Our History
ISSH is a part of the global legacy of our founder, St Madeleine Sophie Barat, and her dream to ensure educational access for girls and young women. Now, as a member of a network of 150+ schools worldwide and the only international Sacred Heart school, we take pride in our history and tradition to lay the foundation for a bright future.
As a Sacred Heart school, our history is long and illustrious, starting long before the Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) laid their eyes on the coast of Yokohama. The Society of the Sacred Heart was founded in Amiens, France, on 2 November 1800, by St Madeleine Sophie Barat. Its goal was to meet the educational needs for girls in a changing world. Liberal tendencies of thought, social upheavals, and innumerable civil revolutions made it increasingly clear that women would assume added influence and importance in the future.
St Madeleine Sophie Barat founded her educational system based on everlasting values, aimed at the development of the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and social qualities needed to meet the challenges of changing and future times, not just in the emerging 19th century, but also those to come. As a leader, she was both determined and flexible, assured in her beliefs and at the same time always astute in her observations and willing to change when appropriate. At a time of differences and conflict between political and religious leaders around her, St Madeleine Sophie Barat carefully navigated these waters to ensure her mission was carried out, founding the Society of the Sacred Heart and developing its work for the education of girls in academies and free schools throughout Europe.
For the sake of one child, I would have founded the Society. St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
Founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart
(December 12, 1779 – May 25, 1865)
In 1818, the first American convent of the Sacred Heart was established by St Philippine Duchesne, St Madeleine Sophie Barat's close friend and collaborator, in St Charles, Missouri, USA. At the same site, the first free school in the United States West of the Mississippi was also established. By 25 May 1865, the date of St Madeleine Sophie Barat's death, the Society numbered 3,500 Religious Sisters and 111 schools in Europe and America. Today, over 2,500 Religious Sisters conduct more than 150 institutes of learning in 30 countries.
Carrying the Mission to Japan: The Founding of the International School of the Sacred Heart
On 1 January 1908, four religious sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart arrived in Yokohama, Japan, with the mission of starting a school for children that embraced the spirit, beliefs, and goals of the Sacred Heart Order as deemed by the founder, St Madeleine Sophie Barat. They had been sent by Mother Digby, the Superior General of the RSCJ, to make a new foundation in Japan, following in the footsteps of the Sisters who carried the Society to South America, New Zealand, and Australia. None had been to Japan before, or knew much about it beyond stories that they had heard, but they were excited to spread the love of God through the service of education in a new land. They boarded a steamship called the Nikko Maru in December 1907 and set sail from Australia to Japan.
These four sisters, Sr Bridget Heydon, Sr Mary Scroope, Sr Mary Casey, and Sr Elizabeth Sproule, would go on to become the founders of the International School of the Sacred Heart. Their hearts were full of excitement as they sailed past the steep hills of Nagasaki and the famous port of Kobe until they reached their destination in Yokohama. They encountered more than one instance of culture shock—from the fact that no one was at the pier the day they arrived, because it was New Year's Day, to their first experience with tatami and futon—but, in the image of St Madeleine Sophie, they set out to build meaningful, positive relationships with their Japanese neighbours (and learned a lot about Japanese culture in the process!) They stayed in several houses in the Hiroo area and were joined by more RSCJ Sisters from England, France, Ireland, and Belgium before finally settling in the location of the current campus.
Excited to continue to the next step of their mission and share the love of God through education to the girls and young women of Tokyo, the Sisters worked for several months to prepare the first school in Japan. The school opened on April 13, 1908—now celebrated annually as our "ISSH Birthday"—with just four students who came to learn in English. The school was called Gogakko at first, meaning "Foreign Language School," with the Japanese Tokyo Sacred Heart School, known fondly as "Sankocho," being founded in 1910 and the vocational school which would eventually become the university being founded in 1916 to serve the local Japanese population. As the foreign language school grew and global dynamics shifted, it was renamed first to "Sacred Heart Women's Academy," in 1943, and then eventually, as the community welcomed more and more diverse families from around the world living in Tokyo who sought high-quality English-language education for their daughters, the school was finally renamed as the International School of the Sacred Heart in 1948.
The old Japanese style school building as printed in the 1954 yearbook.
Grade 3 homeroom in the old Japanese-style school
The Class of 1954 pose in front of the old Japanese-style school
Grade 6 students in the old Japanese-style school study music
From the First Sacred Heart School in Japan to the Only International Sacred Heart School in the World
In a rapidly globalising Japan, ISSH began construction of its first new building at the top of the hill in 1953, where it shared a campus with the newly established University of the Sacred Heart. ISSH's broad and diverse community outgrew that school building (which still stands as a part of the university), and a new building was constructed on the north side of the slope, beside the university, in 1968. This new, purpose-built facility was at the cutting edge for its time, with art studios, performance spaces, and generous outdoor and indoor athletic facilities for girls to explore their passions and grow in an atmosphere of wise freedom. Throughout its history, one primary goal of the Society of the Sacred Heart was to provide an education for women that would prepare them for success in an ever-changing world, and from its earliest days, ISSH became a hub for girls' education amongst the international community in Tokyo. Over 100 years and a very rich history later, the same vision holds true.
Grade 1 students pose on the steps of the school building constructed in 1953-1954
The "new" 1953-1954 construction, which features Western-style classrooms, in stark comparison to the old Japanese-style school building
The Class of 1960 in their classroom in the "new" 1953-1954 building.
Grade 8 students take their yearbook photo outside the new building in 1969.
The new building constructed during the1968-69 school year, which remains as the main entrance of ISSH to the current day.
Grade 5 students posing near the stairs to the third floor that still remain today in what is now the Middle and High School wing.
During the 2007–08 academic school year, ISSH celebrated its Centennial Year. The event was the celebration of the enduring heritage and traditions of the school and the time-honoured dedication to educational excellence within ISSH as it entered its second century. Since then, the school has evolved to meet the needs of 21st century education, such as a new purpose-built Kindergarten and Junior School building in 2011, and the implementation of key programmes to ensure our girls thrive in STEM fields, including competitive robotics teams in middle and high school. The school continues to thrive as an international school and community that for over a century has embraced diversity and provided an education that prepares young women from many countries and faiths for global citizenship.
Construction of the new wing in 2010-2011
The 2010-2011 addition: the Kindergarten and Junior School wing
Mrs Yvonne Hayes, Headmistress at the time, conducts the grand opening of the new wing
In 2023, ISSH welcomed a new Head of School, Sr Anne Wachter, RSCJ, who previously served in teaching and leadership roles at six Sacred Heart schools in the United States and Canada. The school continues to grow and change, developing new programmes to serve our students in the 21st century and raise them to be compassionate, thoughtful, global leaders. The goals that have driven the society for over 200 years have been at the heart and helm of the International School of the Sacred Heart for a century, and continue to guide us as we embrace change in the same way as St Madeleine Sophie Barat—with courage and confidence.
