Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey From East to West and Back

by Janice P. Nimura

  77 “Several milliners”: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1872.

  77 “furore”: Ibid.

  77 “We hardly dared to go out”: Ume Tsuda, The Writings of Umeko Tsuda [Tsuda Umeko monjo] (Kodaira, Japan: Tsuda College, 1984), 81–82.

  78 “could not be creatures of this world”: Ibid., 82.

  78 “The simplicity of these daughters”: “Various Notes,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 1872. The girls were not the only ones to be perplexed by foreign women’s fashion. In the early 1870s, a young man studying English in Japan expressed his frank concern for the practice of wearing corsets in an essay entitled “My First Impression of Foreigners”: “One thing which attracted my attention was the narrowness of the bellies [of] women, and I asked one of my friends who knew a little of foreign customs and manner[s] if their bellies were so narrow from their birth; and I was quite astonished when I was told that they [were] made so by their own will, and the narrower the bellies the more beautiful they were said to be. I can not understand even at the present day why those civilized countries of Europe and America retain such a foolish custom, because it may possibly do some harm, but I dare say it does not make any good even to the slightest possible degree. Moreover, I guess it is worse than the shaving of eyebrows and the blackening of the teeth of the Japanese women. It may be compared with the lessening of the feet of Chinese, so that they can not walk without the aid of some other person.” Takasu, “My First Impression on [sic] Foreigners,” William Elliot Griffis Collection, Box 108, Folder 135, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

  78 “to impart a classic inspiration”: “Japanese Wonders,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 21, 1872.

  78 “a splendidly executed group”: “Photographs of the Embassy,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 1872.

  78 “our Japanese visitors”: “Our Japanese Visitors,” Harper’s Weekly, March 16, 1872, 209.

  79 “The streets were so densely packed”: Kume, Japan Rising, 17.

  79 “Japan extends the hand”: “The Japanese Embassy,” Daily Alta California, January 20, 1872.

  79 “The Embassy from Japan”: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1872.

  80 The climax of the embassy’s stay: “Banquet to the Japanese Embassy and United States Minister C. E. DeLong at the Grand Hotel,” Daily Alta California, January 24, 1872.

  80 “the Great Britain of the Pacific”: Newton Booth, quoted in “Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1872.

  80 “Our Daimios”: Hirobumi Ito, quoted in “Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1872.

  81 “seems a repetition of the old story”: Horatio Stebbins, quoted in “Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1872.

  81 “Your visit to this country”: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 1872.

  82 “It is all quite opulent”: Kume, Japan Rising, 30.

  82 Wags insisted: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 31, 1872.

  82 They ate what was placed before them: Tsuda, Writings of Umeko Tsuda, 82.

  83 miniature statues of President Grant: “Legislative Banquet,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 1872.

  83 The festivities ended: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1872.

  83 “Far below, at the foot”: Kume, Japan Rising, 32.

  83 “Having journeyed through a realm”: Ibid., 36.

  84 Salt Lake City’s leading hotel: Dean W. Collinwood, Ryoichi Yamamoto, and Kazue Matsui-Haag, eds, Samurais in Salt Lake: Diary of the First Diplomatic Japanese Delegation to Visit Utah, 1872 (Ogden, UT: US-Japan Center, 1996), 42.

  84 “lascivious cohabitation”: Leonard Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Knopf, 1985), 372.

  84 “We came to the United States”: “Why Iwakura Declined to See Brigham Young,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 1872.

  84 “His power is equivalent”: Collinwood, Yamamoto, and Matsui-Haag, Samurais in Salt Lake, 47.

  85 “Mrs. DeLong, with the bearing”: “The Orientals,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 14, 1872.

  85 “The social customs”: Kume, Japan Rising, 40.

  85 “We had seen everything”: Ibid., 37.

  85 Warm Springs Bath House: Collinwood, Yamamoto, and Matsui-Haag, Samurais in Salt Lake, 43.

  85 From the windows: Shige Uriu, “The Days of My Youth,” Japan Advertiser, September 11, 1927.

  86 “Although one may tire”: Kume, Japan Rising, 42–43.

  86 At Omaha, memorably: Tsuda, Writings of Umeko Tsuda, 83.

  86 “Show yourselves”: “Our Oriental Visitors,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1872.

  86 “Their features are less intellectual”: Ibid.

  87 “intelligent, bright, and vivacious”: “Our Japanese Visitors,” Chicago Tribune, February 26, 1872.

  87 “Most of the stations”: Kume, Japan Rising, 48.

  87 “His city was not at its best”: Tremont House, like Chicago, was struggling, but the fact that it existed at all was something of a miracle. The hotel had, in fact, burned to the ground in the Great Fire. At the height of the blaze, its proprietor, John B. Drake, had had the presence of mind to buy the nearby Michigan Avenue Hotel, placing a brash bet that it would escape the inferno. Its current owner, sure it was doomed, was only too happy to sell. It was the only hotel on the South Side to survive. Drake renamed it New Tremont House until the old Tremont House was rebuilt on the original site two years later. Reference report by Chicago Historical Society library staff, July 2, 1974, Clipping Files, Chicago History Museum.

  87 “the wonderful recuperative powers”: “Our Oriental Visitors,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1872.

  87 “the first money contribution”: [No title], Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1872.

  87 “little almond-eyed gentlemen”: “The Views of Young Japan,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 1872.

  88 with drivers on each car blowing horns: Kume, Japan Rising, 54.

  89 “a Westerner born of Japan”: Ivan Parker Hall, Mori Arinori (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), 1.

  89 “The princesses”: “Our Japanese Visitors,” Evening Star, February 29, 1872.

  89 “What am I to do?”: Katharine McCook Knox, Surprise Personalities in Georgetown, D.C. (Washington, DC: author, 1958), 17–18.

  90 “It is said they parted”: “Georgetown Affairs,” Daily National Republican, March 2, 1872.

  91 Mrs. Hepburn: Coincidentally, Mrs. Hepburn’s brother-in-law, the medical missionary James Curtis Hepburn, was living at the time in Yokohama, where he ran a clinic and an English school. The Hepburn system for transliterating Japanese into the Roman alphabet is named for him.

  91 The scribe Kume: Kume, Japan Rising, 56.

  91 “the veritable ‘Japanese Tommy’ ”: “Our Oriental Visitors,” Evening Star, March 1, 1872.

  92 “The separation between white and black”: Kume, Japan Rising, 63.

  92 “Did you see those Japs”: Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873: New York: Library of America, 2002), 274.

  92 “the helmets worn by Roman warriors”: “The Japanese Embassy,” Evening Star, March 4, 1872.

  92 “upon which the Japanese were to walk”: “The Japanese Embassy,” Daily National Republican, March 5, 1872.

  92 “A confused idea”: “De Temporibus et Moribus,” Vassar Miscellany, April 1872, 47.

  93 “the members of the Embassy”: “The Japanese Embassy,” Evening Star, March 6, 1872.

  93 “It will be a pleasure”: “Japanese Embassy,” Daily National Republican, March 5, 1872.

  93 “Their mission is to be educated”: “Our Japanese Visitors,” Evening Star, February 29, 1872.

  94 “Ume, in particular, is quick”: Adeline Lanman to Hatsuko Tsuda, March 4, 1872, in Yoshiko Furuki, The White Plum, a Biography of Ume T
suda: Pioneer in the Higher Education of Japanese Women (New York: Weatherhill, 1991), 20.

  94 “I wish you to understand”: Hatsuko Tsuda to Adeline Lanman, April 17, 1872, in Furuki, White Plum, 20.

  95 “They don’t understand”: Joseph Niijima to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy, March 5, 1872, in Arthur Sherburne Hardy, Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891), 122.

  95 A gossip columnist: “The Japanese Ladies,” New-York Times, May 20, 1872.

  95 Miss Annie Loring: [No title], Daily National Republican, May 21, 1872.

  96 “First I am happy”: Ume Tsuda to Hatsuko Tsuda, May or June 1872, TCA, LT0002.

  6: FINDING FAMILIES

  97 “everything passed off pleasantly”: “Farewell Entertainment to the Japanese Embassy,” Evening Star, July 27, 1872.

  98 “The ordinary dinner parties”: Charles Lanman, unpublished manuscript for a biography of Ume Tsuda, TCA, IV-6-1.

  99 “If these girls are not taught”: Kenjiro Yamakawa to Charles Lanman, June 8, 1872, TCA, IX-C-1.

  100 The response was overwhelming: Edward J. M. Rhoads, Stepping Forth into the World: The Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872–81 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 49–50.

  101 Doctor after doctor: “The Japanese Girls,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 20, 1872.

  101 “I went to see Mrs. Van Name”: Rebecca Bacon to Leonard Bacon, July 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folders 162 and 164, YMA.

  101 “sunbeam from the land of the rising sun”: Charles Lanman, unpublished manuscript for a biography of Ume Tsuda, TCA, IV-6-1.

  103 “They don’t stand this climate”: Rebecca Bacon to Leonard Bacon, July 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 162, YMA.

  103 “Mrs. Hotchkiss suggests”: Ibid.

