Tohoku Gakuin University

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History of our university

The red brick school building is its symbol.
Shimazaki Toson takes up his position as a composition teacher.


Five years after the opening of Sendai Theological Seminary, in September 1891, a red brick school building was completed on Minamimachi Street. At this time, the school's name was changed to "Tohoku Gakuin," and a general education course was established.

At the end of the following year, 1887, Mr. and Mrs. D.B. Schneider came to Japan. It was here that the three men known as the "three founders" of Tohoku Gakuin—Oshikawa, Hoy, and Schneider—met.

In 1891, Sendai Theological Seminary was renamed Tohoku Gakuin and began offering general and higher education to students in addition to those dedicated to missionary work. As the educational system was steadily improved, a new red brick school building was constructed on the campus on Minamimachi Street. It was around this time that the up-and-coming poet Shimazaki Toson took up his post as a composition teacher.

After Oshikawa and Hoy, who had dedicated themselves to missionary work in Tohoku and laid the foundation for Tohoku Gakuin, left Sendai, Schneider became the second principal and implemented a series of reforms to the educational system, which formed the basis for the development of Tohoku Gakuin.

In 1905, the general education school building was completed in Higashi-Nibanchō, and the dormitory was completed the following year. Sendai Church, which could be considered the foundation of Tohoku Gakuin, built a magnificent new church building in the autumn of 1901 and played a central role in missionary work in Tohoku.

Red brick school building
The junior high school building, which was destroyed in the Great Sendai Fire of 1919, was rebuilt in Higashi-Nibanchō in 1922. It is commonly known as the "Red Brick Building."

Then, in 1919, Sendai was struck by an unprecedented fire, and the middle school building and dormitory were completely destroyed. In the midst of grief, Principal Schneider personally took the lead in rebuilding the school. As a result, a new school building was completed three years later, in 1922. The words "LIFE LIGHT LOVE" were inscribed on the facade of the new building. These three words have since become cherished symbols of the school's founding spirit and continue to be used to this day.