Who was this person?
A businesswoman of the Meiji and Taishō periods. Born into the Mitsui family of Kyoto, she married into Kajimaya, a great merchant house of Osaka. She revived the family business shaken by the Meiji Restoration and was involved in coal mining and in founding Kajima Bank and Daidō Life. Supporting Naruse Jinzō, she worked hard to found Japan Women's College and encouraged women's education and social activity.
| Name | Hirooka Asako (広岡浅子) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1849 – 1919 |
| Period | Late Edo–Taishō |
| Birthplace | Kyoto |
| Main achievements |
|
She was born in Kyoto, at Aburanokōji Demizu, a daughter of Mitsui Takamasu, head of the Koishikawa Mitsui, one branch of the great merchant house of Mitsui. Her childhood name was Teru. She was drawn far more to studying Chinese classics than to sewing or koto lessons. But under the merchant custom of the day that women needed no learning, her family forbade her to read.
Her father Mitsui Takamasu died, and his adopted son Mitsui Takayoshi took over the house, becoming Asako's elder brother. Asako grew up like a sister with Takayoshi's son Mitsui Takakage, who was close to her in age, and they stayed close long afterward. Soon after her birth it had already been decided that Asako would marry into a great merchant house of Ōsaka.
She married Hirooka Shingorō, second son of the Hirooka family of Kajimaya, a money-changing house and one of the greatest merchants of Ōsaka. After marrying she found that the masters left the shop's business entirely to employees. Feeling that the house could not be protected this way, Asako taught herself bookkeeping, the abacus and other knowledge needed for trade.
In the great changes of the Meiji Restoration, Kajimaya could no longer recover the large sums it had lent to daimyō, and the shop declined. Asako worked hard with her husband and her brother-in-law, the head of the house, to rebuild it. She is said to have personally visited domain residences to demand repayment, negotiating with great persistence.
From around this time she joined the coal business. Falling coal prices in a recession caused hardship, but to revive the Urano mine in Chikuhō, Kyūshū, which remained in her hands, she went to the mine herself. It is said she carried a pistol in her kimono for self-defense and lived alongside the miners. Her daring in a venture even men hesitated to try astonished people.
To transform Kajimaya into a modern company, she founded the Kajima Bank. The business was changed from an old-style money changer into a bank for the new age. Asako worked at the center of its management, and Kajimaya regained its strength as a powerful financial family of Ōsaka.
The educator Naruse Jinzō, who was trying to create a university for women, came to visit Asako. At first they did not quickly warm to each other, but she read his book Joshi Kyōiku (Women's Education), which he had given her, and was deeply moved. Asako, forbidden to study as a child, believed girls should receive the same education as boys.
The Urano mine she had run with such effort was bought by the state to secure fuel for the government-run Yawata Steel Works. By this time Asako was already turning to her next work, visiting powerful figures in politics and business with Naruse to ask for their support for a university for women.
Besides donating herself, Asako persuaded her family, the Mitsui, to donate land at Mejirodai in Tokyo. In this way Japan Women's College, one of Japan's first full-fledged institutions of higher education for women, opened. Asako was one of its founders, and her husband Shingorō also supported it as a founding committee member.
She took part in merging three life insurance companies to create Daidō Life. Kajimaya grew into a modern financial enterprise with a bank and an insurer. Asako became known, alongside Suzuki Yone and others, as one of the leading businesswomen of Meiji, and for her bold and wise character she was praised as a heroine of her generation.
When her husband Shingorō died, she handed the business to her son-in-law Hirooka Keizō. Afterward she devoted herself to women's education and work for women, and studied hard herself. In 1909 she had surgery for a tumor in her chest and recovered, and later she was baptized by the pastor Miyagawa Tsuneteru and became a Christian.
From this year, every summer she gathered young women at her villa at Ninooka in Gotenba, Shizuoka, for residential study camps. Participants included Ichikawa Fusae, who later worked for women's rights, and Muraoka Hanako, who became a translator. Writing under the pen name Kyūten Jikki-sei, Asako kept encouraging women.
She died of kidney disease at her residence in Tokyo. It is said she left no will, saying that everything she usually said was her will. At the memorial held at Japan Women's College, Ōkuma Shigenobu praised her achievements. Asako's way of life, rising again however many times she fell, still encourages many people today.
A. A businesswoman of the Meiji and Taishō periods. Born into the Mitsui family of Kyoto, she married into Kajimaya, a great merchant house of Osaka. She revived the family business shaken by the Meiji Restoration and was involved in coal mining and in founding Kajima Bank and Daidō Life. Supporting Naruse Jinzō, she worked hard to found Japan Women's College and encouraged women's education and social activity.
A. Period: Late Edo–Taishō. Born in 1849, died in 1919.
A. Hirooka Asako was born in Kyoto.
A. Sympathizing with Naruse Jinzō's plan for a women's college, she donated money herself and persuaded her family, the Mitsui, to donate land at Mejirodai in Tokyo. Thus Japan Women's College opened in 1901, and Asako was a major support in opening the way to higher education for women.
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
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People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.