Background
Tani Kumako was born in 1843. She was the eldest daughter of Shichiro Kunizawa, a retainer of the Tosa Clan (Kochi Prefecture).
谷 熊子
Tani Kumako was born in 1843. She was the eldest daughter of Shichiro Kunizawa, a retainer of the Tosa Clan (Kochi Prefecture).
Later in life, she became active in political and social affairs, and was appointed director of the Patriotic Women's Society and associated with several philanthropic organizations.
Tani Kumako was married at the age of 20 to Tateki Tani, a man of good birth but in straitened circumstances. For the first few years the couple underwent several privations, but their fortunes changed when her husband, favored by Yodo Yamanouchi, got an important post with his clan.
After the Meiji Restoration (1868), her husband was promoted to major general and put in charge of the Kumamoto Castle, which he successfully defended with the courage his wife brought him and his soldiers during the Seinan Affair (revolt of Takamori Saigo). It was when the couple moved to Tokyo that the sterling qualities of the faithful wife came into prominence.