was a Japanese aristocrat from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

. She was the concubine of

Taira no Kiyomori was a military leader and ''kugyō'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan. Early life Kiyomori was born in Heian-kyō, Japan, in 1118 as the first so ...

, mother of

Taira no Tokuko The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided i ...

, and grandmother of

Emperor Antoku was the 81st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. During this time, the Imperial family was involved in a bitter struggle between warring clans. Minamoto no Yori ...

. Later she took the vows to become a nun, after which she was generally referred to by her

Buddhist name A Dharma name or Dhamma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The nam ...

as the "Nun of the Second Rank" (Nii no Ama 二位尼). After Kiyomori's death in 1181, Tokiko's son,

Taira no Munemori was heir to Taira no Kiyomori, and one of the Taira clan's chief commanders in the Genpei War. As his father Taira no Kasemori uch a name does not existlay on his deathbed, Kiyomori declared, among his last wishes, that all affairs of the clan ...

, became the head of the

Taira The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided i ...

clan. After this, she became the representative pillar of the

clan. According to the '' Tale of the Heike'', Taira no Tokiko drowned herself during the

Battle of Dan-no-ura The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On April 25, 1185 (or March 24, 1185 by the official page of Shimonoseki City), the fleet of the Minamoto clan ...

together with her grandson, Taira no Tokushi.

Honours

* Japanese Court Upper Rank: Junior Second Rank (''従二位'')

References

* Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). Jien_(1221).html"_;"title="Jien.html"_;"title="Jien">Jien_(1221)">Jien.html"_;"title="Jien">Jien_(1221)_''Gukanshō.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien_(1221).html" ;"title="Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien (1221)">Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien (1221) ''Gukanshō">Jien">Jien_(1221).html" ;"title="Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien (1221)">Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien (1221) ''Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida.'' Berkeley: University of California Press. * Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida. (1975). ''The Tale of the Heike.'' Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. * Helen Craig McCullough, McCullough, Helen Craig. (1994). ''Genji and Heike. Selections from The Tale of the Genji and The Tale of the Heike.'' Stanford:

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

. * Watson, Burton and Haruo Shirane. (2006). ''The Tales of the Heike'' (abridged). New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

. Taira clan 1126 births 1185 deaths Ladies-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan Heian period Buddhist nuns Deified Japanese people Suicides by drowning in Japan {{japan-hist-stub

Honours

See also

References

Further reading