Ogino Ginko (荻野吟子, March 3, 1851 – June 23, 1913) was the first licensed and practicing woman physician of western medicine in Japan.
Ogino was born in Musashi province (present-day Kumagaya city, Saitama prefecture). She was married at the age of 16 to the son of the first director of Ashikaga Bank; she soon divorced after contracting gonorrhoea from her husband. After the embarrassment of having to visit male doctors with what was considered a ...
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Ogino Ginko (荻野吟子, March 3, 1851 – June 23, 1913) was the first licensed and practicing woman physician of western medicine in Japan.
Ogino was born in Musashi province (present-day Kumagaya city, Saitama prefecture). She was married at the age of 16 to the son of the first director of Ashikaga Bank; she soon divorced after contracting gonorrhoea from her husband. After the embarrassment of having to visit male doctors with what was considered a “shameful” disease, she resolved that she would become a doctor to help women in similar circumstances. After graduating from Tokyo Women's Normal School (present-day Ochanomizu University), she entered the Juntendo University, which was at that time a private medical academy with an all-male student body. Despite prejudice and much hardship, she graduated in 1882, and after numerous petitions, was finally allowed to take her medical practitioner's examination in 1885.
She opened the Ogino Hospital in Yushima, specializing in obstetrics and...
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