Enkyū-ni

Enkyū-ni was the wife of Hyakutake Katakane (also called Hyakutake Shimanokami), a retainer of the Sengoku-period daimyo Ryūzōji Takanobu of Hizen Province and one of the celebrated "Four Heavenly Kings of Ryūzōji." Her secular name was Fujiko. She was renowned as a peerless swordswoman — said to be unmatched with the long blade — as well as learned in Japanese and Chinese scholarship, and was respected by those around her for her character.

In March 1584, at the Battle of Okitanawate on the Shimabara Peninsula, where Ryūzōji Takanobu's forces clashed with the allied armies of Arima Harunobu and Shimazu Iehisa, her husband Katakane died alongside his lord.

That September, when Ōtomo forces under Bekki Dōsetsu attacked Kamafunatsu Castle, Fujiko reportedly donned armor herself, tucked a great naginata under her arm, and stood at the castle gate to fight desperately in its defense, her ferocity said to have startled the attackers and kept them from approaching easily. She is said to have escaped the crisis with the help of Nakano Jin'uemon Kiyoaki.

After her husband's death she took the tonsure and adopted the Buddhist name Enkyū-ni. She is also said to have later taken on castle-defense duties at the request of Nabeshima Naoshige, who succeeded the Ryūzōji as ruler of the domain. In her later years she returned to her home village and died in 1615 at the age of 81, according to tradition.

Her story is preserved in Saga Prefecture's local historical and cultural records, remembered as an example of a Sengoku-era warrior's widow who personally took up arms to defend a castle.