Clara Matsuno | |
---|---|
Born | Clara Louise Zitelmann 2 August 1853 Berlin |
Died | 1931 or 1941 Germany |
Other names | 松野 クララ, Matsuno Kurara, Klara Matsuno |
Occupation(s) | Teacher, musician |
Clara Matsuno (松野 クララ, Matsuno Kurara, 2 August 1853 – 1931 or 1941), born Clara Louise Zitelmann, was a German-born educator, a pioneer in the kindergarten movement in Japan.
Clara Louise Zitelmann was born and educated in Berlin,[1] the daughter of Carl Friedrich Zitelmann and Emma Pauline Ulrike Zitelmann.
In 1876,[2] Matsuno became the first head teacher at the first kindergarten in Japan, with Froebel-inspired methods emphasizing outdoor play, puzzles, songs and games.[3][4] The school's principal, Shinzo Seki, translated for her, as she did not speak Japanese upon arrival in Japan.[5] She was also a teacher-training instructor at the Tokyo College of Education for Women from 1876 to 1881. She also taught English and German, and gave piano lessons for the Imperial Household Agency.[1][6]
Clara Louise Zitelmann married Hazama MatsunoUeno in 1876; the couple met in Berlin, where Matsuno was studying forestry.[1] They were the first German-Japanese couple married in Japan; she became a Japanese citizen by marriage. They had a daughter, Frieda Fumi, who died in 1901, at age 24. Matsuno's husband died in 1908; for a time she lived with her sister and sister-in-law in Japan. She died in Germany in 1931, aged 77 years; some sources give her death date as 1941.
(松 野 礀) inThe novel Ein Adoptivkind: Die Geschichte eines Japaners (1916) by Katharina Zitelmann[7] In 1976, the Japanese post office released a postage stamp honoring Clara Matsuno on the centennial of her founding the kindergarten program at the Tokyo College of Education for Women. There is a monument honoring Matsuno in the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.
is based in part on Clara Matsuno's life.