On January 1, 1891, an extraordinary wedding took place at the Friends Meeting House at Fourth and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. The next day's Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its front page with the headline: "Weds and Oriental Husband: Mary Patterson Elkinton, Quakeress, Marries Inazo Nitobe, Japanese -- A Young Woman's Sacrifice for Love's Sweet Sake." As the newspaper's wording implied, a cross-cultural, interracial marriage of this sort was rare at the time, the "sacrifice" involved Mary's determination to live with her husband in distant Japan.
Inazo Nitobe was a member of a remarkable generation of dedicated young Japanese who sought to contribute to the modernization of Japan in the Meiji era. Born in 1862 into the samurai class, his family spearheaded the economic development of northern Japan through land reclamation projects. In 1883, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, expressing his own life's goal with the phrase, "I wish to be a bridge across the Pacific," transmitting Japanese culture to the West and Western culture to Japan in the name of mutual understanding, cooperation, and progress.
In 1884, Nitobe took a leave of absence from his school and matriculated at Johns Hopkins University, where his classmates included Woodrow Wilson and John Dewey. He became a convinced Quaker, strongly valuing the Quaker simplicity and earnestness -- values he associated with his own samurai ethos. While speaking at the Friends Foreign Missionary Society, on what is now the campus of Friends Central School, he met Mary Patterson Elkinton, who was deeply involved in issues pertaining to women's welfare and rights, and impressed by Nitobe's comments on women's education in Japan.
Mary Patterson Elkinton was born in 1857 to a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia at 325 Pine Street. She was educated at Friends Select School, and became very active in promoting education. Her parents had nothing but admiration for Nitobe, but objected to the marriage , not wanting their daughter to move so far away.
In Japan, Mary continued to be interested in education, and with a small inheritance established one of Japan's first evening schools, the Distant Friends Night School in Sapporo. Inazo taught at Sapporo, Kyoto University, and Tokyo University, headed the elite First Higher School, and served as the first president of Tokyo Women's Christian College. He aided two Japanese alumnae of Bryn Mawr University, Umeko Tsuda and Michiko Kawai, in establishing women's schools in Japan, and was a benefactor of the Friends Girls School in Tokyo. Among his many published writings was a biography of William Penn, published in 1894.
Nitobe's career in public service included a term as Under-Secretary of the League of Nations. In 1932, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Haverford College. He took ill and died in 1933, and recieved a state funeral in Tokyo. Mary continued to live in Japan, overseeing the Distant Friends School and helping to establish Japan's first Humane Society. She died in 1938.
Nitobe Inazo continues to be regarded as one of Japan's first and most prominent internationalists, and in 1984 his portrait was placed on the 5000 yen bill.
Interested in learning more about this couple and Philadelphia's unique relationship with Japan? Phila-Nipponica: An Historic Guide to Philadelphia & Japan, a bi-lingual collection of articles on the Japan-Philly connection published by the JASGP, is available for purchase in our online store!
|
