Ferris Girls' Junior & Senior High School (フェリス女学院中学校・高等学校 Ferisu Jogakuin Chūgakkō Kōtōgakkō) is a junior and senior high school for girls in Yokohama. It is a part of Ferris Jogakuin (学校法人フェリス女学院).
History
The institution began in 1870,[1] when the first unmarried female missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church in Japan,[2]Mary Eddy Kidder began teaching at a facility established by Clara Hepburn, wife of James Curtis Hepburn.[3] The Hepburns had established their girls' school in 1862.[2] Kidder established her "Miss Kidder's School for Girls" after the Hepburns left Japan.[3] This was Japan's first mission-sponsored school,[4] and the country's first higher learning institution for women.[3] Initially Kidder's classes had boys, but in September 1871 she restricted her classes to girls only.[5]
The school was named "Isaac Ferris Seminary" (フェリス･セミナリー Ferisu Seminarī), after the head of the Reformed Church Board of Foreign Missions Isaac Ferris, in 1875.[6] That year, its school and residence facilities were built at 178 Yamate. It was renamed to Ferris Waei Jogakkō (フェリス和英女学校 Ferisu Waei Jogakkō; "Ferris Japanese-English Girls' School") in 1889.[1]Mary Deyo of New York was a teacher at Ferris Seminary from 1888 to 1894.[7]
During the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 the headmistress, Miss Kuyper, died, and school buildings were destroyed. A building in the Yamate Campus named after Kuyper, Kuyper Memorial Hall, opened in 1929.[1]
In 1941 the school was renamed Yokohama Yamate Girls' School (横浜山手女学院 Yokohama Yamate Jogakuin);[1] this temporary name change occurred during an anti-English language sentiment during World War II era Japan.[8] It was renamed Ferris Girls' School in 1951.[1]
^ abIon, A. Hamish. The Cross and the Rising Sun: The British Protestant missionary movement in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, 1865-1945: The British Protestant Missionary Movement in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, 1865-1945. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, March 16, 1993. ISBN0889202184, 9780889202184. p. 21.
^Eder, Elizabeth K. Constructing Opportunity: American Women Educators in Early Meiji Japan (Studies of Modern Japan). Lexington Books, January 1, 2003. ISBN0739106406, 9780739106402. p. 179.
^Ion, Hamish. American Missionaries, Christian Oyatoi, and Japan, 1859-73 (Asian Religions and Society Series). UBC Press, July 1, 2010. ISBN0774858990, 9780774858991. p. 221.
^Mehl, Margaret. Private Academies of Chinese Learning in Meiji Japan: The Decline and Transformation of the Kangaku Juku (NIAS Monograph Series 第 第 92 号 巻, ISSN 1359-0421). NIAS Press, 2005. ISBN8791114942, 9788791114946. p. 24.
