Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto (1874-1950) lived a long life. Before her eyes, the old, feudal Japan was disappearing into the past. The Meiji Restoration (also known as the Revolution), which began in the late 1860s, turned Japanese society upside down: the country embarked on the path of modernization and openness to the world; class privileges were abolished, the ancient aristocracy found itself on the sidelines of life. The samurai spirit was replaced by the spirit of universal commerce. But, paradoxically, the world around us is changing faster than human consciousness: after spending half her life in the United States and half in the new Japan of the twentieth century, Etsu-bo has always remained primarily the daughter of a samurai.