Tei Ninomiya Explained

Tei Ninomiya
Birth Date:1887
Birth Place:Matsuyama, Shikoku
Occupation:Educator
Known For:first Asian student at Smith College
Spouse(S):Unjiro Fujita

Tei Ninomiya (born 1887) was a Japanese educator. She was the first Asian student at Smith College. A residence hall on campus, Ninomiya House, is now named for her.

Early life and education

Ninomiya was born in Matsuyama, the daughter of Kunijiro Ninomiya, a Japanese Congregational minister and schoolmaster.[1] [2] She sailed from Yokohama to Seattle in 1903 with a group of other Japanese women students, and graduated from Smith College in 1910. She is recognized as the school's first Asian student.[3] While she was at Smith, she spoke about Japanese women's lives, often dressed in a kimono,[4] to women's groups and church audiences in New England.[5] [6] [7] She wrote an essay, "The Condition of Japanese Women" (1907), for the Smith College Monthly.[8]

Career

Ninomiya was a teacher in Japan, and a Red Cross worker. She was also secretary of the YWCA in Yokohama in 1912,[9] [10] until she married in 1913 and was replaced by American Molly Baker.[11] She was a member of the national committee of the YWCA in Japan,[12] [13] working with Michi Kawai, a Bryn Mawr College alumna.[14] [15]

Personal life and legacy

In December 1913, Ninomiya married Japanese lawyer and bureaucrat . They had multiple children: Meiko (born 1914) and Atsuo (born 1916);[16] and they had two young sons when Smith alumna Stella Tuthill visited them in Kobe early in the 1920s.[17] The Fujitas moved to Port Arthur in Manchuria later in 1922.[18] She had a son and two daughters when she wrote to the Smith College alumnae from Hiroshima in 1930.[19]

In 2010, the president of Smith College, Carol T. Christ, toured six Asian cities; the timing of her trip coincided with the centenary of Ninomiya's graduation from Smith.[20] Smith College dedicated Ninomiya House in 2016, a campus residence named in her memory.[21] There is a plaque on the building's exterior, explaining her significance in the school's history.

Notes and References

  1. News: 1907-07-31 . Women Who Do . 5 . The News-Journal . 2022-11-05 . Newspapers.com.
  2. Book: Who's who in Japan with Manchoukuo and China . 1938 . Who's Who in Japan Pub. Office. . 113 . en.
  3. Web site: Smith's Roots in Asia . 2022-11-05 . Smith College . en.
  4. News: 1910-05-02 . Japanese Women's Life Described . 1 . Record-Journal . 2022-11-05 . Newspapers.com.
  5. News: 1907-07-12 . Hollis and Vicinity . 8 . Hollis Times . 2022-11-05 . Newspapers.com.
  6. News: 1909-07-10 . York . 4 . The Portsmouth Herald . 2022-11-05 . Newspapers.com.
  7. News: 1910-01-02 . Prof. Ross on Divorce Evil . 17 . The Boston Globe . 2022-11-05 . Newspapers.com.
  8. Ninomiya . Tei . April 1907 . The Condition of Japanese Women . Smith College Monthly . 14 . 7 . 409–414 . Internet Archive.
  9. News: May 10, 1913 . Y.W.C.A. Work in Yokohama . 593 . The Japan Daily Mail . November 5, 2022.
  10. Book: Freedman . Alisa . Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan . Miller . Laura . Yano . Christine R. . 2013-04-17 . Stanford University Press . 978-0-8047-8554-9 . 208 . en.
  11. Book: Prang, Margaret . A Heart at Leisure from Itself: Caroline Macdonald of Japan . 2011-11-01 . UBC Press . 978-0-7748-4265-5 . 94 . en.
  12. Book: Alumnae Association of Smith College . Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 1913 . Alumnae Association of Smith College. 128, 288.
  13. Book: The Japan Christian Year Book . 1913 . Christian Literature Society . 444 . en.
  14. Book: Hagin, Fred Eugene . The Cross in Japan . Fleming H. Revell Company . 1914 . 241.
  15. Web site: Ninomiya House . 2022-11-05 . Read the Plaque.
  16. Book: Alumnae Association of Smith College . Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 1916 . Alumnae Association of Smith College. 258.
  17. Tuthill . Stella . May 1922 . Smith Around the World . Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 13 . 3 . 226 . Internet Archive.
  18. Class Notes . Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 1921 . 13 . 4 . 442 . Internet Archive.
  19. Book: Alumnae Association of Smith College . Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 1930 . Alumnae Association of Smith College. 87.
  20. News: October 18, 2010 . Six-City Asia Tour by Smith College President To Highlight the Power of Women's Education . Smith College News Office . November 5, 2022.
  21. Web site: March 7, 2016 . Friedman Apartment Complex To Be Dedicated May 6 . 2022-11-05 . Smith College . en.

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