Inokuchi Akuri Explained

Inokuchi Akuri
Other Names:Inoguchi Aguri, Fujita Akuri, Akuri Inokuchi
Birth Date:January 12, 1871
Birth Place:Akita
Death Date:March 26, 1931
Occupation:Physical educator

Inokuchi Akuri (井口阿くり) (January 12, 1871 – March 26, 1931) was a Japanese physical educator.

Early life

Inokuchi Akuri was born in Akita Prefecture. Sponsored by the Japanese government,[1] she attended Smith College and Wellesley College,[2] and studied physical education with Senda Berenson[3] [4] at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, founded by Mary Tileston Hemenway.[5] "There is a great desire to make women strong in Japan," she explained to a Boston newspaper in 1901, "and so my government sent me over here to study how to increase our women's strength."[6]

Career

Inokuchi was a teacher in Tokyo before her time in the United States.[7] On her return to Japan in 1903, Inokuchi taught physical education at Girls' High School in Tokyo,[8] [9] and introduced a women's exercise costume of bloomers and middy blouses and calf-length skirts, for comfortable vigorous movement.[10] [11] [12] She published a report, Taiiku no riron oyobi jissai (Theory and Practice of Physical Education) in 1906. She is considered one of the pioneers of women's modern physical education in Japan.[13]

Inokuchi also taught in the imperial household for a time, and was head of a girls' school in Taipei.[14]

Personal life

Inokuchi married in 1911, and was known as Fujita Akuri.[15] The couple spent a brief time living in San Francisco, and in the 1920s she traveled to London as a tutor. She died in 1931, aged 60 years.

Notes and References

  1. News: 1902-04-06. Athletics for Jap Girls; the Mission of Akuri Inokuchi, Who is Spending a Season in Japan. 12. The Kansas City Star. 2020-10-05. Newspapers.com.
  2. Web site: Aguri Inokuchi (1902). 2020-10-05. Wellesley College. en.
  3. Book: Willms, Nicole. When Women Rule the Court: Gender, Race, and Japanese American Basketball. 2017. Rutgers University Press. 978-0-8135-8416-4. Messner. Michael. 107. 'Women Who Took Sports Beyond Play': How Japanese American Women's Basketball Went to College. j.ctt1q1cqp2. Hartmann. Douglas.
  4. Book: Coates. Jennifer. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture. Fraser. Lucy. Mark. Pendleton. 2019-11-15. Routledge. 978-1-351-71678-9. en.
  5. News: 1906-08-19. This Japanese Girl Was Taught in Boston. 46. The Boston Globe. 2020-10-05. Newspapers.com.
  6. News: 1901-11-10. Knowledge for Japan. 48. The Boston Globe. 2020-10-05. Newspapers.com.
  7. News: Mortimer. Alice W.. 1902-11-22. The New Women of Japan. 8. The Bangor Daily News. 2020-10-05. Newspapers.com.
  8. Kasuga. Yoshimi. Tomozoe. Hidenori. 2019. Historical Research on the Promotion of Women's Physical Education in Prewar Japan: With a Focus on the Taisho Era*. International Journal of Sport and Health Science. 17. 32–44. 10.5432/ijshs.201812. 1348-1509. free.
  9. Ikeda. Keiko. 2010-03-01. Ryōsai-kembo, Liberal Education and Maternal Feminism under Fascism: Women and Sport in Modern Japan. The International Journal of the History of Sport. 27. 3. 537–552. 10.1080/09523360903556840. 144790795. 0952-3367.
  10. http://www.oldtokyo.com/undokai-sports-day-c-1930/ "Unodokai (Sports Day), c. 1930"
  11. Book: Guttmann. Allen. Japanese Sports: A History. Thompson. Lee. 2001. University of Hawai'i Press. 978-0-8248-2414-3. 93. j.ctt6wqsmj.
  12. Cambridge. Nicolas. 2011. Cherry-Picking Sartorial Identities in Cherry-Blossom Land: Uniforms and Uniformity in Japan. Journal of Design History. 24. 2. 104–105. 10.1093/jdh/epr005. 23020370. 0952-4649.
  13. Kietlinski, Robin. Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo (Bloomsbury Academic 2011): 132-133.
  14. Chin. Hsiang Pin. 2012-04-01. Foot binding and physical education: the development of female physical education in Taiwan schools during the early years of Japanese rule (1895–1915). Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science. 1. 1. 37–47. 10.1080/21640629.2012.681861. 2164-0599.
  15. Book: Wellesley College. Bulletin. 1919. 31. en.

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