Sutematsu Ōyama, né Yamakawa, was one of the rare women who, along with numerous notable men, went abroad during the 1870s to learn English and returned to model a new modern national identity in which the multilingual skills of a translator formed a vital part. Unlike her male peers, however, Sutematsu did not achieve a leadership role at the very center of nation-building upon her return to Japan in 1882. On the contrary, as a woman, and one who lost her Japanese linguistic ability while abroad, she suffered virtually total divestment of a public voice. Despite being appropriated in the public imagination as a misguided ‘Westernist’ and anti-feminine symbol, and amidst complex contexts and discourses, she continued to strive to translate her vision of a progressive modern education and public role for Japanese women.

Orna Shaughnessy is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of Denver. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of expertise and research focus on the novel in a comparative context, travel literature, translation studies, urban studies, interpretive communities and literary coteries, and popular culture and cultural production through time. She is a recipient of the 2018 William T. Driscoll Master Educator Award.