The vice-Hokkaido Development Commissioner Kiyotaka KURODA had a strong interest in women's education, and when he came up with a plan of sending female students overseas, Umeko volunteered to go encouraged by her father Sen and traveled to the United States of America with the Iwakura mission.
開拓使次官の黒田清隆は女子教育にも関心を持っていた人物で、仙は黒田が企画した女子留学生に梅子を応募させ、1871年（明治4年）には、岩倉使節団に随行して渡米。