Kei Okami
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was a Japanese physician. She was the first
Japanese woman Although women in Japan were recognized as having equal legal rights to men after World War II, economic conditions for women remain unbalanced. Modern policy initiatives to encourage motherhood and workplace participation have had mixed results ...
to obtain a degree in
Western medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
from a Western university (
Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
, USA).


Early life

Kei Okami was born as Nishida Keiko in
Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the eas ...
in 1858. She graduated from the Yokohama Kyoritsu Girls' School in 1878, and then taught
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
at the Sakurai Girls' School. She married an art teacher, Okami Senkichiro, at the age of 25. The couple subsequently traveled to the United States.


Medical training

In America, Kei Okami studied at the
Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded in 1850, and was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degree. The New England Female Medical College had been establishe ...
, receiving aid from the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church. After four years of study, she graduated in 1889, with Susan La Flesche Picotte. She thus became the first Japanese woman to obtain a degree in the Western medicine from a Western university.


Medical career

After returning to Japan, Kei Okami also worked at the Jikei Hospital (now the
Jikei University School of Medicine is a private university in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. ''Jikei'' (慈恵) means ''mercy and love'' in Japanese. Access The Nishi-Shinbashi Campus is about a 3-minute walk from Onarimon Station and about a 10-minute walk from Uchisaiwaichō Station b ...
hospital) at the invitation of
Takaki Kanehiro Baron was a Japanese naval physician. Early life Born in Hyūga Province (present-day Miyazaki Prefecture) as the son of a '' samurai'' retainer to the Satsuma domain, Takaki studied Chinese medicine as a youth and served as a medic in the ...
. She resigned because the Emperor, Meiji, refused her care because she was female. Then, she opened her own clinic, operating out of her home in Akasaka Tameike, Minato. Kei Okami worked in gynecology and also treated tuberculosis patients. Later, she closed the practice, and served as the vice-principal of Shoei Girls' school (a predecessor of the Shoei Girls' Junior and Senior High School), which was founded by her brother-in-law Kiyomune. In 1897, she opened a small hospital for sick women in partnership with a friend, Mrs. True. She also established a school of nursing in the same premises. The hospital closed after nine years, as there were very few patients, mostly limited to foreign female preachers. Subsequently, she retired due to
breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
. A devout Christian, she participated in missionary work in Japan, as well as teaching anatomy to nurses in one of Japan's largest hospitals.


See also

* Ogino Ginko, who graduated from the
Juntendo University is a private university in Japan. Its headquarters are on its campus in Bunkyo, Tokyo, for the School of Medicine and in Inzai, Chiba, for the School of Health and Sports Science. The university was established in 1838 for medical and in 1946 ...
in 1882.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okami, Kei Japanese women physicians Japanese Christians 1859 births 1941 deaths Minato, Tokyo People from Aomori Prefecture Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni