Closed until September 30, and from October 1 it moves to the Lifelong Learning Center next door to the west. And, phew... I came to the observation deck and the local history museum while waiting for the ferry to Okushiri Island, but the local history museum was closed.

Closed in winter Exhibits relics of Ogino Ginko, the first Japanese woman to become a female doctor in the Meiji era, folk tools that tell the town's history, and fishing gear from the days when herring fishing flourished 📖 Japan's first female doctor, Ogino Ginko Shortly after marriage, her health deteriorated and she rested at her parents' home for the time being, which led to divorce. Her illness was a venereal disease, said at the time to be incurable, and she later went to Tokyo to be treated at Juntendo Hospital. At that time there was no system of female doctors in Japan's medical world, and the one who treated Ginko was also a male doctor. The unbearable shame and humiliation a woman felt when treated for venereal disease, called a karmic illness, made her strongly resolve to become a doctor so that other women would not have to feel the same. To realize this hope Ginko began to study, and with her innate cleverness and strong will toward a great goal, she studied with outstanding results wherever she went. However, although learning can be achieved through individual effort, the wall of a system and customs that did not recognize female doctors loomed large before Ginko, and the road ahead as she tried to push toward her goal was full of hardship. She went to Tokyo and entered Inoue Juku. She graduated from Tokyo Normal School. Learning of Ginko's strong desire to be a doctor, influential figures in the medical world at the time introduced her to two or three medical schools, but all refused because women were forbidden. However, after further effort, the private medical school "Kojuin" agreed to accept her. She continued her studies there for 3 years, three years of struggle while working as a private tutor. At Kojuin there seem to have been various difficulties because she was a woman, and for the 3 years she attended school dressed as a man, in men's hakama and tall geta. The first great hurdle in opening the way for female doctors was entering medical school, and while continuing to study under hardship she completed the Kojuin course. Having passed the first hurdle by finishing Kojuin, the second hurdle awaiting her was passing the practitioner's examination to become a doctor. For this exam Ginko submitted applications repeatedly, but all were rejected solely because she was a woman. Ginko once again had to walk a road of hardship, but her will to see her original resolve through was firm, and tearful efforts continued to overcome the final hurdle. Her siblings had opposed her wish to study medicine from the start. Having pushed past that and come this far, giving up now was utterly impossible for Ginko. This was precisely the hard road that pioneers who open new paths must walk. Of this time, Ginko wrote in "Jogaku Zasshi" No. 354: "...My application was submitted again and rejected again. I think I have never been in such straits since I was born. Perhaps there will never be such again. It was just the end of early autumn, when chrysanthemums at the hedge spread like embroidery and the tips of ten thousand branches wore brocade; the sky was cold and frost pressed on the roof tiles, but to whom could I complain that my clothes were thin? Under the full moon and autumn wind, alone and melancholy, I climbed the high hill; smoke rose, bustling from tens of thousands of homes in the capital, yet there was no one to offer me a single meal. ...The jeers of relatives and friends welled up against me once more, advance and retreat were both blocked, all my schemes exhausted. My flesh wasted and my bones dried, yet my spirit grew all the more fierce. Do you not see that a rock standing in the midst of the stream is precisely what makes the raging waves roll and swirl?" From this text we can see how Ginko had run out of options, but her desire to open a practice was firm, and it seems that as a last resort, if it absolutely could not be realized, she also considered obtaining qualifications abroad. Ginko's determination to open a medical practice was extraordinary, but we must not overlook that there were people who kept supporting and encouraging her to realize it. Thinking of it that way, although her first marriage failed, Ginko was a fortunate person blessed with good relationships. Takashima Kaemon, sympathizing with Ginko who was in a predicament after her practitioner's exam application was rejected, asked Inoue Yorikuni to introduce her to Nagayo Sensai, head of the Bureau of Health. Ishiguro Tadanori, who was also asked by Ginko, felt responsible too and went to the Bureau of Health to meet the director, who said women were a problem, and he pressed back, "Is there an article saying women must not become doctors? As long as there isn't, why shouldn't they be allowed to take the exam and, if they pass, be allowed to practice? If women are not allowed, it should have been written in: 'women shall not become doctors'." When entering Kojuin, Ginko too had searched through various books and found in a book called "Ryo no Gige" that Japan had had apparent female doctors since ancient times, and emphasized this; Takashima Kaemon asked Inoue Yorikuni to research historical facts about female doctors since ancient times, and gave Ginko a letter of introduction to Director Nagayo with this material attached. Moved by the passion of Ginko and her supporters, Director Nagayo arranged that "as long as she has the academic ability, there is no problem in permitting her to take the practitioner's exam." In this way the road ahead opened, and she took the first-stage exam in September 1884 (Meiji 17); of 4 female examinees, Ginko alone passed. And in March of the following year, she also passed the second-stage exam, regarded as difficult, with distinction. Ginko's greatness lies not so much in her success after opening her practice as in her achievement as a pioneer who got medical schools, which then forbade women, to allow her admission, opened the firmly shut door of the practitioner's exam, and cleared the path for women to advance in Japan's medical world. This great achievement will continue to shine brilliantly forever in our country's medical world. Moreover, the great Ginko opened a practice and, alongside it, was active in the women's movement and in spreading Christianity. She opened a clinic, but there were other practitioners and it was not very popular. Consequently she struggled to make winter house calls to far places. She called on influential people in the village and formed the "Shukutoku Women's Association", becoming its president and leading its activities. Its members were influential women of the town gathered together. There are no detailed records of the activities, but young members gathered on the second floor of the town office to be taught how to wrap bandages by her, and the members together once collected relief donations for crop failure in the Tohoku region. She founded the Setana Sunday School, and besides her, the wife of Mr. Takabayashi, a Christian who was then an elementary school teacher, also taught the children. Udagawa Nobumichi, pastor of Immanuel Church, also often appeared. Furthermore, missionary Roland visited Setana in years 30 and 33, and through Ginko's efforts Christianity had somewhat taken root