Within the past decade or so the educational advantages for Japanese girls have very largely increased; and the number of girls and young women availing themselves of these advantages has grown encouragingly. There has been a marked increase in the number of female pupils in public and private, including mission, schools of all grades; and there have been new institutions organized especially for young women, concerning two of which it is necessary to speak more particularly.
One is a kind of English normal school in charge of Miss Umé Tsuda, herself a type of the best kind of “new woman” in Japan. She was the youngest of the first group of Japanese girls sent over to the United States in 1871 to be educated; and ever since her return to Japan she has been trying to elevate the condition of her sisters. Her school is intended primarily to train young women to be efficient teachers, particularly of English. Another important institution is the University for Women, opened in 1901 in Tōkyō, the first of its kind started in the first year of the new century, as a harbinger that the Twentieth Century in Japan will be largely the women’s century.[127]
What the new woman in Japan is able to accomplish in business lines is well illustrated in the following paragraphs:[128]—
“Mrs. Asa Hiroöka, of Ōsaka, is well known in business circles as the actual guiding spirit and organizer of the famous banking firm of Kajima. A daughter of the Mitsui family, she was married at the age of 17 to Mr. Shingorō Hiroöka of Ōsaka a few years previous to the restoration. The Hiroöka family was one of those celebrated banking agents of the feudal barons who flourished at Ōsaka during the Tokugawa régime, and, like many of the rest, had its affairs thrown into disorder and was itself reduced to a precarious condition by the political convulsion of three decades ago. The Kajimaya, under which style the Hiroöka family conducted its business, would certainly have shared the same melancholy fate that overtook so many of its compeers had it not been for the resolute character and business capacity of Mrs. Asa, who assumed the sole direction of affairs, introducing sweeping changes in the organization of the firm, and in a remarkably short space of time succeeded in starting it on a career of fresh and increasing prosperity.
“About twenty years ago Moji, the present flourishing centre of the coal business, had scarcely come into existence; in other words, few people had yet commenced to turn their attention to the development of coal-mining. In this venture she encountered innumerable difficulties. In the first place, she had to overcome the determined opposition of the other members of the family. Their position was, in fact, so strong and persistent that she had to engage in the undertaking entirely on her own account and responsibility. She had thus to start afresh with little capital, except her own personal credit, and many were the hardships and disadvantages against which she had to struggle. But there is always a way where there is a will, and our fair but indomitable miner was ultimately rewarded with signal success, and succeeded in adding largely to the capital of the firm and in establishing her reputation as a resourceful organizer and a unique business woman.
“All the collieries in her possession have one after another been disposed of at profitable prices, and just at present she is devoting her whole attention to the expansion of the banking business of the firm. An eminently successful financier and business organizer, she is by no means indifferent to interests of a higher sort. Herself well educated, she takes a keen interest in educational matters, especially those relating to her own sex, being one of the principal supporters of Mr. Naruse’s scheme for a university for girls. By way of giving practical encouragement to the movement in favor of female education, she already employs some educated girls as clerks at her banks, and intends to place a new department which is about to be opened at those banks almost exclusively in the hands of female clerks.”
This chapter would, of course, be incomplete without a few words about the recent first lady of the land now Empress Dowager, who has proved herself to be in heartiest sympathy with the ideals of New Japan. As she had no children of her own, she adopted the entire nation and completely won their love; she was, indeed, the mother of millions. She is especially interested in educational and benevolent institutions; she is the active patron of the Peeresses’ School, the University for Women,[129] the Red Cross Society, and other philanthropic enterprises. In times of calamity her purse is always opened for a liberal contribution to the suffering.[130]
The lady now of special interest is Empress Sada, the young wife of the new Emperor. She was born in 1884, and was educated in the Peeresses’ School until her betrothal, when she was placed under private tutors. She was married on May 10, 1900, and is the mother of three healthy sons. The young rulers live a happy and congenial life.
H. I. M. THE EMPRESS