Career
She is known for writing a memoir called the "Tomioka Diary" (Tomioka Nikki) in which she chronicled her life among the female workers in the Tomioka silk mill. She was among the daughters of samurai who were recruited in 1873, the sixth year of the Meiji period, from across the nation for practical training over a period of two to three years in the silk production process. They later became trainers in silk manufacture in their own prefectures.
She became a trainer at the Saijō Village Silk Reeling Factory (later Rokkōsha mill) in Matsushiro, Nagano Prefecture.
Wada married an army officer, who later died in 1913 from wounds he sustained in the Russo-Japanese war. lieutenant was published after her death by him, leading some historians to doubt its authenticity.