[Feature: Confronting the Gender Gap] The Women of Keio University in 1872

2020/04/06

Image: "Keio Gijuku Tailoring School Opening Handbill" (Collection of the Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)

Looking at the "Private School Details" submitted by Keio University to Tokyo Prefecture in November 1872, the students at the time were all male: "one male aged 6 to 9, 23 males aged 10 to 13, 63 males aged 14 to 16, 94 males aged 17 to 19, and 122 males aged 20 and over, totaling 302 [sic] males." The staff were also all men in their 20s and 30s, led by the 37-year-old Yukichi Fukuzawa, including nine "administrative staff" and 15 "teaching staff" (excluding those holding concurrent posts). Even before secondary education became gender-segregated in 1879, Keio University was truly a society of young men. However, within this environment, Fukuzawa preached that there was "no reason for a distinction in importance between men and women," arguing that in the new post-Meiji society, men and women must be equal. Why did he, while living in a "male society," take such an interest in the social issues facing women?

One key lies in the fact that a diverse group of women also lived within Keio University. In 1870, Fukuzawa brought his mother, Jun, from their hometown of Nakatsu to Tokyo. Jun was born into the Hashimoto family, "lower-ranking samurai" of the Nakatsu Domain with a stipend of 15 koku and rations for two, and married Hyokusuke Fukuzawa, a "lower-ranking samurai" with 13 koku and rations for two. Widowed at the age of 32, she raised five children alone, including the one-and-a-half-year-old Yukichi, and later raised the orphaned child of her eldest son, who died at 30. Fukuzawa likely encouraged her move to Tokyo to allow her to live in comfort.

Kin, the daughter-in-law who welcomed Jun, was born into the Toki family, "upper-ranking samurai" of the Nakatsu Domain with 250 koku who were permanently stationed in Edo. According to Fukuzawa's "Kyuhanjo" (Conditions in the Old Domain), the lifestyles of upper and lower-ranking samurai in the Nakatsu Domain differed greatly. Had the peaceful Edo period continued, Jun and Kin would never have lived together due to the strict marriage restrictions of the Nakatsu Domain.

In 1872, Fukuzawa also brought the family of the former Nakatsu Domain lord, the Okudaira family, along with the families of his second-eldest and youngest sisters, to Tokyo. In November 1870, the government ordered former daimyo to move to Tokyo, as it was deemed undesirable for former lords to maintain ties with their former vassals and subjects. The last lord, Masayuki Okudaira, had entered Keio University in February 1871 and left to study in America at the end of that year. Therefore, those who moved to Tokyo were the previous lord Masamoto and the "princesses" who had lived in Nakatsu Castle after the relaxation of the Sankin-kotai system in 1862. Their intended residence was a former secondary villa in Takanawa Nihonenoki, but since repairs were not finished in time, they ended up living near the current West Gate of the Mita Campus.

One of them, Horein, had a deep connection with Fukuzawa. In "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa," he mentions that a high-ranking retired lady from the Okudaira inner palace showed interest in his theories on monogamy, which led to his close relationship with the Okudaira family. Fukuzawa's letters reveal his deep respect for Horein. Horein also took a liking to Keio University; after moving to the Takanawa residence around the spring of 1875, she returned to Keio University by 1879 at the latest and lived there until her death in 1886. Fukuzawa wrote the following Chinese poem about her:

A noble lady of the nation, served by four generations; over seventy years of heaven's grace. Peaches and plums fill the gate, spring is like the sea; not a single person here is not her descendant.

This expresses his respect for the noble and beautiful Horein, who was served by four generations of the family.

Horein was born in 1811 as the fifth daughter of Nariatsu Hitotsubashi and was named Princess Ei and later Kuniko. Her father Nariatsu's older brother was the 11th Shogun, Ienari. Her older sister Princess Miki was the legal wife of Yorinori Arima, the lord of the Kurume Domain, and Princess Ei was the legal wife of Nariakira Shimazu, the lord of the Satsuma Domain. Her marriage to Masanobu Okudaira was decided in 1826, and after entering the family in 1829, she had one daughter. When Masanobu died in 1832, she took the name Horein. Coming from the Hitotsubashi family, which was closely related to the Shogun's house, she was an extremely symbolic figure for the Okudaira family. When the Shogunate ordered the Choshu Expedition at the end of the Edo period, Horein herself encouraged the commander to "strive and fight bravely." Horein seems to have been an active woman; she frequently visited the Okudaira family temple and other places, to the point where the gatekeepers had to be paid overtime allowances.

