Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts

In 1875, Protestant educator Niijima Jō (Joseph Hardy Neesima) founded Doshisha Eigakko (Doshisha English School: the present Doshisha University) as a boys' school, receiving a helping hand from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

The following year, Niijima Jō's wife, Niijima Yae, and the American missionary Alice J. Starkweather opened a Joshi-juku (small girls' school) at the former residence of Yanagiwara family (a division of Fujiwara clan) on a site within the grounds of the current Kyoto Gyoen National Garden (Kyoto Imperial Garden). In 1877, it was renamed to Doshisha Bunko Nyokoba (Doshisha Branch School for Girls) and Niijima Jō became the principal. The school was soon renamed to Doshisha Jogakko (Doshisha Girls' School), and in 1878 it was moved to the current Imadegawa campus with the first self-owned school building built with financial aid from the Women's Board of Missions for the Pacific. American-trained nurse Hisa Nagano was an alumna of Doshisha Girls' School.

In 1930, while Matsuda Michi was dean, the girls' school became Doshisha Joshi Senmon Gakko (Doshisha Women's College), a three-year tertiary institution under the Senmon Gakko Rei (Professional School Ordinance).

After World War II, it became Doshisha Joshi Daigaku (Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts), and was chartered as a four-year higher education institution in 1949. The first graduate program started in 1967. A new campus, the Kyotanabe Campus, was opened in 1986, about 30 km to the south of the Imadegawa campus.