Nobuko Matsudaira
Nobuko Matsudaira, also known as Madame Matsudaira, was a Japanese socialite. As the wife of a Japanese ambassador based in Washington, D.C. and London, she was well known as a political hostess in the West in the 1920s and 1930s.
Early life
Nabeshima was born in 1886, the daughter of politician and college president Nabeshima Naohiro and Nabeshima Nagako, who was president of the Oriental Women's Association. She was a member of the powerful Nabeshima family. Nabeshima attended the Gakushuin Women's School, and was later president of the school's alumnae association.Career
Nabeshima was an aide and translator to Empress Teimei, whose son later married Nabeshima's daughter. She lived in Washington, D.C. as a political hostess, and traveled with her daughters from 1925 to 1928, while her husband was the Japanese Ambassador to the United States. She gave a public speech of gratitude in Boston in 1927. Her gowns were described in newspaper accounts of state dinners and other events. The family lived in London in 1909 and from 1929 to 1935, when her husband was the Japanese Ambassador to the Court of St. James. She welcomed and promoted an international touring display of Japanese ceremonial dolls.Madame Matsudaira wrote poetry. She assisted American writer Elizabeth Gray Vining, who described her as "grey-haired, serene, humorous, and wise." She was mentioned in two of Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" columns in May 1953, when Roosevelt was traveling in Japan.