Horein was not the only noble lady Fukuzawa brought to Tokyo in 1872. Tagawa, a concubine of Munenari Date, the lord of the Uwajima Domain, also accompanied them. Munenari Date was known as one of the "Four Wise Lords" alongside Nariakira Shimazu, Yoshinaga (Shungaku) Matsudaira, and Toyoshige (Yodo) Yamauchi, and played a central role in the movement to unite the court and the shogunate. Likely for political reasons, the Nakatsu Domain adopted the son born to Munenari and Tagawa in 1863. This was the aforementioned Masayuki. Tagawa lived in Nakatsu Castle as the birth mother of the domain lord and moved to Keio University with Horein and others. She was from the Ooka family, direct retainers of the Tokugawa house. Tagawa also seemed to like Keio University; she continued to live within Keio even after Masayuki's death in 1884, but moved to the Ooka family home in Aizumi-cho, Yotsuya, after Horein passed away in 1886. She died in 1902 at the age of 68, making her about 24 years younger than Horein—a relationship perhaps similar to that of a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Furthermore, according to the 1869 "Register of Land and People," Masayuki Okudaira's family consisted of six members: besides the previous lord Masamoto and Horein, there were three great-aunts and a younger sister. The three great-aunts were daughters of Masataka, who was known for his love of Dutch studies and had been adopted into the Nakatsu Domain from the Satsuma Domain. They were sisters of Horein's husband Masanobu. They included Shorein, who married Sadanobu Suganuma, the lord of the Shinshiro Domain, but returned to the Okudaira family after his death in 1862; "Kyo," who had been the legal wife of Tadahiro Shimazu, the lord of the Sadowara Domain, but returned to the Okudaira family; and "Ine." Masayuki's younger sister, Haru, was still in her teens.

Alongside the former noblewomen, as mentioned earlier, the families of two of Fukuzawa's sisters (excluding the eldest) also moved. The husband of his second sister, En, was Saizo Nakamigawa, a "lower-ranking samurai" of the Nakatsu Domain of similar rank to the Fukuzawa family, but he died that year, leaving En with four unmarried daughters. The husband of his youngest sister, Kane, was Fukujo, the younger brother of Gorobe Hattori, an "upper-ranking samurai" of the Nakatsu Domain from whom Fukuzawa first learned the Four Books and Five Classics. Fukujo was apparently not very physically strong. Fukuzawa had been encouraging his sisters to move to Tokyo for some time.

Additionally, To, the older sister of his wife Kin, lived with them. To had married Gunji Imaizumi, an "upper-ranking samurai" of the Nakatsu Domain, but Gunji died in 1865 while she was pregnant with their eldest son, Shutaro (Ippyo). It was agreed that if the child was a boy, they would discuss a branch family, and an adoptee from another family succeeded the Imaizumi house. To accompanied Jun to Tokyo along with Shutaro.

In other words, women of diverse social statuses, who would never have lived together in the old era, were living at Keio University. The former noblewomen were naturally accompanied by maids. Facing this large group of women, what did Yukichi Fukuzawa think—or what was he forced to think? It was nothing other than their future.

Whether they were active like Horein, or the type who disliked public appearances like Kin (as far as can be seen from Fukuzawa's letters), and whether their status was high or low, these women had no professional skills and had no choice but to live in dependence on men such as husbands or sons. Even those men had to find their own means of livelihood in a new society where social rank no longer applied. While the former daimyo families had some assets, what would become of En or To, who had lost their husbands? When his sisters moved to Tokyo, Fukuzawa stated his intention to "help them find a way to make a living." It was essential that they be able to live without hardship through their own efforts.

But what exactly could they do? Even if one believes that women should acquire the means to support themselves, it means nothing if there are no suitable occupations. Fukuzawa took the initiative to create a vocational facility for women within Keio University. This was the Keio Gijuku Tailoring School. The pamphlet at the time of its opening stated the following:

While every "human being" should be economically independent, women in cities in particular are raised to be weak and think only of depending on men. The cause of this evil habit is the lack of suitable occupations. I do not want to produce such women, at least within Keio University. It states that the Tailoring School was planned based on the reality faced by such women.

Despite making an initial investment of about 1,000 yen (at a time when the Keio University entrance fee was 3 yen) for purchasing machinery and other costs, he decided to transfer the business to Maruzen after about three months. While there are no historical documents stating the reason, a letter remains in which he consulted Masanao Makimura, the Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, about raw materials. Running a business required obtaining raw materials of uniform quality and securing or developing sales channels—tasks that could not be done on the side. Perhaps he had intended from the start to eventually leave the work to the specialists. In the following year, 1873, he built a "workshop" in the Okudaira family's residential area within Keio University, stating his intention to have both "princesses" and "maidservants" engage in "side jobs."

While his biological sisters never ultimately found a "way to make a living," his sister-in-law To became a midwife. According to documents submitted to Tokyo Prefecture, she studied obstetrics under Ine Kusumoto (the daughter of Philipp Franz von Siebold) and the American physician Dr. Simmons, and opened a practice within Keio. Given the demand for midwives with accurate medical knowledge at the time and the fact that both Ine and Simmons were acquaintances of Fukuzawa, it is imagined that this was through his mediation.

While Yukichi Fukuzawa existed in a "male society," the reality of women was right before his eyes. As someone who aimed for a society that emphasized the individual, starting with "independence of the self," he could not turn a blind eye. Only if men and women are equal can they support society together. He acted practically to solve problems. Fukuzawa's theories on women carried weight precisely because he faced them not just by speaking of ideals, but from the perspective of how to change reality. Shiro Fukushima founded the "Fujin Shinbun" (Women's Newspaper) thinking that if ideas like Fukuzawa's spread, the unfortunate circumstances of his own sister might change.

However, subsequent national policies moved away from Fukuzawa's vision. It cannot be said that the current situation in Japan has yet reached the "mixed gathering of men and women" that Fukuzawa idealized. The message from "Yukichi Fukuzawa" is to first look at the reality around us, regardless of gender, and strive to change it.