While there is a great amount of literature available that dramatizes the life of Hosokawa Gracia, the reality of her life was every bit as dramatic and tragic as depicted in fiction. Born into a world still in the throes of turmoil, she did what she could to survive, often to her own detriment. Yet she endured unimaginable hardship, until the circumstances of her marriage and the looming showdown between the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari forced her hand and resulted in her death. But what were her origins? Where did she come from, and how did the first half of her life come to play such a pivotal role in dictating her ultimate fate?
To answer some of these questions, I have taken the liberty of translating some of the early chapters of Ahn Jungwon’s book on Hosokawa Gracia. This is one of the most straight-forward works examining her life and legacy, and lays out the basic information on her origins in a manner that the general reader can easily comprehend. For the English reader, some of the format used by Ahn might seem a bit disjointed, with certain sections being repeated and new subjects introduced in the middle of a single paragraph. This is one of the unique characteristics of Japanese historical writing and so one can only ask for the reader’s patience and understanding if transitions can seem somewhat jarring from time to time.
Hosokawa Gracia by Ahn Jungwon. Chuō Kōron Shinsha Publishing. October 2016.
Introduction
Hosokawa Gracia; a Christian woman of the Sengoku era (b. 1563 – d. 1600)
A famous woman, who took the name Gracia following her baptism into the Christian faith, replacing her original name of Tama(ko). Born a child of Akechi Mitsuhide (b.1528 – d.1582), one of the principal retainers to Oda Nobunaga (b.1538 – d.1582), she would go on to be betrothed to Hosokawa Tadaoki (b.1563 – d.1646). In the weeks before the Battle of Sekigahara, her residence would be surrounded by the forces of her rival Ishida Mitsunari (1560 – 1600), and rather than being taken hostage, she would meet her end in dramatic fashion.
The baptismal name of Gracia was unique even for that time. The key to understanding it lies in her original name. She was once known as Tama (ko), with the character ‘tama’ meaning ‘jewel’, or a thing of great value. This sound also resembled the word ‘tamamono’, meaning a gift or a blessing. Moreover, the name ‘Gracia’ resembles that of the Latin word ‘gratia’, meaning to give thanks or receive favour. Hence her baptismal name is believed to have been a liberal translation of her birth name.
She would ordinarily have been referred to as Akechi Tama(ko). However given that she is better known by the name ‘Hosokawa Gracia’, for the sake of convenience that is what she will be referred to throughout the course of this book.
The name Hosokawa Gracia has two particular characteristics. The first highlights her conversion to Christianity after marrying Hosokawa Tadaoki, the son of Hosokawa Fujitaka (b.1534 – d.1610, posthumously known as Yūsai), thus joining the Hosokawa household. Following her baptism, there was a possibility that she would divorce Tadaoki. While it said that she could not divorce because she had converted to Christianity, the truth is that the Catholic Church at the time had provisions that would allow for divorce. However Gracia’s case did not merit their implementation. It is quite possible that had her marriage been allowed to be annulled, she might not have met such a tragic end. Yet the very fact that she was the wife of Tadaoki proved to be the catalyst that would ultimately decide her fate.
‘Marriage’ was thus the key element that tied her Christian faith together with her tragic end. I myself specialise in the examination of marital problems involving the Catholic Church in sixteenth and seventeenth century Japan and China. What impact did Catholic doctrine have in new missionary lands, and what sort of friction did they cause? And as for issues concerning values held in those missionary lands and rivalry from other faiths, what methods did missionaries apply to try and resolve them? All of these questions can be drawn from the historical records left by European missionaries, starting with the Jesuits.
Gracia presents a particularly fascinating case amid the historical record of Christianity in Japan. Through my research into marital issues, it may be possible to comprehend Gracia’s life. This book is thus the culmination of my interest in this subject. By examining the details of historical records left by missionaries as they relate to Gracia’s death, I believe I can shine some light on some heretofore little explored aspects of Gracia’s life.
