The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration (Women in Culture and Society)

I enjoyed reading this book for Japanese history class at college. It details the amazing life of a Japanese woman, ~50 years old, who helped further the Meiji Restoration. The feminist author researched her life from interviews of friends and family and offers a new historical perspective from a woman's point of view. There are two stories going on, how the author researched and wrote the story and Matsuo's life, and so it seems a bit disjoined at times, but I couldn't put it down, because I wanted to see how it ended. Matsuo describes herself as a "the weak body of a useless woman" but, she was far from that. She was recognized officially by the Japanese government for her efforts in the Meiji Restoration. I won't spoil it for you, but I am sure you will enjoy reading about how she did this. She was amazing, even writing poetry. Enjoy!

This book will probably interest only those very interested in what went on in Japan with the coming of the black ships, or, feminists interested in females in history. I'm one of the former.There's a feeling of some name dropping in this book to show how many influential men Matsuo Taseko rubbed elbows with, but what I mainly learned was how strong and pervasive the anti-foreign sentiment was at that time, and that included for a portion of the thinking class all things Buddhist. Matsuo belonged to this 'nativist' segment that looked backwards for inspiration and guidance. She had great hopes for the restoration of the emperor as a chance for Japan to rid itself of all foreign influence, to purify itself to its Japanese essence.Regarding that pervasive anti-foreign sentiment, I would mention that I'm talking about a relatively small percentage of the population - the movers and shakers. The commoners, who I guess made up some 80-85% of the population, I'm guessing had little or no influence in such matters. Matsuo, both a commoner (though a rich one) and woman, is certainly an outlier for her time.The author does a good job of taking the oftentimes inconclusive or spotty historical evidence - mostly letters to and from Matsuo, plus records of interviews with people who knew her - and weaves Matsuo's story. And like I said, unless you have a pretty good knowledge of the period and are familiar with names, this book might be tedious. But for anyone with an interest in this most amazing period in Japan, I heartily recommend this book.