Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto

[1][2] She was born in Nagaoka in Echigo Province (which means "Behind the Mountains")[3] in Japan, now part of Niigata Prefecture.

Her father had once been a high-ranking samurai official in Nagaoka, but with the breakdown of the feudal system shortly before her birth, the economic situation of her family took a turn for the worse.

Although originally destined to be a priestess, she became engaged, through an arranged marriage, to a Japanese merchant living in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Etsu attended a Methodist school in Tokyo in preparation for her life in the U.S., and became a Christian.

Later, she lived in New York City, where she turned to literature and taught Japanese language, culture and history at Columbia University.