A Daughter of the Samurai (1925) is an autobiography by Etsu Inagaki
Sugimoto. Born in Japan, she was sent to the United States to fulfill an
arranged marriage with a Japanese merchant. Raised in a family whose
prominence had fallen toward the end of the feudal era, Sugimoto gained
a unique perspective on Japanese life that would shape her literary
career and outlook as a professor at New York's Columbia University.
"Japan is often called by foreign people a land of sunshine and cherry
blossoms. [...] In the province of Echigo, where was my home, winter
usually began with a heavy snow which came down fast and steady until
only the thick, round ridge-poles of our thatched roofs could be seen."
Born and raised in a northern province of Japan, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
came from a family of high-ranking samurai officials. Originally
prepared to live as a priestess, Etsu became the center of her father's
attention when her brother eloped and left for America. No longer
financially stable, Sugimoto's father depended on his children to secure
their family's future. Soon, he arranged for his daughter to marry a
successful merchant living in Ohio, sending her to Tokyo to study at a
Methodist school. Then, she made the journey across the ocean to start a
new life in America. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Setsuko Hirakawa's A
Daughter of the Samurai is a classic of Japanese American literature
reimagined for modern readers.
