Wakamatsu Shizuko

was a Japanese educator, translator, and novelist best known for translating Little Lord Fauntleroy written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. She is also known for introducing literature with Christianity for children's novels.

Early life

Wakamatsu was born Wakamatsu Kashi on 6 September 1864, in Aizu (Aizuwakamatsu after 1868), the eldest daughter of samurai Katsujirō Matsukawa. She was named Kashi (甲子) after the year she was born according to the Chinese calendar. At the age of one in 1868, her father left the family as an espionage agent, serving the Aizu clan against the revolutionists during the Boshin War, and the next year, he was relocated to Tonami (present-day Mutsu) with his feudal lord. Wakamatsu, her mother and the newborn sister Miya endured poverty and adverse circumstances during that period in Aizu. Her mother died in 1870.

In Yokohama Ōkawa Jinbei, a wealthy merchant from Yokohama was visiting Aizu Wakamatsu and adopted Kashi as his daughter. In 1871 at the age of seven, Ōkawa Kashi was admitted to and studied at Isaac Ferris Seminary led by Mary E. Kidder-Miller, a missionary of Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) who founded the Seminary in 1875. It was in 1877 when Kashi was baptised at the Church of Christ in Japan by pastor Inagaki Makoto.

Kashi graduated from Isaac Ferris Seminary among the first alumnae in 1881 Jogaku zasshi; a travelogue in the 23rd issue, and in the 37th In Memoriam—Condolence Poem , a mourning poetry written in English dedicated to Yoshiharu's friend the late principal Kimura Tōko of Meiji Girls' School. and a literature critique/Shakespeare translator Tsubouchi Shōyō praised that she had a style to her writing that unified colloquial and literature language. Her realistic description impressed not only them, but juvenile readers for generations enjoyed her works as much that it is in the 30th impression.

Starting in 1894 when she was 30, she edited those columns for women and children in a journal The Japan Evangelist and posted some 70 essays introducing Japanese books, annual events and customs in English.

Her health deteriorated while leading busy life between chores of a housewife and a writer suffered tuberculosis. A fire broke out at Meiji Girls' School in February 1896, and five days after that, Wakamatsu Shizuko died due to heart attack. She rests in Somei cemetery in Tokyo.

Notable works

Magazine submissions Jogaku zasshi and Hyōron

For magazines, Wakamatsu Shizuko (Shizu) submitted her writings and translation mainly on either Jogaku zasshi or Hyōron. Both magazines were published by Jogaku Zasshisha in Tokyo.

Written in English.

A serial completed in 1893.

Inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Japan Evangelist and Shōnen Sekai

Wakamatsu Shizuko's last writing.

Translation Adopted from Adelaide Anne Proctor's poetry.

Translated from part of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

A serial run through 1894. Also titled as [].

Reprints Articles and titles reprinted in recent years.

In Iwanami Bunko, 30th impression.

Anthology