Winner of the 2013 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award.The famous ryōsai kenbo or 'good wife, wise mother' role of Japanese women was, in fact, not a traditional Confucian view but a modern construct - its first appearance in Japan being the latter half of the nineteenth century. Girls at the time were proud to fulfill their new role of contributing to not just the family but to the formation of the state. Koyama's discovery has transformed how we see modern women's history in Japan and East Asia as a whole.