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= A_Daughter_of_the_Samurai =
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Introduction
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'A Daughter of the Samurai' is a 1925 autobiographical novel by Etsu
Inagaki Sugimoto.
Conception
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Sugimoto was encouraged by Christopher Morley to write about her life
in Japan. She was 51 years old and had been living in the US for over
20 years when she wrote the book. 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:
It initially was serialized in the 'Asia' magazine before later being
released as a book in 1925. A niece of Etsu's so-called "American
mother", Florence Mills Wilson, had rewritten the manuscript prior to
it being sent to publishers.
Contents
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The book consists of 32 chapters. It follows the immigration of
Etsu-bō, author surrogate for Sugimoto, to the United States of
America and compares the life of being a woman in Japan to in America.
Reception
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A year prior to its publication, the Immigration Act of 1924 prevented
the immigration of people from Asian countries into the US, fueled by
"Yellow Peril" myth. 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. It had sold 10 million
copies by 1962.
Critic reviews, both contemporary and retrospective, have praised the
book. Dorothy E. Guttmacher, writing for the 'Baltimore Sun', compared
her with Joseph Conrad, stating her style displayed both "vividness
and charm." Daniel E. Ahearne for the 'Hartford Courant' described the
book as "pure pose-poetry". Richard G. Hubler for the 'Los Angeles
Times' described it as "a charming curtsy in print."
Analysis
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The book is commonly described as an autobiography or a memoir,
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.
It has been described as a "transnational feminist" novel which
examines the lives of both Japanese and white women in the early 20th
century. 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.
Translations
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It has been translated into multiple languages, including a Japanese
translation in 1943.
!Language !Title !Translator(s) !Publisher !Year
|French |'Une fille du samouraï' |René de Cérenville |Editions Victor
Attinger |1930
|Swedish |1934
|German |'Eine Tochter der Samurai' |S. Fischer Verlag |1935
|Finnish |'Samurain tytär' |Häftad, Finska |1937
|Danish |1937
|Polish |1937
|Japanese |武士の娘 |Miyo Ōiwa |Nagasaki Shoten |1943
|Russian |Дочь самурая (Doch' samuraya) |Daria Loginova |Symposium
|2024
|Russian |Дочь самурая (Doch' samuraya) |Yulia Poleshchuk |Yandex
Books |2024
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Daughter_of_the_Samurai