Most studies of Gracia up until now have relied heavily on the theories expounded by Sophia University Professor Father Johannes Laures (b.1891 – d. 1959). In Laures’ view, since Gracia was a Christian, she was forbidden from taking her own life and so had a retainer of the Hosokawa family put her to death (Johannes Laures, “Life of Hosokawa Gracia”, Chuō Publishing, 1958). Father Laures’ theory about Gracia’s suicide would come to dominate the field in time. Yet can the mystery surrounding her death be so easily and conveniently explained?
Why type of martyrdom did Gracia choose to accept? Did she do so in accordance with a warrior code, obeying an order given by her husband Tadaoki? Or was her death more in keeping with Christian doctrine? Why would she have someone else put her to death if she was capable of committing suicide herself? The records of the Jesuit missionary Gnecchi Soldo Organtino (b. 1533 – d. 1609) describe a conversation that he maintained with Gracia at a time of heightened tension and danger and how best to respond to it. What sort of response did he make to her? We must also not overlook the question of how the Catholic Church reacted to Gracia’s death. Did she in fact die by suicide, and if she didn’t, can we still claim that she was martyred?
The number of historical documents related to Gracia are limited and it would be true to say that the possibility of new material being discovered that completely changes our understanding of her life is fairly low. Nevertheless, it has now been more than half a century since Laures wrote his book, and studies into Christianity in Japan have developed in new directions. It has therefore become possible to re-examine aspects of her life by revisiting Christian historical records. This book is an attempt to look at Christian history from the ‘outside’, and re-examine Gracia’s life from the two aspects of ‘marriage’ and ‘death’.
Chapter One – A Political Marriage and the Honnōji Incident
Born the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide
- Scenery that Gracia saw
After her marriage to Hosokawa Tadaoki, Hosokawa Gracia entered the Hosokawa household, located at the time between Miyazu castle in Tango province (now part of Kyoto Prefecture) and Osaka. After arriving, she rarely ventured out again. Both regions are in some way associated with Gracia, but little of her presence remains. Nonetheless, there was one place that was extraordinarily difficult for Gracia to forget.
In Tenshō 10 (1582), Gracia’s father Akechi Mitsuhide slew Oda Nobunaga in the Honnōji Incident, thus making Gracia the daughter of a turncoat and traitor. The Hosokawa family, under the pretext this provided, cut their ties with Gracia and sent her to a place located deep in the mountains. In this place known as ‘Midono’, Gracia spent the next two years of her life. The view that greeted Gracia at that place in the mountains is almost the same today. Midono is located within the mountains of Yasaka town, itself part of Kyotango City. We can use the sources to trace the peculiar circumstances that led Gracia to wind up at this location.
The ”Record of the Hosokawa Household” (Hosokawa Kaki) states that the place that Gracia was sent into exile was “Midono, located in the mountains of Tanba’, while another source stated that it went “by the name of Uetomura in Tango province”. The poet Aoi Sōgo, in his book “Hosokawa Tadaoki” (published Shōwa 11 (1936) put the location of this alternative site at 2 ri (or 7.85km) north-west of the Kyoto (or capital) region. When the Chancellor of Sophia University and Jesuit Father Hermann Heuvers (b. 1890 – d. 1977) visited this alternative site many years later, he believed that it could never have served as a hideaway. Furthermore, none of the people living there had any idea who Hosokawa Gracia was. Not only had it never served as territory belonging to the Hosokawa family, it was also located far too close to Kyoto.
