Miwata Masako

, sometimes written as Miwata Masako, was a Japanese educator and writer who promoted girls' schooling in the Meiji era.

Early life and education Miwada was born in Kyoto, the daughter of a Confucian scholar. "I resolved that so long as I studied there was no reason why I should not become a superior scholar even though I was a woman," she recalled of her early training.

Career Miwada was an advocate for girls' secondary education in nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Japan. She taught in the household of a court noble, Iwakura Tomomi. She also taught at a teacher-training program, where most of her students were men.

Miwada moved to Tokyo with her son in 1887, and opened a new co-educational school there, this time focused on teaching English and mathematics as well as Chinese learning (kangaku). This school closed in 1890, when she began teaching at government schools. in 1901, she became a professor at Japan Women's College.

Publications Joshi no honbun (1894, A Woman's Place) Joshi shosei ron (1897, A Discourse on Woman's Conduct of Life) Joshi kyoiku yogen (1897, An Outline of Women's Education)

Personal life She married Miwada Mototsuna, a shrine priest and bureaucrat, in 1869. They had a son. Her husband became ill in 1875, and he died in 1879. Her son died in 1890. In 1893, she adopted one of her male students, Yamashita Tomogoro (1870–1965, also known as Miwada Motomichi). Her grandson Motonari Miwada was detailed at Ellis Island in 1942, before being repatriated to Japan that year. Her great-granddaughter Patricia Yamada married physicist in 1961.