Japanese Fairy Tales II (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781511636421)

Yei Theodora Ozaki (1871 to December 28, 1932) was a woman of her time. The Meiji Period (1868-1912) experienced great social and political change in Japan as the country was keen to show itself as equal to the Western powers. Women led the way in this as much as men. She belonged to several educational, charitable and patriotic ladies' societies and wanted to put an end to the notion of the Japanese woman as an oppressed, passive geisha-like Madame Butterfly figure. She said, "When I was last in England and Europe, very mistaken notions about Japan and especially about its women existed generally. I determined if possible to write so as to dispel these wrong conceptions." She was the daughter of Baron Ozaki, one of the first Japanese men to study in the West, and Bathia Catherine Morrison. Her parents separated after five years of marriage. Raised by her mother in England, she went to live with her father, in Japan, when she was a teenager. After refusing an arranged marriage, she left her father and went to work as a teacher and secretary, travelling between Japan and Europe. Her other books include: The Japanese Fairy Book, 1903; Buddha's Crystal and other Fairy Stories, 1908; Warriors of Old Japan, 1909; Romances of Old Japan, 1919.