The novelist Morita Sōhei, when researching for his book “Hosokawa Gracia”, wrote in an essay for the Yomiuri Shimbun on 23 May, Shōwa 10 (1935) that when visiting Miyazu, he heard from a local reporter born in Nomamura village in Yosa-gun (close to Miyazu City) of a local legend of Tadaoki and his wife making their way to a local place, the details of this legend having been passed down throughout the surrounding area. The location of this place was ‘Midono’ in the mountains of Tango province. When Father Heuvers later made his own visit to the same area in August of 1935, he thought it to be an ideal location for a hideaway and was convinced that it must have served as Gracia’s secret residence. Moreover, local legends corresponded with what historical facts were known about Gracia’s life. In 1936, the Hosokawa family would purchase the land and erect a memorial stone to Gracia on it.
Midono today is a place deep within the mountains where people are exceedingly scarce. It features steep mountain sides, and there is a tale that says that 400 years before Gracia made her way to the same valley, members of the Heike family defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura developed the area for settlement. Today, there is a road from Mineyama that connects with Midono, and which passes along the cliff edges of the deep valleys therein. When I visited the site in Autumn, I was told by a local driver who also served as a guide that in winter, the area receives around 2 metres of snow, thus making life there particularly difficult. There are only a few scattered dwellings in the vicinity. And yet it is this place, which exists almost as an inland island, that contains the remnants of Gracia’s hideaway.
‘Hidden’ rather than ‘cut off’
On a small hill located in the mountains lies a flat plain only some 60 metres in diameter. This hill is variously known as “the woman’s castle”, “the palace”, and “Osaki’s hill”. It also features a memorial stone with the inscription “the secret residence of Hosokawa Tadaoki”. A stone enclosure built around the memorial stone had apparently been visited by a group from Kyushu some days earlier, and there were still relatively fresh flowers and food offerings placed around it. Apparently visitors from Kyushu visit the area every spring and summer. Which makes sense, given that it would be impossible to do so in winter. Down in the valley and separate from the ‘woman’s castle’ is another flat area known as the ‘man’s castle’. It is said that this was the residence of those warriors from the Hosokawa household tasked with protecting Gracia.
Legend has it that Gracia, after arriving in Miyazu Bay by boat, travelled by road over the mountains until she arrived at Midono. Tabata Yasuko postulates that Gracia travelled by boat from Miyazu to Hioki, then by road from Hioki until she reached Komakura, and then travelled over the mountains to Midono. Tabata also speculates that Midono had once been the territory of the Akechi family. In his ‘History of Japan’, the Jesuit priest Luis Frois states that Akechi Mitsuhide possessed territory in Tango province, hence it is quite possible that this was the case. Midono itself is not that far from Miyazu City and is surrounded by steep mountains, thus making it quite well suited to serve as a hideaway. However its elevation is not that high, around 600 metres above sea level at most. What it suggests is that the Hosokawa family did not intend to cut off and abandon Gracia there, but rather keep her presence a secret.
I was moved to wonder what Gracia would have thought looking out over the mountains from her residence within the “woman’s castle”. Her entire family had been eliminated as a result of her father’s betrayal. She herself had been cut off from her adopted family, separated from her children, all while her husband’s concubines had taken her place. This was not the result of something she herself had done, and there must have been times when she thought “why on earth has this happened to me?”. At the time, it would have been considered only proper for the daughter of someone whose conspiracy had slain the ruler of the land to also be put to death.
Gracia herself must have felt from time to time that she could not easily return to the Hosokawa household, and that she was to a certain degree prepared to accept her fate. She may have felt that life itself was no longer worth living. Conversely, by going to Midono while still pregnant and giving birth there, she may have found a reason to keep living for the sake of her newborn child. Perhaps she thought too much about the past while protected in her mountain hideaway. While she might have been able to return to the Hosokawa household early, she may have been anxious that those powers assembled in Osaka (namely Toyotomi Hideyoshi) would give her a particularly hard time.
Regarded as the daughter of a traitor, subject to her husband’s unusually strict discipline, and forced to live something like a hermit, it is no wonder that she would eventually seek solace in the Christian faith.
