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Description of  Reflections on Tsuda Umeko- Pioneer of Women's Education in Japan

4866581816 epub 4866581816 epub Japans five-thousand yen banknote will have a new face as of 2024, and that face is Tsuda Umeko (18641929), who devoted her life to the education of Japanese women. Umeko founded one of Japans first schools of higher education for womena school that later became Tsuda College. Half a century after her death, an old trunk in the college attic was found to contain hundreds of personal letters written by Umeko to her foster mother in America, Adeline Lanman. Umeko had been sent to America as a young child to learn English and the ways of Western civilization. She returned to Japan at eighteen, completely Americanized and a stranger in her own country. The attic letters are a fascinating chronicle of her repatriation to late-19th century Japan, and of her encounters with iconic figures such as Japans first prime minister It Hirobumi. This book shows how the passionate young girl metamorphosed into one of Japans foremost educators, by following the thoughts of Umeko herself as she recorded them in her letters. The story is told by ba Minako, a writer who graduated from Tsuda College and was herself a returnee to Japan after a decade in the United States. "Tsuda Umeko" was awarded the 42nd Yomiuri Prize for Literature (1990). Read more