An oiran courtesan with kamuro and shinzo attendants

The depiction of geisha in ukiyo-e prints and paintings, as well as in Meiji-period photographs, show only one segment of Japanese society, and the popularity of these types of images, especially among foreigners, contributed to the development of stereotypes about Japanese women. Even among Japanese historical sources about women, most focused on the lives of the aristocracy.Sensitive to the need for a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the lives of Japanese women, Kazuko Smith, a retired Cornell lecturer in Japanese language, published Makiko’s Diary: A Merchant Wife in 1910 Kyoto, a translation into English of the diary of Nakano Makiko. About her, Kazuko wrote:Makiko was not in the least the kind of early twentieth-century Japanese woman you usually find in novels and films: passive, obedient, with no will of her own. Makiko had many duties and was subject to many restrictions—but that was in a time when women around the world were given secondary roles, with no part in public affairs, and did not enjoy equal opportunities with men. At that time the Japanese government was promoting as its ideal woman the “good wife/wise mother,” and Makiko strove to live up to that ideal. But there were moments when she was not entirely won over by it. At one point she wrote, rather plaintively, “Why do women have to cook all the time?” (“American Sojourns and the Collecting of Japanese Art,” curated by Ellen Avril and presented at the Johnson Museum June 25–December 18, 2016)