Dialect Fight: Seti Kato, the First Female Student at Hokkaido University

Told that she was "too beautiful to be a scientist,"
she succeeded as a renowned chemist;
Seti Kato, the first female student at Hokkaido University.

She was rejected by Hokkaido University once,
but she sat in protest
and won her admission.

She carried out a sit-in
to demand an audience with the president
who had promised to "open the doors to women,"
but...

Well, how did Seti's eloquence fare?

This is a story from her later years,
when Seti lived near Toshimaen in Tokyo
(now the Harry Potter Studio Tour).
She lived there.

Her neighbors
thought of her as
"someone who is a bit hard to talk to."

The reason was
that she was a little hard of hearing,
so it was difficult to get through to her,
and she had a loud voice.

Also, because she was a female doctor,
she was distinguished
and intimidating.

On top of that,
she spoke with a Tohoku dialect (Shonai dialect), so
what she was saying
was hard to understand.

Since it hadn't faded even 30 years after entering Hokkaido University,
she must have been quite the dialect-speaking girl
when she was sitting in protest
demanding an audience with the president.

Even if she wanted to complain,
would the conversation have even made sense?

On the other side, standing his ground, was
Hokkaido University's first president, Shosuke Sato.

Now, one might think the president would have been troubled,
but—

This president
spoke an even stronger Tohoku dialect (Hanamaki dialect) than Seti.

He had a reputation for being a poor lecturer, and the reason was
"His 'Zuzu' dialect was so thick that he couldn't distinguish between 'ji' and 'zu,'
and you couldn't understand him
unless you deciphered his notes later."

In the end, it seems Seti and the president
were well-matched
in their dialect fight.

By the way,
President Sato,
was said to be as fluent in English as a native speaker,
which is
quite surprising, isn't it?

Contrary to his lectures,
his speeches
were legendary for having
a god-like power.

On top of that,
he had a tall stature uncommon for a Japanese person,
and deep-set features.

It is said that when he gave speeches in English,
he would receive
squeals of delight from white women.

Unfortunately,
there is no record of
what kind of conversations
Seti and President Sato had.

My impression is that
Seti did not seem to have
much of a favorable opinion of President Sato.

However,
President Sato
was proud of Seti, who achieved excellent results at Hokkaido University and continued her research at RIKEN,
as the "pioneer of female students."

In fact,
President Sato was a
genuine advocate for women's education.

There is no doubt
that he was one of the people
who determined Seti's fate.

(The title image has been colorized and upscaled by AI.
The illustrations were generated by AI.)