“The mission schools were eagerly sought by the young men and young women of Japan, as affording the unusual opportunity to study English, constitutional government, history of Western nations, and, what may seem rather strange, the fundamentals of Christianity.

“In some of the earlier schools, as, for instance, those under the direction of the famous Guido Verbeck, the two subjects which were most eagerly sought by the Japanese pupils, all of whom came from families connected with the samurai, or titled classes, were constitutional government and Christianity. A large number of the men who became foremost in the reorganization of japan and the development of constitutional government were pupils in those early mission schools.

“… The grade school in which missionaries chiefly work in the chu gakko, or middle school for young men, and the koto jo gakko, or middle and high school for young women. In the empire there are twelve such mission schools for young men and forty-five for young women.”

– A Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe, Ph.D., The MacMillan Company, 1912

Sendai Private High School for Girls [Sendai Koto Jo Gakko], c. 1910, possibly the school founded in 1893 and run by sisters of the Roman Catholic Church.

See also:

Kochi Jogakkai [Kochi Girls’ School], Kochi, c. 1920.
Girls Normal School, Ochanozmizu, c. 1910.
Duncan Academy, Tokyo, c. 1910.
“Washington Cottage”, Joshi Gakuin, Tokyo, c. 1910.

“Of the fifty-six Christian girls’ schools in Japan, twenty-one are in Tokyo or Yokohama, nine in Kyoto, Osaka or Kobe, and the other twenty-six are widely distributed over the country [including Sendai].

“The heart of most of them is a High School (Koto Jo Gakko), but most of them have other departments, such an music, art, sewing, domestic science, or commerce.
The last is a recent addition to some, and is a sign of the demand for vocational training in girls’ schools.

“Many Japanese young women do not want to be compelled to marry before they are twenty, and they want some way to make their own living. They are also realizing their opportunity and responsibility for social service, and feel the need of better educational equipment for it. These things are a challenge to the Christian educators, which they will do well to consider.”

– The Christian Movement in the Japanese Empire, Conference of Federated Missions (Japan), 1920