After moving to Tokyo, she worked as maid at residences of the peerage and at a residence of a banker in Yokohama, and by the introduction of her uncle, she began to serve a fish wholesaler as a live-in hariko (woman doing needlework) in Muromachi, Nihonbashi Ward (present Chuo Ward, Tokyo).
東京に出て華族の邸宅や横浜の銀行家宅の女中として働いた後、伯父の世話で日本橋区（現・中央区(東京都)）室町の魚問屋にお針子として住み込みで奉公する。