Tei Ninomiya
A young Japanese woman, hair in a bouffant updo, wearing a high-collared light-colored dress
Tei Ninomiya, from the 1910 yearbook of Smith College.
Born1887
Matsuyama, Shikoku
OccupationEducator
Known forfirst Asian student at Smith College
SpouseUnjiro 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 Unjiro Fujita.[12] 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.[15]

References

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