Umeko Tsuda

Japanese: 津田梅子 - つだ・うめこ

Year of death: August 16, 1929 (Showa 4)
Year of birth: December 3, 1864 (December 31, 1864)
Founder of the Women's English School (Tsuda University). Second daughter of Tsuda Sen and Hatsuko, agricultural scholars from the end of the Edo period. Born in Tokyo. In 1871, she traveled to America on the same ship as the Iwakura Mission as Japan's first female student abroad, and celebrated her seventh birthday while aboard. She stayed with the Lanman family in Georgetown (now Washington DC) for about 11 years, where she was raised in a Puritan atmosphere and was baptized. She was educated in literature and art. In 1880, she returned to Japan. While her close friends Yamakawa Sutematsu and Nagai Shigeko, who were studying abroad at the same time, married one after the other, she refused to marry without love and decided that educating women was her calling. After waiting for about three years, she became a professor of English at the same time as the Peerage Girls' School was founded in 1883, on the recommendation of Ito Hirobumi. From 1890, she studied abroad at Bryn Mawr College in the United States for three years, studying biology. In 1896, she traveled to England via the United States, inspected higher education institutions for women, and took English literature, ethics, and other courses at Oxford University. In 1908, she resigned from the Peerage Girls' School and, at a time when the idea of being a good wife and wise mother was being advocated, opened the Women's English School with the goal of nurturing "women with intellect and strong character who could think for themselves." In addition to publishing English textbooks and teaching materials, she contributed numerous articles to American newspapers discussing Japanese women and education. She also contributed to international exchange through a total of five stays in the United States and the United Kingdom. She maintained her pride as a samurai's daughter and her Christian spirit of service throughout her life, and used her own experiences to work toward the intellectual liberation of Japanese women. <References> Furuki Yoshiko et al., eds., The Writings of Umeko Tsuda (revised edition), Yoshikawa Riichi, Tsuda Umeko Biography, Yamazaki Takako, Tsuda Umeko, Furuki The White Plum: A Biography of Ume Tsuda, Furuki Yoshiko, Tsuda Umeko: The Person and Thoughts

(Yoshiko Furuki)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：昭和4.8.16(1929)
生年：元治1.12.3(1864.12.31)
女子英学塾(津田塾大学)創立者。幕末の農学者津田仙,初子夫妻の次女。東京出身。明治4(1871)年日本最初の女子留学生として岩倉遣外使節団と同じ船で渡米,船中で満7歳の誕生日を迎える。ジョージタウン(現ワシントンD.C.)のランマン家に約11年滞在,ピューリタンの気風の中で育ち受洗。文学,美術の薫陶を受ける。15年帰国。同時に留学した親友山川捨松,永井繁子が相次いで結婚するなか,愛なき結婚を拒み,女性の教育を天職と決め,約3年間の待機の末,18年華族女学校創立と同時に伊藤博文の推薦で英語担当教授となる。22年より3年間米国ブリンマー大学に留学,生物学を修める。31年アメリカ経由で渡英,女子の高等教育機関を視察,オックスフォード大学で英文学,倫理学などを受講。33年華族女学校を辞任,良妻賢母が標榜されるなか「知性と性格の力を備え,自分で思考できる女性」を育てる目的を掲げ,女子英学塾を開校。英語教本,教材の出版のほか,アメリカの新聞に日本の女性と教育を論じた記事を多数寄稿。また都合5回の米・英滞在を通じ国際交流に貢献した。武士の娘の誇りとキリスト教の奉仕の精神を終生持ち続け,自らの経験を生かし日本女性の知的解放に尽くした。<参考文献>古木宜志子他編《The Writings of Umeko Tsuda》(改訂版),吉川利一『津田梅子伝』,山崎孝子『津田梅子』,Furuki 《The White Plum: A Biography of Ume Tsuda》,古木宜志子『人と思想・津田梅子』

(古木宜志子)

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