Sophia Wilson was a Japanese courtesan who married Captain John Wilson. She anglicised her name from Naka Yamazaki to Sophia Wilson, and adopted her son, Nils Wilson. Upon her marriage, she renounced her membership in the Yamazaki koseki, or family record, became a Swedish citizen, and was baptized in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

(

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

). Sophia Wilson was a confidant and neighbor of Tsuru Glover, and together with Tsuru's friendship with the Japanese

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, the stories of Naka and Tsuru may have been incorporated in

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long li ...

Madam Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther ...

. Wilson and her husband are buried in the Yokohama Foreign Cemetery on Yokohama Bluff, a

gaijin bochi are chiefly located in Tokyo and at the former treaty ports of Kobe, Hakodate, Nagasaki, and Yokohama. They contain the mortal remains of long-term Japan residents or other foreigners who died in Japan, and are separate from any of the military c ...

, where her granddaughter, Vivienne Joy Wilson Vaughn is also buried. Their gravestone is marked with the compass and angle, a traditional mark of

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

References

The Search for Madame Butterfly, and the Evolution of Early Mixed-Culture Myths
History of the foreign relations of Japan British people of Japanese descent People in Kyushu Swedish people of Japanese descent {{Japan-bio-stub