was a Japanese woman of the late Azuchi–Momoyama through early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

s. Tobai-in was known for her beauty and intelligence. She was the daughter of Matsudaira Yasuchika. Her half-brother was Matsudaira Yasushige. In 1582 she was adopted by

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

. On January 11, 1584, Ieyasu gave her in marriage to

Ii Naomasa was a general under the Sengoku period ''daimyō'', and later ''shōgun'', Tokugawa Ieyasu.Shitennō of the Tokugawa. Their son, Ii Naokatsu was the first Lord of Annaka Domain in Kōzuke Province. Her older daughter married Matsudaira Tadayoshi, son of

and brother of the ''shōgun''

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was born to Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Lady Saigō on May ...

. Her younger daughter married Date Hidemune,

Date Masamune was a Japanese ''daimyō'' during the Azuchi–Momoyama period through the early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful feudal lords in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he w ...

's first son. In 1602, when Naomasa died due to injuries from Sekigahara, she became a nun. However her son was only 12 years old, so she continued to support her son as daimyō of the clan until he was of age. Tobai-in had a memorial built for her husband in

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

. After her death in 1639, she was buried in

Hikone Castle is an Edo-period Japanese castle located in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It is considered the most significant historical site in Shiga. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1951. Hikone is one of only ...

, in the Annaka Domain. She was also known as Seizen-in (清泉院) and Hana (花).

References

* Gunma Prefecture Historical Collection Hagiwara Susumu (in Japanese) * Toumei-in (in Japanese) * The Tokugawa family genealogy Iwasawa Izuhiko (in Japanese) {{People of the Sengoku period, State=Autocollapse 1639 deaths Japanese nobility 16th-century Japanese people 17th-century Japanese people 16th-century Japanese women 17th-century Japanese women Matsui-Matsudaira clan Ii clan Women of the Sengoku period People of the Azuchi–Momoyama period People of the Edo period