Call Number:

RG12.FJ

Repository:

Bryn Mawr College

Extent:

2 linear ft.

Language:

English and Japanese

Date:

1885-1993 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bryn Mawr College

Form:

Correspondence, School records, and examinations (documents)

Abstract:

Tsuda Umeko was the first Japanese student—and subsequently the first person of color to attend Bryn Mawr. She was admitted as a special student in 1889 and studied at the College for two-and-a-half years. Tsuda made compelling public speeches to the Quaker Women's Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of Philadelphia (WFMA), advocating for the creation of an American scholarship for Japanese women, which would primarily fund collegiate education for aspiring female teachers in Japan to spread western education and values. Tsuda fundraised for the project and convinced some WFMA members, particularly Mary Harris Morris, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker, to support this new scholarship. The American Committee of the Scholarship for Japanese Women committee was founded in 1892, and Tsuda led the formation of a corresponding committee, The Japanese Committee of the Scholarship for Japanese Women, soon after. M. Carey Thomas, the second president of Bryn Mawr College, was a member of the Philadelphia-based committee alongside many other influential Pennsylvanian Quakers, including Anna C. Hartshorne, Caroline N. Rhoads, and Hannah T. Shipley.

The WFMA limited the pathways to education in the USA by solely administering matriculation exams in English. Recipients for the Japanese Scholarship, uncoincidentally, were primarily educated at Christian missionary schools. In 1893, the committees created a quadrennial scholarship to bring Matsuda Michi (Class of 1899) to Bryn Mawr, and she became the first recipient of the scholarship. The scholarship was highly exclusive and the matter of one person of color traditionally being on Bryn Mawr's campus at a time led to the scholarship recipients being treated as orientalist symbols. The Japanese Scholarship was seen as valuable in the sense that it would enrich the education of the existing student body of white women at Bryn Mawr.

The Japanese Scholarship at Bryn Mawr College continued into the 20th century, though by the time the Chinese Scholarship Committee was established, the number of Japanese Scholars at the College had waned. In 1931, the College admitted a Chinese Scholar and a Japanese Scholar, Nakamura Shizu (Class of 1935) and Ting Vung-Yuin (Class of 1935) at the same time. It was rare for two Asian scholarship recipients to be admitted into the college simultaneously. The Japanese Scholarship largely ceased admissions in the early 1940s due to the Pacific War, with grants only resuming in 1949.

Though Matsuda Michi was the first Japanese Scholarship recipient to receive a degree, the first Japanese student to graduate from Bryn Mawr was Dogura Masa (Class of 1896). She came from an influential, philanthropic family and was able to fund her education without support from the Japanese Scholarship Committee. Her matriculation exams were largely the same as other foreign students, although she substituted her examination in Greek for Chinese.

Recipients of the Japanese Scholarship largely fulfilled Tsuda Umeko's vision of spreading western and international education in Japan. Often, scholarship recipients maintained close relations with Tsuda University and went on to work in Japanese higher education. Hoshino Ai (Class of 1912) and Fujita Taki (Class of 1935) became the 3rd and 4th presidents of Tsuda University respectively. Kawai Michi (Class of 1904) taught at Tsuda University and later founded the Keisen School, a Christian school for girls, in 1929.

Harris L. Wofford, the 5th president of Bryn Mawr College, led the establishment of a new Japanese Scholarship that manifested into the Japanese Fund for Educational Exchange at Bryn Mawr College in 1973. By then, the American Committee of the Scholarship for Japanese Women in Philadelphia had ceased operation. An endowment of $20,000 funded this new scholarship for Japanese and Japanese American women at the College. In good faith of continuing the educational exchange between Bryn Mawr and Japan, 73 alumnae/i and friends of Tsuda University, including President Fumio Nakajima of Tsuda, visited Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr College in 1976. The College continues to maintain close relations with Tsuda University in the present day.

The Japanese Scholarship Collection contains scattered administrative records, matriculation materials, and correspondence related to the Japanese scholarship at Bryn Mawr College. This scholarship ran from 1895 to 1993. The collection also contains publications and reports on the relationship between Bryn Mawr and Tsuda University, the history of Japanese students at Bryn Mawr, and the achievements of Japanese alumnae/i.

The collection is organized into two series: "Administrative Records" and "Scholar Files."

"Series 1: Administrative Records" is primarily composed of correspondence related to the establishment of the Japanese Scholarship at the College and documentation of the accomplishments of Japanese alumnae/i. Notably, it contains correspondence between the College and professors at other higher education institutions around the creation of the matriculation exams for Japanese scholars in the early twentieth century.

"Series 2: Scholar Files" contains the bulk of the collection and consists of individual files for each Japanese scholar, with archival material spanning from 1885 to 1993. The scholars with archival presence generally maintained close contact with the College or were closely documented because of their accomplishments post-graduation. The files primarily contain correspondence and publications related to the scholars. There are a substantial number of matriculation exams from the scholars with these materials. The series is arranged alphabetically and includes all Japanese scholarship recipients that attended Bryn Mawr, including those who withdrew from the College.