Niijima Yae

Niijima Yae (1845 to 1932), born Yamamoto Yae in the Aizu domain, was a Japanese educator, nurse and scholar of the Bakumatsu and Meiji era. The daughter of a samurai gunnery instructor, she took part in the defence of Aizu Castle during the Boshin War, which earned her the nickname Bakumatsu Joan of Arc. In 1871 she moved to Kyoto, where she worked as an instructor at the Kyoto Women School until she was dismissed under government pressure after becoming engaged to Joseph Hardy Neesima in 1875. She helped him run the Doshisha English School and, with the American missionary Alice J. Starkweather, opened a small girls school in 1876 that became the Doshisha Girls School. After Neesima died in 1890 she trained as a nurse, led nurses during the First Sino-Japanese War and later taught in nursing schools, and she also became a tea master of the Urasenke tradition.