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Mary P. E. Nitobe and Japan George M. Oshiro* Though all Japanese today would recognize Inazo Nitobe, whose portrait adorns the 5000-yen bill, few would know his wife, Mary Patterson Elkinton Nitobe (1857-1938). Ofthe many biographies written about her husband Inazo, only one, which was printed for private circulation, gives much attention to her. She appears in mostbooks as his "silentpartner." But her existence as InazoNitobe's wife was profoundly important forhim, and it can be rightly argued that he could not have become the famous person he did had he not been married to her. It is high time, I feel, to give some attention and thought to this remarkable woman. Family Background and Early Life Mary Elkinton was a seventh-generation American Quaker. Family records deposited at the Swarthmore College library show an early ancestor , George Elkinton, coming to America from England in 1677 as an indentured servant. After obtaining his freedom, he acquired land west of the Delaware river. His descendants flourished in the area. Joseph Elkinton (1794-1868), Mary's grandfather, was one of them. Joseph Elkinton was an idealistic man who spent sixteen years ofhis life teaching Seneca Indians in New York the ways ofthe new civilization that was intruding into their traditional life style. He was successful in his tasks and was initiated as a member of the tribe. After his marriage to Mary's grandmother, Joseph moved to Philadelphia where he started a business making soap and candles. His son, Joseph Scotton—Mary's father— inheritedthebusiness, and expanded it graduallyuntil, atthe time ofMary's birth, it appeared to have been quite successful. Mary was born on August 14, 1857, the first child of Joseph Scotton (1830-1905) and his wife Malinda Patterson (1830-1920), who came from a family of Quakers who had settled down in Ohio. She was followed by Joseph, born in 1859; William, born in 1860, and Alfred, born in 1863. Mary and her three brothers grew up in a comfortable home near the waterfront in downtown Philadelphia. The Elkintons were orthodox Quakers, and Mary grew up in the simple ways befitting a 1 9th century Quaker lady. She attended the Philadelphia Friends' Select Schools, and then spent a year, 1871-1872, when she was *George Oshiro is Professor ofJapanese History at Obirin University in Tokyo. A version of this article appeared in Language and Gender, a collection of essays published by Obirin University in 1995 and privately circulated. QuakerHistory Mary P. E. Nitobe and her husband, dressed to go to Imperial Palace on New Year's Day, 1916, their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Mary P. E. Nitobe and Japan fourteen, at Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school outside Philadelphia . Records from that school reveal that for a few months in 1 874-75 Mary served as an assistant teacher. A letter from the school archivist mentions too that she was a charming lady who was popular with the young men. Being an only daughter of a strict father, her life must have been a carefully sheltered one. Before her meeting with Inazo, she apparently had "a couple of engagements" which, family records tell, were broken up by her father. Joseph Scotton did not think these men suitable for his precious daughter. Meeting and Marriage to Inazo Nitobe Mary met Inazo Nitobe at a social gathering in Philadelphia in 1886 while he was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Inazo and Kanzo Uchimura, an old friend from Japan, had become acquainted with the family of Wistar Morris, a prominent local Quaker business leader, at whose home the Philadelphia Friends Women's Foreign Missionary Association frequently met. At one such meeting, Inazo lectured to the women about Japan. During the tea party that followed, he met Mary, and she showed great interest in his talk. Inazo, after receiving a teaching appointment from his old alma mater, the Sapporo Agricultural School, left for Europe to further his study not long after the above meeting. Interested in keeping up their relationship, Inazo began corresponding with Mary. For three years, while in Germany, Inazo wrote Mary of his studies, his travels, descriptions ofpeople whom he met, and his future...

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