Niijima Yae

Yamamoto Yaeko, circa 1876 (age 31) or 1886 (age 41)

Yamamoto Yaeko (right) in her later years, pictured here with a foreign missionary

Template:Japanese name Yamamoto Yaeko (山本 八重子, 1845 – 1932) (given name also Yae (八重), married name Niijima (新島)) was a Japanese woman of the late Edo period who lived into the 20th century. Yaeko was the daughter of Yamamoto Gonpachi, one of the Aizu domain's official gunnery instructors. She herself was skilled in gunnery, and took part in the defense of Aizu during the Boshin War. After the war, Yaeko went to Kyoto to care for her brother Yamamoto Kakuma, who had been a prisoner of war in Satsuma custody. She remained in Kyoto, and became a Christian in the 1870s. Soon after, she married Rev. Joseph Hardy Neesima and, together with Neesima and Kakuma, played an integral role in the founding of Doshisha University.

Yaeko was also a tea master of the Urasenke tradition, with the art-name of Niijima Sōchiku (新島宗竹).

She also served as a nurse during the Russo-Japanese War and Sino-Japanese War.

Her family claimed descent from the Takeda clan's retainer Yamamoto Kansuke.

In popular culture

Yamamoto Yaeko has appeared in various stories, comics (manga), and TV shows.

TV

• The 2007 TV drama Byakkotai, where she was portrayed by Nakagoshi Noriko.
• Yae no Sakura, the 2013 NHK taiga drama, where she is portrayed by Haruka Ayase

Manga

• Yae no Sakura, author Yamamoto Mutsumi, and artist Takemura Youhei, published in 2012.

References

• Craig, Teruko (1999). Introduction to Remembering Aizu: The Testament of Shiba Gorō. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press), p. 19.
• Template:Ja icon Article on Japanese Wikipedia (10 Oct. 2007)