The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village in the 19th century, and was expected to live a traditional life. But after three divorces, she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, this intimate history follows a strong-willed woman making her way in the world, in a Japan about to be changed forever by the arrival of Commodore Perry's fleet.

"Stanley brings a deep knowledge of Japanese culture to a vibrant portrait of the Asian nation centered on the struggles of one defiant woman…. An absorbing history of a vanished world."—Kirkus Reviews