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Inoue Takeko (1850-1920)
Jan. 19th, 2024 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomiInoue Takeko was born in 1850 in Gunma Prefecture, the daughter of a samurai family called Nitta; in 1868, when her father received a position with the new Meiji government, she joined him in Tokyo. Two years later she married the rising politician Inoue Kaoru. In 1876 they set off on the American ship Alaska for a two-year fact-finding mission to the West, accompanied by their thirteen-year-old daughter Sueko (by birth the daughter of Kaoru’s older sister). Kaoru’s purpose was to study economics and to socialize his wife and daughter, having observed on a previous visit to London that ladies active in the social realm could be diplomatic assets.
During the long voyage, Takeko studied English and etiquette with the American women aboard ship, replacing her Japanese hairstyle with a Western one. Upon their arrival in Europe, she polished her English and her knowledge of fashion and behavior (short and thin, she disliked Western dress because she found corsets uncomfortable and unbecoming, but eventually conquered the style). She became friendly with the wives of Japanese diplomats in the US, England, Germany, and France. Sueko likewise enjoyed the new experiences and thrived.
The Rokumeikan Hall was built in 1883 as a space for the social side of diplomacy, heavily promoted by Inoue Kaoru, who had become Foreign Minister and adopted numerous Westernizing policies. He and Takeko hosted the inaugural ball there in November for 1300 invitees, he in tails and she in a dress with bustle. The elegant Western building, designed by Josiah Conder, represented the height of elite, Westernized glamor, as did Takeko herself, known as the “flower of the Rokumeikan.” With the help of the diplomats’ wives she had befriended, she tutored other Japanese women in the fashion and etiquette of the West. The balls continued, bringing together diplomats, visiting foreigners, and Meiji governmental dignitaries along with their wives, including Mutsu Ryoko and Oyama Sutematsu. Takeko also hosted charity bazaars there in the company of Ito Umeko and Shibusawa Utako.
Foreigners appear to have had mixed feelings about the Rokumeikan: the French naval officer and author Pierre Loti condescends viciously to his Japanese hosts in the short story A Ball in Edo, and his compatriot Georges Fernand Bigot produced some very nasty satirical cartoons on the topic. The Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke rewrote Loti’s story in “The Ball” from the Japanese perspective, referring in passing to “just a touch of vulgarity” in the face of a character who may or may not be Inoue Takeko.
The Rokumeikan was sold off in 1894, following continual protests from the populace on the basis of its ludicrous expense and exclusivity compared to the poverty of the average Japanese. Inoue died in 1915 and Takeko followed him five years later. They had no biological children between them, although Kaoru fathered daughters on two other women, and the couple adopted at least one son and four daughters, mostly the children of relatives.
Sources
Nakae
https://cardiac.exblog.jp/26658649/ (Japanese; picture of Takeko in her bustle)
During the long voyage, Takeko studied English and etiquette with the American women aboard ship, replacing her Japanese hairstyle with a Western one. Upon their arrival in Europe, she polished her English and her knowledge of fashion and behavior (short and thin, she disliked Western dress because she found corsets uncomfortable and unbecoming, but eventually conquered the style). She became friendly with the wives of Japanese diplomats in the US, England, Germany, and France. Sueko likewise enjoyed the new experiences and thrived.
The Rokumeikan Hall was built in 1883 as a space for the social side of diplomacy, heavily promoted by Inoue Kaoru, who had become Foreign Minister and adopted numerous Westernizing policies. He and Takeko hosted the inaugural ball there in November for 1300 invitees, he in tails and she in a dress with bustle. The elegant Western building, designed by Josiah Conder, represented the height of elite, Westernized glamor, as did Takeko herself, known as the “flower of the Rokumeikan.” With the help of the diplomats’ wives she had befriended, she tutored other Japanese women in the fashion and etiquette of the West. The balls continued, bringing together diplomats, visiting foreigners, and Meiji governmental dignitaries along with their wives, including Mutsu Ryoko and Oyama Sutematsu. Takeko also hosted charity bazaars there in the company of Ito Umeko and Shibusawa Utako.
Foreigners appear to have had mixed feelings about the Rokumeikan: the French naval officer and author Pierre Loti condescends viciously to his Japanese hosts in the short story A Ball in Edo, and his compatriot Georges Fernand Bigot produced some very nasty satirical cartoons on the topic. The Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke rewrote Loti’s story in “The Ball” from the Japanese perspective, referring in passing to “just a touch of vulgarity” in the face of a character who may or may not be Inoue Takeko.
The Rokumeikan was sold off in 1894, following continual protests from the populace on the basis of its ludicrous expense and exclusivity compared to the poverty of the average Japanese. Inoue died in 1915 and Takeko followed him five years later. They had no biological children between them, although Kaoru fathered daughters on two other women, and the couple adopted at least one son and four daughters, mostly the children of relatives.
Sources
Nakae
https://cardiac.exblog.jp/26658649/ (Japanese; picture of Takeko in her bustle)
