PAM. JAPAN (^oar^img ,^c§ooC NAGASAKI ...No. 5. JAPAN Price 3 cents BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY KWASSUI JO GAKKO NAGASAKI BOARDING SCHOOL. AGASAKI is the leading city and seat of government of the island of Kiushiu in Southern Japan. It is an interesting historic old town, beaQtiful for situation. It is 750 miles from Tokyo, and has a population of one hundred thousand. A stream of water crossed by twenty-one bridges flows through the city, and the surround- ing hills are covered with teinpl'es and groves. This island suffered sorely from the effects of Jesuitical interferences in political affairs; and Nagasaki for many years was the centre of the ecclesiastical power which resulted so disastrously in persecution and the massacre of many native Christians. Nagasaki was opened for missionary work by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. It has for years been a great missionary centre. It is also a commercial centre, and has of late taken on new importance, largely as the result of the completion of a railroad, and the more complete opening of Korea and China. The work of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society in this field has been of peculiar interest and growth. In 1879, Elizabeth Russell of Wheeling, Va., 3 and Jennie M. Gheer of Altoona, Pa., were appointed to this new and untried field. They reached Nagasaki, November 23. The prospect for work did not seem inviting, but on December i they opened a school with one pupil, and closed the following July with nine. This was the first girls’ school in Southern Japan. Two teachers and one scholar was not a very promising start, but now (1901) this school is recognized as the highest school for girls in the Empire. Those early days were days of heroic effort met by every form of discouragement. In spite of opposition that amounted to persecution, the school grew. A young theological student asked the privilege of naming the school, and when his request was granted he called it the “ Kwassui Jo Gakko.” He said he found “Kwassui” in a Chinese poem, and that it had the meaning of water flowing down refreshing the land. Its primary meaning is a fountain of living water. “Jo” means girl, and “Gakko” is the common word for school. So it all means “Fountain of Living Water Girls’ School.” These missionaries toiled quietly, but with determination, and the following year the number of pupils doubled. In 1881 an appropriation of $8,000 was made to erect a suitable building. A fine lot had been secured, and in August of that year ground was broken and the dwelling part furnished in May, 1882. Joseph Cook, who was at that time in Japan, delivered the dedicatory address, 4 which was a very forceful plea for woman’s education in the Orient. This new building accommodated about one hundred. It stands on an eminence overlook- ing the city and harbor, and is a situation of rare beauty. The school had increased to forty-three when the new building was opened. The missionaries were frequently reminded, not only by the Japanese, but also by the foreign com- munity, that they were not wanted in Nagasaki. When the new building was nearly completed a leaflet was distributed in the community, entitled “The Con- versation of a Tailor with his Wife,” in which the new building and the mission- aries were sarcastically treated. A few days after, a poem appeared, entitled “A Foreign Mission in Nagasaki,” of very much the same character. The school, however, w’ent on, and grew in favor with the Japanese, and the blessing of God was upon it. A most wonderful revival visited the school in 1883, when the whole body of students, with the exception of the little children, were converted. The genuine Christian character of some of the girls who were con- verted at this time is shown from the following incident. One of them returned home, and suffered stripes and imprisonment, all kinds of persecution and indig- nity from her family, to force her to deny her new-found faith, but she was firm, saying she could die, but could not deny Christ. One of the teachers visited her and found her face and body bruised and swollen where her brother had 5 kicked her. They could not protect her, as the family refused to give her up. Then they appealed to the law, but the judge said, “She is only a woman, and Japan has no protection for her. She is under the power of her father, then her husband, then her first-born son, and dares not say her soul or body is her own.” Notwithstanding all this she remained firm. The first Sunday-school was organized in 1880, with only pupils of the school which later formed the nucleus of the church Sunday-school. It was the plan of the founders to lay broad foundations for this school, so that it should develop into departments, with specialists at the head of each. Music, art, literature, natural sciences and the industrial departments have all been successful, and many trained teachers have gone out from the institution. Each head of a department had her Bible and church class, and every influence \ras used to develop the spiritual life of the student. Literature and King’s Daughters societies were formed, and a society of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union started, showing they were seeking a broader culture and taking hold of the living questions of the day. Emma Everding of Syracuse, N. Y., was sent to Nagasaki in 1883 and aided in teaching music and science. By the donations of fine apparatus by friends, a department of physics was established, and through the beneficence of Mrs. 6 Sleeper Davis of Boston, an outfit for a chemical laboratory was added. In 1885, Miss Elliot of Ohio went to the field. In 1888, Miss Bing and Miss Allen of Ohio arrived. In 1888 the first class in the Biblical course