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Concept
Ogino Ginko
Summary
was the first licensed female physician practicing Western medicine in Japan.
Ogino Ginko was born in Tawarase, in Musashi Province (present-day Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture). The Ogino’s were a respectable family as they had the responsibility of the headquarter of that area. She was the youngest of two brothers and five sisters.
She married in 1867 at the age of 16, in an arranged marriage, to Kanichiro Inamura. Ogino soon divorced her husband in 1870, after contracting gonorrhoea from him. The divorce had a major impact on her life, as her family was ashamed of having a divorced daughter affected by a venereal disease. Japanese society at the time looked upon divorced women with extreme disfavour, and furthermore, women affected by gonorrhoea were considered prostitutes, as it is a sexually transmitted infection.
After the embarrassment of having to visit male doctors with what was considered a “shameful” disease, she resolved to become a doctor herself, in order to help women in similar circumstances. In a women’s paper, she even described the inability of male doctors to tackle such a disease, highlighting how badly female doctors, as well as a more feminist culture, were needed.
In 1873, she moved to Tokyo to resume and complete her basic education at the school of Yorikuni Inoue, graduating in 1879 with full honours. This achievement was remarkable, as only 15 out of 74 female students from the school managed to complete the journey. In 1880, Ogino entered the medical school of Kojuin, becoming the first female student of the institution.
Afterward, she entered Tokyo Women's Normal School (present-day Ochanomizu University), which was at that time a private medical academy with an all-male student body. Despite all the prejudice and hardship, she managed to graduate in 1882. Still, it was only thanks to a series of petitions that she was finally allowed to take her medical practitioner's examination in 1885, with full marks. Shortly thereafter, she opened the Ogino Hospital in Yushima, specialising in obstetrics and gynecology to help women in their particular struggles.
Official source
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