From the great battles against Kublai Khan’s Mongol armies to the Sengoku Jidai three-centuries
later, the famous samurai of Japan are almost always pictured to be male.
However, there was also a notable minority of female fighters in Japanese history who
managed to rise up, fight, and sacrifice alongside their male comrades with immense bravery and
skill.
Whether they were seeking revenge, fighting for survival, or serving their liege lord,
the martial achievement of women is a considerable and fascinating, yet underestimated, aspect
of history in the Land of the Rising Sun.
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The association in Japanese society and legend of females with martial weaponry such as swords
happened even in the earliest days of the land’s history, visible in ancient works
such as Kojiki and Nihon Shoki - historical pieces commissioned by the imperial family
in the eighth-century.
These texts connect Japan’s emperors and empresses with the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu
and her sword known as ‘Cloud-Cluster’.
It is said that this mythical blade was crafted from the tail of a fierce serpent known in
Japanese culture as Orochi by Amaterasu’s divine brother Susano-o - god of the sea and
storms.
After slaying the demonic reptile, he then gave his new weapon to Amaterasu in order
to settle an age-old grievance between the two.
When the goddess’ grandson Ninigi was sent down from the heavens and took possession
of the Earth, he used this sword.
So, the blade of Amaterasu represented one of the three sacred treasures of the imperial
family and was inherited by the first emperor of Japan, Jimmu.
Unlike many other contemporary civilizations, such as China, Persia, and Rome, Japan counted
among its early rulers a number of formidable empresses who either ruled jointly or by themselves.
One of these semi-legendary empresses was Jingu, who ruled alone for ninety years from
170 to 260AD as the widow of Emperor Chuai, who before his death had received a divine
command to conquer the lands of Korea.
His demise wasn’t going to deter the new empress from fulfilling the deity’s command,
and she prepared to carry out the expedition to Korea herself, despite the fact that she
was pregnant.
In the Nihon Shoki, we read that a deity gave the empress instructions, stating that ‘a
gentle spirit will attach itself to the empress’ person, and keep watch over her life’ and
‘a rough spirit will form the vanguard and be a guide to the squadron’ - it is clear
the gods were on the empress’ side.
Nevertheless, realising that the birth of her child was probably about to happen on
the way to Korea, Empress Jingu supposedly took a stone ‘which she inserted into her
loins’, praying for the gods to delay the birth until the day she returned to Japan
and had completed her late husband’s divine mission.
After this display of piety, the empress embarked on her daring military campaign against Korea
and successfully secured a surrender from the Silla kingdom - one of the three states
which made up the Korean Peninsula.
When an agreement for annual tribute had been agreed between victors and vanquished, Empress
Jingu returned to Japan.
Sure enough, as she had prayed for, soon after arriving in her homeland she gave birth to
a son - the future Emperor Ojin.
While this tale is almost definitely embellishment or even outright propaganda, the image of
a militarily powerful Japanese empress is not entirely fiction.
We have records in the contemporary Chinese dynastic text Wei Zhi of a ruler called Himiko
who held dominion over the lands of ‘Wa’ - the Chinese name for Japan at the time.
Its description is that of a user of sorcery who ‘bewitched’ the people, possibly twisting
the fact that female rulers in early Japan were also often female shamans, acting as
spokespeople for the kami, essentially demigod-like spirits.
This role as a priestess is very telling, and because of this, we can infer that she
could have also been a warrior.
In subsequent centuries, joint male-female rulers divided up responsibilities, with the
male taking care of administrative duties while the female handled religious matters.
Archaeological excavations of some female rulers, however, have revealed the presence
of armour and weapons, so it is possible that as part of their religious role, the women
led troops into battle.
Therefore, the image of Empress Jingu as a fearsome warrior-priestess is not as unlikely
as the legend might make it appear.
Women continued to exercise imperial power to some extent until the turn of the eighth-century,
but at this time their influence slowly began to decline.
By late in the twelfth-century during the Heian civil wars, female influence had become
minimal at best.
This was the age in which the samurai first rose to prominence in Japan and started to
take advantage of the political influence that their military power had gained them,
a trend which ended in a series of civil wars ending the Heian age.
For a woman, these times were decidedly mixed in participation - many were simply swept
away by the cataclysms of the era, but some distinguished women serve as the greatest
examples ever of Japan’s hidden trend of brave warrior women.
The epitome of the latter is a tale of the most archetypal and famous lady-samurai in
all Japanese history - Tomoe Gozen, companion of the great hero Minamoto Kiso Yoshinaka.
