Kobe College

• Name — Kobe College • Native Name — 神戸女学院大学 • Motto — Love thy God, love thy neighbor • Established — 1875 • Type — Private • President — Ken Ii • City — Nishinomiya • State — Hyōgo • Country — Japan • Undergrad — 2,635 • Postgrad — 96 • Faculty — 84 full-time, 321 part-time • Campus — Suburban, 35 acres (0.1 km 2) • Mascot — None • Website — www.kobe-c.ac.jp

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

• 1873: Eliza Talcott and Julia Elizabeth Dudley, two Congregational missionaries from Rockford, the US as members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, opened a private school at Hanakuma-mura, Kōbe. • Illustration — Eliza Talcott (May 22, 1836-November 1, 1911) • Illustration — Julia Elizabeth Dudley (?, 1840-June 12, 1906) • 1875: The two missionaries founded a boarding school for young women so-called "Kōbe Home", on Yamamoto Street in Kōbe. • 1879: Kōbe Home was renamed Kōbe Girls' School; the following year it was organized along a five-year (high school) curriculum, unique at that time. The school changed its name to Kōbe Eiwa-jogakkō." • 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 Kobe College. • 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 university 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.

The college was originally located on Yamamoto Street in Kōbe, Japan. It is now located in Okadayama Town in Nishinomiya City on the Hankyu Train Line. The property was previously owned by the Sakurai family of the Matsudaira clan, 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, 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.

Dr. Vories designed for universities and many other educational institutes including Kwansei Gakuin University and Doshisha University in Japan, and Ewha Womans University 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. • Illustration — Science Hall 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 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.

The college exchanges students with overseas educational institutions. United States • Bowling Green State University • Chatham University • Rockford University • University of California, Irvine • University of Wyoming Canada • York University France • Centre for Applied Linguistics at University of Franche-Comté (Centre de linguistique appliquée de Besançon) United Kingdom • Anglia Ruskin University • Newcastle University • Oriel College, Oxford • Royal Holloway, University of London • Queen Margaret University • University of Bristol • University of East Anglia • University of Newcastle • University of Nottingham • University of York China • Guangdong University of Foreign Studies South Korea • Ewha Womans University • Duksung Women's University Philippines • Assumption College • Miriam College Australia • Deakin University • University of Queensland • University of the Sunshine Coast • University of Western Australia New Zealand • University of Waikato