Editor's Preface
Miss Onoto Watanna is an Anglo-Japanese
lady born in Japan, but educated in this country. At an
early age she began her literary career as a writer for the
newspapers and magazines, but did not achieve any
considerable note until the publication of her novel, “A
Japanese Nightingale,” which brought her at a bound among
the most prominent women authors of to-day. While living in
America, she did not permit herself to get out of touch with
the calm and beautiful life of her native land; her
understanding of present-day conditions in Japan and her
keen appreciation of Japanese character, as shown in her
successful book and her later essays on Japanese women,
prove her a valuable authority on all matters of importance
as they are in the land of the Mikado. The following paper
on Japanese women can be accepted as the final word on the
woman of Japan as seen and understood by one of her own
race.