One variation of a text known as the Heike Monogatari introduces Tomoe as a servant or
attendant of Lord Kiso, but in some traditions, her description as a ‘beautiful girl’
implies her status as the latter’s mistress or even a kind of ‘warrior wife’.
At the time of the upcoming account, Lord Kiso was fighting in the later stages of the
Genpei War against his cousin and, after fleeing his hostile relative’s armies, chose to
make a final stand at Awazu in February 1184, with Tomoe at his side.
Possessing long, black hair and a fair, beautiful complexion wasn’t all that she could bring
to the table when taking up arms during this final clash, however.
Tomoe was supposedly a fearless, talented rider of horses who would not be phased by
either the roughest ground or most stubborn mounts.
Moreover, she was equally talented in the deft use of weaponry and in command.
Tomoe’s dextrous, skillful use of both sword and bow was so great that, according to the
sources, she could ‘match a thousand ordinary men’.
In previous battles, she had won great victories by dueling and slaying a number of talented
enemy commanders with an unusually large sword.
She had also led forces of samurai hundreds or even thousands strong against her Taira
enemies.
After fleeing for a great distance from his cousin’s armies, Lord Kiso eventually became
trapped with only 300 allied riders against 6,000 enemy horsemen.
He decided that it was a good day to die and charged into the final clash.
His loyal troops, including Tomoe, were quickly encircled.
Lord Kiso’s contingent fought back bravely, galloping back and forth in a skirmishing
formation, inflicting casualties before retreating swiftly.
We’ve no details about this encounter, but Tomoe played her part.
In their effort to break through the enemy army’s formation and escape, Lord Kiso’s
forces suffered heavy casualties, and when they eventually did breakthrough only had
fifty men remaining.
It seemed as though they’d escaped, but now 2,000 more enemy soldiers arrived to block
their path, eventually leaving Kiso with only four other companions, including Tomoe.
At this point Lord Kiso turned to Tomoe, beseeching her to flee anywhere she liked.
“I intend to die in the fighting..” he said “...and if it looks as though I’m
about to be captured, I’ll take my own life.
But I wouldn’t want it said that Lord Kiso fought his last battle in the company of a
woman!”
Taking this apparent insult in stride like the stalwart warrior she was, Tomoe didn’t
move from her lord’s side despite Kiso’s continued pressure, just replying: “At least
I would like a worthy opponent.
I would like to show you, my Lord Kiso, my last combat in your service.”
Tomoe got a chance to prove her mettle for her lord one final time when Kiso’s last
retainers encountered thirty horsemen under the command of a famously strong warrior from
Musashi known as Onda no Moroshige.
Tomoe charged into the midst of Moroshige’s war party.
Having come up beside his horse on her own, she dragged the larger man from his saddle,
held him still for a moment and then sliced off his head with a single slash of her blade.
After throwing it away, Tomoe then cast away her armour before fleeing in the direction
of the eastern provinces.
There are other theories about what happened to Tomoe after this escape as well, some favourable
to her - others not so much.
Whatever the case, Tomoe Gozen’s reputation as the idealised warrior woman of Japan has
endured throughout the ages.
We get a contrasting image of wartime Japanese women in the final naval battle during the
Genpei War at Dan-no-ura.
In this terrible conflict, we see women of the defeated Taira clan almost helpless before
the course of events, attempting to commit suicide and often failing.
One story even describes the former empress being ignominiously raked by her hair out
of the water after trying to drown herself.
Angered at this humiliation, another court lady tried to drown herself as well but was
pinned to the boat she was in by an arrow through her dress.
These harrowing and almost belittling accounts of suffering provide a sobering contrast to
the almost suicidal bravery displayed by Tomoe.
With Lord Kiso out of the picture, his cousin Minamoto Yoritomo’s new Kamakura Shogunate
appeared solidified, but when he passed away in 1199 the power of the Minamoto clan began
to decline swiftly.
Into this power vacuum came a woman serving as the ‘power behind the throne’ - the
late shogun’s iron-willed wife called Hojo Masako, known formidably as the ‘nun shogun’.
Upon becoming a widow Masako went into a religious life, but this surprisingly did nothing to
diminish her political influence.
She used this authority to rescind absolute power from her son - Yoriee3 - and instead
prudently assembled a ruling council to govern Japan, installing Hojo clan members in the
highest positions.
After a number of subsequent political schemes took place in which Masako possibly had her
own son assassinated, the Minamoto clan became extinct and the ‘nun shogun’s’ Hojo
clan ascended to govern Japan as the shikken or ‘regency’.
