Collected English Works of Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (5-vol. ES set)

Published by Edition Synapse, Japan and distributed by Routledge outside of Japan.

This is the very first collection of all the English works produced by an author renowned for her autobiographical novel A Daughter of the Samurai, which became a bestseller in pre-war America. Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto was born 1874 in the province of Niigata in Japan and after attending a Methodist school in Tokyo, she moved to the USA for a pre-arranged marriage to a Japanese merchant in Cincinnati. After her husband’s death, she started writing about Japan in local newspapers and then in a series of articles for the magazine Asia. A Daughter of Samurai, which was her first book and was based on the magazine series, was published by Doubleday, a leading US publisher. The book became one of the publisher’s biggest sellers and continued to be in print for many editions. A British edition was produced, as were translations into most other major Western languages. The book’s influence has been profound. For example, Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, one the most widely read books on Japan in the West is deeply indebted to Sugimoto’s novel. Sugimoto later lived in New York and taught Japanese language and culture at Columbia University.

In addition to her first novel, she published three other novels and a children’s book, all in English. Even in the anti-Japanese atmosphere of pre-war America and Britain, they were favourably reviewed on the both sides of the Atlantic. Reviews of her work appeared in the New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.

This Collected English Works of Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto includes all of those books as facsimile reprints of first editions, together with colour plates and illustrations. The collection also gathers her newspaper and magazine articles. Selected reviews of her novels are also included.

… Neither Americans nor Japanese, they felt alien in both countries, winning a sort of spiritual hybridism which is one of the tragedies of abi-racial background. The story takes root from this tragedy and serves as a commentary upon the life of both nations. In every sense A Daughter of the Samurai is an attempt to explain the life of the Samurai to the American people. "Unless the red barbarians and the children of the gods" she writes, "learn each other’s hearts the ships may sail and sail, but the two lands will never be nearer." At a time when a wholesome piece of American legislation was marred with ill manners toward the proud and sensitive nation of Japan and when American jin goes invoke a Yellow Peril analogous to Japan’s White Peril, such a book is useful and honorable. In unveiling the reticences of a Japanese heart, Mme. Sugimoto has deserved well not only of her caste and of her nation, but also of the many well-bred people in this land who desire a sympathetic understanding of the two peoples. --- from the review of A Daughter of the Samurai in The New York Times, January 10, 1926

Volume 1:

A Daughter of the Samurai, How a daughter of feudal Japan, living hundreds of years in one generation, become a modern American

Special Edition published for Japan Society, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. [1925],

+ additional illustrations in color from the editions in 1926 & 1934

Volume 2

With Taro and Hana in Japan,

New York: Frederick A. Stokes & Co., 1926

A Daughter of the Narikin

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1932

Volume 3

A Daughter of the Nohfu,

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1935

Volume 4

Grandmother O Kyo

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1940

Volume 5: Miscellaneous Writings by and on Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto

Part 1: 37 Articles in Newspapers and Journals by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (1901-27)

Cincinnati Enquirer, March 1901 to June 1902

March 17, 1901; Quaint Japan Dedicates This Month of March to Its Gentle Women Folk

July 28, 1901; Spirit of the Dead

October 27, 1901; The Japanese Halloween

December 22, 1901; Japan's Pathetic Struggle

June 8, 1902; At Home in Japan

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June to December 1902

June 1, 1902; In the Land of the Mikado (The same article appeared in the June 1 issue of Cincinnati Enquirer)

July 6, 1902; Cherry Blossom Season A Holiday Time in Japan

October 12, 1902; Sad Ceremonial in Memory of the Dead, A Picturesque Japanese Custom

November 30, 1902; Wrestling Japan's National Sport

December 7, 1902; Odd Old Time Wedding Customs are Still to be Seen in Japan

Cincinnati Enquirer, August to September 1916

August 6, 1916; Little Corner for Little People

August 13, 1916; The Blind Firefly

August 20, 1916; Sangoro and His Shadow

August 27, 1916; Snow-Maiden and Crow-Maiden

September 3, 1916; The Cunning Fly and the Simple Fan

Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), May to August 1918

May 10, 1918; Who is More Modest?

