apprenticeship at that time, there was a hierarchy with a master (boss) at the top.  Under the master there was the first pupil (apprentice), the second pupil, the third and so on. A new kid helped the work of the senior pupils. In the same way, for instance, a third pupil assisted the work of a second pupil. And by doing so they were trained and acquired skills.

When a red-hot steel block was hammered by a senior pupil, a new kid held tight the pincers. The senior pupil yelled "Damn you!" when he missed hammering the block. He shook his fist at the new kid when the kid dilly-dallied. Especially for the new kids apprenticeship was ascetic practices. Not a few new kids ran back home saying "I can no longer bear this."  Tomizo put up with apprenticeship.  He, who once endured the rice-carrying, was not discouraged over such a thing.

The new kids had to wait for their turn to eat a meal and to take a bath as there was order to be observed. They always had cooled meal since they were the last to have a meal.

Kaneo Kohara reminisced about those days:
"Tomizo-san took days off twice each month. On that occasion he often visited us at Shitaya. Every time he came he gave me a notebook, a pencil, etc. Now I wonder how he could spend money to buy such things out of his scanty income.

Kaneo Kohara introduced another story about Tomizo at the time when one of the worst earthquakes in the world history hit the Kanto plain and destroyed Tokyo, Yokohama and surroundings on 1 September 1923: