A Daughter of the Samurai

"A bestseller when it was first published in 1925, A Daughter of the Samurai is the memoir of Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto: the youngest daughter of a renowned samurai, born durign Japan's last days of feudalism. Originally destined to be a Buddhist priestess, Etsu grows up a curly-haird tomboy in snowy Echigo, certain of her future role in her community. But as a young teenager, she is instead engaged to a Japanese merchant in Ohio -- and Etsu realizes she will eventually have to leave the only world she has ever known for the United States. Etsu arrives in Cincinnati as a bright-eyed and observant twenty-four-year-old, puzzled by the differences between the two cultures and alive to the contradictions, ironies, and beauty of both. Her memoir, reprinted for the first time in decades, is a tribute to the struggles of the first generation of Japanese immigrants and the unforgettable story of a strong and determined woman."--Page 4 of cover