Ōmandokoro

Ōmandokoro (大政所, 1516 – 29 August 1592) or Ōmandokoro Naka was the mother of the Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi.[1] She was also the mother of Asahi no kata, Tomo and Toyotomi Hidenaga.

Biography

Ōmandokoro is said to have been born in Gokisu-mura, Owari Province. She was married to Kinoshita Yaemon, an Ashigaru of the Oda clan. They had at least two children, Tomo and Hideyoshi. She remarried when her husband died. There is some controversy whether Asahi no kata and Hidenaga were the children of her first or second husband.

There are several accounts describing her role in Hideyoshi's court. One source relates that due to her serious illness in 1588, Hideyoshi ordered ceremonies at major Shinto and Buddhist temples at Ise, Kasuga, Gion, Atago, Kitano, Kiyomizudera, Kofukuji, and Kuramadera.[2] In 1591, she pleaded clemency for three senior Daitokuji abbots, who Hideyoshi intended to crucify.[3]

Ōmandokoro and her daughter Asahi were sent as hostages to Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1586 when Hideyoshi summoned him to Osaka upon his promotion to the rank of Gon-Chunagon.[4][5] According to some accounts, one of the warriors, Honda Sakuzaemon Shigetsugu, was said to have advised Ieyasu: "You have to be careful, my lord, for there are a lot of elderly ladies-in-waiting about the Court, and Hideyoshi may quite likely have picked out one of them and sent her as substitute for his mother."[6] This suggests that she was not well known to Ieyasu and his followers. Ieyasu entrusted her to one of his most trusted retainers, Ii Naomasa. The meeting between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi proceeded peacefully, culminating in Ieyasu's submission. This allowed Ōmandokoro to return to Osaka after about a month.[7] However, when Ieyasu was on his way visiting Hideyoshi in Kyōto, a Tokugawa vassal named Honda Shigetsugu feared the safety of Ieyasu in Kyōto. Shigetsugu then piled wood blocks around Ōmandokoro's residents. He said that he will burn Ōmandokoro if Something happened to Ieyasu in Kyōto.[8][9]

After Ieyasu meeting with Hideoshi, she reported to Hideyoshi that Naomasa had treated her very well.[10]

She died in 1592. After her death, she received the Buddhist name Tenzui'in (天瑞院).

Descendants

Imperial family

Honours

See also

References

  1. ^ Haboush, JaHyun Kim; Robinson, Kenneth R. (2013). A Korean War Captive in Japan, 1597–1600: The Writings of Kang Hang. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-231-16370-5.
  2. ^ Watsky, Andrew Mark; Watsky, Andrew Mark (2004). Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Momoyama Japan. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 85. ISBN 0-295-98327-2.
  3. ^ Levine, Gregory P. A.; Levine, Associate Professor of Japanese Art Gregory P. (2005). Daitokuji: The Visual Cultures of a Zen Monastery. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-295-98540-2.
  4. ^ Winkler, Lawrence (2016). Samurai Road. Bellatrix. ISBN 978-0-9916941-8-1.
  5. ^ Sadler, A. L. (2009). Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4629-1654-2.
  6. ^ Sadler, A. L. (2015). The Maker of Modern Japan: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Oxon: Routledge. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-415-56498-4.
  7. ^ "大政所は約1ヵ月の人質生活を終え、大坂城へと戻ってきています". Touken World. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
  8. ^ 《世界文学》编辑组; 《世界文学》编辑组. 亚非拉文学组 (1980). 亚非拉短篇小说集 [Collection of Short Stories from Asia, Africa, and Latin America] (in Japanese). 中国社会科学出版社. p. 112. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  9. ^ Watanabe Yosuke, 豊太閤の私的生活 [The Private Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi] (in Japanese). 創元社. 1939. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  10. ^ "息子の敵の本拠地で心細い思いをしていた大政所は、直政の細やかな対応にいたく感動". Nikkei BizGate. Retrieved 9 November 2025.


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