Wakamatsu Shizuko Explained

Shizuko Wakamatsu
Pseudonym:Wakamatsu Shizu, Wakamatsu Shizunojo, Bōjo (literary Joan Doe)
Native Name:
Iwamoto Kashiko[1]
Birth Date:6 April 1864
Birth Place:Aizu Domain, Japan
Death Place:Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Resting Place:Somei Cemetery
Occupation:Educator, translator, novelist
Language:Japanese, English
Nationality:Japanese
Education:Ferris Girls' High School
Period:1886–1896
Genre:Essay, children's literature, translation
Relations:Iwamoto Mari (granddaughter)

was a Japanese educator, translator, and novelist best known for translating Little Lord Fauntleroy written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. She is also known for introducing literature with Christianity for children's novels.[2] [3]

Early life

Wakamatsu was born Wakamatsu Kashi on 6 September 1864, in Aizu (Aizuwakamatsu after 1868), the eldest daughter of samurai Katsujirō Matsukawa. She was named Kashi (甲子) after the year she was born according to the Chinese calendar. At the age of one in 1868, her father left the family as an espionage agent, serving the Aizu clan against the revolutionists during the Boshin War, and the next year, he was relocated to Tonami (present-day Mutsu) with his feudal lord. Wakamatsu, her mother and the newborn sister Miya endured poverty and adverse circumstances during that period in Aizu. Her mother died in 1870.

In Yokohama

Ōkawa Jinbei, a wealthy merchant from Yokohama was visiting Aizu Wakamatsu and adopted Kashi as his daughter. In 1871 at the age of seven, Ōkawa Kashi was admitted to and studied at Isaac Ferris Seminary led by Mary E. Kidder-Miller, a missionary of Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) who founded the Seminary in 1875.[4] It was in 1877 when Kashi was baptised at the Church of Christ in Japan by pastor Inagaki Makoto.[5]

Kashi graduated from Isaac Ferris Seminary among the first alumnae in 1881[3] at the age of seventeen and was hired as a teacher for Japanese literature at her alma mater, which was by then called . She used a tentative family name Shimada instead of Ōkawa, a name thought to be after her natural father's espionage name. Her stepfather died in 1883, and in 1885 her natural father Matsukawa Katsujirō restored Kashi to his family register in Tokyo where he lived. She had been suffering from tuberculosis.

Kashi met Iwamoto Yoshiharu when he lectured at her school, and in 1886 he published two of her articles in his magazine[6] Jogaku zasshi; a travelogue in the 23rd issue,[7] and in the 37th In Memoriam—Condolence Poem, a mourning poetry written in English dedicated to Yoshiharu's friend the late principal Kimura Tōko of Meiji Girls' School.[7] Kashi had taken her pen name from her home town Wakamatsu, and Shizu or Shizuko meaning "the servant of God". Aside from Shizu and Shizuko, she used such names as Bōjo (literary Joan Doe) and Shizunojo at times. For her first name, she chose alternative combination of Chinese characters to match with her married name as .

She retired from Ferris and married Iwamoto Yoshiharu in 1889 at the church she was baptised in Yokohama. Yoshiharu was the editor in chief at Jogaku zasshi since 1886, as the co-founder and his friend Kondō Kumazō had died that year.[6] Kashi started teaching English at Meiji Girls' School which had been founded in 1885, but Kimura Tōko, the first principal had died in 1886 to whom Kashi dedicated a poetry in English. The second principal pastor Kimura Kumaji was Tōko's husband, and as a good friend of Kimuras', Yoshiharu supported the administrative works at the school. Kumaji retired in 1892 and Yoshiharu succeeded as the third principal until he closed it in 1909.[6] Kashi and Yoshiharu had two daughters and a son.

Novels and essays

There are over 50 literature she published on Jogaku zasshi with the most popular translation of Little Lord Fauntleroy written by an American novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett. The translation, was issued as a serial between 1890 and 1892 on Jogaku zasshi. As both Morita Shiken, a translator for Jules Verne's Two Years' Vacation, and a literature critique/Shakespeare translator Tsubouchi Shōyō praised that she had a style to her writing that unified colloquial and literature language.[8] Her realistic description impressed not only them, but juvenile readers for generations enjoyed her works as much that it is in the 30th impression.

Starting in 1894 when she was 30, she edited those columns for women and children in a journal The Japan Evangelist and posted some 70 essays introducing Japanese books, annual events and customs in English.[9]

Her health deteriorated while leading busy life between chores of a housewife and a writer suffered tuberculosis. A fire broke out at Meiji Girls' School in February 1896, and five days after that, Wakamatsu Shizuko died due to heart attack. She rests in Somei cemetery in Tokyo.

Notable works

Magazine submissions

Jogaku zasshi and Hyōron

For magazines, Wakamatsu Shizuko (Shizu) submitted her writings and translation mainly on either Jogaku zasshi or Hyōron. Both magazines were published by Jogaku Zasshisha in Tokyo.

Japan Evangelist and Shōnen Sekai

Translation

Reprints

Articles and titles reprinted in recent years.

Anthology

Further reading

Biography

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Wakamatsu Shizuko was born Matsukawa Kashi, adopted and changed her name to Ōkawa Kashi when she was very young. When Kashi started working as a teacher at the age of seventeen in 1881, she used a temporary name Shimada Kashi for a while. When her stepfather died, her natural father restored Kashi to his family register, her name was changed back to Matsukawa Kashi in 1885. She also changed her given name from Kashi to Kashiko.
  2. 着物のなる木 : 巖谷小波・久留島武彦・若松賤子集. Tree of Kimono—Anthology of works by Iwaya Sazanami, Kurushima Takehiko and Wakamatsu Shizuko. Wakamatsu. Shizuko. Iwaya. Sazanami. Kurushima. Takehiko. 日本キリスト教児童文学全集 . 1. Kyobunkan. 1983.
  3. Book: 日本のキリスト教児童文学. Christianity and Juvenile Literature in Japan. Tomita, Hiroyuki. Kami, Shōichirō. Nihon Jidō Bungaku Gakkai. Kokudosha. 71. 33456306. 1995.
  4. Web site: フェリス女学院のあゆみ. History of Ferris Girls' School. Ferris Girls' School. 2016-12-16.
  5. ミラー・ローゼィ 被伝者、若松賤子 被伝者. Biographees, Rosey Miller and Shizuko Wakamatsu. あゆみ (Ayumi). 38. Archive Section. Ferris Women's College. Yokohama. 1996.
  6. Book: 日本のキリスト教児童文学. Christianity and Juvenile Literature in Japan. Tomita, Hiroyuki. Kami, Shōichirō. Nihon Jidō Bungaku Gakkai. Kokudosha. 99. 33456306. 1995.
  7. Book: Ozaki, Rumi. 若松賤子: 黎明期を駆け抜けた女性. Wakamatsu Shizuko, a woman ran through the dawn. 63. 2007.
  8. Book: 国語語彙史の研究. Studies of the history of vocabulary in Japanese language. 27. Study group for the history of Japanese language vocaburary. 270, 277–280. Izumi Shoin. Ōsaka. 9784757604551. 674989821. 2008.
  9. Thinking of our Sisters across the Great Sea. The Japan Evangelist. 1894. It was titled in Japanese as .
  10. The Magazine Hyōron was merged with Jogaku zasshi in 1894.

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