During her lifetime, the circumstances surrounding the rulers of the country underwent profound change. Her marriage had been decided by Oda Nobunaga. After his death as a result of her father’s betrayal, she was cut off by her adopted family and sent to Midono. She would then be recalled by the next ruler of the realm Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and because of her husband’s association with Tokugawa Ieyasu, she would be condemned to die. Despite having never met them, having no family ties to them, and virtually nothing in common with them, the rulers of the realm (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu) would all in some way contribute to the sudden dramatic changes in her life.
II Marriage to the Hosokawa family
We must begin by talking about the first ruler of the realm to decide Gracia’s fate.
In Eiroku 3 (1560), Oda Nobunaga defeated the army of Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama following Imagawa’s invasion of Owari province from Suruga and Tōtōmi provinces. This allowed Nobunaga to gain control over Owari from the Imagawa and liberate Matsudaira Motoyasu (afterwards known as Tokugawa Ieyasu), who had been a hostage of the Imagawa up until this time. Motoyasu then returned to his home province of Mikawa. In Eiroku 5, Motoyasu visited Nobunaga at his castle at Kiyosu, whereupon Nobunaga’s daughter Gotoku was married to Motoyasu’s eldest son Nobuyasu. Motoyasu then severed all ties to the Imagawa family and changed his name to Ieyasu.
Meanwhile Nobunaga continued with his invasion of Minō province and fought against the Saitō family, who were rulers of Minō at the time. In Eiroku 4, Saitō Yoshitatsu died suddenly and was succeeded by his son, Tatsuoki. To ensure the success of his invasion of Minō, Nobunaga moved his base from Komakiyama and attacked his cousin Oda Nobukiyo at Inuyama castle. This victory united Owari under Nobunaga’s rule. In the same year, Nagao Kagetora of Echigo province invaded Odawara, which was under the control of the Hōjō family. Having defeated the Hōjō, Kagetora seized the official post of Kantō Kanrei from the Hōjō and changed his name to Uesugi Kenshin. Kenshin would go on to fight a series of battles against Takeda Shingen of Kai province, during which time Nobunaga maintained an alliance with Kenshin. Thereafter an adopted daughter of Nobunaga would be married to Shingen’s son, Katsuyori.
It took Nobunaga 10 years to complete his takeover of Minō province. Having done so, he began to embark upon an ambition to unite the country under his rule. In the same year (Eiroku 4), Nobunaga changed the name of Inoguchi in Minō province to Gifu and made that his home base. He also began to use the insignia “Tenka Fubu’ (consisting of four characters, meaning ‘all under heaven, both civil/learned and military’). It was around this time, in Eiroku 6 (1563), that Gracia was born. At the time, her father, Akechi Mitsuhide, was not yet in the service of Nobunaga. It was while Nobunaga was in the process of expanding his control over Minō that he came into contact with Mitsuhide. As Nobunaga planned to take control of the capital (at Kyoto), Mitsuhide decided to swear fealty to him. As a retainer, Mitsuhide rose to prominence, which would have a significant influence of Gracia’s upbringing.
Gracia’s birth
When speaking of Akechi Mitsuhide, the image that first comes to mind is that of a conspirator and traitor who caused the death of his lord Oda Nobunaga in the Honnōji Incident. However, despite being one of the main retainers of Nobunaga, very few historical records detailing the life of Mitsuhide and written at the same time that he lived have survived. Mitsuhide’s life has, however, been subject to legend, such as the “Akechi Gunki” (Military Record of the Akechi Family). This is a compilation of various tales about Mitsuhide’s military exploits and was made almost a century after his death. Hence it’s not considered reliable as an historical source.
The historical record of the Hosokawa family, known as the “Hosokawa Kaki” (or Menkō Shūroku) does contain some entries in relation to Gracia’s father, Mitsuhide. However these were primarily written by later generations, and appear to have been edited based on the ‘Akechi Gunki’. Thus they cannot be taken at face value. As for Mitsuhide himself, his family were thought to be branch of the Toki clan, with Mitsuhide being the child of the ruler of Akechi castle in Minō province.
