was a Japanese psychologist, peace activist, and politician. She published under the name .
Early life and education
Kōra was born on July 1, 1896, in
Toyama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 993,848 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...
. She graduated from the
Japan Women's University
is the oldest and largest of private Japanese women's universities. The university was established on 20 April 1901 by education reformist .
The university has around 6000 students and 200 faculty. It has two campuses, named after the neighbo ...
in 1917. While a student, she attended the funeral of Tsuriko Haraguchi, held at the university. Haraguchi was a psychologist and the first Japanese woman to obtain a PhD; Kōra was reportedly inspired by Haraguchi to continue her advanced studies in psychology.
Like Haraguchi, she attended
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, earning her master's degree in 1920 and her PhD in 1922. At Columbia, she collaborated with
Curt Richter
Curt Paul Richter (February 20, 1894 – December 21, 1988) was an American biologist, psychobiologist and geneticist who made important contributions in the field of circadian rhythms. Notably, Richter identified the hypothalamus as a "biologic ...
to conduct her experiments on the effects of hunger. Kōra's doctoral dissertation, completed under the supervision of Edward L. Thorndike, was titled ''An Experimental Study of Hunger in its Relation to Activity.'' She was the second Japanese woman to obtain a PhD in psychology, after Haraguchi.
Career
After returning to Japan, Kōra worked as an assistant in a clinical psychiatry laboratory and taught at
Kyushu Imperial University
, abbreviated to , is a public research university located in Fukuoka, Japan, on the island of Kyushu. Founded in 1911 as the fourth Imperial University in Japan, it has been recognised as a leading institution of higher education and resear ...
. She was promoted to associate professor, but was met with resistance because she was unmarried at the time. She resigned from the institution in 1927 and took a post at Japan Women's University, where she became a professor.
Kōra was a member of the Japanese Christian Women's Peace Movement, and travelled to China. There, in January 1932, she met the Chinese writers
Lu Xun
Lu Xun ( zh, c=魯迅, p=Lǔ Xùn, ; 25 September 188119 October 1936), pen name of Zhou Shuren, born Zhou Zhangshou, was a Chinese writer. A leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in both vernacular and literary Chinese as a no ...
and
Xu Guangping
Xu Guangping ( zh, 許廣平, j=heoi2 gwong2 ping4, s=许广平, t=許廣平, 1898 – 1968), courtesy name Shuyuan (simplified Chinese: 漱园; traditional Chinese: 漱園), infant name Xia (simplified Chinese: 霞; traditional name: 霞), was ...
at a bookstore owned by the Japanese
Kanzō Uchiyama
, also known with his Chinese name (), was the proprietor of the Uchiyama Bookstore, whose frequent visitors were both Chinese and Japanese intellectuals before World War II. Uchiyama was a Christianity in Japan, Christian.
Biography
Early li ...
; shortly after, Lu Xun wrote a poem for her.
Kōra was elected as a Councillor in the
1947 Japanese House of Councillors election
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 20 April 1947.Democratic Party. She switched to the Ryokufūkai party in 1949, and served in the House of Councillors for 12 years.
In April 1952, Kōra attended the International Economic Conference in Moscow. Per a request from the US embassy, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had refused to issue passports to those who wished to travel to the Soviet Union; Kōra got around this restriction by travelling to Moscow through Paris, Copenhagen, and Helsinki. They met with vice-minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade Lei Rei-min and were invited to Beijing. At the time, the Japanese government did not recognize the legitimacy of the
PRC
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...
government. That May, she visited Beijing as a member of the House of Councillors Special Committee for the Repatriation of Overseas Japanese. The visit was a diplomatic breakthrough, resulting in the first PRC–Japan private-sector trade agreement (signed June 1, 1952) and the resumption of the repatriation of Japanese left in China following the end of World War II. Both praise and opposition greeted the trade agreement from Japanese legislators.
Kōra spent four days as a guest at the
Women's International Zionist Organization
The Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO; ') is a volunteer organization dedicated to social welfare in all sectors of Israeli society, the advancement of the status of women, and Jewish education in Israel and the Diaspora.
Histor ...
in Israel in April 1960.
Personal life
In 1929, Kōra married psychiatrist They had three daughters, including the poet Kōra was a practising
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...