Episode 594 – Koume’s World, Part 1

September 12, 2025

This week, we’re starting a new miniseries focused on the life of Kawai Koume, a samurai woman living in Wakayama in the early 1800s. Today is going to be all about framing her life–what do we know about her upbringing, and about the city she grew up in during the twilight years of Japanese feudalism?

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Sources

Partner, Simon. Koume’s World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration

Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan

Images

The red here is Kii province, both one of the 60 original provinces in Japan and, at the time of Koume’s birth, the personal holding of the Kii branch of the Tokugawa family.
Wakayama castle today.
A map from the early 1800s of Kiishu. Wakayama is on the western coast.
A map of Wakayama city in the late Tokugawa years. The Kawai compound would be on the north side near the local Honganji branch.