Frontier of International Exchange
Expressing Honor Leads to Loyal Education
Takatoshi Sato (Graduate of 1967)
\ Impressive excavation of unknown predecessors of Doshisha in Iwate \
The population of Iwate
Prefecture is 1,400,000 with
latitude 40‹ (same as New
York). Many famous
forerunners were born and
raised in Iwate Prefecture.
The population of Morioka
City is 300,000 and is known
as the capital of Iwate
Prefecture. It also serves as
the central city for Aomori,
Akita, and Northeastern parts
of Japan.
The aim of the International
Understanding Project
is to foster and train
personals so that they will
have a global mind, which
will enable them to serve
their home country and
contribute to world peace.
The fruit of the project
should be mentioned and
emphasized. Paying respect
to prominent forerunners of
the international exchange
program is indispensable. Let
me introduce four distinguished
forerunners in the
field of international exchange
programs:
Noe Fuchizawa,
Tamenori Yamazaki, and
Seiji Katagiri and his son,
Tetsu.
First of all,
Noe Fuchizawa
(1850 ` 1936) was born and
raised in Ishidoriya-Cho,
Iwate-Prefecture. She was an
educator and was known as gThe
mother of womenfs education
in Koreah. In spite of her
unfortunate childhood, Noe
Fuchizawa studied abroad in
the States and studied Christianity at Doshisha. She
went to Korea at the age of
fifty-five and devoted the
latter half of her life to
womenfs education in Korea.
She worked hard with a
Christian mentality and was
able to find her own way of
life. She eventually established
a famous womenfs
college, Sunmyon Womenfs
College, which celebrates its
100th anniversary this year.
The society of local women
in Ishidoriya began to
recognize Fuchizawafs contribution
to the Korean society.
Therefore, members of the
womenfs society decided to
start a project to honor Ms.
Fuchizawa. The society sent
delegates to Korea and they
were very much impressed
by her contributions to the
Korean society. After coming
back to Japan, the delegates
began a project to honor Ms.
Fuchizawa with support from
the local government and
Board of Education in
Ishidoriya. With their support,
many lectures about
Noe Fuchizawa were given at
elementary schools and junior
high schools in Isidoriya.
Thus, Noe Fuchizawafs fame
gradually spread throughout
the local community by
bathing in the light of local
TV and newspapers, which
featured a story about her
life.
The children at Yaehata
Elementary School in
Ishidoriya dramatized
Fuchizawafs life and made it
into a play. One child acted
as the bearded Doctor, Jo
Neesima, which rejoiced the
audience. The audience was
pleased with the play.
Syukuko Murakami, a
member of the womenfs
society, published the book, gThe
Life of Noe Fuchizawah with
the preface written by Dr.
Yosinori Matsuyama, a
former Chancellor of the
Doshisha. Kan Bon Sikku, a
professor at Iwate Prefectural
University read Murakamifs
book and was so impressed
by the book that he
translated the book into
Korean and is selling well in
Korea today.
Secondly,
Tamenori Yamazaki (1857 ` 1881) was
born in Oshu City, which
used to be Mizusawa City.
He was also an educator and
was considered to be one of gthe
three geniuses from
Mizusawah along with
Shimpei Goto and Makoto
Saito. He was affiliated with
a Christian Association
gKumamoto Bandh and
entered Kaisei School (the
present Tokyo University). He
then transferred to Doshisha
University.
Although Mr. Yamazaki
was considered to be the
successor of Dr. Jo Niijima,
he died at the young age of
24 years old due to an
illness. He was highly
honored by great efforts of
Mitsuo Takahashi.
After retiring as a high
school teacher, he began to
show interest in Christianity.
Mr. Takahashi was also a
Christian and was a member
of Mizusawa Christian
Church, which was founded
by Yamazakifs peer and
Doshisha English School
graduate, Seiji Katagiria. It is
known that the church has a
history of 124 years. Mr.
Takahashi was the first
person to enthusiastically
research on Mr. Yamazaki in
Japan.
In February 2001, Mitsuo
Takahashi was awarded gThe
Neesima Prizeh for his books
on Tamenori Yamazaki by
Doshisha University. When
he received the prize, Mr.
Takahashi was overjoyed and
stated, g My work has been
acknowledged by research
scholars. I have never been
happier in my life.h
Risa Yoshida, a junior high
student at Doshisha, read gThe
Biography of Tamenori
Yamazakih a year before and
she was deeply moved. She
wrote an essay on the
biography and turned it in
for a contest that commemorates
the anniversary of
Neesimafs 165 th birthday.
