Toshi Miyagawa was born in North China in 1865 and adopted by John Gulick and his wife, two American missionaries who named her Martha Gulick. When the Gulicks first heard of Miyagawa, her parents were struggling to care for their three-year-old daughter, as she was recovering from a severe illness. Her father was occupied by coal mining during the day and her mother needed to return home to her family. The Gulicks adopted several children during their missionary trips in Asia, including Miyagawa’s sister Hannah, who later worked at a mission in Hawaii with John Gulick.
Miyagawa attended Kobe Home, later Kobe Women’s College, a Mount Holyoke sister school, graduating with their first class, the class of 1882, and continued to teach there until 1890. During this time she spent one year at Ferris Seminary, another Japanese women’s school. Around 1890 before leaving for Mount Holyoke, she became a Japanese citizen and was adopted into the Miyagawa family. She arrived in the United States in 1890 to get her B.L. in English literature from Mount Holyoke. During Miyagawa’s time at the Seminary, she remained in contact with her sister Hannah, sending letters and photos from her daily life.
After Mount Holyoke, she spent four more years teaching at Kobe Women’s College. In 1899, she married Reverend Yoshimichi Hinata and began teaching at Ferris Seminary. She had three children who lived into adulthood, including her only daughter, Atsu Hinata, who continued Miyagawa’s legacy by teaching at girls’ schools in Japan, including Ferris Seminary.