근대 일본 여자교육에 대한 비판과 도전

Criticism and Challenge for Women’s Education in Modern Japan: Umeko Tsuda (津田梅子: 1864∼1929) and Her School

This article is a research on Umeko Tsuda, a female educator who was the first and the youngest woman to study abroad and became the founder of Tsudajuku, an institute for women’s higher education with the aim to nurture women working in society with professions and their social advancement. Especially, the fundamental motivation of her contribution to female education through Tsudajuku was to highlight the education policy of modern Japan that was not designed for women and was inconsiderate of higher education beyond the minimum level required to serve their husbands and children, despite the fact that ‘education’ is a symbol of modernization. Also, Tsuda wanted to emphasize the poor situation that women at the time had to endure due to such policy. After her return to Japan, Tsuda could have received the best treatment from the best educational institutes in the nation, but she was not satisfied with the circumstances because she has long been aware of the problem with female education. Tsuda chose to stay unmarried, and she founded Tsudajuku in 1900 based on her long experience in teaching and extensive preparation including another study abroad at a college in the United States, field studies at American and British colleges, and fundraising. The higher education institute was for female students who finished secondary education, and its characteristics were elite education, specialty in English education, orientation towards wholistic education, intensification of general education, focus on small groups with high standards, and education based on influence between teachers and students. In particular, generating many ‘English teachers’ through specializing in English education was a result of the strategic decision that evaluated the field as the most suitable area for women to grow and compete as professionals in a short period of time in Japanese society at the time. Umeko Tsuda was no longer an individual but a historical figure already when she was included in the Iwakura Mission as one of the female students who studied abroad, but she made herself a historical figure through the process in which she became aware of social problems in Japan and circumstances for Japanese women after she returned and founded Tsudajuku as a solution of the issue. Above all, her life after the return home has a significance of antithesis that provides a reverse reflection of the reality of women or women’s education in modern Japan.