The history of Baikwa Gakuen began when a young man met Daniel Crosby Greene, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in Kobe. His name was Sawayama Umanoshin. He was born in Yoshiki, Choshu Domain (the present Yamaguchi Prefecture) in 1852. As the son of a low-ranking samurai family, he learned classical Chinese literature and martial arts at Kenshokan, the local school.

When he was 14 years old, the Second Choshu War (a civil war before the 1868 Meiji Restoration of the imperial system) broke out.  Sawayama took to the field as a drummer of the Yoshiki Unit of the Choshu Army, where he witnessed his forces gaining an overwhelming victory with modern Western weapons. Then he decided to begin a long career in Western studies. In 1870, two years after the Meiji Restoration, Sawayama came to Kobe to seek support from former Yoshiki Unit Captain Utsumi Tadakatsu, then deputy-governor of Hyogo Prefecture. Based on his own experiences of visiting Western countries, Utsumi urged Sawayama to learn English so that he could complete his Western studies. Sawayama was introduced to D. C. Greene, who was engaged in missionary work in Kobe.

While Sawayama was regularly coming to Greene’s house and attending home worship, Greene recognized his innate talent and spiritual strength. Greene persuaded him to pursue further study in the United States. He introduced Sawayama to his brother Samuel Greene who lived in Evanston, Illinois, and asked Samuel if Sawayama could attend a preparatory course at Northwestern University while living at Samuel’s house. So Sawayama left for the United States in 1872.

Sawayama Paul Decides to do Mission Work in Japan

Living with the Greenes, Sawayama attended church and entered into the Christian faith, being baptized by Pastor Edward N. Packard at First Congregational Church of Evanston. In 1875 Horace Hall Leavitt, a missionary in Japan who had temporally come back to the US, met Sawayama. He exhorted Sawayama to begin his mission in Japan. Sawayama decided to become an evangelist in his own country and spent the rest of his time in Illinois reading Christian writings. He also changed his name to Paul, after Apostle Paul in the Bible.

In the summer of 1876, Sawayama went back to Japan and started working at Matsumura Dispensary in Osaka as an interpreter. The dispensary was founded by A. H. Adams, a medical missionary of Umemoto-cho Church, along with a Japanese medical doctor and a pharmacist who were also fervent Christians. It was located at the corner of Shinsaibashi Street and Koraibashi Street as a place of medical care and missionary activity. Umemoto-cho Church (now Osaka Church) was established as the first Congregational church in Osaka. One year later, in 1877, the Japanese staff and believers of Matsumura Dispensary established Naniwa Church as a self-supporting congregation. There Sawayama was ordained by Joseph Neesima (Niijima Jo) and became the first pastor of the church.

In October 1877, the plan to establish a girls’ school emerged among the people involved in the two churches. In January 1878, Osaka Prefecture officially permitted the founding of the school, and it was named Baikwa Girls’ School after the two churches (Umemoto and Naniwa, which mean plum-root and wave-blossom respectively). So baikwa is the combination of two Chinese characters taken from the names of the two churches: bai-ume (plum) and ka-hana (blossom).

Notably, Baikwa Girls’ School was established as a self-supporting institution by Japanese Christians as well as by Naniwa Church. The school started with two Japanese teachers (Naruse Jinzo and Koizumi Atsushi), two teachers from the US (H. H. Leavitt, a missionary, and Miss Francis Stevens), and 15 students. Sawayama advocated the Christian spirit to be the founding spirit of Baikwa and showed his leadership as one of the executive board members.

In 1879, the school succeeded admirably in its educational reform with the arrival of Miss Abby Maria Colby as a full-time missionary.  Colby graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and applied to become an American Board missionary after she had worked as a teacher. Baikwa Girls’ School’s curriculum was designed on the basis of Mount Holyoke’s to provide students with a well-rounded education in liberal arts. Under Colby’s guidance, the ideals of independence, thrift, patience, and service were put into practice. Both the teachers and the students studied hard. And thanks to the devoted efforts of many people, the school achieved a remarkable breakthrough.

Naruse Jinzo Facilitates the Founding of Baikwa

Naruse Jinzo, one of the founders of Baikwa Girls’ School, was younger than Sawayama by six years and was from the same town. He also studied at Kenshokan. After graduating from that school, he went to Yamaguchi Teacher Training School. While working at an elementary school as a teacher, his great dream was to educate students with new methods based on his own convictions. Fortunately, in the summer of 1877, Naruse met Sawayama, who had come back to visit his hometown. When Sawayama told Naruse that he had studied in the US and that he planned to establish a girls’ school in Osaka, the young man was deeply impressed.

