Tomoe Gozen

This article is about the female samurai. For the 1981 Jessica Amanda Salmonson novel, see Tomoe Gozen (novel).
Gozen/Lady [1]
Tomoe Gozen
巴 御前
Tomoe Gozen, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Tomoe Gozen, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
LeaderMinamoto no Yoshinaka (commander)
Personal details
Born1157
Died1247 (aged 89–90)[2][3][4]
NationalityJapanese
OccupationBuddhist Nun (After the Battle of Awazu)[2]
Military service
AllegianceThe Minamoto clan (Specifically Minamoto no Yoshinaka)
Years of serviceOne (1182)
Battles/warsBattle of Awazu
Military role/occupationOnna-musha (Before the Battle of Awazu)

Tomoe Gozen (巴 御前, Japanese pronunciation: [tomo.e][5]) was an onna-musha, a female samurai, mentioned in The Tale of the Heike.[6] There is doubt as to whether she existed as she doesn't appear in any primary accounts of the Genpei war. She only appears in the epic "The tale of the Heike".[7][8] She served under samurai lord Minamoto no Yoshinaka during the Battle of Awazu,[9] part of the Genpei War in the late Heian period, which led to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate.[10][11]

Genpei War

"Tomoe Gozen Killing Uchida Ieyoshi at Battle of Awazu no Hara (1184)", print by Ishikawa Toyonobu, c. 1750.

She commanded, under the leadership of Yoshinaka, 300 samurai against 2,000 warriors of the rival Taira clan during the war. After defeating the Taira in 1182 and driving them into the western provinces, Yoshinaka took Kyoto and desired to be the leader of the Minamoto clan. His cousin Yoritomo was prompted to crush Yoshinaka, and sent his brothers Yoshitsune and Noriyori to kill him.

Yoshinaka fought Yoritomo's forces at the Battle of Awazu on February 21, 1184, where Tomoe Gozen took at least one head of the enemy. Although Yoshinaka's troops fought bravely, they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. When Yoshinaka was defeated there, with only a few of his soldiers standing, he told Tomoe Gozen to flee because he wanted to die with his foster brother .

There are varied accounts of what followed. At the Battle of Awazu in 1184,[12] she is known for beheading Honda no Morishige of Musashi.[13] She is also known for having killed Uchida Ieyoshi and for escaping capture by Hatakeyama Shigetada.[14] After Tomoe Gozen beheaded the leader of the Musashi clan, she presented his head to her master Yoshinaka.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ Note: Gozen is not a name, but rather an honorific title, usually translated to "Lady", though the title was rarely bestowed upon men as well.
  2. ^ a b "Women Warriors of Early Japan" (PDF). 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  3. ^ "EP31 Lady Tomoe". February 14, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  4. ^ "Trailblazers — The Age of Girls: Tomoe Gozen". August 23, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  5. ^ Note: Gozen is not a name, but rather an honorific title, usually translated to "Lady", though the title was rarely bestowed upon men as well.
  6. ^ "Tomoe Gozen | World History Commons". worldhistorycommons.org. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  7. ^ "These 3 samurai women were heroes of shogun era Japan". History. 2024-09-27. Archived from the original on March 7, 2024. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  8. ^ Brown, Steven T. (1998). "From Woman Warrior to Peripatetic Entertainer: The Multiple Histories of Tomoe". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 58 (1): 183–199. doi:10.2307/2652649. ISSN 0073-0548. JSTOR 2652649. Although more than a little hyperbole embellishes the extant accounts of Tomoe's military exploits, there is little disagreement over the basic outline of Tomoe's involvement in the Genpei Wars.
  9. ^ Toler, Pamela D. (2019-02-26). Women Warriors: An Unexpected History. Beacon Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-8070-6432-0.
  10. ^ Pennington, Reina (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots - A Biographical Dictionary of Military Woman (Volume Two). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 437–438. ISBN 978-0-313-32708-7.
  11. ^ Turnbull, Stephen (2012-01-20). Samurai Women 1184–1877. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-1-84603-952-2.
  12. ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. Cassell & Co. p. 204. ISBN 978-1854095237.
  13. ^ Faure, Bernard. (2003). The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, p. 211, p. 211, at Google Books; Kitagawa, p. 521.
  14. ^ Joly, Henri L. (1967). Legend in Japanese Art, p. 540.
  15. ^ Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (2015-04-07). Thousand Shrine Warrior. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781453293836.

References

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