The aim of this article is to describe the reception and development of the episode of Segawa-Uneme with a focus on the representation of his wife Kiku. The episode, which originally appeared in Taikō-ki written by Oze-Hoan in 1625, is about a samurai warrior who was miraculously permitted to return home from Korea on the strength of his wife’s affectionate letter. It was criticized for its maudlin plot, but Kiku was favorably received as a good wife faithfully devoted to her husband. The prose versions of the episode emphasized her beauty and accomplishments to more sentimentally depict the couple’s happy married life before the Korean expedition. It was also adapted for dramas which were usually constructed on the binary opposition of duties and emotions to feature the wife’s strong affection for her husband. In early modern times the episode came to be received as a story of a faithful wife and developed into a melodrama with an emphasis on her love.

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