# women samurai By [Geengeer](https://paragraph.com/@cryptohamsterz) · 2023-04-13 --- Maintaining the household was the main duty of women of the samurai class. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or _okugatasama_ (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a [_naginata_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naginata) or a special knife called the [_kaiken_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiken_\(dagger\)) in an art called [_tantojutsu_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantojutsu) (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose. There were women who actively engaged in battles alongside male samurai in Japan, although most of these female warriors were not formal samurai.[\[65\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai#cite_note-65) A samurai's daughter's greatest duty was [political marriage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_marriage). These women married members of enemy clans of their families to form a diplomatic relationship. These alliances were stages for many intrigues, wars and tragedies throughout Japanese history. A woman could divorce her husband if he did not treat her well and also if he was a traitor to his wife's family. A famous case was that of [Oda Tokuhime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokuhime_\(Oda\)) (Daughter of [Oda Nobunaga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga)); irritated by the antics of her mother-in-law, [Lady Tsukiyama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Tsukiyama) (the wife of [Tokugawa Ieyasu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Ieyasu)), she was able to get Lady Tsukiyama arrested on suspicion of communicating with the Takeda clan (then a great enemy of Nobunaga and the Oda clan). Ieyasu also arrested his own son, [Matsudaira Nobuyasu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsudaira_Nobuyasu), who was Tokuhime's husband, because Nobuyasu was close to his mother Lady Tsukiyama. To assuage his ally Nobunaga, Ieyasu had Lady Tsukiyama executed in 1579 and that same year ordered his son to commit seppuku to prevent him from seeking revenge for the death of his mother.\[[_citation needed_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)\] Traits valued in women of the samurai class were humility, obedience, self-control, strength, and loyalty. Ideally, a samurai wife would be skilled at managing property, keeping records, dealing with financial matters, educating the children (and perhaps servants as well), and caring for elderly parents or in-laws that may be living under her roof. Confucian law, which helped define personal relationships and the code of ethics of the warrior class, required that a woman show subservience to her husband, filial piety to her parents, and care to the children. Too much love and affection was also said to indulge and spoil the youngsters. Thus, a woman was also to exercise discipline. Though women of wealthier samurai families enjoyed perks of their elevated position in society, such as avoiding the physical labor that those of lower classes often engaged in, they were still viewed as far beneath men. Women were prohibited from engaging in any political affairs and were usually not the heads of their household. This does not mean that women in the samurai class were always powerless. Powerful women both wisely and unwisely wielded power at various occasions. Throughout history, several women of the samurai class have acquired political power and influence, even though they have not received these privileges [_de jure_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_jure). After [Ashikaga Yoshimasa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshimasa), 8th _shōgun_ of the Muromachi shogunate, lost interest in politics, his wife [Hino Tomiko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hino_Tomiko) largely ruled in his place. [Nene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nene_\(aristocrat\)), wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was known to overrule her husband's decisions at times, and [Yodo-dono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodo-dono), his concubine, became the _de facto_ master of Osaka castle and the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. [Tachibana Ginchiyo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachibana_Ginchiyo) was chosen to lead the Tachibana clan after her father's death. [Yamauchi Chiyo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamauchi_Chiyo), wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo, has long been considered the ideal samurai wife. According to legend, she made her kimono out of a quilted patchwork of bits of old cloth and saved pennies to buy her husband a magnificent horse, on which he rode to many victories. The fact that Chiyo (though she is better known as "Wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo") is held in such high esteem for her economic sense is illuminating in the light of the fact that she never produced an heir and the Yamauchi clan was succeeded by Kazutoyo's younger brother. The source of power for women may have been that samurai left their finances to their wives. Several women ascended the [Chrysanthemum Throne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysanthemum_Throne) as [female imperial ruler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_of_Japan) (女性 天皇, josei tennō) As the Tokugawa period progressed more value became placed on education, and the education of females beginning at a young age became important to families and society as a whole. Marriage criteria began to weigh intelligence and education as desirable attributes in a wife, right along with physical attractiveness. Though many of the texts written for women during the Tokugawa period only pertained to how a woman could become a successful wife and household manager, there were those that undertook the challenge of learning to read, and also tackled philosophical and literary classics. Nearly all women of the samurai class were literate by the end of the Tokugawa period. --- *Originally published on [Geengeer](https://paragraph.com/@cryptohamsterz/women-samurai)*