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senzenwomen2024-07-19 08:19 pm
nnozomi) wrote in senzenwomen2024-07-19 08:19 pm
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Noguchi Yuka (1866-1950)
Noguchi Yuka was born in 1866 in Himeji west of Kobe to Noguchi Iyashi, a mine administrator, and his wife Kuri. She began studying writing and English from preschool days, also getting to know the families of the French mining technicians her father worked with, and sampling foods then unknown in Japan, such as strawberry milk (?) and chocolate. In 1885, she entered the Tokyo Girls’ Normal School (present-day Ochanomizu University), where the post-Restoration westernization was in full swing; she was somewhat shocked to see students dancing with male teachers at a school dance (perhaps in imitation of the Rokumeikan style).
Yuka’s father died in 1886 and her mother two years later; she became a Christian the same year. Graduating high in her class in 1890, she was immediately employed at the Normal School’s affiliated kindergarten. In 1894 she was hired by the newly established kindergarten at the School for Noble Girls. There she worked with and became close to Morishima Miné, who had studied early childhood education for the poor in America and whose experience there was a major influence on Yuka as well. Observing the children of the poor on her way to work with the children of peers, Yuka became determined to work toward their education. She and Miné held a charity concert which produced enough seed money to allow them to open Futaba Kindergarten in 1900.
Yuka held down two jobs for the next quarter-century, working at the School for Noble Girls while also running Futaba, until devoting herself to the latter in 1922. Futaba, run on Froebelian lines, was specifically intended as a school for children from poor families; it also implemented an elementary school program for children not enrolled in regular school (converted in 1922 to an after-school care program when the city took over the elementary school project), a home for single mothers and their children, and a night clinic for working parents.
She retired in 1935, leaving all responsibility for Futaba in the hands of Tokunaga Yuki, who had been involved with the school since encountering it as a fifteen-year-old in 1902. From 1942 to 1947, she lectured on Christianity to Empress Nagako, a former student of hers at the School for Noble Girls.
Yuka died in 1950 at the age of eighty-four; she and Tokunaga Yuki were buried in the same grave.
*Tagging this post with “lgbtq interest” is pure speculation; I would need quite a bit of library research to find out whether Yuka’s working partnerships with Morishima Miné and Tokunaga Yuki could fall under that heading, and even then nothing might come to light. But it seemed to me worth drawing attention to the possibility.
Sources
Nakae
https://childmam.blog/2022/01/19/yuka-noguti/ (Japanese) Short article with photos of Yuka and Miné as well as the current Futaba Kindergarten
Yuka’s father died in 1886 and her mother two years later; she became a Christian the same year. Graduating high in her class in 1890, she was immediately employed at the Normal School’s affiliated kindergarten. In 1894 she was hired by the newly established kindergarten at the School for Noble Girls. There she worked with and became close to Morishima Miné, who had studied early childhood education for the poor in America and whose experience there was a major influence on Yuka as well. Observing the children of the poor on her way to work with the children of peers, Yuka became determined to work toward their education. She and Miné held a charity concert which produced enough seed money to allow them to open Futaba Kindergarten in 1900.
Yuka held down two jobs for the next quarter-century, working at the School for Noble Girls while also running Futaba, until devoting herself to the latter in 1922. Futaba, run on Froebelian lines, was specifically intended as a school for children from poor families; it also implemented an elementary school program for children not enrolled in regular school (converted in 1922 to an after-school care program when the city took over the elementary school project), a home for single mothers and their children, and a night clinic for working parents.
She retired in 1935, leaving all responsibility for Futaba in the hands of Tokunaga Yuki, who had been involved with the school since encountering it as a fifteen-year-old in 1902. From 1942 to 1947, she lectured on Christianity to Empress Nagako, a former student of hers at the School for Noble Girls.
Yuka died in 1950 at the age of eighty-four; she and Tokunaga Yuki were buried in the same grave.
*Tagging this post with “lgbtq interest” is pure speculation; I would need quite a bit of library research to find out whether Yuka’s working partnerships with Morishima Miné and Tokunaga Yuki could fall under that heading, and even then nothing might come to light. But it seemed to me worth drawing attention to the possibility.
Sources
Nakae
https://childmam.blog/2022/01/19/yuka-noguti/ (Japanese) Short article with photos of Yuka and Miné as well as the current Futaba Kindergarten
no subject
Her dedication is inspiring. Cool to see photos of her and Miné.
no subject
Makes me feel I need more work to do! Oh dear.
no subject
somewhat shocked to see students dancing with male teachers at a school dance -- honestly, I would be too, though I'm sure for different reasons!
no subject
I know! Not a thing I've seen a lot of before.
somewhat shocked to see students dancing with male teachers at a school dance -- honestly, I would be too, though I'm sure for different reasons!
Maybe along the lines that they already had social contact with the teachers in class, making them less socially dangerous than young eligible men in general? No idea.