A list of female

castellans A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant of ...

in Japanese history.

Definition

The list includes the following persons: * Women who inherited the leadership of a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

clan. * A woman who was named commander of the castle by a

Daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally ...

. * Due to the death of a male owner, his wife or daughter formally inherit the leadership of the castle. The list does not include: * Women who had great political power but were not formally clan or castle leaders. * Reigning Empresses or Regents * Women who was the owner of part or compartment of a castle, like Kodai-in who gave the eastern ward of

Osaka Castle is a Japanese castle in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Layout The main tower ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

. * Women who received honorable titles, such as

Lady Kasuga was a Japanese noble lady and politician from a prominent Japanese samurai family of the Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. Born Saitō Fuku (斉藤福), she was a daughter of Saitō Toshimitsu (who was a retainer of Akechi Mitsuhide). She was t ...

who was named '' Jōrō Otoshiyori '' (上臈御年寄) and commanded the

Ōoku The refers to the women's quarters of Edo Castle, the section where the women connected to the reigning resided. Similar areas in the castles of powerful , such as the Satsuma Domain, were also referred to by this term. History The ''Ōok ...

area of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

* Buildings or areas that cannot be considered a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...

List

Other evidence of female castellans

A sequence of women who acted remarkably as castellans, without being a formal heiress, or female castellans where there is little detail about their administration, area and castle.

Sengoku period (1467–1603)

* Akamatsu Tōshōin: She was a ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

of the

Akamatsu clan is a Japanese samurai family of direct descent from Minamoto no Morifusa of the Murakami-Genji. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Akamatsu" at ''Nobiliare du Japon' ...

. She was a guardian of Akamatsu Yoshimura. After Yoshimura's death, Tōshōin took total control of the clan as the leader in 1521. *

Jukei-ni Jukei-ni (寿桂尼, d. April 11, 1568) was a Japanese noble lady who acted as the power behind the throne or ''de facto'' daimyo of the Imagawa clan during the Sengoku period. She was born in the aristocrat Nakamikado Family of Kyoto. Jukei-ni was ...

: She acted as guardian and adviser to Ujiteru, Yoshimoto and her grandson

Imagawa Ujizane was a Japanese ''daimyō'' who lived in the Sengoku through early Edo periods. He was the tenth head of the Imagawa clan, and was a son of Imagawa Yoshimoto and the father of Imagawa Norimochi and Shinagawa Takahisa. Biography Ujizane was born ...

. She has spent four generations of daimyos and it is said that she was ''de facto'' the last Sengoku daimyo of the

Imagawa clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji by way of the Kawachi Genji. It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. Origins Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in the ...

. *

Ikeda Sen Ikeda Sen (池田せん) or Annyo-in (若御前) was a late-Sengoku period onna-musha. She was the daughter of Ikeda Tsuneoki and the older sister of Ikeda Terumasa. Mori Nagayoshi (older brother of Mori Ranmaru) was her first husband. She was a wo ...

: ''Tōdaiki'' (当代記) describes that she owned lands with a revenue equivalent to 10,000 koku, like a minor daimyo. *

Myorin Myōrin (妙林) or Yoshioka Myorin-ni (吉岡妙林尼) was a late-Sengoku period female warlord onna-musha. She was the wife of Yoshioka Kyōko, Yoshioka Akioki a samurai warlord, and served Ōtomo clan, Otomo clan in Bungo. She was the heroic w ...

Luís Fróis Luís Fróis (1532 – 8 July 1597) was a Portuguese missionary who worked in Asia during the second half of the 16th century. While in Japan in 1582, he witnessed the attack on Honnō-ji, a Buddhist temple that ended in the death of Oda Nobuna ...

describes that a woman was the ruler of an area that is currently Ōita city, that woman was probably Myorin. Her son inherited the clan leadership after the death of

Yoshioka Akioki file:Yoshioka Town Culture Center.jpg, 250px, Yoshioka Town Culture Center is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 21,749 in 8,311 households, and a population density of 110 ...

. Because he was very young, Myorin became the representative head of Tsurusaki castle as a counselor for her son. Cases like these were common in all of Japanese history. *

Munakata Saikaku Munakata Saikaku (宗像才鶴) was a Japanese female samurai warlord, aristocrat and onna-musha of the Sengoku period. She was the wife of Munakata Ujisada, the last Munakata clan ''daiguji'' of Munakata Shrine in Chikuzen province of the Kyushu ...

: In 1586, she was appointed leader of the Munataka clan by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, because of her efforts in the

Kyushu campaign is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

. *

Yodo-dono or (1569 – June 4, 1615) was a prominently placed figure in the late-Sengoku period. She was the daughter of Oichi and sister of Ohatsu and Oeyo. She was a concubine and second wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was then the most powerful man ...

: She formally received Yodo Castle in 1589. After Hideyoshi's death, she acted as guardian of his heir

Toyotomi Hideyori was the son and designated successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who first united all of Japan. His mother, Yodo-dono, was the niece of Oda Nobunaga. Early life Born in 1593, he was Hideyoshi's second son. The birth of Hideyori cre ...

. Following the fall of the

Council of Five Elders The Council of Five Elders (Japanese: :jp:五大老, 五大老, ''Go-Tairō'') was a group of five powerful feudal lords (Japanese: 大名, ''Daimyō'') formed in 1598 by the Regent (Japanese: 太閤 ''Sesshō and Kampaku, Taikō'') Toyotomi Hideyo ...

that resulted in the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

, Yodo-dono becomes the chief representative of the Toyotomi clan and

. * Lady Nata: In Otomo Family Document (大友家文書録), it is described that she owned lands on the

Kunisaki Peninsula Kunisaki Peninsula () is a peninsula in Oita prefecture that juts out into the Seto Inland Sea. The peninsula is almost circular. There is in the central part of the peninsula. Municipalities in the peninsula * Bungotakada * Kunisaki * Kit ...

, an area run by her family, the Nata clan. * Fujishiro Gozen: She was the female castellan of a minor castle, the Fujishiro-kan (藤代館) in

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...

Notes

References