Ioko Okumura was a Meiji period leader in women's social work.
Background
Ioko Okumura was born in 1845 in Karatsu in the province of Hizen. She was a daughter of the head priest of Kotoku-ji, a temple of the Higashi Hongan-ji branch of the Jodo Shin sect; her father, Ryokan, was descended from the Nijo family, a member of the court aristocracy. Her father and elder brother were supporters of the movement to restore power to the emperor and expel the foreigners from the country, and she accordingly had occasion to become friendly with distinguished supporters of the movement such as I akasugi Shinsaku, a samurai of the domain of Choshu, and the woman poet Nomura Boto.
Career
In 1897 she went to visit her elder brother in Korea, where, as a Buddhist priest, he had gone to spread the teachings of the Jodo Shin sect. She went to Korea again in the following year and founded a business school there. In 1900 she went on an inspection tour of South China. With the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in the same year and the dispatch of Japanese troops to North China, she persuaded Higashi Hongan-ji to send a mission to console the troops. She herself accompanied it, and saw at first hand the need for measures to care for the w'ounded and assist the families of the dead that such a situation created.
During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, although in poor health, she went to Manchuria to help minister to the officers and enlisted men in the field. In 1906 she retired to Karatsu to convalesce. The Ogasawara family, former lords of the domain of Karatsu, were longtime supporters of her activities.
Views
She took an interest in affairs on the Asian continent and was impressed by the arguments in favor of a campaign against Korea put forward by Eto Shimpci, a native of the same region as herself.
Connections
She married a priest of the Jodo Shin sect but was widowed at an early age. In 1872 she married a former samurai of the domain of Mito and helped contribute to the family funds by running a business peddling second-hand clothing.
She was divorced from her husband in 1887 and devoted all her time to public welfare work in Karatsu.