Harima no Tsubone

Harima no Tsubone was a woman of the warrior class in the mid-Kamakura period, the eldest daughter of Amakusa Taneari, a samurai of Amakusa District in Hizen Province (present-day Amakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture). Her childhood or religious name is given as Ōkura no Taishi. In 1233, she inherited the jitō (land steward) post over Hondo Island from her father, becoming head (sōryō) of the Amakusa clan despite being a woman.

According to the shrine's own transmitted history, when the Mongols invaded a second time in the Kōan campaign of 1281, Harima no Tsubone is said to have led the Amakusa naval forces into battle and, with the believed protection of the deity of Suwa, achieved military success. In 1283 she is said to have invited a divided spirit from Suwa Taisha in Shinano Province and founded Hondo Suwa Shrine. It should be noted that the claim of her personally fighting in the 1281 campaign rests chiefly on this shrine tradition rather than on the historical-geography sources that document her inheritance and the shrine's founding; roughly fifty years separate her 1233 succession from the 1281 campaign, so she would likely have been elderly by then.

Having no children of her own, Harima no Tsubone adopted her younger brother, Tanesuke, as heir, passing the headship of the Amakusa clan to his line.

Her documented existence and the succession and shrine-founding events are recorded in respected reference works, including the Heibonsha historical-geography series volume on Kumamoto Prefecture and the official town history of Reihoku. Instances of women formally inheriting the jitō post and clan headship under the Kamakura shogunate's vassal system are limited, making Harima no Tsubone a valuable example of female rule in medieval Kyushu. Hondo Suwa Shrine, which she is credited with founding, still stands today in Amakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture, and remains an object of local devotion.