Ogino Ginko (1851-1913) was Japan’s first female doctor of Western medicine. After suffering humiliating treatment at the hands of male doctors, she set out to become a doctor herself, one who would provide compassionate, respectful care.
Ogino Ginko (1851-1913) was Japan’s first female doctor of Western medicine. After suffering humiliating treatment at the hands of male doctors, she set out to become a doctor herself, one who would provide compassionate, respectful care.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network I’m Grace Lynch and this is Womanica. Our trusty host, Jenny Kaplan, is feeling a bit under the weather so WMN producers, like myself, are stepping in.
This month, we’re talking about the women who’ve made important contributions to the world of health and wellness.
Today, let’s learn about Japan’s first female doctor of Western medicine. After suffering humiliating treatment at the hands of male doctors, she set out to become a doctor herself, one who would provide compassionate, respectful care.
Please welcome Ogino Ginko.
Ogino Ginko was born on March 3rd, 1851, just outside present-day Tokyo. Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate, a military government that had been in power since the 1600s. And society was largely patriarchal.
When Ginko was 16, her parents arranged for her to marry into a wealthy family. But the union was fraught. Ginko’s husband was unfaithful, and contracted gonorrhea. He soon passed it to Ginko.
Ginko spent the next two years in treatment. It was humiliating, with male doctors who were rude, and unsympathetic. In an interview, she described like this:
“This was the time when I first began to taste life’s bitterness…I began to recover and became well enough to stroll about the hospital, to visit other patients who were suffering from the same illness… We always sighed that being examined by a male doctor was always a misery.”
But the experience lit a fire in her, and she came out of it with a sense of purpose. She divorced her husband, and decided to become a doctor herself. Women, she believed, deserved to be treated by other women.
Her new path, though, was often lonely. Her family was unsupportive, and being a single, divorced woman in Japan came with a lot of stigma.
First, Ginko needed to complete her formal education. She earned a place at the Tokyo Women’s Normal School, and graduated in 1882.
She then approached the president of the Japanese Red Cross, and made the case that she should be allowed to attend medical school. With the help of Shimoda Utako, a women’s rights activist, Ginko got permission to sit in on lectures at a local school.
There, too, Ginko faced challenges. Students and professors alike harassed her. She had to petition over and over to be able to actually take the medical practitioner exams. But finally, in 1885, she succeeded. Ginko became the first female, licensed Western medical doctor in Japan.
Inspired once again by her own experiences, Ginko specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She opened Ogino Hospital, in Tokyo, and provided care for thousands of women.
Ginko also made sure to clear the way for other women who wanted to become doctors. She wrote influential essays and convinced the director of the National Hygiene Bureau –to permit any woman who qualified –to take the National Physician Licensing Examination. The same test that Ginko spent years trying to take herself.
In 1890, Ginko remarried. Her new husband, Yukiyoshi Shikata, was a clergyman in the Protestant church. Ginko became a devout Christian, too, and in 1894, she left her medical practice to join her husband in Hokkaido, where he was trying to start a utopian settlement.
Eventually, the utopia failed and Ginko’s husband died. In 1908,she returned to Tokyo, and spent the rest of her life practicing medicine.
Ogino Ginko died in 1913, at the age of 62.
All month, we’re honoring women who changed the landscape of health and wellness.
For more information find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Thank you for having me as your guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!