Following Sawayama to Osaka, Naruse soon embraced Christianity and was baptized at Naniwa Church. The official decision to establish the school involved many responsibilities. He had to rent a building and draw up a set of school rules. He not only taught full-time but also performed miscellaneous tasks by himself, including preparation of educational materials and the necessary paperwork as well as management of the school building.

Thanks to his strenuous efforts, a proper school building was acquired one year later, and the number of the students gradually grew.  However, extensive building renovation resulted in a heavy load of debt. The school received a donation from a wealthy person in Nara Prefecture in order to pay its debts. Naruse, however, expressed resolute opposition to the receipt of this money because he was firmly dedicated to the principle of financial independence.

This triggered his resignation from Baikwa Girls’ School.  He decided instead devote himself to the work of evangelism. Before long, Naruse began mission work in Niigata, where he played a role in the establishment of a girls’ school. But the educational situation there was quite different from Osaka. Reportedly he persevered through hard times during this period.

Accepting the limits of his own competence, in 1890, he left for the United States to look for new possibilities in education. He studied Christianity, pedagogy, and sociology at Andover Theological College and Clark University. To learn as much as possible, he also visited various colleges, universities, and teacher training schools as well as churches, social institutions, and factories in which women were employed.

Upon his return to Japan in 1894, he came back to his old workplace as the principal of Baikwa Girls’ School. As a matter of course, Naruse actively adopted American ways of education for his school. Based on this successful experience in the girls’ school, he tried to establish an institution of higher education. However, it was quite difficult for him to change the school culture so drastically since it had been developing for 20 years. So he gave up the idea of establishing a women’s college at Baikwa.

In 1896 Naruse resigned from the girls’ school and began working to found a separate institution of higher education. In 1901 he finally established Japan Women’s College* in Tokyo with the support of many people, including some in political and business establishments. It goes without saying that the school was literally a pioneering women’s university of Japan. Sawayama’s fervent passion for educating girls came to fruition in Naruse, who then mobilized public opinion and opened a new avenue for women’s education in Japan. (Tr. TT)

—Yasuda Yukihide, Baikwa Gakuen Archives

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*Editorial note: Presently called Japan Women’s University.

