 Shinano province of present-day Nagano prefecture was home to another major agricultural community of Hirata disciples which totaled over 630 members. This group featured one of only twenty-nine female disciples who registered with the national academy. Matsuo Taseko (1811–1894) was a peasant woman of the Ina Valley who worked in farming and sericulture. She was remarkably well educated in the Japanese classics and poetic tradition and composed waka poetry. Through her travels and interactions with important political men, Taseko participated in significant events of the late Tokugawa period and Meiji Restoration. Following the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s “Black Ships” and the “opening” of Japan’s ports to Western vessels, Taseko travelled to Edo in 1855 where she interacted with the Daimyo of the Takasu domain, Matsudaira Yoshitatsu (1824–83), with whom she probably discussed poetry and politics. While in Kyoto for six months from 1862 to 1863, Taseko conversed with prolific Tsuwano domain nativist Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907) and Hirata Kanetane, and even played a part in delivering a copy of Atsutane’s Lectures on Ancient History (Koshiden) to Lord Sanjō. In her second visit to Kyoto in 1868, Taseko used her connections and influence to help samurai establish credentials as imperial loyal subjects, and she eventually gained a position in the household of court noble and Meiji leader, Lord Iwakura Tomomi (1825–83).