Mary Eddy Kidder was born on January 31, 1834 in Wardsboro, Vermont. Her family was devoutly Christian, and after growing up and being educated in her hometown, she began to teach at the Wardsboro Academy run by the Dutch Reformed Church of America. In 1869, Kidder became a missionary and accompanied Samuel Robbins Brown to Japan for her work. Once in Japan, the government hired her to teach English. In 1870, she founded Ferris Jogakuin in Yokohama, Japan’s first school for women.
Despite the beginning of modernization in Japan, Christianity was still prohibited, and women were not provided with the same education as many male Japanese citizens. Kidder redefined life for Japanese women by offering them an education founded upon Christian principles. She started by teaching them in a small room at a private school where she was teaching. Eventually, the vice-governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, Ooe Taku, gave her permission to move her classes to a larger setting. With support from Taku and funding from the US church, school buildings and a dormitory were built in 1875.
Under Kidder’s guidance, the students learned about the West – the English language, history, geography, mathematics, religion, and skills like sewing, embroidery and calligraphy – but also about the history of their own country and Confucian philosophy. In 1881, she retired from her position at the school and moved to Tokyo. Her role as a missionary continued in Morioka from 1888 to 1902, and she died on June 25, 1910 in Tokyo.
Sources:
Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A (2016). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Volume 5. pp. 1275–76.
ISBN 1442244321.
Yoshiro, Tabei. “The Journey of Mary Eddy Kidder, Pioneer in Women’s Education in Modern Japan.” The United Church of
Christ in Japan, 5 Oct. 2009, uccj-e.org/knl/1189.html.