梅花学園の２人の創設者　澤山保羅と成瀬仁蔵

　梅花学園の歴史は、山口県から神戸に出てきた一人の青年が、アメリカンボードのD.C.グリーン宣教師と出会ったことから始まります。その青年の名は澤山馬之進といい、１８５２年（江戸時代）に長州（山口県）吉敷の下級武士の家に生まれ、郷校「憲章館」で中国の古典や武道を学びました。1866年、澤山が14歳の時に、第二次長州戦争があり澤山は吉敷隊の鼓手として出陣し、その時に近代的装備を持つ長州軍が圧倒的な勝利を収めるのを目の当たりにしました。その時に澤山は洋学を学ぼうと決意します。明治維新が起こった2年後の1870年に、澤山は洋学を学ぶために、兵庫県副知事の内海忠勝（元吉敷隊隊長）を頼って神戸に出てきました。欧米を視察していた内海忠勝は、洋学を修めるためには英語の習得が必要として、神戸で宣教活動をしていたグリーン宣教師を紹介します。澤山がグリーン宣教師の自宅兼教会に通ううちに、グリーン宣教師は彼の非凡な素質と恵まれた精神力を見出し、アメリカでさらに勉学を深めることができるように澤山を説得します。イリノイ州エバンストンに住むグリーン宣教師の兄サミュエル・グリーンに澤山を紹介し、兄の家からノースウエスタン工科大学予科で勉強できるように手配し、澤山は1872年に渡米します。澤山はサミュエル・グリーンの家族と生活を共にして、教会に通ううちにキリスト教への信仰を深め、エバンストン第一教会でパッカード牧師により、受洗しています。　1875年に日本で宣教していたH.H.レビット宣教師が帰米して、澤山に出会い日本へのキリスト教布教を強く薦めます。澤山は日本伝道を決意し、残り１年の留学期間を聖書の学習にあて、名前を使徒パウロにちなんで「保羅」と改めました。1876年の夏に帰国し、大阪の松村診療所で通訳として働き始めます。松村診療所は、梅本町教会の宣教医アダムズが、梅本町教会の信者の日本人医師や薬剤師と共に心斎橋筋高麗橋通り角に開き、医療と伝道の場としました。梅本町教会（現大阪教会）は、大阪で最初に創立された会衆派教会です。その一年後に松村診療所の日本人スタッフや信者が中心となり自給独立の浪花教会を設立し、この教会で澤山は新島襄から按主礼を受けて初代牧師となります。1877年10月に梅本町教会と浪花教会の信者の間で女学校設立の話が持ち上がりました。1878年１月に梅花女学校（梅本町教会の梅と、浪花教会の花から名前をとった）が大阪府の許可を受け開校しました。特筆すべきは浪花教会と同じく日本人信者による自治独立の力で女学校が設立されたことです。成瀬仁蔵と小泉敦の２人の日本人教師、レビット宣教師とスティーブン女史の２人のアメリカ人教師、１５人の生徒で発足しました。澤山はキリスト教主義を梅花建学の精神に掲げ、女学校の理事的立場でリーダーシップを発揮しました。発足の翌年（1879年）にコルビー宣教師を専任宣教師として迎えることにより、教育内容を飛躍的に向上することができました。コルビー宣教師はマウントホリヨークを卒業し教員生活を経て、アメリカンボードの宣教師募集に応募されたのです。梅花女学校の学科課程はマウントホリヨークを範とし、リベラルアーツの全人教育を実践しました。コルビー宣教師の指導により、独立、倹約、忍耐、奉仕などマウントホリヨークの精神が女学校に生かされました。教師も生徒も一生懸命に勉強し、多くの人々の献身的な努力により梅花女学校は発展してゆくことができました。

梅花女学校創立に関わった成瀬仁蔵は、澤山保羅と同郷で、「憲章館」の６年年下の後輩でした。憲章館を卒業して山口県教員養成所へ進み、その後に小学校の教員をしていましたが、自己の信念に基づく新しい教育をしたいという夢を持っていました。1877年夏に郷里に戻っていた澤山と運命的な出会いをします。

成瀬は、澤山から大阪で女学校を作るという構想があるということや、アメリカに留学した話を聞き感動します。澤山を追いかけて大阪に出て、キリスト教にもすぐに共感して洗礼を受けています。梅花女学校の設立が決定すると、すぐに校舎に使用する借家を探し出し、開校に必要な校則、諸規則を作成しました。専任の教師としてだけではなく、教材の準備や学校のすべての事務を引き受け、校舎の管理まで一人で行っていました。このような成瀬の奮闘のおかげで、１年後には専用の校舎を取得することができ、生徒も順調に集まるようになりました。ただ校舎を取得しても、改修が必要であり、多額の負債が残りました。

その負債を解消するために、奈良の富豪から寄付を受けたのですが、自給自立精神を貫こうとしていた成瀬はそれを許すことができず女学校を辞職して、キリスト教の布教に専念することになります。新潟に布教に向かった時に、かの地で女学校の設立に関わることになるのですが、やはり大阪とは事情が違い大変な苦労をすることになります。自分の力の限界を感じた成瀬は、1890年に新しい教育の姿を求めて渡米します。アメリカではアンドーヴァー神学校・クラーク大学でキリスト教学、教育学、社会学を学び、各地の大学・カレッジ・師範学校を訪問し、同時に教会、社会施設、工場の女子労働などを視察して見聞を広めました。1894年に帰国し、その後すぐに梅花女学校で校長として復帰します。成瀬は留学で得たアメリカ流の教育を梅花女学校に取り入れ、さらに発展させることができました。成瀬は女学校での成功をもとにさらなる高等教育機関である女子大学の設立をめざそうとしました。しかし創立以来20年を経た女学校の体質を変えることは容易なことではありません。梅花女学校での女子大学設立を諦めた成瀬は1896年に女学校を辞し大学設立に奔走します。1901年に成瀬は政財界の有力者や多くの人々の援助を得て、女子総合大学の先駆け「日本女子大学校（現日本女子大学）」を東京で開校します。澤山から成瀬に受け継がれた篤い思いが社会を動かし、女子教育の新たな道が開かれたのです。（梅花学園資料室　安田行秀）