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Can you tell us about
Michiyo Tsujimura's childhood? |
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Michiyo Tsujimura was born on September
17, 1888. Her father was the principal of an eight-year (combined lower
and upper) elementary school in the town of Okegawa in Saitama Prefecture,
and her family took education very seriously. After graduating from upper
elementary school, she enrolled at Tokyo Prefectural Women's Normal School,
where women with academic ability and ambition were trained as teachers.
But Tsujimura enjoyed her studies too much to be satisfied with teaching
alone. From the beginning, she had hopes of studying at a university and
traveling overseas after she graduated. |
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Why did she decide
to become a scientist? |
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| Tsujimura (center) following her graduation from Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School in 1913. |
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At the Women's Normal School, Tsujimura excelled in the humanities
and was especially good at composition. But when she entered Tokyo Women's Higher
Normal School (now Ochanomizu
University) in 1909, she decided to major in science. Asked in later years
why she chose science, she answered, "All I remember is that I liked it. I had
liked plants ever since I was a child, so maybe that was why."
Graduates of Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School were required to enter teaching,
and Tsujimura did so for a total of seven years, at women's schools in Yokohama
and Urawa. Teachers were very well paid in those days, but Tsujimura had
her heart set on carrying out research in chemistry. In 1920 she resigned
her teaching post and went to pursue her dream at Hokkaido
Imperial University, on Japan's northernmost island, in the position
of an unpaid research assistant. |
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