Tomoe Gozen (, ) was an onna-musha, a female samurai, mentioned in '' The Tale of the Heike.'' There is doubt as to whether she existed as she doesn't appear in any primary accounts of the Genpei war. She only appears in the epic "The tale of the Heike". She served under samurai lord Minamoto no Yoshinaka during the Battle of Awazu, part of the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

in the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, which led to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate.

Genpei War

She commanded, under the leadership of Yoshinaka, 300 samurai against 2,000 warriors of the rival

Taira clan The was one of the four most important Japanese clans, clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period, Heian period of History of Japan, Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto clan, Minamoto, the Fujiwara clan, Fuji ...

during the war. After defeating the Taira in 1182 and driving them into the western provinces, Yoshinaka took

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

and desired to be the leader of the

Minamoto clan was a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...

. His cousin Yoritomo was prompted to crush Yoshinaka, and sent his brothers Yoshitsune and Noriyori to kill him. Yoshinaka fought Yoritomo's forces at the Battle of Awazu on February 21, 1184, where Tomoe Gozen took at least one head of the enemy. Although Yoshinaka's troops fought bravely, they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. When Yoshinaka was defeated there, with only a few of his soldiers standing, he told Tomoe Gozen to flee because he wanted to die with his foster brother . There are varied accounts of what followed. At the Battle of Awazu in 1184, she is known for beheading Honda no Morishige of Musashi. She is also known for having killed Uchida Ieyoshi and for escaping capture by Hatakeyama Shigetada. After Tomoe Gozen beheaded the leader of the Musashi clan, she presented his head to her master Yoshinaka.

Notes

References

* Faure, Bernard (2003). ''The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ; ; . * Joly, Henri L. (1967). ''Legend in Japanese Art: A Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore Myths, Religious Symbolism, Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan''. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle. ; . * Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida, ed. (1975). ''The Tale of the Heike''. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ; . * McCullough, Helen Craig (1988). ''The Tale of the Heike''. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press. ; . * Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth (2005). ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

. ; .

External links

Famous Women of Japanese History
. The Samurai Archives Japanese History Page. * Shea, L
"Tomoe Gozen - Female Samurai"
Bella Online, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gozen, Tomoe 1150s births 1247 deaths Asian people whose existence is disputed 12th-century Japanese women 13th-century Japanese women 12th-century Japanese people 13th-century Japanese people Japanese folklore Japanese women in warfare Women warriors Samurai Minamoto clan Women in 12th-century warfare People of the Genpei War People of the Heian period