  103 Northrop’s original call: Rhoads, Stepping Forth, 64.

  103 “What we propose”: Leonard Bacon to Addison Van Name, August 12, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 162, YMA.

  103 “However I beseech him”: Kenjiro Yamakawa to Addison Van Name, August 17, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 162, YMA.

  104 “During their stay in the East”: “The Returning Japanese Young Women,” New-York Times, November 9, 1872.

  104 “My Dear American mother”: Ume Tsuda to Adeline Lanman, 1872, TCA, I-B-2.

  105 “The two Japanese girls”: Leonard Bacon, date book, October 31, 1872, BFP, Box 2, Folder 6, YMA.

  106 “Mrs. Bacon and my daughters”: Leonard Bacon to Arinori Mori, October 31, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 163, YMA.

  106 “I have all along regarded”: Theodore Bacon, ed., Delia Bacon: A Biographical Sketch (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1888), 310.

  106 “We expect them to acquire”: Leonard Bacon to Arinori Mori, October 31, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 163, YMA.

  107 “We were sorry to part”: Leonard Bacon to Leonard W. Bacon, December 9, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 163, YMA.

  7: GROWING UP AMERICAN

  108 “and if they are aware”: Leonard Bacon to Leonard W. Bacon, December 9, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 163, YMA.

  108 “Barnum’s great menagerie”: Leonard Bacon to Catherine Bacon, April 26, 1873, BFP, Box 9, Folder 165, YMA.

  109 “the Little Professor”: Carolyn Quick Tillary, A Taste of Freedom: A Cookbook with Recipes and Remembrances from the Hampton Institute (New York: Citadel Press, 2002), 59.

  110 “Cease your chatter”: in classmate Carrie’s autograph book, 1870–75, New Haven Museum, MSS 17, Box VI, Folder F.

  111 “I remember how”: Marian P. Whitney, “Stematz Yamakowa, Princess Oyama,” Vassar Quarterly, July 1919, 265.

  111 “Do you remember saying”: Yew Fun Tan to Catherine Bacon, September 18, 1874, BFP, Box 9, Folder 172, YMA.

  112 “Analyze the following sentence”: Annual Report of the Board of Education of the New Haven City School District, for the Year Ending August 31, 1874 (New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1874), 54–55.

  113 “As the mother is the guardian”: John S. C. Abbott, The Mother at Home; or The Principles of Maternal Duty (New York: American Tract Society, 1833), 2.

  113 “A single day’s absence”: “Private Day School for Young Ladies and Children,” pamphlet, 1876–77, New Haven Museum.

  114 In the summer: Sumie Ikuta, Uryu Shigeko: Mo hitori no joshi ryugakusei [Uriu Shigeko: One more female foreign student] (Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 2009), 51–61.

  114 One memorable evening: Ibid., 56.

  115 “The fear of the Lord”: Ibid., 66.

  115 “unruly spirits”: Katsunobu Masuda, Recollections of Admiral Baron Sotokichi Uriu, I. J. N. (Tokyo: privately published, 1938), 3–6.

  115 What a lovely boy: Ikuta, Uryu Shigeko, 68.

  116 “Ume is as talkative as ever”: Sutematsu Yamakawa to Catherine Bacon, December 20, 1874, BFP, Box 9, Folder 174, YMA.

  116 “Dear Mrs. Lanman”: Ume Tsuda to Adeline Lanman, 1872, TCA, I-B-3.

  116 “I dreamt that I went home”: Ume Tsuda to Hatsuko Tsuda, 1872, TCA, I-A-4.

  117 “I am always thinking”: Hatsuko Tsuda to Adeline Lanman, March 22, 1873, Dorothea Lynde Dix Additional Papers, 1866–87 (MS Am 2157), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  117 The Lanmans enrolled Ume: Richard P. Jackson, The Chronicles of Georgetown, D.C.: From 1751 to 1878 (Washington, DC: R. O. Polkinhorn, printer, 1878), 230.

  117 A neighbor child: Katharine McCook Knox, Surprise Personalities in Georgetown, D.C. (Washington, DC: author, 1958), 19.

  117 “She always decidedly objected”: Charles Lanman, unpublished manuscript for a biography of Ume Tsuda, TCA, IV-6-1.

  117 “A large number of premiums”: “The Collegiate Institute of Georgetown,” Daily National Republican, June 27, 1874.

  118 “If there is any merit”: Knox, Surprise Personalities, 34.

