A Daughter of the Samurai

A Daughter of the Samurai (1925) is an autobiography by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, born in Japan and sent to the United States for an arranged marriage with a Japanese merchant. Raised in a family of samurai officials, she gained a unique perspective on Japanese life that shaped her literary career and outlook as a professor at Columbia University.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2022
Publisher: West Margin Press

A Daughter of the Samurai, a captivating autobiography penned by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, delves into the life of a young woman born in Japan and sent to the United States to fulfill an arranged marriage with a Japanese merchant. Raised in a family whose prominence had waned towards the end of the feudal era, Sugimoto acquired a distinctive perspective on Japanese society, which would profoundly influence her literary career and outlook as a professor at New York's Columbia University.

Japan, often described by foreigners as a land of sunshine and cherry blossoms, holds a unique allure. In the province of Echigo, where Sugimoto's home was situated, winter would typically commence with a heavy snowfall that persisted steadily until only the thick, round ridge-poles of our thatched roofs remained visible.

Born and raised in a northern province of Japan, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto hailed from a family of high-ranking samurai officials. Initially destined to serve as a priestess, her life took an unexpected turn when her brother eloped and departed for America. This unexpected turn of events left her father's financial stability in jeopardy, and he relied heavily on his children to secure their family's future. Consequently, he arranged for his daughter's marriage to a prosperous merchant residing in Ohio, necessitating her journey to Tokyo to study at a Methodist school. Subsequently, she embarked on the arduous crossing of the ocean to begin a new life in America.

Presented in a beautifully designed cover and meticulously typeset manuscript, this edition of Setsuko Hirakawa's A Daughter of the Samurai stands as a classic of Japanese American literature, reimagined for contemporary readers.

Dimension: 203 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781513133331