It was a descendant of Masako’s - Hojo Tokimune who, half a century later, faced the bakufu’s
greatest threat head-on when Kublai’s Mongol armies assaulted Japan in 1274 and 1281.
Women suffered immensely when the Great Khan landed his armies on Japanese soil, and there
is even a grim legend that captives were tied together by cord threaded through wounds inflicted
on their hands.
Buried within this nightmare, however, is the account of Katsurahime and her maid.
Katsurahime was the daughter of a samurai lord known as Taira Kagetaka - commander of
the main fortress of Iki island.
As the final Mongol attack was imminent, Kagetaka ordered a samurai to ferry his daughter to
the mainland.
Katsurahime’s maid followed her lady at first but, upon reaching the shore, bid the
samurai’s daughter goodbye, donned armour and valiantly returned to the island’s defence.
It is said that by the time Katsurahime’s boat reached open sea, her maid had been killed
by a rain of Mongol arrows.
Rather than elaborate further on some of the already well-known aspects of Japanese history
such as the Sengoku Jidai and Tokugawa Shogunates, we’ll examine the weapons, armour and clothing
often used by our heroines.
The traditional primary armament utilised by female samurai is, in contrast with the
stereotypical katana sword, an extended sword-like polearm with a single edge known as the naginata.
Despite Tomoe’s previous use of a dagger and great skill with a bow, the iconic lady-samurai
would have almost definitely used a naginata in battle or in any non-specialised circumstance.
A woman’s naginata might have been crafted to be lighter than its regular counterpart,
largely due to its status as a practice weapon.
By the Tokugawa period, martial arts using this weapon were a common hobby for women
of samurai class.
Nevertheless, its recreational usage in later periods shouldn’t lower one’s guard.
As late as the Boshin War of 1868, female warriors were using the piece as an all-too-real
and lethal weapon of war.
In its appearance, the naginata - which can be translated as ‘glaive’ or ‘halberd’
- appears to be a strange, uniquely-Japanese hybrid between spear and sword, but possessing
a curved blade rather than a straight one of European style.
The weapon’s shaft was different to that of a regular spear in that it had an oval
cross-section, making the weapon better suited for high-powered slashing attacks than thrusting
like a warrior would do with a spear such as the famous yari.
Despite the fact that a naginata’s point was incredibly sharp, it was a combination
of the slashing edge’s momentum and the power generated by its oval, weighted shaft
which made the polearm into a devastating weapon.
Surprisingly, accounts of women using the traditional Japanese sword types such as odachi
or katanas are actually incredibly rare, perhaps due to the sword’s status as a prestigious
weapon only for use by men, or perhaps it was due to a more practical reason, we really
don’t know for sure.
The bladed weapon with which Tomoe Gozen slashed her enemy’s head is something we intentionally
kept vague so that we could elaborate on it here.
You probably assumed, quite understandably, that it was a sword, but in reality it was
probably the tanto - a sword-like dagger.
With its small crossguard like-feature known as a tsuba, the tanto used by Tomoe almost
resembles a miniaturised sword, but this was far from a standardised design.
Several other varieties of dagger were also liable to be used, most strikingly in acts
of ritual suicide.
In a manner which resembles the Assassin’s Creed games, the traditional female costume
in Japan allowed a woman endless possibilities to conceal many types of hidden, small, narrow-bladed
knives for both offence, defence, and suicide.
As for the aforementioned costume, it too varied in time and depending on the woman
in question.
Many female samurai depicted centuries after their lives are often idealised and glamourised,
wearing the finest-crafted armour of box-like yoroi-style.
The usual lack of helmet also seems to be a fabrication designed to emphasize a woman’s
delicate features and contrast her with male counterparts.
The usual wide hakama divided skirt-like trousers might also have served this purpose.
In reality, women defending castles, serving their lords, or hunting their enemies would
probably have worn armour much like what other samurai did during the period in question.
For example, when the arquebus firearm began to rise to prominence, strong reflective breastplates,
close-fitting helmets, and facemasks would have been the order of the day.
All in all, women, despite comprising an unquestionably smaller amount of samurai warriors and rulers
during Japanese history, have nevertheless proved an alluring and thrilling image, made
all the more interesting because of their relative scarcity.
Those who fought did so with distinction and bravery which rivalled that of their male
comrades and, when the situation required it, were prepared to make heroic sacrifices
in the name of their homeland, family, or lord.
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