Yodo-dono

Yodo-dono (1569–1615) was born as the eldest daughter of Azai Nagamasa and Oichi (the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga); her given name is said to have been Chacha. In her childhood, her father Nagamasa was attacked by Nobunaga and took his own life at Odani Castle, and her mother Oichi also took her own life shortly after the Battle of Shizugatake following her remarriage to Shibata Katsuie—a tragic upbringing. She became a concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and by bearing his legitimate son Toyotomi Hideyori in 1593, her position within the Toyotomi clan became unshakeable. Following Hideyoshi's death (1598), she became the central figure ensuring the Toyotomi clan's survival based at Osaka Castle, and her relationship with Tokugawa Ieyasu gradually deepened into conflict. Triggered by the Hokoji Bell Inscription Incident (1614), the Osaka Winter and Summer Campaigns erupted, and the Toyotomi clan fell during the Summer Campaign of Osaka in 1615. Yodo-dono took her own life at Yamayama Kuruwa alongside Hideyori. Blades of the Ōmi and Mino traditions, favored by her father Nagamasa and grandfather Azai Hisumasa, existed as heirlooms of the Azai clan, and are believed to have been transmitted to Osaka Castle as items connected to Yodo-dono.