Women warriors of Japan

[xchrom]

Indomitable: Hangaku Gozen rides into battle swinging her bloodstained naginata and wearing yoroi armor symbolic of leadership during the siege of Torisaka Castle (in present-day Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku) in 1201, after her clan rose up against the powerful Minamoto Shogunate in a (losing) medieval power struggle. ©ILLUSTRATION BY GIUSEPPE RAVA, FROM "SAMURAI WOMEN 1184-1877" BY STEPHEN TURNBULL, REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF OSPREY C OSPREY PUBLISHING LTD. TO FIND THIS BOOK AND OTHERS LIKE IT, VISIT WWW.OSPREYPUBLISHING.COM


Inviolable: This 1848 print by Kuniyoshi, titled "Ishi-jo, wife of Oboshi Yoshio, one of the 47 loyal ronin," shows the naginata-armed spouse of one of the disgraced Lord Asano's 47 former samurai who, in 1703, killed the court official he was said to have offended and for which he was ordered to commit seppuku. RAMA

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20111009x1.html

"Ah, for some bold warrior to match with, that Kiso might see how fine a death I can die!"

Tomoe Gozen was the prototypical Japanese female warrior.

She had "long black hair and a fair complexion, and her face was very lovely; moreover she was a fearless rider, whom neither the fiercest horse nor the roughest ground could dismay, and so dexterously did she handle sword and bow that she was a match for 1,000 warriors, fit to meet either god or devil."

A woman so dashing deserves to be better known. She figures, all too fleetingly, in the "Heike Monogatari," the 13th-century chronicle of the 12th-century Genpei War, the classic confrontation between the Taira and Minamoto military clans.

[ensho]

1. I bow to her memory - thanks for posting this women's history

nt