, abbreviated to KC, is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

non-sectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Many North American universities identify themselves as being nonsectarian, such as B ...

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...

located in

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 1985 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218,948 households and a population density ...

, Hyōgo,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Chartered in 1948, it is the first

women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male st ...

with university status in West Japan.

History

Since its foundation in 1875, Kobe College continues to provide a well-balanced education for women based on Christian principles. This is expressed in the school badge and color designed in 1885 by E.M. Brown, the third college president. The motif of the school badge is the hone

wort Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be Ethanol fermentation, fermented by the brewing yeast to prod ...

which expresses the harmony of "body," "spirit," and "soul." The school color is dark blue which expresses "peace" and "truth."

History

: 1873: Eliza Talcott and Julia Elizabeth Dudley, two

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

missionaries from Rockford, the US as members of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

, opened a private school at Hanakuma-mura,

Kōbe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in the Kansai re ...

: 1875: The two missionaries founded a boarding school for young women so-called , on Yamamoto Street in Kōbe. : 1879: Kōbe Home was renamed Kōbe ; the following year it was organized along a five-year (high school) curriculum, unique at that time. The school changed its name to ." : 1885: A one-year college division was established. : 1891: A three-year curriculum in the college division initiated full-scale, higher education for women. : 1894: Kōbe Eiwa-jogakkō was renamed . : 1906: A Department of Music was founded. : 1909: A four-year higher education division was founded. : 1919: The higher education division was granted a permit to use the term in its Japanese name. : 1920: Charlotte B. DeForest, the president of Kobe College, discussed the incorporated entity for fundraising to support the construction of a new campus, which is now on Okayama. As an independent organization, the Kobe College Corporation is incorporated in Illinois, U.S.A.

Kobe College graduate school

: 1933: The new campus is dedicated to Okayama, Nishinomiya, and Hyōgo Prefecture. : 1965: A graduate course was established with two specialties: English literature and sociology. : 1989: English literature specialty was installed. : 2002: A course was established in comparison

culturology Culturology or the science of culture is a branch of the social sciences concerned with the scientific understanding, description, analysis, and prediction of cultures as a whole. While ethnology and anthropology studied different cultural practice ...

specialty in the last part of a doctor. Original-Site-of-Kobe-College-20130102

Campus

The college was originally located on Yamamoto Street in Kōbe, Japan. It is now located in Okadayama Town in

City on the

Hankyu , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho G ...

Train Line. The property was previously owned by the Sakurai family of the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

, a branch to the Shōgun family. The original main buildings managed to withstand the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake of 1995 with far less damage than many recently built structures. When the college was relocated to the present Okadayama campus in 1933, Dr.

William Merrell Vories Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi, also known as ; born William Merrell Vories (October 28, 1880 – May 7, 1964), was an educator, architect, entrepreneur, Christian lay missionary, and founder of the Omi Mission. Born in the United States, he later ...

, the leader of the Omi Mission and renowned architect, designed the original buildings in accordance with the key principle: an architect's happiness lies in building beautiful buildings and bringing happiness to their users. The architectural design on campus reflects this belief. The southern Mediterranean style buildings with ivory colored walls and bronze-colored tile roofs were reputed to be the most magnificent in the country.

Architecture

Dr. Vories designed for universities and many other educational institutes including

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 underg ...

and

Doshisha University , also referred to as , is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1875, it is one of Japan's oldest private institutions of higher learning, and has approximately 30,000 students enrolled on four campuses in Kyoto. It is one of Japa ...

in Japan, and

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

in Seoul, South Korea. Main halls on the college's campus are unique among other such architecture as they have been designated as the important cultural properties by the Japanese government in 2014, while a few of Vories' architectures are registered as tangible cultural property. Vories kc 02

Roofs: roof tiles on the original Vories buildings are so unique in color and shape that it was very difficult to restore the roof after the 1995

Great Hanshin earthquake The Great Hanshin Earthquake (, ) occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region of Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 o ...

in Kōbe. Floors: Similarly, unlike most Japanese universities built around the same period, the floors are set with cut marble reflecting the architect's concept that those floors would absorb heat better and keep cooler temperatures in the summertime. Further, the floors have a convex surface, or the edges of the floor is sloped so that cleaning would be easier.

Students

There are 2,624 students on campus and 624 of them are freshmen. Kobe College has five departments: English, general culture, music, psychology, and Biosphere Sciences. Students, especially those who belong to the general culture department, can learn a wide range of subjects in the first two years to find their interests and decide what to study in the next two years. At Kobe College, students can study in small classes; they can focus on their study and the relationship between students and teachers can be much closer. Most of the students are from the Kansai area which spans from Kōbe to Osaka and extends to Kyoto cities; however, there are some students who are from western Japan or other parts of Japan, and the college offers Mary and Grace Stowe Dormitories on campus for them with 179 single rooms. Other students stay in apartments along the Hankyu Line. The college has accepted international students. Over 10 students from abroad are studying on campus this year. The college has exchange programs with overseas universities. Inbound students come from Australia and the United States. Every year outbound Kobe College students are sent over to the partner universities and affiliated Institutions. Requirements for the undergraduate students are 124 credits over four years to complete the course. While they focus on studying, they enjoy other activities outside of school: for example, sports, music or art classes, group activities, and a part-time job. The rate of employment at popular companies is the highest among women's colleges in Kansai or Kyoto-Osaka-Kōbe metropolitan area. The rate of employment in 2006 was 98.1%. Psychology students had 100% employment.

Affiliated Institutions

The college exchanges students with overseas educational institutions.

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* Centre for Applied Linguistics at University of Franche-Comté (Centre de linguistique appliquée de Besançon)

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* University of Newcastle *

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* Duksung Women's University Program since June 2009.

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* Assumption College *

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References

Bibliography

* Noriko Ishii, “Crossing Boundaries of Womanhood: Professionalization and American Women Missionaries' Quest for Higher Education in Meiji Japan,” ''Journal of American and Canadian Studies'' 19 (2001): 85–122. * *

External links

www.kobe-c.ac.jp
{{authority control Universities and colleges in Hyōgo Prefecture Christian universities and colleges in Japan Private universities and colleges in Japan Women's universities and colleges in Japan Universities and colleges established in 1948 Registered Monuments of Japan 1948 establishments in Japan Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia Nishinomiya