In this August 26, 2020, lecture, Dr. Amy Stanley, Professor of Japanese History at Northwestern University, speaks about her exciting new book, Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World (Scribner, 2020). This vivid, deeply researched work of history explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo, now known as Tokyo. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak, just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate.