A Daughter of the Samurai

Her life was a bridge from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, from the time-hallowed beauty and rigidity of a samurai household to the disorienting, forward-looking freedoms of the West. --Janice P. Nimura, from the foreword.

This is the story of one woman's remarkable life successfully navigating two very different cultures—the first memoir of an Asian-American woman.

Beautifully told, this immigrant's account of an unforgettable journey is the story of a headstrong and empowered woman—a loyal wife, a widowed mother and a bilingual breadwinner—finding her way and finding her voice in a strange new world.

Follow in her footsteps and trace the remarkable trajectory of her life as she:

• Witnesses her father prepare and perform the ritual seppuku and her mother burn down the family home
• Bids an emotional farewell and sails across the ocean to marry a wealthy merchant in a new land
• Returns to Tokyo with her two daughters and mother-in-law, only to find her homeland just as alien as America, forcing her to reinvent herself again in order to provide for her family
• Returns to America with her children following the death of her mother-in-law

An international bestseller when it was first published a century ago, A Daughter of the Samurai emerges as a rare testament to a singular woman's resolve, strength, and endurance. This edition features a new foreword by 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist Janice P. Nimura.