’Daughters of the Samurai’

choi

Wingate Packard, ‘Daughters of the Samurai’: between Japan and America. Seattle Times, May 8, 2015.
www.seattletimes.com/entertainme ... -japan-and-america/
(book review on Janice P Nimura, Daughters of the Samurai; A journey from East to West and Back. WW Norton, May 2015)
   

Note:
(a) The English surname Packard is "from Middle English pa(c)k ‘pack’, ‘bundle’ + the Anglo-Norman French pejorative suffix -ard, hence a derogatory occupational name for a peddler."
Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.

(b) " '[T]hree Japanese girls spanned the globe and became fluent in two worlds at once — other to everyone except each other,' Nimura writes."
(i) span (vt): "to extend across <a career that spanned four decades>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/span
(ii) I did not know the meaning of “other to everyone except each other.” So I google it, within quotation marks.
(A) The short description of the book by Brazos Bookstore (located at 2421 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX 77005) is as follows:

"Three young Japanese girls are chosen by their empress to learn the strange ways of a foreign land, only to return after ten years to a home they no longer know—'other to everyone except each other.' Such are the incredible lives of Sutematsu, Shige and Ume, lived on the cusp of modernity, witnessing the collision of East and West, tradition and progress, history and the future."
www.brazosbookstore.com/article/book-list/dispatch-buyer-2

* This "everyone" is Japanese of those days (when the three young women returned). It means Japanese did not deem them Japanese--the women were foreign in Japanese eyes, but not to each other.
* other (adj):
"2:  not the same :  DIFFERENT <any other color would have been better> <something other than it seems to be>
* * *
5:  disturbingly or threateningly different : ALIEN, EXOTIC"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/other
(B) Thus Nimura's own sentence "other to everyone except each other” is NOT the same as what the following two sentences (which I pluck from the Web) are conveying.
* "These two were broadcasting their feelings about each other to everyone except each other."
* "They keep talking about how they love each other to everyone except each other"
(iii) The Japanese surname Nimura is likely 仁村 (The Chinese pronunciations of kanji 仁 are--there are two--"jin and "nin." But often I see atypical pronunciations of kanji when used as Japanese names.)

choi

(c) "Ume Tsuda was 6 when she left Japan. She lived with a well-connected, childless couple in Washington, DC. She returned to Japan at 17, and later returned to the US to study at Bryn Mawr College. In 1900, Ume founded a women’s college in Tokyo that eventually became known as Tsuda College 津田塾大学 [founding name: 女子 英学 塾 [pronounced ‘Joshi Eigaku Juku’]."
(i) The three daughters all came in 1871 and all returned in 1882.
(ii) Tsuda Umeko  津田 梅子
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuda_Umeko
(Originally named Tsuda Mume (津田 むめ), with mume or ume referring to the Japanese plum, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902)
(iii) 梅 【うめ(P); むめ(ok)】 (n): "(1) Japanese apricot (Prunus mume); Chinese plum"
Jim Breen's online Japanese dictionary
(A) It (Breen’s dictionary) says the kanji 梅 is pronounced principally as "ume" but ok as "mume."

* The Chinese pronunciation is "bai"--as in 観梅 (also pronounced "kanbai") and
kanbai 寒梅 【かんばい】 (n): "early plum blossoms [in wintertime]."
(B) Prunus mume
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_mume
(Although generally referred to as a plum in English, it is more closely related to the apricot; Prunus mume originated in the south of mainland China[8] around the Yangtze River)
(iv) Bryn Mawr College
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryn_Mawr_College
(at Bryn Mawr; Philadelphia; The phrase bryn mawr means "big hill" in Welsh)
(v) Welsh English dictionary
* bryn (noun masculine): “hill”
Department of Welsh, University of Wales, Lampeter
www.geiriadur.net/index.php?page ... amp;whichpart=exact
* mawr (adj): “big, large, great”

choi

(d) “Sutematsu Yamakawa [maiden name 旧姓: 山川; 1860-1919], 12, and Shige Nagai, 11, were placed with the families of Congregationalist ministers in New Haven, Conn. They later attended Vassar College. A brilliant student, Sutematsu gave a commencement address in 1882 about the unequal treaties between Japan and Britain — tactfully not criticizing her host country but implicitly doing so — that was noted in newspapers from New York to Tokyo. Soon after her return to Japan, Sutematsu married Iwao Oyama 大山 巌 [1842-1916], the middle-aged minister of war. Though academically gifted, she chose marriage to a powerful man as her path for instigating change.”
(i) ŌYAMA Sutematsu  大山 捨松
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōyama_Sutematsu
(as part of the Iwakura Mission)
(A) Iwakura Mission  岩倉使節団
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission
(named after and headed by IWAKURA Tomomi 岩倉 具視; In addition to the mission staff, about 60 students were brought along. Several of them were left behind to complete their education in the foreign countries, including five young women)

The ja.wikipedia.org says the Mission lasted from 1871-1873.
(B) Japanese English dictionary
* suteru 捨てる(P); 棄てる 【すてる】 (v): "(1) to throw away; to cast away; to dump; to discard; (2) to abandon; to desert; to leave; (3) to give up; to resign"

(ii) Congregational church
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregational_church
(formed on a theory of union published by the theologian Robert Browne in 1592)

Quote:

"The underground churches in England [which dissented and wanted to separate, from Church of England or Anglican church] and exiles from Holland provided about 35 out of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, which sailed from London in July 1620. They became known in history as the Pilgrim Fathers.

