Background
Yuki Kato was the daughter of a samurai swordsmith.
加藤ユキモルガンお雪
Yuki Kato was the daughter of a samurai swordsmith.
As a Gion geisha, she was known as "Kokyu no Sekka" (胡弓の雪香). George Morgan arrived in Japan in 1902 and saw Yuki performing at Miyako Odori geisha theater. He courted Yuki for two years and paid her debt to the Okiya house for $20,000.00.
However, according to some accounts of their reception in the United States, she was rejected and ostracized by the Morgans.
She accompanied Morgan to Paris, France where he died of heart failure in 1915. Yuki then returned to Kyoto in 1938 and became a Roman Catholic in 1953.
During this time, Kato experienced close police surveillance. The Morgan family found Yuki after the Second World War and supported her.
She became well known in Japan as a result of a 1951 musical based on her life.
She had one adopted daughter, Kato Namie, who is also a Roman Catholic. She was buried in Kyoto.