Countess , born Gertrude Ethel Passingham, was a British writer. She married a Japanese nobleman and diplomat, came with him to Japan in 1910 and lived in Kamakura until her death in 1930.The Japan TimesKamakura: Fact and Legend In 1918 she wrote the classic guide ''Kamakura: Fact and Legend''. Mutsu Hirokichi

She was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Her father was the landlord of Count Hirokichi Mutsu, son of the then Japanese foreign minister Munemitsu Mutsu, who was studying at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, and they fell in love. His father strongly opposed his wedding a foreigner and a commoner. Her family was contrary to the union too. The two didn't give up and, after his father died, when Hirokichi was appointed

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, he managed to convince her to join him there. This in spite of the fact they hadn't met in over five years. Because he was a diplomat, marriage still had to wait, and to stay with him she finally had to pretend to be a child's governess. It was with that role that she first arrived in Japan in 1901. Four years later, the imperial authorization to wed arrived and, after 17 years of courtship and subterfuges, the couple finally married in London in 1905. For reasons of protocol, she took Japanese citizenship and a Japanese name. Her husband suggested , meaning ''seaside'', because she loved the beach so much and because it sounded a little like Ethel.Ian Mutsu After the wedding she followed him around the world, finally returning to Japan with him, never to leave again. She liked the country and successfully adapted to it, even giving English lessons to members of the Imperial Family, among them

Prince Chichibu , was the second son of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako), a younger brother of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. As a member of the Imperial House of Japan, he was the patron of severa ...

, brother of Emperor Hirohito. She died in 1930 in Kamakura and her funeral was held in a Christian Methodist church. After the Christian ceremony, the Vice Abbot from the great

Engaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founde ...

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

temple took the pulpit, pronounced a eulogy and recited a

sūtra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an ap ...

for her soul. She is buried in the Mutsu family's

yagura Yagura may refer to: * Yagura castle * Yagura opening * Yagura (tombs) * Yagura (tower) is the Japanese word for "tower", "turret", "keep", or "scaffold". The word is most often seen in reference to structures in Japanese castle compounds bu ...

in the

Jufuku-ji , usually known as Jufuku-ji, is a temple of the Kenchō-ji branch of the Rinzai sect and the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Ranked third among Kamakura's prestigious Five Mountains, it is number 24 among the pilgrim ...

temple's graveyard in Kamakura, not far from the cenotaphs of great historical figures

Hōjō Masako was a Japanese politician who exercised significant power in the early years of the Kamakura period, which was reflected by her contemporary sobriquet of the "nun shogun". She was the wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and mother of Minamoto no Yo ...

and

Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third ''shōgun'' of the Kamakura shogunate. He was the second son of the Kamakura shogunate founder, Minamoto no Yoritomo. His mother was Hōjō Masako and his older brother was second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His childhood ...

. Her son Ian Mutsu became a famous newsman and documentary director.

Kamakura: fact and legend

Iso Mutsu was one of the first foreigners in Japan to understand that Kamakura's attraction lies in its extraordinary past and in its temples. She wrote her work after years of research, during which she interviewed temple abbots, high priests and monks. She also consulted Japanese texts, among them the famous

Azuma Kagami is a Japanese historical chronicle. The medieval text chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō (the 6th shōgun) and his return to Kyoto in 12 ...

, a medieval book that describes in great detail 80 years in the life of the city, and the

Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a Japanese historical epic (see '' gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Taiheiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 923� ...

, a medieval war epic. The book contains a condensed history of the city of Kamakura and an introduction to over 40 historical locations and temples ranging from

Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, and is linked to ...

to Ofuna. She was swimming in

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while th ...

when the

Great Kanto earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

of 1923 struck, and she described the experience in the 1930 edition of her guide. Mutsu's book was republished first in 1930, then in an updated version in 1995 thanks to a grant from the Tokyo Club, and finally in 2006.

Family tree

References

Sources

* The Japan Times, ''Sunday, June 25, 2006'' issue
A Love Forbidden is Never Forgotten
accessed on April 8, 2008 * Iso Mutsu.
Kamakura: Fact and Legend
, Tuttle Publishing (1995/06) * Ian Nish (Editor). ''Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits'', Japan Library (1994/06) : Ian Mutsu. ''The Mutsu Family'', pag. 151 and following. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mutsu, Iso 1867 births 1930 deaths British writers English emigrants to Japan People from Kamakura People of Meiji-period Japan Writers from Oxford