History and Profile
Our School History
Our
school was founded by the Society of Jesus. This Catholic order was established
in 1540 by St. Ignatius of Loyola. From the beginning the Society of Jesus
has regarded the education of the young people as one of her most important
tasks.
At present she maintains our 550 universities and high
schools in many courtiers and has developed into one of the largest educational
enterprises in the world.
In this country the Society of Jesus has, besides Rokko,
three high schools, namely Eiko Gakuen in Kamakura, Hiroshima Gakuin in
Hiroshima, Taisei Gakuen in Fukuoka, and two universities, Sophia University
in Tokyo, and Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima. Among these,
Rokko, the oldest high school, was founded in 1937. She can be regarded
as a pioneer of Jesuit education in Japan. 
The foundations of our school were laid by our first principal,
Father Takemiya Hayato,S.J., who guided our school through her first 27
years. Father Takemiya steered our school through the stormy times of
the Second World War and the difficult post-war period with a steady hand
and with his eyes fixed on the future guided by the unchanging principles
of human values. Through the years the facilities of our school have been
set up one after another, e.g. the main building, the auditorium, the
gymnasium, and the sports ground. Some of them were changed, others rebuilt,
so that very little of the original school buildings remains today. 
But in front of the main building the huge stone monument
with the words of the founder, Father Takemiya "Let us think quietly
of things eternal" still expresses the spirit in which our school was
founded.
