Showa Women's University

is a women's private university in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The university has undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs and five research institutes. It also contains affiliated schools that span from kindergarten to high school. Aside from the main campus in Setagaya, the university has two satellite campuses: Tomei Gakurin in Kanagawa, and Boshu Kaihin Gakuryo in Chiba. There is also an international campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The Setagaya campus is home to The British School in Tokyo Showa Campus. The university is heavily inspired by the Tolstoyan movement. The university was based on the principles of "love, compassion, and harmony" (Japanese: 清き気品, 篤き至誠, 高き識見) according teachings of Leo Tolstoy. The university's education system was inspired by Tolstoy's teaching style at his estate in Yasnaya Polyana. History The university's history can be traced back to the Association of Cultural Exchange (文化懇談会, bunka kōndan-kai), an intelligentsia group founded by poet Enkichi Hitomi (人見圓吉, Hitomi Enkichi, pseudonym: Tōmei Hitomi) that later evolved into Japanese Ladies' Society (日本婦人協会, Shin-fujin kyokai). In September 1920, Enkichi Hitomi and his wife Midori Hitomi (人見緑, Hitomi Midori) established the Japan Women's School of Higher Education (日本女子高等学院, Nihon Joshi Kōtō Gakuin) in Bunkyō Ward, Tokyo. The university aimed to create a new Japanese culture that supported the well-being of humanity by educating the next generation of women, who would lead the way towards progress. In his work Opening Remarks (開講の詞, Kaikō no kotoba), Hitomi encouraged students to "be a Light to the World," (世の光となろう, yo no hikari ni narou), which later became the university's official motto. The Showa Senior High School (日本女子高等学校, Nihon Joshi Kōtō Gakkō) was established soon after in 1922 as a five-year institution.