Wakae Nioko (若江薫子)
Nioko WAKAE (1835 - October 11, 1881) was a lady from court noble. She was also a prominent thinker of the principle of reverence for the Emperor and a scholar of the study of Chinese classics and later became an education grand master (tutor) to Haruko ICHIJO (later to become Empress Dowager Shoken).
She was the main character in the novel " Woman named Akiran" by Sonoko SUGIMOTO.
Family tree
While her family was the court nobility related to the Sugawara clan, the chaos of the Sengoku Period vanquished the lineage without a successor, but was reinstated by request of Iemitsu TOKUGAWA despite the lineage being demoted from Tosho-ke to Jige-ke as a result of disownment by Emperor Gomizunoo..
Even after the reinstatement of their family status, Nioko was the second of three sisters and her father Ryoukei WAKAE was also adopted from the Nishikikoji family, which meant they had no male successors so they had to adopt children from other families to be the third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth successors.
Brief biography
She was born to the Eighth head of the Wakae family (post restoration) as second daughter and her childhood name was known to be 'Fumiko' by some accounts.
From one perspective, she was studious in her childhood and well known amongst court noble society, while on the other hand there were many who avoided her because of her unrefined demeanor and ugly looks. From earlier on, she became a disciple of Gesshu IWAGAMI and studied Chinese classics, read through Rekishi Hyakka at the age of 15 or 16, and surprised many with her translation summary of "Shinansho" written by Buntensho.
The Imperial Palace caught wind of her literary talent and on September 6, 1867 it selected her to be a tutor for Haruko ICHIJO, who later became Meiji Empress (Empress Dowager Shoken). Despite Nioko's strict teaching manner that often times almost made her cry, Empress Dowager Shoken largely owes her education to Nioko's teachings.
After Meiji Restoration, she had an influential voice in politics and wrote many petitions that earned her a nickname "petition lady" although because her ideas based on Confucianism conflicted with the new government's policy that placed importance on the cultures of Europe and America, the prominent people of the new government gradually stayed away from her.
In 1869, she made a plea for sparing a life of the Tostugawagoshi (a samurai from Totsugawa area of Nara) who assassinated Shonan YOKOI and this brought a displeasure to the new government and she was placed under house arrest away from the Empress. In 1872, after her father Ryokei's passing, she was estranged with the adopted son Noritada WAKAE (4th son of Jimon HIRAMATSU) she was finally dismissed from the family. Afterwards, she spent her time visiting her disciples in Shikoku and gave lectures on Fudo (the ways that women must abide) up until her death in 1881in Marugame City, Kagawa Prefecture where she was visiting at the time. Her place of burial is located in Genyo-ji Temple (Marugame City).
On November 10, 1927, he was posthumously awarded a Shogoi (Senior Fifth Rank) Iki (a letter of appointment) in recognition of her accomplishment.