* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Enkyū-ni
円久尼
Female Warrior — The Hyakutake Widow Who Defended a Castle
Description
Who Was Enkyū-ni?
Enkyū-ni was the wife of Hyakutake Tomokane (Hyakutake Shima-no-kami), a warrior who served Ryūzōji Takanobu, a sengoku daimyō of Hizen Province, during the Sengoku period. She supported her husband, who was counted among the “Four Heavenly Kings of the Ryūzōji,” the leading retainers of the Ryūzōji clan. She was said to have had a spirited, manly character and was rated “peerless in valor” (daigō musō). It is also handed down that she was fond of horseback riding.
The Battle of Okitanawate and Her Husband's Death
In the third month of Tenshō 12 (1584), at the Battle of Okitanawate, in which Ryūzōji Takanobu clashed with the combined forces of Arima Harunobu and Shimazu Iehisa on the Shimabara Peninsula, her husband Hyakutake Tomokane was killed fighting alongside his lord Takanobu.
The Defense of Kamafunatsu Castle
After the Battle of Okitanawate, when Bekki Dōsetsu and Takahashi Jōun of the Ōtomo side attacked Kamafunatsu Castle, it is said that she defended the castle in place of her late husband and repulsed the attack. The Hokuhi Senshi, a chronicle, also records an anecdote that, in the fighting with the Ōtomo clan, she guarded the castle by order of Nabeshima Naoshige, took up a naginata herself, stood at the castle gate, and commanded the troops.
Taking Vows and Later Life
After her husband's death, she is said to have shaved her head and taken the name Enkyū-ni (dharma name Enkyū Myōgetsu).
Assessment
Enkyū-ni's deeds are also discussed in local history and cultural materials of Saga Prefecture, and are handed down within regional history as an example of a Sengoku samurai woman who, after losing her husband, took up arms herself to defend a castle.
Notable Swords
- Naginata (a weapon said to have been carried by her herself while defending the castle)