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Tsuda Umeko | |
|---|---|
津田 梅子 | |
 Tsuda Umeko | |
| Born | Tsuda Ume (つだ・うめ) (1864-12-31)December 31, 1864 |
| Died | August 16, 1929(1929-08-16) (aged 64) Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Other names | Ume Tsuda |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Known for | A pioneer ineducation for women inMeiji period Japan |
| Children | none |
| Parent(s) | Tsuda Sen (father) Tsuda Hatsuko [ja] (mother) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Collegiate School, Georgetown Archer Institute Bryn Mawr College St Hilda's College, Oxford |
| Academic work | |
| Era | Meiji |
| Institutions | Peeresses' School Tokyo Women's Normal School Joshi Eigaku Juku (founder) |
Tsuda Umeko (津田 梅子; bornTsuda Ume (津田 梅); December 31, 1864 – August 16, 1929) was a Japanese educator who foundedTsuda University. She was the daughter ofTsuda Sen, anagricultural scientist, and at the age of 7, she became Japan's first femaleexchange student, traveling to the United States on the same ship as theIwakura Mission.
Originally named Tsuda Ume, withume referring to theJapanese plum, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902.
Tsuda Ume was born in theUshigome neighborhood ofEdo (present Minami,Shinjuku) as the second daughter ofTsuda 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 theHokkaido colonization project underKuroda Kiyotaka, and raised the topic of western education for women as well as for men.
Under Kuroda's sponsorship, Tsuda Ume was volunteered by her father as one of five women members of theIwakura Mission.
At the age of six, she was also the youngest member of the expedition. She arrived inSan Francisco in November 1871 and remained in the United States as a student until she was 18 years old.
Tsuda lived inWashington, D.C. from December 1871 withCharles Lanman (the secretary of the 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-classGeorgetown Collegiate School, where she learnedEnglish. Upon graduating, she received awards in composition, writing, arithmetic, and deportment.[1] After graduating, she entered theArcher Institute, which catered to the daughters of politicians and bureaucrats. She excelled in languages, math, science, and music, especially the piano. In addition to English, she also studiedLatin andFrench. About one year after arriving in the United States, Tsuda asked to be baptized as aChristian. Although the Lanmans wereEpiscopalians, they decided she should attend thenonsectarian Old Swedes Church.
By the time Tsuda returned to Japan in 1882, she had almost forgottenJapanese, her native language, which caused temporary difficulties. She also experiencedcultural 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 traditionallypatriarchal andauthoritarian with regards to women.
Tsuda was hired byItō Hirobumi, who would soon serve as the first prime minister of Japan, to be a tutor for his children. In 1885, she then began to work in a girls' school for the daughters of thekazoku peerage, known asPeeresses' 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, and after negotiating a two-year leave from the Peeresses’ School won a full scholarship to study atBryn Mawr College inPhiladelphia.[2]
Tsuda returned to the United States and enrolled at Bryn Mawr in 1889, where she majored in biology. Her academic advisor was embryologist and head of the Biology DepartmentThomas Hunt Morgan. After 18 months at Bryn Mawr she spent six months studying education atOswego Normal School inNew York, and then applied for another year's leave from the Peeresses' School, on the condition that she study women's education in the United States.[2]
During her time at Bryn Mawr, she befriended the classicist and expert on ancient Greek civilization,Edith Hamilton, who later visited her in Tokyo in 1916.[3] With T.H. Morgan she undertook a research project on the embryology of the common frog (Rana temporaria) egg; Tsuda's portion of the work took place over the winter of 1891–92, and was written up in 1892. Her join paper with Morgan was published in 1894 in theQuarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.[4] This is considered the first scientific paper written in English by a Japanese woman.
During her second stay in the USA, 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.[2]
After returning to Japan in 1892, Tsuda Ume once again taught at Peeresses' School, as well as atTokyo 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 PrincessŌyama Sutematsu and Alice Bacon, she founded theJoshi Eigaku Juku (女子英学塾,Women's Institute for English Studies) located inKōjimachi,Tokyo to provide equal opportunity for aliberal 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 TokyoYWCA.
Tsuda's busy life eventually undermined her health, and she suffered a stroke. In January 1919, she retired to her summer cottage inKamakura, where she died after a long illness in 1929 at age 64. Her grave is on the grounds ofTsuda College inKodaira, Tokyo.
Joshi Eigaku Juku changed its name toTsuda Eigaku Juku in 1933 and becameTsuda Daigaku in Japanese andTsuda College in English afterWorld 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 afeminist social movement, and she opposed thewomen's suffrage movement. Her activities were based on her philosophy that education should focus on developing individual intelligence and personality.
Tsuda is featured on newJapanese ¥5,000 banknotes issued in 2024.[1]
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