Iso Mutsu
Iso Mutsu | |
---|---|
Japan | |
Occupation | Writer |
Spouse | Hirokichi Mutsu |
Children | Ian Mutsu |
Countess Iso Mutsu (陸奥 イソ, Mutsu Iso, 1867 – 1930), born Gertrude Ethel Passingham, was a British writer. She married a Japanese nobleman and diplomat, came with him to Japan in 1910 and lived in
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Mutsu_Hirokichi.jpg/200px-Mutsu_Hirokichi.jpg)
She was born in Oxford. Her father was the landlord of Count Hirokichi Mutsu, son of the then Japanese foreign minister Munemitsu Mutsu, who was studying at Cambridge, and they fell in love.[1] His father strongly opposed his wedding a foreigner and a commoner.[3] Her family was contrary to the union too. The two didn't give up and, after his father died, when Hirokichi was appointed Consul in San Francisco, he managed to convince her to join him there. This in spite of the fact they hadn't met in over five years.[3]
Because he was a diplomat, marriage still had to wait, and to stay with him she finally had to pretend to be a child's governess. It was with that role that she first arrived in Japan in 1901.
She died in 1930 in Kamakura and her funeral was held in a Christian Methodist church.
Kamakura: fact and legend
Iso Mutsu was one of the first foreigners in Japan to understand that
The book contains a condensed history of the city of Kamakura and an introduction to over 40 historical locations and temples ranging from Enoshima to Ofuna. She was swimming in Sagami Bay when the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 struck, and she described the experience in the 1930 edition of her guide.[2] Mutsu's book was republished first in 1930, then in an updated version in 1995 thanks to a grant from the Tokyo Club, and finally in 2006.
Family tree
Count Mutsu Munemitsu | Countess Mutsu Ryōko | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Countess Iso Mutsu | Count Mutsu Hirokichi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ian Mutsu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
Sources
- The Japan Times, Sunday, June 25, 2006 issue. A Love Forbidden is Never Forgotten accessed on April 8, 2008
- Iso Mutsu. Kamakura: Fact and Legend', Tuttle Publishing (1995/06) ISBN 0-8048-1968-8
- Ian Nish (Editor). Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Japan Library (1994/06) ISBN 1-873410-27-1: Ian Mutsu. The Mutsu Family, pag. 151 and following.