Hirooka Asako (1849-1919), de facto co-director of a leading Osaka merchant family, was highly visible. Yet the grand narratives of economic and social history all but forgot this mining, banking, and insurance entrepreneur, women’s university benefactor, and social activist until very recently. Using official and public sources as well as informal, private ones, this chapter analyzes Hirooka’s exceptional visibility, her story’s descent into obscurity, and her historical reemergence since 2015.
Garrett Washington (Thu,) studied this question.