Theodora Ozaki in her younger days

Nagaoka Shozo

doi:10.5024/jeigakushi.1996.57

Theodora was born in 1870 at London, the eldest daugher of Saburo Ozaki and his English wife Bathia Catherine Morrison. Mr. Ozaki came back to Japan, leaving his wife and three daughters in London. He later divorced Bathia according to Japanese law, but she remained his wife under the laws of England. By mutual agreement, she sent her eldest daughter Theodora to Japan to be taken care of by her father.<BR>In May of 1887, Theodora came to Japan at the age of sixteen. A few years later she became independent of her father, working as a private tutor and an English teacher at some girls' schools. In 1891 Mrs. Hugh Fraser, the wife of a British minister, sympathized with Theodora and asked her to came to the legation as her private secretary and companion.<BR>Theodora spent several happy years with Mrs. Fraser, but the latter had to go back to her home in Italy due to her husband's death in 1894. Theodora followed her the next year and enjoyed many pleasant days with her and her family. She met there Francis Marion Crawford, the well-known novelist and the brother of Mrs. Fraser. He encouraged her to write a book of fairy tales she had told sometimes in the family circle.<BR>After an absence of four years she returned to Japan at the beginning of 1899 to teach English at Keio Gijuku. Her first book “The Japanese Fairy Book” appeared in 1903 and achieved great success. She wrote three more books of old Japanese stories which also gained fine reputations.<BR>In 1905 she married the famous politician Yukio Ozaki who was the Mayor of Tokyo at that time. Thereafter she lived a happy life with him until she died from an illness at London in 1932 during her visit with her husband and her two daughters.

Theodora Ozaki in her younger days

Bibliographic Information

Search this article

Description

Journal

References(3)*help

Details 詳細情報について

Export

Report a problem