Oeyo

Who They Were

Oeyo (於江与) was a noblewoman of the Azuchi–Momoyama period (安土桃山時代, Azuchi–Momoyama jidai, 1573–1603) and the early Edo period, and one of the most politically consequential women of her generation. She was born in 1573, the daughter of Oichi (お市) and Azai Nagamasa (浅井長政), and therefore a member of the Azai clan (浅井氏, Azai-shi). Her sisters were Yodo-dono (淀殿) and Ohatsu (お初), and together the three are known as the Azai sisters (浅井三姉妹, Azai san-shimai).

Her life spanned the violent consolidation of Japan under first Toyotomi Hideyoshi and then Tokugawa Ieyasu, and she stood at the hinge between those two houses. She married three times: first to her cousin Saji Kazunari (佐治一成), then to Toyotomi Hidekatsu (豊臣秀勝), a nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and finally to Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), who became the second Tokugawa shōgun. She died on 3 November 1626 at Edo Castle (江戸城, Edo-jō).

Life and Career

Oeyo was born in 1573 at Odani Castle (小谷城) in what is now Gifu, in the first year of the Tenshō era (天正, Tenshō). Her father Azai Nagamasa was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in that same year, and her mother Oichi returned with her daughters to the Oda camp. The three sisters grew up inside the orbit of the men who were dividing Japan between them.

Her first marriage, to her cousin Saji Kazunari, ended in divorce. Her second husband was Toyotomi Hidekatsu, a nephew of the regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi. With Hidekatsu she had a daughter, Toyotomi no Sadako (豊臣完子), who later married Kujō Yukiie (九条幸家). Hidekatsu died during Hideyoshi's campaigns in Korea, and Oeyo was married a third time, to Tokugawa Hidetada.

That third marriage placed her at the centre of the Tokugawa regime. Hidetada became the second shōgun, and Oeyo bore him the children who would carry the shogunate into its second generation. Her sons were Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), who succeeded his father as the third shōgun, and Tokugawa Tadanaga (徳川忠長). Her daughters included Senhime (千姫), Tamaki, Tokugawa Masako (徳川和子), Hatsu-hime (初姫) and Tensūin (天崇院). Hatsu-hime was adopted by Oeyo's sister Ohatsu, who was married to Kyōgoku Takatsugu (京極高次).

As the wife of a reigning shōgun, Oeyo held the court position of Midaidokoro (御台所), the title given to a shōgun's principal consort. After Hidetada retired she took the higher title Ōmidaidokoro (大御台所). She died at Edo Castle on 3 November 1626.

Why They Matter

Oeyo mattered because she linked the two houses that dominated late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Japan. Her second husband was a Toyotomi; her third was a Tokugawa. Her sister Yodo-dono was the mother of Toyotomi Hideyori, the heir whom the Tokugawa eventually destroyed at Osaka. Through her own children, Oeyo tied the Toyotomi bloodline directly into the Tokugawa shogunal line.

After the collapse of the Council of Five Elders, the body that Hideyoshi had set up to govern after his death, Oeyo and her sisters became key figures in maintaining a diplomatic relationship between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans. That relationship was fragile and eventually failed, but for a period the three sisters were the channel through which the two most powerful houses of the age communicated.

Her contribution to politics at the beginning of the Edo period was recognised after her death: she was posthumously inducted into the Junior First Rank (従一位, ju-ichii) of the Imperial Court, the second highest honour the Emperor of Japan could confer.

The Name in Japanese

The name most closely associated with her in Japanese historical writing is 崇源院. Its reading is すうげんいん (sūgen'in), and it is rendered in romaji as Sūgen'in. This is a posthumous Buddhist name (戒名, kaimyō), the name given to a person after death, which is why it ends in 院 (in), the element used for such names.

Breaking it down character by character:

• 崇 — read here as すう (sū). It means "revere", "honour", or "lofty". It is the same character used in words expressing deep respect.
• 源 — read here as げん (gen). It means "source", "origin", or "fountainhead". It is also the character used for the Minamoto clan (源氏, Genji).
• 院 — read here as いん (in). It originally meant "temple" or "cloistered building", and by extension it became the standard closing element of posthumous names for people of high status, and also the term for a retired emperor or cloistered rule.

Her personal name appears in several forms in the sources: Oeyo (於江与), Gō (江), Ogō (小督) and Satoko (達子). The given name recorded for her is Gō (江). The family name associated with her birth is Azai (浅井), from her father's clan.

Legacy

Oeyo's most durable legacy is dynastic. Her son Tokugawa Iemitsu ruled as the third shōgun, and her daughter Tokugawa Masako became a consort connected to the imperial court, tying the Tokugawa house to the throne as well as to the shogunate. Through her daughter Toyotomi no Sadako, she also connected her line to the Kujō family, one of the great aristocratic houses of Kyoto.

Her posthumous elevation to the Junior First Rank marked the formal recognition of a woman who had, across three marriages and the wreckage of two fallen houses, positioned herself and her children at the summit of the new order. Surviving record books from merchants of luxury goods give historians insight into the patterns of patronage and taste among privileged women of her class — Oeyo and her sisters among them.