Seishin-ni (清心尼, 1585–1644), born as Hachinohe Neneko (八戸子子子) or Nene (祢々), Mego (女古,女子) was a Japanese noble woman from the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

and early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. She became the 21st leader of the Hachinohe clan after Hachinohe Naomasa's death in 1614.

Life

Hachinohe Neneko was born in 1585 or 1586, she was the daughter of the 19th head of Hachinohe clan, Hachinohe Naoe, and her mother was Lady Chiyoko (

Nanbu Nobunao was a Sengoku period Japanese samurai, and ''daimyō'' and the 26th hereditary chieftain of the Nanbu clan. His courtesy title was ''Daizen Daibu'', and his Court rank was Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. Nobunao was the second son of Nanbu ...

's daughter), a noble lady of the powerful

Nanbu clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji of Kai Pr ...

. In 1595 Naoe died early, and at the age of 10, Neneko married Hachinohe Naomasa, who was one year younger. In June 1614, months before the

Siege of Osaka The was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages (winter campaign and summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege ...

began, Naomasa died in Takada,

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

, and their son Hisamatsu died shortly afterwards, so Neneko became the head of the family. This was due to the order of Nanbu Toshinao, the lord of the Nanbu clan. Toshinao advised her to remarry, but she refused, shaved her hair, became a nun, and changed her name to Seishin-ni. Toshinao further recommended adoption with the Nanbu hanshi, but Seishin-ni also refused. In 1620, the Nitta clan, a family related to the Hachinohe clan, handed over Naoyoshi to marry their second daughter, succeeding the clan's leadership. In 1627, Toshinao transferred Naoyoshi from Nejo to Tono, Seishin-ni followed. As Naoyoshi was primarily in Morioka as the Southern Clan's main retainer, Seishin-ni actually ruled Tono. Seishin-ni died at age 59 at Yokota Castle in June 1644.

References

People of Sengoku-period Japan Women of medieval Japan Samurai 16th-century Japanese people 16th-century Japanese women 17th-century Japanese women 17th-century women rulers People of Edo-period Japan 1585 births Year of death unknown Daimyo Female castellans in Japan {{Daimyo-stub

Life

See also

References