Janet R. Goodwin was a founding faculty member of the University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, and has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. She is an editor of the H-Japan online discussion list.

"[This] is a work of weight; it is concise, focused, meticulously researched, and written with nuance and aplomb." - Monumenta Nipponica "Goodwin offers an erudite account that acknowledges all prior scholarly work on the subject.... The book is packed with juicy details, historically necessary and judiciously picked from sources not usually encountered. Of major interest, however, is Goodwin's ability to see behind the self-serving screens of political history, to divine the true intentions of this demonization of one of the few professions then open to women, and to present her facts in the fairest possible manner." - Japan Times"