was a writer and wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1961–1965) Edwin O. Reischauer

Edwin O. Reischauer

Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was the leading U.S. educator and noted scholar of the history and culture of Japan, and of East Asia. From 1961–1966, he was the U.S. ambassador to Japan.-Education and academic life:...

. She was a granddaughter of Matsukata Masayoshi

Matsukata Masayoshi

Prince was a Japanese politician and the 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Japan.-Early life:...

, a liberal finance minister in the Meiji

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 era.

She studied at Principia College

Principia College

Principia College is a four-year private co-educational liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. The campus sits on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River between Alton and Grafton, located about thirty miles north of St. Louis. In 1934, Principia College graduated its first class as a full...

 in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. She later worked as a newspaper reporter in the United States before meeting Reischauer, whom she married in 1956. In 1961 she returned to Japan with her husband when he was appointed ambassador to Japan. They lived in Japan until 1966 and then went back to the United States, where she was to take an active role as a director of the Japan-America Student Conference.

She is the author of the biography Samurai and Silk (1986).