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Yuki Kato (geisha)

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Yuki Kato Morgan in Paris

Yuki Kato (加藤ユキ), also known as Morgan O-Yuki (モルガンお雪) (Kyoto, August 7, 1881 - May 18, 1963), was a Japanese geisha who married George Denison Morgan, nephew of Pierpont Morgan of the Morgan banking dynasty.

History with Morgans

Yuki Kato was the daughter of a samurai swordsmith. As a Gion geisha, she was known as "Kokyū no Sekka" (胡弓の雪香) for her "sublime" performances on the traditional kokyū instrument. George Morgan arrived in Japan in 1902 and saw Yuki performing at Miyako Odori geisha theater. He courted Yuki for two years and paid her debt to the Okiya house for $20,000.00.

Gorge Denison Morgan

It was reported to the Morgan family in the US that the young lady he married came from an excellent family. However, according to some accounts of their reception in the US, she was rejected and ostracized by the Morgans. She accompanied Morgan to Paris, France. He died of heart failure in Spain in 1915.

Yuki then returned to Kyoto in 1938 and became a Roman Catholic in 1953. During this time, Kato experienced close police surveillance. The Morgan family found Yuki after the Second World War and supported her. She became well known in Japan as a result of a 1951 musical based on her life. She had never had a child. She was buried in Kyoto.

References

  1. 『京都大事典』佐和隆研, 奈良本辰也, 吉田光邦 - 1984 Page 919 "モルガンお雪 明治一四、昭和三八二八八一〜一九六三)アメリカの財閥ジョージ・デニソン・モルガン夫人。本名加藤ユキ。「胡弓の雪香」といわれた祇園の芸妓。来日したモルガンに四万円の高額で落籍され、玉の輿にのった国際結婚ロマンスで評判になつた"
  2. Look Japan 18-429 1991 p44 "OYUKI Morgan (1881-1963) was living proof that envy and censure have always been two sides of a coin. ... Born in Kyoto in 1881, Yuki Kato (later she would be called Oyuki) was the youngest of five children."
  3. Gekkan Jiyū Minshu - Issues 324-327 1983- Page 171 "モルガン青年の、京都,祇園の芸妓加藤ユキにたいする恋着ぶりである。"
  4. 鈴木孝一 1995 『ニュースで追う明治日本発堀』 - Volume 7 - Page 65 "モルガンはその頃、円山也阿弥に滞在しいたるが、その夜、ゆきの風姿のしとやかに、舞いも胡弓も堪能なりしに心残りて、也阿弥楼に帰りし後 ... ほか姉の教えを受けて胡弓を善〜し、姉の廃業の加藤次香の実妹にて、十四の年より舞妓となり、舞い、ゆきという芸妓は新地にて胡弓の名人と ... モルガン(三十二年)といクにおいて銀行及び鉄道業に従事しおる,ジョージ・モルガン財閥の甥、お雪に熱あげる米国ニュ I ョル祇園の芸妓、 ...
  5. 『朝日新聞の記事にみる恋愛と結婚: 明治・大正』朝日新聞社 - 1997 - Page 168 "二ューヨルクに於て銀行及鉄道業に従事し居る豪家ジョーヂデンソン氏の富子ジョーヂモルガン(三十二年)と云ふが京都扶屋町沢 ... に一昨日午後五時短銃を咽喉に当て自殺を企てたるに其場に居合せし祇園新地の芸妓加藤ゆき(二十二年)が蔦いて其短銃を ..."
  6. Morgan O-Yuki: Geisha of the Gilded Age. Morgan O-Yuki: Geisha of the Gilded Age. by Gail M. Burns, July 2006. "Born in Kyoto, Yuki Kato (1881-1963) ...the daughter of a Samuri sword-maker, an honorable profession, but one that was on the wane in .."
  7. "KYOTO MEDIA STATION". www.joho-kyoto.or.jp.
  8. Stephen Longstreet - We all went to Paris: Americans in the City of Light, 1776-1971 - 1972 Page 228 "This true Madame Butterfly story began in 1902 when the American, George Morgan — a close relative of the great womanizer and multimillionaire, Pierpont Morgan — landed in Japan. He was fleeing a busted romance in New York City, and ..."
  9. Time (magazine) vol.81 1963 p63 "Yuki Kato Morgan, 81, widow of wealthy George Morgan, a beautiful Japanese Geisha girl who withstood the pleas of young Morgan (a nephew of J. P. Sr.) for nearly two years, at last in 1903, unlike Madame Butterfly, married the man and .."
  10. The World Almanac and Encyclopedia - 1916 Page 619 "Josephine Adams Perry. 1 Sarah Speaker Morgan Mil. 9. Caroline Lucy Morgan 2 Alexander Perry Morgan. 3. George D. Morgan: m. Yuki Kato, Jan. 21, 1904;he d.1915. 2. Mary Lyman Morgan, b 1844; m. 1867, Walter Haynes Burns; he died ..."
  11. Marshall Everett - 2005 Exciting Experiences in the Japanese Russian War - Page 363 "At the same time George D. Morgan, nephew of J. Pierpont Morgan, came tripping back to America with a Japanese bride, Yuki Kato — surely an evidence that that young globe trotter subscribed to no dark views of the Japanese woman."
  12. Time - Volume 50 - Page 36 Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce - 1947 "But from the moment he first spied her picture outside the Ono- Tei tea house, George D. Morgan (son of J. P. Sr.'s sister Sarah and a distant cousin, George Hale Morgan) thought more & more of fragile, fragrant O-Yuki and less & less of a ..."
  13. Jack Seward Strange But True Stories from Japan 2000- Page 62- "Yuki Kato had become Oyuki Morgan, a genuine member in good standing of the opulent Morgan clan. ... Later in 1905, Mr. and Mrs. George D. Morgan ("George and Oyuki" to the Newport set) crossed the Pacific and arrived in Portland"
  14. Ron Chernow The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of ... - 2001 p555 "In 1904, Pierpont Morgan's nephew George Morgan, living in Yokohama and collecting Japanese art, married Yuki Kato. Although George's friends told reporters, "I understand that the young lady he has married comes of an excellent family," ..."
  15. Arthur Golden Memoirs of a Geisha : a Novel 2005 author's preface p2 "The renowned Kato Yuki — a geisha who captured the heart of George Morgan, nephew of J. Pierpont, and became his bride-in-exile during the first decade of this century — may have lived a life even more unusual in some ways than Sayuri .."
  16. Chernow, p. 556. "Adding to Yuki's fame was a musical based on her life, which depicts her as pining for a young student as she is signed over to George Morgan. When Morgan negotiators made the rounds in Tokyo , staid bureaucrats would stop to ask about Yuki Morgan."
  17. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7737893 (photo of Yuki Kato in Paris) (name of temple incorrect)
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