Tei Ninomiya | |
|---|---|
 Tei Ninomiya, from the 1910 yearbook of Smith College. | |
| Born | 1887 Matsuyama, Shikoku |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Known for | first Asian student at Smith College |
| Spouse | Unjiro Fujita |
Tei Ninomiya (born 1887) was a Japanese educator. She was the first Asian student at Smith College. A residence hall on campus, Ninomiya House, is now named for her.
Ninomiya was born in Matsuyama, the daughter of Kunijiro Ninomiya, a Japanese Congregational minister and schoolmaster. [1] [2] She sailed from Yokohama to Seattle in 1903 with a group of other Japanese women students, and graduated from Smith College in 1910. She is recognized as the school's first Asian student. [3] While she was at Smith, she spoke about Japanese women's lives, often dressed in a kimono, [4] to women's groups and church audiences in New England. [5] [6] [7] She wrote an essay, "The Condition of Japanese Women" (1907), for the Smith College Monthly. [8]
Ninomiya was a teacher in Japan, and a Red Cross worker. She was also secretary of the YWCA in Yokohama in 1912, [9] [10] until she married in 1913 and was replaced by American Molly Baker. [11] She was a member of the national committee of the YWCA in Japan, [12] [13] working with Michi Kawai, a Bryn Mawr College alumna. [14] [15]
In December 1913, Ninomiya married Japanese lawyer and bureaucrat Unjiro Fujita . [12] They had chlidren Meiko (born 1914) and Atsuo (born 1916); [16] and they had two young sons when Smith alumna Stella Tuthill visited them in Kobe early in the 1920s. [17] The Fujitas moved to Port Arthur in Manchuria later in 1922. [18] She had a son and two daughters when she wrote to the Smith College alumnae from Hiroshima in 1930. [19]
In 2010, the president of Smith College, Carol T. Christ, toured six Asian cities; the timing of her trip coincided with the centenary of Ninomiya's graduation from Smith. [20] Smith College dedicated Ninomiya House in 2016, a campus residence named in her memory. [21] There is a plaque on the building's exterior, explaining her significance in the school's history. [15]
Ninomiya is a Japanese family name.
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