Japanese educator
Tsuda Umeko
(
津田 梅子
, born
Tsuda Ume
(
津田 梅
)
; December 31, 1864 ? August 16, 1929)
was a Japanese educator who founded
Tsuda University
. She was the daughter of
Tsuda Sen
, an agricultural scientist, and at the age of 7, she became Japan's first female exchange student, traveling to the U.S. on the same ship as the
Iwakura Mission
.
Originally named Tsuda Ume, with
ume
referring to the
Japanese plum
, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902.
Early life
[
edit
]
Tsuda Ume was born in the
Ushigome
neighborhood of
Edo
(present Minami,
Shinjuku
) as the second daughter of
Tsuda Sen
and his wife Hatsuko, a progressive agriculturist and strong proponent of the westernization and Christianization of Japan. In 1871, Tsuda Sen was involved in the
Hokkaido
colonization project under
Kuroda Kiyotaka
, and raised the topic of western education for women as well as for men.
First female study-abroad students from Japan (left to right),
Nagai Shige
(age 10), Ueda Tei (14), Yoshimasu Ryo (14), Tsuda Ume (6) and
Yamakawa Sutematsu
(11).
Under Kuroda's sponsorship, Tsuda Ume was volunteered by her father as one of five women members of the
Iwakura mission
.
At the age of six, she was also the youngest member of the expedition. She arrived in
San Francisco
in November 1871 and remained in the United States as a student until she was 18 years old.
Tsuda lived in
Washington, D.C.
from December 1871 with
Charles Lanman
(the secretary of Japanese legation), and his wife Adeline. As they had no children, they welcomed her like their own child. Under the name of Ume Tsuda, she attended the middle-class
Georgetown
Collegiate School, where she learned
English
. Upon graduating, she received awards in composition, writing, arithmetic, and deportment.
[1]
After graduating, she entered the
Archer Institute
, which catered to the daughters of politicians and bureaucrats. She excelled in language, math, science, and music, especially the piano. In addition to English, she also studied
Latin
and
French
. About one year after arriving in the United States, Tsuda asked to be baptized as a
Christian
. Although the Lanmans were
Episcopalians
, they decided she should attend the
nonsectarian
Old Swedes Church.
Coming back to Japan
[
edit
]
By the time Tsuda returned to Japan in 1882, she had almost forgotten
Japanese
, her native language, which caused temporary difficulties. She also experienced
cultural problems
adjusting to the inferior position of women in Japanese society. Even her father, Tsuda Sen, who was radically westernized in many ways, was still traditionally
patriarchal
and
authoritarian
with regards to women.
Tsuda was hired by
It? Hirobumi
to be a tutor for his children. In 1885, she then began to work in a girls' school for the daughters of the
kazoku
peerage, known as
Peeresses' School
, but she was not satisfied by the restriction of educational opportunities to within the peerage and nobility, and she was not satisfied with the school policy that education was intended to polish girls as ladies and train them to be obedient wives and good mothers. She was assisted from 1888 by a friend from her days in America,
Alice Bacon
. She decided to return to the United States.
Second stay in the United States
[
edit
]
Tsuda returned to the United States and attended
Bryn Mawr College
in
Philadelphia
from 1889 to 1892, where she majored in biology and education. She also studied at
St Hilda's College, Oxford
. During her second stay in the United States, Tsuda decided that other Japanese women should have the opportunity to study overseas as well. She made numerous public speeches about Japanese women's education and raised $8,000 in funds to establish a scholarship for Japanese women.
Establishment of Tsuda College
[
edit
]
After returning to Japan, Tsuda Ume once again taught at Peeresses' School, as well as at
Tokyo Women's Normal School
, her salary was 800 yen and her post was the highest available to women of her era. She published several dissertations and made speeches about improving the status of women. The 1899 Girl's Higher Education Law, required each prefecture to establish at least one public middle school for girls. However, these schools were not able to provide girls with the same quality of education as that of the boys' schools. In 1900, with the help of her friends Princess
?yama Sutematsu
and Alice Bacon, she founded the
Joshi Eigaku Juku
(
女子英?塾
,
Women's Institute for English Studies
)
located in
K?jimachi
,
Tokyo
to provide equal opportunity for a
liberal arts
education for all women regardless of parentage. She later changed her name to Tsuda Umeko in 1902. The school faced a chronic funding shortfall, and Tsuda spent much time fundraising in order to support the school. Due to her enthusiastic efforts, the school gained official recognition in 1903.
In 1905, Tsuda became the first president of the Japanese branch of the Tokyo
YWCA
.
Death
[
edit
]
Tsuda's busy life eventually undermined her health, and she suffered a stroke. In January 1919, she retired to her summer cottage in
Kamakura
, where she died after a long illness in 1929 at age 64. Her grave is on the grounds of
Tsuda College
in
Kodaira, Tokyo
.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Joshi Eigaku Juku
changed its name to
Tsuda Eigaku Juku
in 1933 and became
Tsuda Daigaku
in Japanese and
Tsuda College
in English after
World War II
. In 2017, the English name was changed to Tsuda University. It remains one of the most prestigious women's institutes of higher education in Japan.
Although Tsuda strongly desired social reform for women, she did not advocate a
feminist
social movement, and she opposed the women's
suffrage movement
. Her activities were based on her philosophy that education should focus on developing individual intelligence and personality.
Tsuda Umeko will be featured on new
Japanese banknotes
to be issued in 2024.
[1]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Tsuda Umeko
at Wikimedia Commons
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|