My Asakusa: Coming of Age in Pre-War Tokyo

Written near the end of Sadako Sawamura's remarkable life, My Asakusa (Watashi co Asakusa) is a charming collection of autobiographical essays by a truly self-made woman.

Recalling Japan at a time of great political turmoil and rapid cultural change, Sawamura shares with us her vignettes of growing up in Asakusa—one of the last of the old downtown Shitamachi neighborhoods of incessantly modernizing Tokyo—and her keen insight into the characters of those who populated her world.

Author Sadako ...