She was born in a very little house of a downtown in Yokohama city of Japan in 1952. She played almost all of plays for downtown kids, for example hopscotch, sliding on board, kickcan and climbing trees etc.
She entered a school close to Yokohama port, so there were many foreign and mixed pupils in the school. Her friends were Korean, Chinese, American and mixed people living in Japan. She was very fond of seeing the port and sea also.
She was brought up by her parents and grandmother. Her grandmother had been an owner of a sort of restaurant where geisha-girls(players of traditional dance and songs) had entertained, and had never married but had three children including her mother. However, her grandmother had lost everything by the second world war, and had been very poor. She liked her grandmother very much.
Eventually, she has come to be able to give many information about Japanese history of women.
She is now teaching Japanese history, culture and literature of 16,17,18th century and also comparative culture Japan and Asian countries at HOSEI University in Tokyo.
Her publications are the following.
Imagination of Edo(Edo no Sozoryoku : the winner of the prestigiously Ministry of Education Award for Writers in 1986),1986,Chikuma Shobo
Sound of Edo(Edo no oto),1988,Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Drifting into the Early Modern Asia(Kinsei Ajia Hyoryu),1990,Asahi Shinbun Press
Cross Talk on Edo: A series of diallogues(Ren taiwashu),1991,Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Being there and Getting there(Ai no junreiki),1993,Asahi Shinbun Press
Network in Edo(Edo wa network),1993,Heibon Sha
Translation: "Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450-1680"(Daokokai jidai no tonan ajia) by Anthony Reid, 1997,Hosei University Press
Translation: "The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens within the Heart" (Ooedo Shikaku Kakumei)by Timon Screech,1998,Sakuhin Sha
She is now researching and studying textiles of the world. She would like to know the sense of the value on things and objects in the pre modern world.