"Some of the first colleges and universities in America, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Williams [at Western Massachusetts], Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Amherst [in Massachusetts], all were founded by the Congregationalists, as were later Carleton, Grinnell, Oberlin, Beloit, Pomona, Rollins and Colorado College.

(iii) Vassar College
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassar_College
(iv) Sutematsu was the second and last wife of Iwao. (The “iwa” is Japanese pronunciation of “岩(P); 巌.”  The “o” is often reflected by, and Japanese pronunciation of, “雄; 男; 夫”--but NOT here.)  (Iwao’s first wife, Sawa 沢, died of puerperal fever 产褥热.)  Sutematsu’s marriage was not arranged, but 恋愛結婚 (according to ja.wikipedia.org, which also states the wedding was held in 1883).   
(v) In 1872 Japan abolished 兵部省 and created from its ash 陸軍省 and 海軍省. 陸軍省's head was 陸軍卿 (1982-1885) or 陸軍大臣 (1885-1945, when 陸軍省 was eliminated).  Iwao was 陸軍卿 (1880-1885) and the first 陸軍大臣 (1985-1991; 内閣制度 was established in Japan in 1885).  Based on two Web pages in ja.wikipedia.org.
(vi) The en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cyama_Sutematsu says, "She was born in Aizu * * * Sutematsu married * * * Ōyama Iwao; rather ironically, Ōyama had served as an artilleryman during the bombardment of Sutematsu's hometown of Aizu."
(A) Sutematsu was born in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima 福島県 会津若松市. (Fukushima is where the Tsunami hit, causing nuclear power plants to melt down.)  

会津若松市 is the major city in Aizu 会津地方
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizu
(During the Edo period, Aizu was a feudal domain known as Aizu Domain (会津藩 Aizu-han))
(B) Battle of Aizu  会津戦争
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aizu
(October–November 1868)
(C) The ja.wikipedia.org is similar to en.wikipedia.org: Basically two forces stove for supremany: shogunate 幕府 (based in Edo 江戸城, now Tokyo) and loyalists (who advocated 尊皇攘夷; emperor was in Kyoto). In 1862, 会津藩主・松平 容保 MATSUDAIRA katamori got the job of 京都守護職, where he suppressed loyalists. Shogunate lost battles and retreated to Edo, along with Matsudaira. Though Matsudaira displayed submission to new emperor (Meiji enthroned in 1868), his domain 藩 was dominated by 主戦論, earning distrust of new government centered on Satsuma 薩摩(藩)・Chōshū 長州(藩). Each of the two camps were buttressed by their allies in domains. This was the background.

The ja.wikipedia.org deviates from the en.wikipedia.org by 戦力: 新政府軍 (約75,000) and 旧幕府軍 (約9,400); 損害: 新政府軍 (blank) and 旧幕府軍 (2,977).
(D) Aizuwakamatsu Castle  会津若松城
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizuwakamatsu_Castle
(also known as Tsuruga Castle 鶴ヶ城 [Japan has six castles altogether whose nickname is Tsuruga Castle: ja.wikipedia.org]; The tenshu 天守, the largest tower of the castle, was reconstructed in 1965 in concrete)

choi

(e) “Shige[ko] [NAGAI 永井 繁子], trained in classical music, taught for many years while raising her seven children.”
(i) 瓜生繁子
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/瓜生繁子
(夫は海軍大将男爵の瓜生 外吉 URYŪ Sotokichi)
(ii) By now you know these women were not sisters. Why then does the book adopt the title “Daughters of the Samurai” where the samurai is singular.

The English word “kanji” is the same for both singular and plural forms. What about “samurai”? There are contrary views.
(A) samurai (n; plural samurai)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/samurai
(B) samurai (n; “plural same or samurais”)
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/samurai

(f) “Nimura gives fascinating context to their samurai origins, their journey by steamboat from nearly feudal Japan to San Francisco, and then across the country on the transcontinental railroad, their immersion in Gilded Age, Christian life in America, as well as their return to Japan, a shift in culture that is impossible to overdramatize.”

Consult (b)(ii).
(g) At the end of the review is a sketch of the reviewer: “Inspired by Harriet the Spy, she has been a lifelong keeper of a notebook, and is working on a collection of stories.”

Harriet the Spy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_the_Spy