[New 5,000 Yen Note] Trivia about Umeko Tsuda | 👉 If you know this, you're at a very high level
Here we go!
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The face on the new 5,000 yen note is a woman whose life story is far too dramatic to just dismiss as 'some amazing person.' That is Umeko Tsuda!
So,
let's start with a quick spec check.
・ Born in 1864, around present-day Shinjuku, Tokyo
・ Her father was an intellectual who worked as an interpreter for the Shogunate
・ In other words -> She was born into a family that was essentially a 'language elite reserve force'
...and this is where the real story begins.
[Childhood] At 6 years old, she gets blasted overseas
Wait, hold on. 6 years old?
At an age where you're barely thinking about carrying a school backpack, the talk of suddenly being sent to America came to Umeko.
...
Actually, this wasn't just any study abroad trip...
It was a government-sanctioned project!
It was a revolutionary plan for that time.
By the way, Umeko Tsuda's initial equipment was an English ability of 'yes' and 'no'... and that's it!
But she seems to have decided for herself that she 'wanted to go,' and she blasted off to America.
--
When I was 6,
I was just a 'I pooped!' shouting brat to my friends at nursery school...
Sorry, Non-kun.
What is going on with this person's brain?
[Study Abroad Edition] From zero English to mastering multiple languages
Umeko Tsuda was placed with a local family in America and was truly raised there.
English was mastered. It seems she even went on to learn
French, Latin, mathematics, physics, and astronomy...
...The amount of studying was on a level far beyond a sports club training camp.
[After returning home] Japan 11 years later was...
She returned home at 17. She thought, "Time to take Japan by storm!" but—
No, that's way too fatal! lol
And then, adding insult to injury.
・The study abroad program was gone
・No job was prepared for her
・The women around her were already married
Society at the time: "Women? You'll end up getting married, right?"
Umeko: "...Excuse me?"
...This temperature difference is probably more brutal than you'd imagine.
[Awakening] "This won't do" - Awakening to her mission
Umeko Tsuda, who returned home and was hit by reality
・Japanese language, almost reset
・Job, not prepared
・Society, pressure of "Women should just get married, right?"
Normally, what would happen in this situation?
It's normal to say, "Oh, I can't do this. I'm going back to America." That's the average person. That's me.
In fact, she had an escape route.
The family that took care of her in America—
"Come back. You can live here," they told her.
But she said,
👉"I will stay in Japan"
And the reason was heavy, too.
👉 Since I studied abroad on the country's money...
——
......Huh? Seriously? She was 17, right?
My 17 was just playing Smash Bros with Non-kun and
"Kirby is the strongest"saying things like that and beating people up every day...
[Re-study Abroad Edition] Back to America -> Becoming a serious researcher
After working hard in Japan for a few years, Umeko-san still couldn't make society the way she wanted.
"Just knowing English isn't enough"
"I need to have a proper field of expertise"
To evolve from a language elite to a researcher, she went to America again at 24, and this time she majored in biology at university.
The result...
Her paper on frog development research was evaluated, and
👉 she reached the level of the first international paper publication by a Japanese woman.
...
A monster of effort, indeed.
[Serious Mode] Getting serious about building a school
And then, finally, the awakening event!!
-- Abandoning what was a top-tier stable career at the time, in 1900,
she founded a school for women.
This would later become
👉 Tsuda University!!!!
The first class had only 10 students, but 8 years later, it grew to over 150!
A perfect example of a successful startup.
[Humanity] Rejecting "all" marriage proposals
Her ideas were simple, but revolutionary for the time.
This is common sense now, but back then, it was a bombshell statement.
Even so, Umeko Tsuda...
...
👉 "Create an environment where women can learn"
👉 "Raise the status of Japanese women"
With that,
she contributed to building a society for women with the intensity of dedicating her entire life to it.
As such a high-spec individual, she received many marriage proposals, but she turned them all down and cut marriage out of her life for the sake of her purpose.
"Please do not talk to me about marriage. I am sick of it."
There is even an episode where she wrote this in a letter.
An aside. A mysterious urban legend.
And finally, a horror story lol
Actually, it's said that people who visit her grave...
1st time → Cannot get married
2nd time → Will get divorced
3rd time → Curse is lifted
I mean, what kind of system is that? That's the urban legend lol
It probablyoriginated from the image of her as someone who remained singlelol
By the way, Umeko Tsuda's father, Sen Tsuda, was a shogunate interpreter who had experience traveling abroad, and it seems hetraveled with "Yukichi Fukuzawa"at that time! In other words, it means Umeko grew up in an environment indirectly connected to Yukichi Fukuzawa.
...Yukichi, who also had connections to Eiichi Shibusawa.
[Summary] Why is Umeko Tsuda on the 5,000 yen note?
Here is the conclusion.
👉 She built the path for women's education from scratch
👉 She brought world-class learning back to Japan
👉 She built schools and changed the system itself
👉 Her way of life itself is a role model
Huh?
"The face of the 5,000 yen note? Isn't that actually not enough?"
And with that... The End!
Thank you for reading until the end.