May 13, 1918; Two-Toed Folks

May 23, 1918; Curly Hair

July 23, 1918; Kissing

July 30, 1918; Twelve Centuries of Meatless Days

August 9, 1918; The Social Standing of Dogs

August 24, 1918; Chewing Gum

The Bookman, February to May 1919

February 1919; Japan

May 1919; The First Books of a Japanese Child

Asia, November to December, 1924: A "Samurai’s" Daughter

Vol. 23 # 11 (November, 1923); Along the Trail with the Editor

Vol. 23 # 12 (December, 1923); I. A Japanese Child in Snowy Nagaoka,

Vol. 24 # 1 (January, 1924); II. "Curly-Locks" in the Land of Lacquered Coiffures

Vol. 24 # 2 (February, 1924); III. Japanese Fete-Days in Feudal-Hearted Nagaoka

Vol. 24 # 3 (March, 1924); IV. Off to Tokyo

Vol. 24 # 4 (April, 1924); V. The Fairy-Land of Tokyo School-Days

Vol. 24 # 8 (August, 1924); VI. My First Days in America

Vol. 24 # 9 (September, 1924); VII. "Flower in a Strange Land"

Vol. 24 # 10 (October, 1924); VIII. Japanese Hearts Homeward Bound

Vol. 24 # 11 (November, 1924); IX. "Untrained Feet" in a Tokyo Home

Vol. 24 # 12 (December, 1924); X. Honorable Grandmother

Articles in Journals by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, June 1926 to October 1933

The Bookman (June 1926); Japanese Love Stories

The Saturday Review of Literature (January 22, 1927); Women of Japan (Book Review of The New Japanese Womanhood, by Allen K. Faust)

Part 2: A Booklet privately printed by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto: [In Loving Memory of Florence Mills Wilson, October, 1933], Courtesy of Keisen Jogakuen Archives

Part 3: 12 Book Reviews of Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto’s Novels (1926-40)

New York Times (January 10, 1926); Book Review of A Daughter of the Samurai

New York Times (October 23, 1932); Book Review of A Daughter of the Narikin

New York Times (December 1, 1935); Book Review of A Daughter of the Nohfu

New York Times (May 12, 1940); Book Review of Grandmother O Kyo

The Saturday Review of Literature (New York) (March 26, 1926); Book Review of A Daughter of the Samurai

The Saturday Review of Literature (New York) (May 27, 1933); Book Review of A Daughter of the Narikin

The Saturday Review (New York) (December 7, 1935); Book Review of A Daughter of the Nohfu

The Times (London) (March 10, 1933); Book Review of A Daughter of the Samurai

The Times Literary Supplement (March 9, 1933); Book Review of A Daughter of the Samurai

The Times Literary Supplement (November 19, 1933); Book Review of A Daughter of the Narikin

The Times Literary Supplement (March 21, 1936); Book Review of A Daughter of the Nohfu

The Times Literary Supplement (October 12, 1940); Book Review of Grandmother O Kyo

Part 4: 7 Miscellaneous Articles related to Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (1898-1950)

Cincinnati Enquirer (June 3, 1898); Japanese Wedding was Solemnized in This City Yesterday

Cincinnati Enquirer (February 23, 1902); Literary Women of Japan Discussed by Mrs. Sugimoto at a Reception of Women's Press Club

Evening Public Ledger (April 24, 1919); The Electric Chair

The Bookman (May 1920); The Literature of a Modern Japanese Girl (Article by Hanano Inagaki Sugimoto)

New York Times (July 4, 1920); Find Japanese Easy at Columbia

The Bookman (January 1926); The Gossip Shop

New York Times (June 22, 1950); Obituary

Part 5: Two-page Autograph Letter signed by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (No Date)