[Two woman medical doctors of the Meiji era who came from the "Preservative District of Johnai Suwakohji Important Traditional Buildings Group", Kanegasaki Town, Iwate Prefecture].

Abstract

There is a historical group of samurai buildings called the "Preservative District of Johnai Suwakohji Important Traditional Buildings Group" in Kanegasaki Town, Iwate Prefecture. Two woman medical doctors (Misaho Aizawa and Mie Shiga, came from this district at the end of the Meiji Era (1910-1911). Misaho Aizawa was born in a minister's family in 1885 and studied at the Women's School of Dohshisha. After graduation she studied abroad at the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia and graduated from the college in 1910. Immediately after graduation she came back to Japan and got a medical license in Japan. She married a minister and was employed by the Red Cross Clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture. Mie Shiga was born in a samurai-family in 1880 and worked her way through various medical schools in Tokyo. After three failures to pass the national medical examination she received a medical license in 1911. In 1913 she opened her clinic of internal medicine & pediatrics in Utsunomiya. She made an effort to diagnose correctly and won patients' confidence. These two women had neither communication nor common points due to the differences of their family environment and their age. However, they were brought up by fathers who were enthusiastic for education and they made an effort to become woman doctors. Although women's social situation and the female compulsory education rate were low, and women's medical education was poor in the Meiji Era, Misaho Aizawa was able to enter the medical route under the influence of Christianity, and Mie Shiga through the assistance of her family and her samurai spirit.