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on Christianity were liberal in all respects compared with other girls' schools. In those days although girl students were prohibited from reading Makaze-Koikaze ("The Winds of Demons and Love") and Konjiki Yasha ("The Gold Demon") before the Ministry of Education intervened, girls in her school could read any type of novel as long as it was not in their classrooms.[1] Having experienced the benefits of prayer, the enjoyment of Christmas Eve, and the cultivation of ideals in the college chapel, Yoshiko became one of the group who would hide what is base and parade what is beautiful in man. When she came to Kobe she keenly missed her mother and home town, but in no time she forgot all these things and became more interested in enjoying her dormitory life than anything else. Living with a group of girl students who used to tease the cook by pouring soy sauce over the rice and protesting that the cook had failed to prepare delicious pumpkin for them, learning to say one thing and mean another according to the eccentric moods of their elderly house mother, how could they see things as plainly as girls who were reared in their own homes? Before Yoshiko knew it, she had been influenced by these tendencies--to be beautiful, to foster ideals and to be vainglorious--and fully shared all the merits and demerits of the girl students of the Meiji era.
- ↑ Makaze-Koikaze was written in 1903 by Kosugi Tengai for the Yomiuri Newspaper. Konjiki Yasha was written by Ozaki Kōyō, appearing in serialized form from 1897 to 1903 in the Yomiuri Newspaper. Both authors captured the fancies of young women by their refined styles and ornate illustrations.
