Numata Jakō (沼田麝香, 1544 – September 4, 1618) also known as Hosokawa Maria (細川マリア) was a Japanese noble lady of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. She was the wife of

Hosokawa Fujitaka , also known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and prominent samurai lord of the Sengoku period. A former senior retainer of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the fifteenth and final Ashikaga shōgun, Fujitaka later aligned with Oda Nobunaga. As a reward fo ...

and mother of

Hosokawa Tadaoki was a Japanese samurai lord and daimyo of the late Sengoku period and early Edo period. He was the son of Hosokawa Fujitaka and Numata Jakō, and the husband of the famous Christian convert Hosokawa Gracia. For most of his life, he went b ...

. She was best known for fighting and for accompanying

in the

siege of Tanabe The siege of Tanabe in 1600 was one of a number of battles which took place in parallel to the more influential Sekigahara Campaign, which led to the unification of Japan under Tokugawa Ieyasu. History The command of Tanabe Castle was held b ...

during

Sekigahara Campaign The Sekigahara Campaign was a series of battles in Japan fought between the Eastern Army aligned with Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western Army loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, culminating in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. The conflict was sparked by a ...

Life

Jako was the daughter of the lord of Kumagawa Castle in

Wakasa Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the southwestern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Wakasa''" in . Wakasa bordered on Echizen, Ōmi, Tanba, Tango, and Yamash ...

, Numata Mitsukane, who was a vassal of the

Ashikaga clan The was a Japanese samurai Japanese clans, clan and dynasty which established the Ashikaga shogunate and ruled History of Japan, Japan from roughly 1333 to 1573. The Ashikaga were descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan, deriving originall ...

. She married Fujitaka around 1562 and gave birth to Tadaoki in 1563. Influenced by her son's wife,

Hosokawa Gracia , usually referred to as , (1563 – 25 August 1600) was a member of the aristocratic Akechi family from the Sengoku period. Gracia is best known for her role in the Battle of Sekigahara; Ishida Mitsunari attempted to take her hostage to s ...

, Jakō was converted to Christianity. In 1600, when

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

the leader of the Western Army in

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

attempted to take Gracia as a hostage, the Ogasawara Shōsai family retainer killed her, he and the rest of the house then committed seppuku and burned the mansion. After the incident Jakō was emotionally affected, days later when the western army reached the gates of the Tanabe Castle, she fought bravely alongside to her family in the

Siege of Tanabe

The Hosokawa sided with

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 ...

(Eastern Army) against

(Western army) during the decisive

. During the

there were only 500 troops of Eastern army to defend the castle against the 15,000 of the Western Army. Numata Jakō was an important role throughout the siege. At night she would don her armor an make the rounds of the men on watch to buoy their spirits. She also made a diagram of the banners of those enemy units that either fired high so as not to hit anyone or fired using only powder and no musket balls. if the hosokawa survived the siege, it would in part be because of sympathizers among the enemy force, and she wanted them spared from any post-battle retribution, resisted without truce. The general commanding the siege had great respect for Jako's husband. Because of this, the attack lacked the usual spirit involved in a samurai siege: the attackers amused themselves by shooting the walls with cannons loaded only with gunpowder. Fujitaka laid down arms only after an imperial decree from

Emperor Go-Yōzei was the 107th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Yōzei's reign spanned the years 1586 through to his abdication in 1611, corresponding to the transition between the Azuchi–Momoyama period and the Edo period ...

. However, this was 19 days before

, and neither he nor his attackers were able to join the battle. After the victory of the Eastern army in Sekigahara, Jako and her family was rewarded and praised by

Later life

After the Battle of Sekigahara, the

Hosokawa clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group or Japanese clan, clan. The clan descends from the Seiwa Genji, a branch of the Minamoto clan, and ultimately from Emperor Seiwa, through the Ashikaga clan. It produced many prominent officials in the Ashikaga ...

became one of the clans loyal to the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. Jako's son, Hosokawa Tadaoki was awarded a fief in Buzen (Kokura, 370,000 koku) and went on to serve Tokugawa at the

siege of Osaka A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

. She survived the entire period of warring states, dying on July 16, 1618 at the age of 75, three years after the siege of Osaka. Her tomb is located in Nanzenji Temple, Kyoto City.

Popular culture

* She appears as generic playable character in the series of games '' Samurai Warriors 4 Empires''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Numata, Jako Women of the Sengoku period Numata Jako 16th-century Japanese nobility 16th-century Japanese women 17th-century Japanese women Women in 16th-century warfare Women in 17th-century warfare 16th-century births 1618 deaths