Tanahashi Ayako

Ayako Tanahashi (; March 25, 1839 – September 23, 1939) was a Japanese educator and school administrator. She was a founder and first principal of Tokyo Girls' High School.

Early life and education Tanahashi was born in Osaka (some sources give Nagoya as her birthplace), the daughter of Shoyemon Ushioda. She studied Chinese classics, and married a blind scholar, Daisaku Tanahashi, when she was seventeen. Career

Tanahashi became a teacher at Nagoya Girls' School in 1872, at Tokyo Normal School in 1875, and at Peeresses' School in 1878. She founded the Kinsei Elementary School, and was principal of a private school. She worked on education projects with the Nagoya Municipal Office from 1899 to 1901. In 1902, she and her son helped to establish the Tokyo Girls' High School at Mita, and she was the school's first principal. founded in 1887. She was a co-founder of the Aikoku Fujinkai, or Patriotic Women's Society, in 1901, with Atomi Kakei, Miwata Masako, Shimoda Utako, and Yamawaki Fusako. In 1913, she contributed an essay, "High School Girls Then and Now", to a special issue of Chūō Kōron on the New Woman in Japan.

She was decorated with the 6th Order of Merit in 1911.

Death Tanahashi's husband died in 1893, Adrienne Moore, a western interviewer, visited with Tanahashi in her last year, and reported that "Keep active, be vain, and don't worry" was Tanahashi's formula for long life.