In the snowy village of Ishigama at the beginning of the 19th century, the eldest daughter of the temple servant Tsuneno had to lead a familiar village life and repeat the fate of all women of past generations: to be a meek wife and raise worthy sons and obedient daughters. But after three unsuccessful marriages that did not bring her children, she ran away from home to make her life in Edo, the city of the shogun, which we find on the eve of meeting Western culture. This book is a reliably restored and fascinatingly written story of a real Japanese woman with an unusual fate, who, despite all conventions, managed to start life from scratch, as well as a full of colorful details portrait of the great Edo - the future Tokyo, which was one step away from irreversible changes. Published in Russian for the first time.