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.