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senzenwomen2024-09-06 08:21 pm
nnozomi) wrote in senzenwomen2024-09-06 08:21 pm
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Yasui Tetsu (1870-1945)
Yasui Tetsu was born in 1870 to a family of traditional martial artists from Shimosa, northeast of Tokyo. She was educated in Tokyo, living with her grandparents (devout Buddhists), and graduated in 1890 from the Tokyo Women’s Normal School (later Ochanomizu University). Fascinated by what she learned about the Pestalozzi system of education, she began her career as a teacher at her own old elementary school. where she taught for four years, interrupted by a two-year period teaching in Iwate in the far north.
In 1896 she was directed by the government to study education in England; however, her English was not up to par, so she spent a few months living and studying with Tsuda Umeko, eventually departing Japan in early 1897. In England she studied education and psychology at the Cambridge Training College for Women under Elizabeth Hughes, who advised her to be out and about seeing as many schools and households as she could. Tetsu’s admiration for Miss Hughes not only did away with the anti-Western feelings she had been raised with but also gave her a strong interest in Christianity.
She became a Christian shortly after her return to Japan in 1900, when she took up a position as teacher and dormitory mistress at the Women’s Normal School. In 1904 she was once again uprooted by an invitation from the royal family of Siam (Thailand); for three years she served as educational director of the Rajini Girls’ School in Bangkok. Thereafter she spent another year studying ethics, ancient Greek philosophy, and English literature in Wales (perhaps inspired by Miss Hughes, a patriotic Welshwoman) and returned to Japan to teach once again, also founding a women’s journal.
In 1918, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University was founded with Nitobe Inazo as its first president and Tetsu as dean; the following year she joined Nitobe and Goto Shinpei on a fact-finding tour of Europe. (Tetsu’s brother Tsutomu suggested that she was in love with Nitobe at the time; who knows.) Five years later, when Nitobe went to work for the League of Nations, Tetsu succeeded him to become the first Japanese female college president. She continued to live and work in the college until 1940.
During the 1930s, when some of her students and alumnae were arrested for membership in the Japanese Communist Party, she spoke to them with understanding and brought them food and goods in jail (in an era when arrest for “thought crime” was a risk). During the war, she refused governmental demands to cut ties with American and Canadian colleagues and to cease teaching English. She died in the postwar confusion of 1945 at the age of seventy-five.
Sources
Nakae
Incidentally, this is post #52 (not counting the sticky), so this blog has now been running for a year! And we’re not even a quarter of the way through my list. Many thanks for reading along <3
In 1896 she was directed by the government to study education in England; however, her English was not up to par, so she spent a few months living and studying with Tsuda Umeko, eventually departing Japan in early 1897. In England she studied education and psychology at the Cambridge Training College for Women under Elizabeth Hughes, who advised her to be out and about seeing as many schools and households as she could. Tetsu’s admiration for Miss Hughes not only did away with the anti-Western feelings she had been raised with but also gave her a strong interest in Christianity.
She became a Christian shortly after her return to Japan in 1900, when she took up a position as teacher and dormitory mistress at the Women’s Normal School. In 1904 she was once again uprooted by an invitation from the royal family of Siam (Thailand); for three years she served as educational director of the Rajini Girls’ School in Bangkok. Thereafter she spent another year studying ethics, ancient Greek philosophy, and English literature in Wales (perhaps inspired by Miss Hughes, a patriotic Welshwoman) and returned to Japan to teach once again, also founding a women’s journal.
In 1918, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University was founded with Nitobe Inazo as its first president and Tetsu as dean; the following year she joined Nitobe and Goto Shinpei on a fact-finding tour of Europe. (Tetsu’s brother Tsutomu suggested that she was in love with Nitobe at the time; who knows.) Five years later, when Nitobe went to work for the League of Nations, Tetsu succeeded him to become the first Japanese female college president. She continued to live and work in the college until 1940.
During the 1930s, when some of her students and alumnae were arrested for membership in the Japanese Communist Party, she spoke to them with understanding and brought them food and goods in jail (in an era when arrest for “thought crime” was a risk). During the war, she refused governmental demands to cut ties with American and Canadian colleagues and to cease teaching English. She died in the postwar confusion of 1945 at the age of seventy-five.
Sources
Nakae
Incidentally, this is post #52 (not counting the sticky), so this blog has now been running for a year! And we’re not even a quarter of the way through my list. Many thanks for reading along <3
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And happy anniversary/birthday to this fascinating blog, which has already taught me so much and encouraged some interesting reading!
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Is it clear how the royal family of Siam heard about her?
Sorry to say it's not, or at least not to me. I'd guess either a) they contacted the Japanese government, which said "okay, how about Miss Yasui", or b) they sent an observer to various prestigious Japanese girls' schools who encountered her and suggested her, but I am not sure.
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Today's: another fascinating life journey! What particularly struck me was her courage in 1930s and 1940s.
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her courage in the 1930s and 1940s.
You bet. We won't get to the women who were really active then for a while, but as you may know it was a very screwed-up time and the risks of imprisonment or worse were real; she was a tough lady.
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