graduated, and these students were the first Bible readers. In 1889, Miss Imhof took charge of the industrial department, it having grown to take many branches. In April of that year the late lamented Miss Simons joined the faculty. It was this year that the health of Miss Everding was impaired and she was compelled to leave, and Miss Russell accompanied her home. The school had grown and was overflowing, and a second building seemed a necessity, for the accommodation was for one hundred pupils, and one hundred and seventy-five were in attendance. The idea of a college had been growing in the minds of the friends, but even some of the missionaries smiled at the mention of such an idea. Miss Russell, while home, agitated the matter, and the General Executive Committee of 1889 passed the following resolution : Sympathizing with the desire of Miss Russell to provide a Woman's College in Nagasaki, we authorize her to receive whatever money she may be able to col- lect for the purpose, to be used by her whenever the whole amount asked shall be thus raised. 7 In 1890 the following action was taken : Resolved, that we reaffirm the sympathy expressed last year with Miss Russell in her efforts to provide a school of higher grade in Nagasaki, and shall rejoice in all gifts she shall receive for this purpose, these gifts to be credited to the Branches from which they come. Miss Russell secured $4,000 while on this visit, and some of the gifts had a sacred significance. The very first was the contents of a little mite box— just four little gold dollars. At each birthday a dollar was dropped into baby’s mite box by loving hands ; but before the fifth birthday came round the little one had gone to tne home beyond, and the sorrowing mother, with prayers, turned over the treasure to this college fund. After many difficulties, some occasioned by the breaking out of the war, the additional buildings were completed, and the chapel was dedicated by Bishop Walden, June 23, 1894. In 1895 the school had an enrollment of 195, of whom 136 were boarders, with a teaching force of seventeen regular teachers and four tutors. Six gradu- ates went out that year for distinctively religious work. The young ladies of the higher classes started a Japanese paper called The 8 Kwassui Quarterly^ and much red tape interfered before government permission could be secured for such a new venture. In 1897, Miss Young and Miss Melton joined the force of teachers. This same year a department of physical culture was added, from which great benefit was derived in improved health to the pupils. The industrial department is now under the supervision of those trained in the school, and annual exhibitions of the industries are made. This includes wood-carving, drawn work, embroidery, lace making, etc. In 189s the Nagasaki Band of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, donated a kindergarten outfit, and a department for the little folks has been found very popular. Permission was given under the new laws of Japan in 1899 to establish the school, and the government allows children under six years to attend. Owing to the Imperial edict that all schools should be established under or in conformity with Japanese law, it has taken time to pass through all the forms deemed necessary, as the school has so many departments, and it was difficult to arrange everything according to law, and also difficult to apply the law to the mechanism of the school. But it is happily accomplished. At commencement in June, 1900, one girl graduated in the scientific course, one in art course and one in 9 music, and five in Bible training course. These girls finished the academic school and entered college in September, while the five Bible women left for their different fields of labor, one to the Loo Choo Islands. The clause in government instruc- tions about teaching children under fourteen religious truths took some forty children from this school. Many of the students have been converted, and a spirit of revival is ever present, but the number of conversions among the students does not by any means measure the good that has come to the church through the school ; opposi- tion to Christianity has been softened, prejudice against it has been uprooted, parents and friends have been led to the Saviour by the students, and all over the island, when the students have returned to their homes for vacation, they have busily sown the Gospel seed. Bible women who have graduated from the school are now telling the “old, old story” with signal success. Graduates from the Liberal Arts Department are doing efficient service as teachers. Every one who has taken a diploma from the institution has been a Christian. The outcome of the Nagasaki school has been the Fukuoka girls’ school with its various Sunday-schools, the Koga Orphanage, a preaching place and Sunday- schools, twelve Sunday-schools in Nagasaki and one preaching place, various women’s meetings, work in Kagoshima and the Loo Choo Islands. 10 Surely this record calls for gratitude from all who have so nobly and gener- ously supported this school. It has been as a city set on a hill, and its light has been seen in all directions. At present (1901) there is an enrollment of over 200 girls, no of whom are boarders. Associated with Miss Russell in the management and development of this Christian school have been a number of earnest consecrated women. 1 1 Boarding School Series BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY No. 1. Moradabad ..... India No. 2. Foochow ...... China No. 3. Calcutta ...... India No. 4. Peking ...... China No. 5. Nagasaki ...... Japan No. 6. Tokyo ...... Japan PRICE 3 CENTS EACH SEXD OBDE113 TO PLTIJLIC VTtOV OFFICE OF Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 36 Bromfield Street, Boston.