Amy StanleyAnmeldelser

Book club - 19th century Eco, Japan

While this is more interesting than most history texts, it still isn't as riveting as a story with more details. Stanley, of course, only knows so much about Tsuneno and so the book contains very little dialogue that would serve to bring it more to life; there are also many instances of "maybe this happened," "perhaps she felt this way," which is understandable, but unfortunate.

There were some cultural tidbits I learned and found of interest, so in that sense, the book was a success.

Liked this book surprisingly well. A 19th century Japanese woman, Tsuneno, from a priestly family and not fitting the stereotype of the subservient wife, but independent and called "selfish" by her family, strikes out for herself in Edo [Tokyo] after enduring three unsuitable marriages, leaving her small town for the big city where she spends the rest of her life. She endures poverty, menial work and marriage to a ronin [samurai without a master]. The author has constructed the life of this common woman from letters and other family writings from that period, the end decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate. She then describes the rise of Tokyo from Edo and its subsequent development.

I got bored and didn't feel like wasting any more time.

A wonderfully researched book that takes place in mid nineteenth century Japan. The story centers on a woman (girl) who tries to lead an independant life in a cultrure in which that is not the norm. She suffers through three arranged marriages and one of necessity and divores all four men. She eventually escapes the control of her older brother to live a more independant life is Edo (Tokyo). Here she meets a man she chooses and they put together a pretty happy properous life.but is always nagged by thoughts of her home village. A great biography of an anonymous woman of that time.

A fascinating insisght into one woman's slightly irregular life in early 19th century Japan. Amazingly, the tale is anchored in documentary evidence brought together by a professional researcher.
A great read.

The life of Tsuneno, the daughter of a Buddhist priest, has been recorded in temple records via letters, documents, and notations. After three divorces, Tsuneno runs away to Edo, where she is forced to live in abject poverty. Determined to make her own way, she finds menial work, and marries on her own.

This book was written in a more scholarly fashion, with the author speculating on Tsuneno's life based on primary sources and the history of Edo. At times the book was dry and tedious, however, the personality of Tsuneno shined through. Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.

Amy Stanley is able to take individual facts recorded in family archives and weave a tale every bit as engaging as the best fiction. Early nineteenth century Japan comes alive as we follow Tsuneno's path from a life in rural Japan to the city of Edo. Tsuneno's wilfulness, her stubbornness, and her unwavering focus on living the life she wants brings the challenges and remarkable opportunities facing Japanese women to life.

A relatively well-educated but economically marginal woman in the last years of the shogunate, after several failed marriages, headed to Edo and sought fortune. She found sexual abuse, exploitation, and also a freedom she didn’t want to give up, including in her tumultuous marriage with a warrior/occasional ronin. I quite enjoyed Stanley’s story of an ordinary woman who defied convention, with ambiguous results—the past is a foreign country, but people lived there too.

In this nonfiction work, Amy Stanley traces the life of one ordinary woman, Tsuneno, through her letters, in order to explore what is what like to live in Edo (later Tokyo) in the 1800s. I like books like these, that give a voice to someone who would normally not be remembered. Tsuneno was an ordinary woman in a lot of ways: not wealthy, member of a large supportive family, married off to a man in a faraway province. But she was also different. After divorcing from her first husband, she submits to being married off by her family once more. After that marriage doesn't work either, she takes off to Edo from her countryside home. In Edo, she struggles. The man she travels with demands that she marry him and she is not interested. So she strikes out on her own. She has no money, no job, no clothes, no connections. She continues to write to her family, which is how her story is known, but they are disappointed in her choices.

Tsuneno goes through many ups and downs and another troubled marriage, but ultimately achieves what I'm sure we should consider a successful life that included more independence than the average woman had. Through the book, the reader finds out what life was like in Edo in the period before Japan opens to the world.

I enjoyed this. I don't know much about Japan, so this was an interesting look at a different culture. And I always love books that reveal the lives of ordinary women. I'm not positive this will work for everyone, but I'm glad I read it.

Original publication date: 2020
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: library kindle
Why I read this: topic interested me

An intriguing and enjoyable book, more so for the historical context rather then the life of Tsuneno herself. Born into a Buddhist priest's family, Tsuneno finds herself in Edo and the period of history just prior to the arrival of Commodore Perry's fleet in 1854 which led the way to Japan opening up its borders, and for Edo to be transformed into the newly-named capital, Tokyo.

As an academic, Amy Stanley's book is clearly well-researched and comes with a lot (for a non-academic I mean a lot!) of footnotes. Perhaps best just to go with the flow, and then dip into the footnotes as and when you finish a chapter - or indeed the whole book. Using the life of Tsuneno as a way of exploring the period is an interesting idea, but as I say I got more of the history than the biography, which is fine. 3.5 stars.

Scholarly exploration of one woman, Tsuneno, caught in transition who faces many challenges and is forced to adapt. This is a minutely-researched story of one woman who made her way through the maze of Edo (now Tokyo) in the years predating the arrival of Admiral Nelson. At the mercy of a basically patriarchal society, Tsuneno gets married/divorced multiple times, suffers being essentially disowned by her family and abandoned by several husbands.

This is an exploration based on letters she and her family wrote and on extensive research into the time and the milieu. Described are everything from marriage and burial customs to administrative requirements deemed essential to a typical migrant to the bustling city. Historians looking for information on how these people ate and survived the day-to-day in the Edo of the time will have a field day. In the end we don't particularly like Tsuneno, but we can certainly admire her determination and will to live in a complex and hostile environment.

"But if Sano and Giyu loved each other, those bonds were forged outside the space of documents, somewhere in the temple's enduring silence."

Based on a few letters as primary sources, Tsuneno, a very unremarkable woman, makes her way to Edo( now Tokyo) during the end of the shogun’s rule in the mid 1800’s. She may have left little of herself for history to discover, but the historian Amy Stanley, creates a fully dimensional woman who had been married and divorced three times by the time she was 35. Unwilling to settle for another arranged marriage she leaves the rural area. Her life in Edo still meant she needed to get married. Single life would give her no security. Tsunero could have been one of those women, who deserve the words “You Go, Girl.”

While not a particularly happy topic, this is one of the best Japanese studies books I have read. Both the writing and the scholarship (based on primary sources) offer an excellent portrayal of women's position, prostitution and human trade in pre-modern Japan. A mcuh-needed antidote to the "floating world" hype produced by elite male authors in the Edo period.