Shūji's father, Isawa Katsusaburō (伊澤勝三郎, also known as Bunkoku 文谷), was a fairly low-ranking samurai secretary for the Takatō Domain, and was also an amateur artist.

[1][2] As a teenager, Isawa took part in the recently formed Dutch-style military drum and fife marching band in the Takatō Domain.

[4] In 1869, Isawa Shūji moved to Tōkyō to reside with his uncle, the renowned physician Suda Tairei (須田泰嶺).

[5] In 1872, Isawa began working for the Japanese Ministry of Education and was dispatched to Aichi, where he served as the director of a teachers college.

According to Bell, the telephone's inventor, "a young Japanese student named Isawa...came to me for the purpose of studying the pronunciation of English.

Initially, Isawa was chiefly concerned with what he saw as the psychological and physical merits of music education for young children.

[12] A prolific writer and wide-ranging thinker, Isawa is also credited with some of the earliest works in Japanese on pedagogical theory and practice, education of the deaf, linguistics, and evolutionary biology.

[16] In addition, Shūji himself sometimes spelled his given name "Shuje" during his stay in the USA, as can be seen in various documents housed in the Isawa Shuji Collection at Bridgewater State University.