I loved reading all the names of people and places in this post. It does seem that there was an awful lot of toing and froing. What is not clear to me is just how far and wide these people travelled. What kinds of distances are referred to here?
The post title mentions female literacy. What education did the women receive?
I was a bit lost as this is family history specific, if my memory serves me correctly.
The distance from tokyo to kyoto = 370 km. Hamada city is a bit farther. We can get there in three hours or so by bullet train today, but in those days, there was no train yet.
About women's education, that's what I'm interested: what education and how much they received.
I started to write my family specific matters, but realized that writing about my family covers the history itself. I wrote Iwa's letter is not a national importance, but now I think about it, it is national importance because Asada san said there are more letters and those sisters talk about marriage arrangement among families and so on. I think it is rare to find such old personal letters written by ordinary women. It reveals the lifestyle of the period and their concern.
By the way, I've been reading Earnest Satow (1843-1929)'s book on Japan. It is really good. He is amazing! Very observant. He was similar age as Iwa and her husband. So, it helps me see Japan and Iwa's family through his eyes. And I'm sure many historical events then affected directly to Iwa's husband.
2 comments:
I loved reading all the names of people and places in this post. It does seem that there was an awful lot of toing and froing. What is not clear to me is just how far and wide these people travelled. What kinds of distances are referred to here?
The post title mentions female literacy. What education did the women receive?
I was a bit lost as this is family history specific, if my memory serves me correctly.
ZACL,
The distance from tokyo to kyoto = 370 km. Hamada city is a bit farther. We can get there in three hours or so by bullet train today, but in those days, there was no train yet.
About women's education, that's what I'm interested: what education and how much they received.
I started to write my family specific matters, but realized that writing about my family covers the history itself. I wrote Iwa's letter is not a national importance, but now I think about it, it is national importance because Asada san said there are more letters and those sisters talk about marriage arrangement among families and so on. I think it is rare to find such old personal letters written by ordinary women. It reveals the lifestyle of the period and their concern.
By the way, I've been reading Earnest Satow (1843-1929)'s book on Japan. It is really good. He is amazing! Very observant. He was similar age as Iwa and her husband. So, it helps me see Japan and Iwa's family through his eyes. And I'm sure many historical events then affected directly to Iwa's husband.
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