Utako Shimoda
Born in present-day Ena, Gifu,[1] she was the founder many educational organizations, including what is today Jissen Women's University.
Takeo died in 1884 and Utako threw herself into her work as a full-time educator, becoming a teacher and assistant principal at the Girl Peers' School, where she taught ethics and home economics.
[2] From 1896, she tutored two daughters of imperial concubine Sachiko Sono: Tsunemiya (Princess Masako Takeda) and Kanemiya (Fusako Kitashirakawa).
She helped found the Zhouxin She (Society for Renewal) in Shanghai, and her works were published in Mandarin translation in its journal Dalu (Chinese: 大陸).
Utako Shimoda's powerful supporters did not publicly defend her, and in 1906 she had to step down as head of the Gakushūin Women's Academy, giving leadership to the headmaster of the male division, Marusuke Nogi.
[5] Politically, Shimoda Utako was royalist and nationalist; she supported an expansionist colonial foreign policy, feeling that it was Japan's divine destiny to lead East Asia to a higher level of civilization and wealth, already attained in the West.
[3] She considered herself a moderate reformer, a Secchūha (折衷派), and felt that aspects of Western culture should be selectively adopted to strengthen Japan.
[2] Shimoda Utako opposed the subjugation of women, and their absolute obedience to men; she encouraged wives to scold their husbands if they behaved unjustly or unvirtuously, and to develop self-respect and dignity.
She was surprised by how kind Western men were to their wives, and as she attributed many of the differences in marriage dynamics to the practice of monogamy in the West, she hoped that its introduction in Japan would improve the status of women.
She also supported women taking professional roles, such as physician, journalist, or nurse (she was an admirer of epidemiologist Florence Nightingale).
She considered devoting oneself to religion, public service, or an art in which one was very talented, was an acceptable alternative to marriage and a reason for women to remain single.
She characterized it as a time when physical strength became of paramount importance, and thus women's status sank to the point that they became "men's slaves or material possessions".
[2] Shimoda Utako pointed out the low regard in which the warrior-led society had held economic skills and virtues, attributing the greater wealth of Western nations to the cultural unwillingness of the Japanese to work hard and manage money well.
Shimoda Utako praised her as a wise wife, mother, and monarch, describing her philanthropic work and her insistence that her children learn manual skill, the value of labour, and sympathy and understanding for the poor.
She criticized the Confucian teachings that women should obey their fathers, husbands, and sons, while men could or should divorce their wives under some conditions.
Shimoda Utako viewed Christianity as moderating the cruel and arrogant natures of Westerners, and churchgoing as inculcating morality; for the Japanese she advocated adherence to a religion, any religion that did not conflict with national polity (kokutai) or loyalty to the emperor of Japan, and using Sundays to cultivate virtue (for instance, by visiting graves or a shrine, or attending moral lectures).
[6] This bolstered a sense of seriousness for Japanese women in education at a time when female participation in academics was highly contested.
Although the pants were eventually phased out to make way for changing trends and new uniform designs, the female students still wear hakama as a tradition to graduation ceremonies.