  118 Ume’s accomplishments: Ibid., 21.

  118 Kiyo Kawamura: Charles Lanman to Sen Tsuda, June 11, 1873, TCA, I'-1; Hatsuko Tsuda to Adeline Lanman, March 22, 1873, Dorothea Lynde Dix Additional Papers, 1866–87 (MS Am 2157), Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  118 “Mr. Yoshida said”: Ume Tsuda to Hatsuko Tsuda, January 20, 1875, TCA, I-A-7.

  118 “Ume herself was wont to say”: Charles Lanman, unpublished manuscript for a biography of Ume Tsuda, TCA, IV-6-1.

  119 “You asked me to write”: Ume Tsuda to Charles Lanman, May 21, 1875, TCA, I-B-4.

  120 “I think I have baptised”: Octavius Perinchief to Charles Lanman, July 12, 1873, in Charles Lanman, Octavius Perinchief; His Life of Trial and Supreme Faith (Washington, DC: James Anglim, 1879), 148.

  120 “Ume will be glad to know”: Sen Tsuda to Charles Lanman, July 10, 1875, TCA, I'-2.

  120 “You went away from us”: Koto Tsuda to Ume Tsuda, January 11, 1875, TCA, II-2-1.

  121 “O sir, she was a good child”: Charles Lanman, unpublished manuscript for a biography of Ume Tsuda, TCA, IV-6-1.

  121 “A kiss to your little Japanese ward”: Ume Tsuda, The Writings of Umeko Tsuda [Tsuda Umeko monjo] (Kodaira, Japan: Tsuda College, 1984), 510.

  121 “International Exhibition of Arts”: “Exhibition Facts,” Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia, 2001, http://libwww.freelibrary.org/CenCol/exhibitionfax.htm.

  121 “Have you been at the Centennial?”: William Dean Howells, “A Sennight of the Centennial,” Atlantic Monthly, July 1876, 92.

  122 “sooner or later lift the nation”: “The Centennial: The Government Exposition,” New-York Times, March 29, 1876.

  122 The Dreaming Iolanthe: Pamela H. Simpson, “Butter Cows and Butter Buildings,” Winterthur Portfolio, Spring 2007, 4.

  122 “Wherever else the national bird”: Howells, “Sennight,” 96.

  122 “Let the new cycle”: John Greenleaf Whittier, “Hymn Written for the Opening of the International Exhibition, Philadelphia, May 10, 1876,” Atlantic Monthly, June 1876, 744–45.

  122 “dragons, and mats”: “The Great Exposition,” Hartford Courant, May 18, 1876.
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br />   123 “a plesaunce for a palace”: “Characteristics of the International Fair V,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1876, 733.

  123 “The quaint little people”: Robert W. Rydell, All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876–1916 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 30.

  123 In contrast, when 113 young members: Edward J. M. Rhoads, Stepping Forth into the World: The Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872–81 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 109–13.

  124 “The first day crowds come”: Fukui Makoto, Harper’s Weekly, July 15, 1876, quoted in “Exhibition Facts—Period Testimony: Quotations & Random Thoughts,” Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia, 2001, http://libwww.library.phila.gov/CenCol/exh-testimony.htm.

  124 “The Main Building is one third of a mile”: Ume Tsuda to Miss Marion, July 18, 1876, TCA, I-C-1.

  124 The commencement exercises: Hillhouse High School graduation program, April 1877, Dana Collection 109, New Haven Museum.

  125 “I went to see Miss Abbott”: Rebecca Bacon to Catherine Bacon, July 8, 1877, BFP, Box 9, Folder 195, YMA.

  126 fifty dollars to cover expenses: Saburo Takaki to Leonard Bacon, August 2, 1877, BFP, Box 9, Folder 195, YMA.

  8: AT VASSAR

  127 “Most of us in Japan”: Stranger, “Japanese Children,” Gleaner, February 21, 1878.

  128 “I have never seen such a wonderful place”: Catherine Bacon to Leonard Bacon, June 5, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 161, YMA.

  128 “I considered that the mothers”: Moses Tyler, “Vassar Female College,” New Englander, October 1862, 8.

  129 “heated by steam”: Ibid., 5.

  129 “I think of Alice constantly”: Catherine Bacon to Leonard Bacon, June 5, 1872, BFP, Box 9, Folder 161, YMA.

  129 They were the first nonwhite: Nearly twenty years later, in 1897, a scandal erupted on campus when it was discovered that one Anita Florence Hemmings, an outstanding student who had been voted class beauty, was the daughter of black parents and had been passing as white for four years. Her identity was revealed just weeks before graduation, but she was permitted to receive her diploma. Though a trickle of Japanese women studied at Vassar beginning in 1912, the college would not formally enroll another black student until 1940.