A Daughter of the Samurai

Author	Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
Language	English
Genre	Autobiographical novel[1]
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1925[2]
ISBN	978-1-646-79604-5
Text	A Daughter of the Samurai atWikisource

A Daughter of the Samurai is a 1925^{[n 1]}autobiographical novel byEtsu Inagaki Sugimoto.

Sugimoto was encouraged byChristopher Morley to write about her life inJapan.^[3] She was 51 years old and had been living in the US for over 20 years when she wrote the book.^[1] Her intention in writing the book, as said through the protagonist Etsu-bō, was to clarify the secret that was hidden from people in the East and the West:^[1]

Years passed, and Etsu-bō, the little girl who had listened to the story of the black ships and the red barbarians, herself went sailing on a black ship that moved without sails, to a new home in the distant land of the red barbarians. There she learned that hearts are the same on both sides of the world; but this is a secret that is hidden from the people of the East, and hidden from the people of the West.

— Etsu-bō, in Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto,A Daughter of the Samurai (1925), pg. 314

It initially was serialized in theAsia magazine before later being released as a book in 1925.^[1][4] A niece of Etsu's so-called "American mother", Florence Mills Wilson, had rewritten the manuscript prior to it being sent to publishers.^[1]

The full text ofA Daughter of the Samurai at Wikisource

The book consists of 32 chapters. It follows the immigration of Etsu-bō,author surrogate for Sugimoto, to theUnited States of America and compares the life of being a woman in Japan to in America.

A year prior to its publication, theImmigration Act of 1924 prevented the immigration of people from Asian countries into the US, fueled by "Yellow Peril" myth.^[5] Despite this, or because of it, the book was successful, with Setsuko Hirakawa stating the book's success was due to increasing western curiosity of Japan.^[1] It had sold 10 million copies by 1962.^[6]

Critic reviews, both contemporary and retrospective, have praised the book. Dorothy E. Guttmacher, writing for theBaltimore Sun, compared her withJoseph Conrad, stating her style displayed both "vividness and charm."^[7] Daniel E. Ahearne for theHartford Courant described the book as "pure pose-poetry".^[8] Richard G. Hubler for theLos Angeles Times described it as "a charming curtsy in print."^[4]

The book is commonly described as anautobiography or amemoir, however it is more accurate to describe it as an autobiographical novel as it is a work of fiction based on the actual events of Sugimoto's life.^[1]

It has been described as a "transnationalfeminist" novel which examines the lives of both Japanese and white women in the early 20th century.^[9] While admitting that American women are more "socially free" than Japanese women, Etsu-bō states they are the targets of male humor and disrespect in-contrast to the "subtle power" of Japanese women, whose role it is, as Etsu-bō explains, to manage the income and all expenses for the household, while granting their husbands pocket-money. Thus, they are financially educated, whereas she found that American women proclaim (sometimes with pride) to have no knowledge of financial matters.^[10]

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It has been translated into multiple languages, including a Japanese translation in 1943.^[1][11]

• 1925 books
• Autobiographical novels
• Books about immigration to the United States
• Books about Japan
• Books about the United States written by foreigners
• Books about women

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