Hariprabha Takeda: First Indian Woman in Japan and her famous travelogue

Bengal has seen many firsts, among them the first woman from India to visit Japan was also a Bengali. Hariprabha Basu Mallick was born to Shashibhuban Basu Mallick and Nagendra Bala in 1890 in Khilgaon village, Dhaka. She was born into a well-educated, liberal, and enlightened family. Her father, Shashibhushan, originally lived in Nadia, Shantipur. He moved to Dhaka when he got a government job in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He married Nagendra Bala in 1884 and in 1885 they joined the Brahmo Samaj. Well, they had a reason to switch to Brahmo Samaj. One day Shashibhushan picked up a baby in the forest outside the city and brought it home and decided to raise it. The rules of the then Hindu society did not allow it, so they had to change their religion and they became Brahmos.

To help raise such abandoned children, he single-handedly established an orphanage and named it “Uddharashram” in 1892. Later on, it was named “Matriniketan.” Shashibhushan was a good writer as well. During the period in which Shashibhushan had joined the Brahmo Samaj, there was division in the Brahmo society. He was a follower of Keshab Chandra Sen, so he joined the new Brahmo Samaj. According to him, two things were needed for the country’s progress- inculcating international consciousness among people through international marriage and the other was industrialization so that the economy of the country could improve. The beliefs and ideals of Shashibhushan influenced Hariprabha.

Hariprabha very keenly observed the Japanese culture and their way of life. She was fascinated by their culture, rituals, social customs and manners which were all very new to her. Two and a half years after Hariprabha’s return to her homeland, she published her travelogue, “Bangamohilar Japan Jatra” (Bengali woman’s journey to Japan). Her book of 61 pages was typed by Debendranath Das. On 11th November 1915, her book was published with the help of Matriniketan. In this way, she became the first Bengali and the first person to write anything about Japan and its people.

Hariprabha had studied in Eden School and the details of her educational qualifications are not known. She used to look after the orphanage, “Matriniketan”, with her mother since her childhood. Hariprabha had married a Japanese man, Uemon Takeda, whom she frequently met at “Matriniketan”. Takeda was a chemist. In 1903, he travelled to Bangladesh with 24 Japanese nationals in search of fortune, as in the old Japanese tradition, the eldest son was the sole heir of the paternal property. He started a soap factory in Dhaka, called “Indo-Japanese Soap Factory.” After her marriage, Hariprabha changed her title from Basu Mallick to Takeda. Shashibhushan had accepted the marriage. After their marriage, Uemon established the 'Dhaka Soap Factory' in collaboration with his father-in-law Shashibhushan Basu Mallick. Some part of the income of this institution was spent on Matriniketan.

Uemon’s factory faced financial loss after a few years. He then decided to visit Japan as he had no contact with his family for nine long years. In Japan, the Meiji era had just ended and the Taisho era had begun, so he was interested in experiencing the change in his country as well. So, at the end of 1912, he left for Japan with his wife. Thus the first Indian woman landed in Japan. The Maharaja of Dinajpur volunteered to send Rs. 25 for her. Also, a Dhaka-based Japanese businessman Kohara Takeda gave the couple a gift of Rs. 50. The New Brahmo Samaj of Dhaka organised a prayer to wish them good luck on their journey.  

On 3rd November, 1912, Hariprabha and Uemon started their journey from Dhaka. They first reached Gowalando Steamer Ghat from Narayanganj. Then Gowalando to Calcutta by train. And on November 5, they started their journey from Calcutta to Japan by ship. They reached Rangoon on the 10th of November and stayed there at a relative’s house and again started their journey from Rangoon on the 13th and arrived at Penang on the 17th. On the 20th they reached Singapore, Hong Kong on the 31st of November, and Shanghai on the 9th of December. Finally, on 13th December, they arrived at Japan's first port 'Port Moji' in the morning.

The moment the couple arrived at the port, many natives started forming a crowd to look at the “Indogin” who just arrived, even journalists gathered to click her pictures. Even at Uemon’s house, there was a huge crowd who were there to see Uemon’s wife, an Indian. Hariprabha was lovingly accepted by both her mother-in-law and father-in-law and she was very impressed by it. They stayed in Japan for four months and on 12th April 1913, they started their journey back to Calcutta. 

Hariprabha very keenly observed the Japanese culture and their way of life. She was fascinated by their culture, rituals, social customs and manners which were all very new to her. Two and a half years after Hariprabha’s return to her homeland, she published her travelogue, “Bangamohilar Japan Jatra” (Bengali woman’s journey to Japan). Her book of 61 pages was typed by Debendranath Das. On 11th November 1915, her book was published with the help of Matriniketan. In this way, she became the first Bengali and the first person to write anything about Japan and its people. Her book was published four years prior to Rabindranath Tagore’s “Japan Jatri”. “The land of the rising sun” was known to people through Hariprabha’s travelogue. In her book, Hariprabha focused on the day-to-day lives of the Japanese people and compared them to Indian culture and society while Rabindranath Tagore’s “Japan Jatri” focused more on the beauty and aesthetics of Japan. Hariprabha wrote about her first-hand experiences with the people of Japan.

Hariprabha had studied in Eden School and the details of her educational qualifications are not known. She used to look after the orphanage, “Matriniketan”, with her mother since her childhood. Hariprabha had married a Japanese man, Uemon Takeda, whom she frequently met at “Matriniketan”. Takeda was a chemist.

During World War II, Hariprabha and Uemon Takeda had to return to Japan as the Japanese government had decided to repatriate all the Japanese citizens staying in India. So, in 1941, Hariprabha had to board a ship from Bombay to stay permanently in Japan with her husband. The once calm and orderly Japan was completely disrupted by the violence of the war. The country was going through an economic crisis. A new chapter in Hariprabha's life began, she wrote the narrative of those experiences in another autobiography called “Juddhobiddhosto Japan” (War-torn Japan). 

As a woman, she had achieved many new things in her life. She was the first woman to marry a Japanese man, the first woman to travel overseas, and the first woman to write about Japan. And apart from all this, she was also a freedom fighter who worked under the guidance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. She got a job as a newsreader in Bengali for Azad Hind Fauj on Tokyo Radio. She died in 1972 at Shambhunath Pandit Hospital in Kolkata.