Download or read book Bitter Bonds written by Leonard Blussé and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 17th-century Batavia, Cornelia van Nijenroode, the daughter of a geisha and a Dutch merchant in Japan, was known as "Otemba" (meaning "untamable"), which made her a heroine to modern Japanese feminists. A wealthy widow and enterprising businesswoman who had married an unsuccessful Dutch lawyer for social reasons, she discovered that just after her wedding, she and her husband were at each other's throats. Cornelia.