Itō Umeko

Itō Umeko was a geisha and poet of the late Edo and Taishō periods in Japan and later the second wife of Itō Hirobumi, the first Prime Minister of Japan, whom she married in 1866. In the 1880s, she learned English to prepare for foreign affairs, presided over the "Improvement Society" for upper-class women in Tokyo to study Western culture, and participated in diplomatic etiquette practices at the Rokumeikan.