Okumura Ioko

Okumura was born on 7 June 1845 in Saga Prefecture, Japan, to an elite family.^[1][2] Okumura married, but lost her first husband, and remarried to a masterless samurai who was formerly under the Mito Clan. They later divorced.^[1][3]

With her father and brother, Okumura was a loyalist to the Imperial Court^[3] and joined the Sonnō jōi movement ("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").^[1] Okumura moved to Korea, where she opened an industrial school in Kwangju.^[1] Alongside her brother, Okumura Ensin^[3][4] Okumura aimed to revive the legacy of their ancestor, Okumura Jōshin,^[5] one of the earliest Buddhist missionaries in Korea.^[6] She was a supporter of Meiji continental expansion in Asia.^[7]

After the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China in 1899, Okumura served as a member of the imperial comfort delegation to Beijing and Tianjin in 1900.^[8] She saw exhausted soldiers cleaning their bowls in a river and was motivated to found an organisation to support the serving men.^[9][10] Okumura returned to Japan and founded the Aikoku Fujinkai (Patriotic Women's Association) in 1901,^[11][12][13] in Tokyo,^[4][14] which organised relief projects to support soldiers and war-bereaved families.^[1] The association operated under the Ministry of Internal Affairs,^[15][16] was supported by politician Konoe Atsumaro,^[17] and initially was ran by the wives and daughters of the nobility.^[4][18]

During Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Okumura's association was active in caring for troops.^{[citation needed]} In 1905, Empress Shōken honoured the association by her attendance at a meeting, and Princess Kan-in [ja] was the honorary president of the organisation.^[12] By 1919, the association had a million members^[19] and branches in villages and towns across the Empire.^[7]

Okumura was praised as a "heroine" and "mother of patriotism'" in Japan.^[20]