The origins Showa Junior-Senior High School date back to 1920. Here is some information about the founders of Showa and the Showa chronology.
Poet and literary critic Enkichi Hitomi, and his wife Midori founded Showa Women’s University in 1920. After World War I, when there were limited opportunities for higher education and professional careers for women in Japan, Mr Hitomi decided to establish a school for women. The school was to be based on Tolstoy’s ideas in which teachers and students work together to create a learning environment in which independence is encouraged. The ideal was to educate women to be self reliant and to take a significant role in society leading to the opening of Showa Nihon Joshi Koto Gakuin. The school was accredited in 1922 and became Showa Women’s University in 1949. Since then Showa has been providing women with an outstanding educational experience from kindergarten to graduate school. Showa continues to strive to cultivate women of integrity, dignity and creativity.
After experiencing the tragedy of World War I, where thirty one nations met in bloody battle, killing or injuring forty million people, I came to think that in order to create a peaceful society, we must rely on the strength of those who have the qualities of love, understanding and harmony. The founding of this school can be attributed to the desire to educate capable women who will never lose their way in the turmoil of society and who will dedicate their capabilities to society and to humanity.
Enkichi Hitomi was born in Okayama Prefecture in 1883. He entered Waseda University in 1903. After leaving Waseda he began publishing poetry under his pen name, Tomei Hitomi. Among his many published works, “Dance of Night (Yoru no Buto),” “The Loving Heart (Koi Gokoro)” and “Where Love Has Gone (Ai no Yukue)”are considered most representative.
He featured prominently in the Meiji era literary
scene even after he began his life’s work in women’s education, founding of the Japan Women’s Society in 1919. He established the school that later became Showa Women’s University in 1920.
The students studied academic subjects in the morning and in the afternoon they performed social work, going out to visit those in need of help. They fed and clothed the unfortunate, cleaned their homes and cared for the sick.
It is such a school that he wanted Showa to be when he founded it: a school devoted to the cultivation of love, understanding and harmony. Mr Hitomi died in 1974 aged ninety one, and his ideals continue to be very much a part of Showa.
Working side by side with the founder, Midori Hitomi devoted her entire life to educating women to be “aware, intelligent and fair-minded. ” While teaching Japanese literature, she lived among the students, teaching them feminine virtues by setting a living example. She herself was modest and frugal and taught her students to be well-rounded, upright individuals. Her guidance laid the foundations for the school spirit that lives on at Showa today. She is loved and respected as one of our founders, the ‘mother of us all.’