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emphasized. The aim of a school, it was declared, was to make girls good wives and good mothers. So-called practical education was the cry of the age. The education of girls at this period was narrow in its principles and shallow in its instruction. This state of things continued for some years, during which the real educational movement for girls was at a standstill.

I was strongly convinced of the need of a fundamental reform in regard to women’s education in Japan. Before making public my views on the matter, I went to America for the purpose of making a thorough investigation of the conditions and principles of the educational system for women in that country. I spent there three years, during which I visited almost all the women’s colleges in the North. This visit to America afforded me great encouragement, and strengthened my conviction. In 1894 I returned, but was silent for some two years, during which I devoted myself to visiting girls’ schools, both public and private. In this way I formed my ideas on the subject of women’s education in Japan free from prejudices of all kinds, and I gave expression to them in publishing a book entitled ‘Woman’s Education.’ It is gratifying to note that this book attracted national attention, and was surprisingly well received and welcomed by the public. Strangely enough, it happened that the revival in women’s education began to take place just at that time. I do not mean that my book brought it about, but I fortunately hit the right time for expressing the views on girls’ education which I had entertained for years. The establishment of the Koto Jo Gakko (high schools for girls) was the outcome of the revival, and their number has been increased year by year. A still more remarkable fact is that the number of girl students has increased so fast that the existing high schools can hardly accommodate them all. So private girls’ schools for various purposes are being established here and there throughout the Empire. Books, papers, and magazines for girl readers are circulated in great numbers. A glorious age for girls’ education was thus ushered in.

Some eight years ago I started to carry out my long-cherished plan of establishing a University for women. I came up to Tokyo and started the movement. It was not long before such men as Marquis Ito, Marquis Saionji, Count Okuma, Barons Utsumi and Kitabatake began to sympathize with me, and promised to give me advice and support, so that I was able to open the present Women’s University on the 20th of April, 1901. This was the first institution of the kind not only in Japan, but also in the Orient.

There are three departments in the University. They are the Home Department, the Japanese Literature Department,