Her essay was chosen as one
of the most excellent essays
and was awarded a prize last
year. When I met Mr.
Takahashi, he proudly
showed me a thank you
letter from Ms. Yoshida,
which amazed me how well
she had written for her age.
I still remember how Mr.
Takahashi couldnft help
smiling while showing Ms.
Yoshidafs letter.
In March 2010, another
book by Takahashi, gThe
Life of Tamenori Yamazakih
will be published. Last year,
Mr. Takahashi was seriously
sick 2 times and since he
has been physically weak, he
told me that he wasnft going
to live long. He also stated
that, gMy work is to write
about Tamenori Yamazaki
and I put all my energy into
it.h I remember his words
being full of energy and that
it didnft show any sign of
physical weakness.
Lastly,
Seiji Katagiri (1856
` 1928) and his son,
Tetsu
Katagiri (1888 ` 1982) were
both born in Oshu City (the
former Mizusawa City). Seiji
Katagiri supported Dr. Jo
Neesima in the early stage of
Doshishafs foundation. His
son, Tetsu Katagiri devoted
his life to womenfs education
in Doshishafs modernizing
era. Seiji founded Mizusawa
Church in Mizusawa, which
will celebrate its 125th year
of its foundation. He was the
first pastor of Mizusawa
Church and was also a
pastor at Sendai Kita Church.
He devoted his life to
evangelical missionary work
in the Tohoku area.
Tetsu Katagiri was the
President of Doshisha
Womenfs College for a long
period of time. He was a
theologian and an authority
in Hebrew. He was also
known as the gfather of
Doshisha Glee Clubh, which
is a famous male choir at
Doshisha.
In October 2007, the Iwate
Doshisha Alumni Association
managed to find a memorial
monument honoring Reverend
Seiji and Tetsu Katagiri. The
monument was completed in
the sixth year since the
project started. Doshisha
alumni from all over Japan
supported the project
financially. Thankfully, the
gracious monument honoring
Seiji and Tetsu Katagiri was
completed. The memorial
ceremony held on October
13th included 20 family
members, Doshishafs provost,
chairman of the Board of
Trustees, and other alumni.
It was the biggest gathering
since Iwate Doshisha Alumni
Association started. Later, I
received good news from
beraved families that separated
families came together
due to the memorial
ceremony being held. They
also stated that they have
gathered annually in front of
the memorial monument,
which is good news to the
Iwate Chapter of Doshisha
Alumni Association.
One usually says it takes
100 to 200 years to realize
truly good education. We
should move onward step by
step to establish good
education. For this purpose,
we should never retrogate or
blunder. It is our duty to
inherit our predecessorfs idea
and dream to the next
generation. By honoring our
predecessors, we can truly
educate the youngsters of the
next generation. I can see
that youngsters are gradually
taking part in honoring their
predecessors and I am quite
sure that the spirit of
predecessors abides in their
hearts deeply. These four
unknown predecessors were
neither aggressive nor egocentric.
They were unselfish
predecessors and they are
probably smiling shyly upon
my comments. I hope they
continue to watch over us
now and always.
Suggestions for the international
exchange programs
- International exchange
program should be based
on deepening global
understanding, nurturing
global mind, helping one
another, and world peace.
- We have to make our
community a friendlier
place to live.
- The adults are responsible
for educating youngsters of
the next-generation so that
they contribute generously
to the community.
- We should do our best to
attain success, happiness
and world peace.
- Thoughtfulness of others
should be at the root of
global understanding.
- Today, not many youngsters
have a chance to
learn about the forerunners
who have sacrificed their
lives to global understanding.
Those forerunners
achieved their dreams and
goals by having a global
way of thinking, which also
enabled them to study
abroad and come up with
international exchange
programs. Hence, itfs
important to teach the
youngsters about their
forerunners.
- I believe there is a strong
connection between those
forerunners and global
understanding.
- The people of the small
towns in Iwate work hard
toward international understanding.
They cooperate
and encourage each other
toward the future. International
understanding should
shed light in the dark
society.
- Its a good idea to talk
about the forerunners
mentioned above to
enlighten the society.
- The people of the small
towns in Iwate earnestly
devote themselves to international
exchange programs
to promote global understanding.
They are supportive
of youngsters who
are interested in international
exchange programs.
(Reprinted from gthe Cross
Culture News No.9 on
December 3, 2009)