* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Jukei-ni
寿桂尼
Principal Wife of Imagawa Ujichika and the 'Ama-midai,' the 'Female Sengoku Daimyo' Who Assisted Imagawa Governance Across Four Generations
Description
A Court Lady Who Married Into Suruga
Jukei-ni (date of birth unknown - 1568) was the principal wife of Imagawa Ujichika, the Sengoku daimyo of Suruga. She came from the Nakamikado family, court nobles of the Kanjuji branch of the northern Fujiwara house; her father was the Provisional Major Counselor Nakamikado Nobutane. Raised in the aristocratic society of Kyoto, she married into the Imagawa house as a woman of broad learning. She bore Ujichika sons including Ujiteru and Yoshimoto and became a figure who upheld the Imagawa headship. Her birth year is unknown, but working backward from her age at marriage it is conjectured she had reached her mid-eighties at the time of her death.
Acting Governance as the 'Ama-midai'
After her husband Ujichika's death, Jukei-ni took the tonsure, adopting the name 'Jukei,' and was styled 'Okata-dono' and 'Ama-midai' (the nun-regent). When Ujichika died of illness in 1526 and the eldest son Ujiteru succeeded to the headship, Ujiteru was still only fourteen. For this reason Jukei-ni issued official documents using her own seal (the 'Ki' seal) and effectively managed the governance of the Imagawa clan until Ujiteru came of age. Instances of a woman issuing the official documents of a daimyo house are exceedingly rare, and this is why she is called a 'female Sengoku daimyo.'
Political Power Across Four Generations
Jukei-ni continued to assist Imagawa governance across four generations—Ujichika, Ujiteru, Yoshimoto, and Ujizane. In particular, during the Hanakura Rebellion of 1536 (a succession dispute) she supported Yoshimoto's accession and contributed to the stability of the Imagawa house. She was a political presence wary of even by the neighboring Takeda Shingen, and she was the central figure who, on the side of internal administration, upheld the height of Imagawa power when the clan held sway over the Tokai region.
Jukei-ni and Sword Culture
No record confirms that Jukei-ni herself carried any particular sword, but as a woman of court origin who nonetheless bore the responsibilities of governance with the standing of a house head, she is thought to have been involved in managing the famous blades transmitted in the Imagawa house and in arranging votive swords offered to temples and shrines. The custom of samurai women carrying a kaiken held no less in the Imagawa house, and swords of the Yamato and Bizen traditions were transmitted at the Imagawa residence in Sunpu.
With the Decline of the Imagawa
When Yoshimoto was slain by Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, the Imagawa house rapidly declined. Jukei-ni continued to support the house down to the generation of her grandson Ujizane, but she died at the Imagawa residence in 1568. Soon after her death, the Imagawa house was effectively destroyed by Takeda Shingen's invasion of Suruga, and she is remembered in history as 'the woman who supported the Imagawa house to the very end.'
Notable Swords
- Yamato and Bizen tradition swords transmitted in the Imagawa house (famous blades transmitted at the Imagawa residence in Sunpu, in whose management Jukei-ni, bearing the standing of a house head, is thought to have been involved)
- Kaiken of a samurai woman (the dagger said to have been carried, following warrior custom, by Jukei-ni, who, though of court origin, stood within the Imagawa house with the standing of a house head)