Samurai women

In the Middle Ages, an elite of women warriors emerged who were trained to defend honor and home when the men were away. ⛩️🇯🇵🌸

Were there samurai women?

In the Middle Ages, an elite of women warriors emerged who were trained to defend honor and home when the men were away.

Were there samurai women? In early medieval Japan there was an elite of women trained in martial arts and the use of weapons whose mission was to be prepared to defend their honor and their home in times of war, when men had died or gone to the front. These were the onna bugeisha (literally translated as “warrior women”), the samurai women of ancient Japan.

Despite the submission to father and husband that Japanese society imposed on women, converted into cultured wives and devoted mothers by the mentality of the Heian period, there is evidence of women belonging to the noble and warrior classes who were prepared for enter combat if necessary.

These women were trained in the use of the naginata, a spear with a long shaft and curved blade that allowed them to keep their distance from the enemy, the kaiken (a straight-bladed dagger) and the Tanto (a short katana). Although they were prepared for defensive situations in which they could repel enemies that came to their home when there were no men to fight, there were cases in which women participated in offensive actions.

The best-known direct antecedent is that of Empress Jingu, a semi-mythical character who took the place of her husband and assumed the government of the islands and command of the army in an attempt to conquer Korea. Although historians question the veracity of the facts, Jinpu is represented as a fierce warrior who imposed her will on a society that rejected her and ended up overcoming the obstacles that would have prevented her from ruling.

Tomoe Gozen's deadly katana

But without a doubt, the best-known samurai woman in Japanese history is Tomoe Gozen, who is mentioned in the Tales of the Heike and whose beauty and bravery in combat stand out. Tomoe went a step further and surpassed the standards of onna bugeisha both because of her skills and the situations in which she was involved. In addition to weapons such as the naginata or the Tanto, Tomoe Gozen was an expert in the use of the katana, archery and horseback riding.

It is one of the few cases in which a woman actively participated in an offensive war action, specifically in the battle of Awazu (1184) where she led a small number of troops in the charge against Minamoto Yoritomo's troops. It is said that Tomoe Gozen fought alongside her husband (or lover) Kiso Yoshinaka and her end is not clear since, depending on the source, some claim that she died or committed suicide in combat and others that she was one of the few survivors of that battle. .

Other famous samurai women

Although history forgot them (or tried to do so), cases of female warriors in Japan are much more common than one might think and extend in time until the very end of the samurai. A striking case is that of Hojo Masako, a contemporary of Tomoe Gozen but with a better documented and less mythologized life. This woman was the wife of a shogun and as such she decided to accompany him in his skirmish as his lieutenant. It is said that when her husband died she abandoned the warrior life and became a nun, but later she took up arms and continued working as an onna bugeisha.

The most recent case, and perhaps therefore one of the best known, is that of Nakano Takeko. She lived between 1847 and 1868, she was the daughter of an officer who educated her in both literature and combat. During the Boshin War, which pitted the worn-out Tokugawa shogunate against a group of nobles seeking to return power to the emperor, Nakano Takeko turned her loyalty to the shogun and led a small army made up entirely of women. She died during the Battle of Aizu when she, seriously injured, decided to perform seppuku (suicide ritual) to avoid being taken alive.