Toyotomi Sadako (豊臣完子,1592 – 1658) 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 Edo period. She was a daughter of

Toyotomi Hidekatsu Toyotomi Hidekatsu (豊臣秀勝, 1569 – October 14, 1592)Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991). ''The Cambridge History of Japan'' was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's nephew (later adopted) and a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period. He was the lord o ...

(

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 ...

's nephew) and

Oeyo , , or : 1573 – September 15, 1626) was a prominently-placed female figure in the Azuchi–Momoyama period and early Edo period. She was daughter of Oichi and the sister of Yodo-dono and Ohatsu. When she rose to higher political status during ...

( Oichi's daughter,

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

niece). In 1609 she ascended to the status of

Kita no Mandokoro was the chief governing body of an important family or monastic complex in ancient Japan. This name was borrowed for the administrative department of the Shogunate in feudal times. History The earliest usage of the term was found in the Hei ...

. Due to being directly linked to prominent figures of her time, she was inducted into the Junior Third Rank of the Imperial Court (Jusanmi), one of the highest honors that could be conferred by the Emperor of Japan.

Genealogy

Sadako’s birth name isn't known. She was born of the adopted son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hidekatsu (second son of Hideyoshi's sister, Tomo, with Miyoshi Kazumichi) and Oeyo, daughter of Azai Nagamasa and Oichi. Later, her mother married with

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, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

, the second shogun of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. Sadako was a maternal half-sister of

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

. Sadako married Kujo Yukiie, a court noble. Her children were Kujo Michifusa, Nijo Yasumichi, Matsudono Michimoto, Eigon, a daughter named Michiko, a second daughter who was wife of Kojun of Hongan-ji Temple and a third daughter.

Life

Toyotomi Sadako’s father, Hidekatsu, died of disease in the

Bunroku was a after '' Tenshō'' and before ''Keichō.'' This period spanned the years from December 1592 to October 1596.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Bunroku''" i ''Japan encyclopedia'', p. 92 n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Fr ...

campaign before her birth, and Oeyo gave birth to her in the home of her elder sister,

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 ...

. Oeyo had her third marriage to Tokugawa Hidetada in 1595, and therefore she was taken in and brought up by her aunt, Yodo-dono. Yodo-dono is said to have brought up her carefully as a biological child, but she was recorded as another child considered Yodo-dono's own (another child considered one's own is generally regarded as an adopted child having only the name of a biological child because they has no right of inheritance), not as an adopted child in the "Keicho nikkenroku," probably due to the matter of inheritance. Sadako married Kujo Yukiie in June 1604. It is recorded that Sadako's menoto (a woman who provides breast-feeding for a highborn baby) died immediately before the marriage. Yodo-dono organized everything about the marriage, which surprised the people in Kyoto. Also, Yodo-dono built the gorgeous Kujo shintei (Kujo's new residence) under the name of her brother-in-law, Toyotomi Hideyori. It is clarified that there was a movement to have Hideyori appointed to the Sadaijin (Minister of the Left) in the Imperial Court in 1608, four years after the marriage. In January 31, 1609, Sadako's husband was appointed to the Kanpaku (chief adviser to the Emperor), and she became to a higher political status,

. She was inducted into the Junior Third Rank of the Imperial Court (Jusanmi). Meanwhile, her personal name, 'Sadako,' is thought to have been determined at that time. After the Toyotomi clan was ruined in 1615 during 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 ...

, Sadako became an adopted daughter of her mother's husband, Tokugawa Hidetada. She also served as a precious mediator for the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

between court nobles and warriors, since Sadako's mother, Oeyo, had married into the Tokugawa family. Toyotomi Sadako died in 1658 at 67 years of age. There were several children between Sadako and Yukiie, and those children are thought to have been descended from the Toyotomi family. For that reason, Yukiie's family line is thought to be closer to the main branch of the Toyotomi family after the ruin of the Toyotomi clan. Those children married into the Asano clan, and therefore the Asano family was also descended from the Toyotomi family. Meanwhile, for the reasons stated above,

Emperor Showa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

is descended from her.

Family

* Father:

* Mother:

* First adopted parents:

and

*Second adopted father:

* Husband:

Kujō Yukiie , son of regent Kanetaka, was a ''kugyō'' or Japanese court noble of the Edo period (1603–1868). His given name was initially. He held a regent position kampaku from 1608 to 1612 and from 1619 to 1623. He married Toyotomi Sadako (1592–1658), ...

* Children: **

Nijō Yasumichi , son of Kujō Yukiie and Toyotomi Sadako. He was also adopted son of Nijō Akizane, was a Japanese ''kugyō'' (court noble) of the early Edo period. He held a regent position sesshō from 1635 to 1647. He married a daughter of Emperor Go-Yōzei, a ...

Kujō Michifusa , son of regent Yukiie, was a ''kugyō'' or Japanese court noble of the Edo period (1603–1868). He held a regent position sesshō in 1647. He married a daughter of second head of Echizen Domain Matsudaira Tadanao. One of the couple's daughter ...

** Matsudono Michimoto (1615-1646) ** Michiko married Sennyo ** daughter (1613-1632) married Ryōnyo ** daughter (1625-1664) ** son (1622-1664)

References

1658 deaths 1592 births Kujō family Toyotomi clan 17th-century Japanese women 16th-century Japanese women

Bibliography

* {{People of the Sengoku period, state=autocollapse