Mitsuhide himself had been able to transcend his origins, for he most certainly spent his youth in relative poverty. Luis Frois in his “History of Japan” wrote that “he (Mitsuhide) was not of high birth”. At some undetermined point, Mitsuhide most certainly entered into the service of Asakura Yoshikage (b.1533 – d.1573) of Echizen province. Gracia was born in Eiroku 6 (1563) in Echizen province. Her mother is believed to have been Hiroko, the daughter of Tsumaki Norihiro. The ‘Akechi Gunki’ states that she was “well known as an intelligent woman’. It also states that she gave birth to all of Gracia’s siblings.
As for Mitsuhide’s daughters, the “Hosokawa Kaki” says that he had at least 3 daughters, and that Gracia was either the third daughter or possibly came after that. The “Akechi Gunki” says that Gracia was the third of four daughters, and that after the four daughters were born, Mitsuhide would go on to have three sons. There are also theories that Mitsuhide had 5 daughters. Following the Battle of Yamazaki (Tenshō 10), in which Mitsuhide was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Mitsuhide’s cousin Akechi Hidemitsu (also known as Mitsuharu), having heard of Mitsuhide’s defeat, set fire to Mitsuhide’s castle at Sakamoto while the entire Mitsuhide clan committed suicide, including Gracia’s mother.
When Gracia was born, her father was in the service of the Asakura family of Echizen province. In his youth, Mitsuhide has been relatively poor, but by the time Gracia was born, he had earned Nobunaga’s trust and was gradually making his way up in the world. It is believed that Gracia had a relatively happy childhood and grew up in a well-off household. When she was nine years old, Nobunaga appointed Mitsuhide as ruler over Sakamoto in Ōmi province, whereupon he set about building a castle.
Akechi Mitsuhide and Hosokawa Fujitaka
Gracia’s future father-in-law, Hosokawa Fujitaka, was born in Kyoto as the second son to Mitsubuchi Harukazu, a confidant of the then shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiharu. His mother was the daughter of Kiyohara Nobukata. The Kiyohara family were known as practitioners of Shintō, however Nobukata himself was a Confucianist. Fujitaka would in time obey a directive from Ashikaga Yoshiharu to become the adopted son of Hosokawa Mototsune. In Tenbun 15 (1546), he would be granted the use of the character for ‘fuji’ (wisteria) from Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and take the name “Fujitaka”.
As both a youth and proficient in the art of poetry, Fujitaka would receive instruction from the aristocrat Sanjō Nishisanuki in both the classic and modern styles of poetry. At the time of the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), he and Onogi Shigetsugu, the lord of Fukuchiyama castle, were surrounded by the forces of the Western army (led by Ishida Mitsunari) in Tabe castle. When it became clear that the downfall of the castle was only a matter of time, the Emperor Goyōsei, despairing that a source of poetry was about to be extinguished, issued a decree calling for both a truce and for the siege of the castle to be lifted, which is what eventually occurred.
The instruction that Fujitaka had received in the classic poetry style thus appears to have saved his life. While Fujitaka was known at the time as a person of culture, he also had a long-standing affinity with the martial arts. He studied sword play under Tsukahara Bokuden and archery from Houkabe Sadahiro. In later years following the Honnōji Incident, he would join the priesthood and take the name Yūsai. His decision to take the tonsure was apparently so he could refuse a request for assistance from Mitsuhide, and was certainly made in haste.
In Eiroku 8 (1565), the thirteenth Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was suddenly attacked by Matsunaga Hisahide at Nijō palace. He attempted to resist but was ultimately overwhelmed, with the event becoming known as the Eiroku Incident. In its aftermath, Fujitaka managed to convince the priest Ichijōin Kakukei to leave the clergy and return to the secular world. This priest would in turn be known as the fifteenth shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki.
When Yoshiaki paid a visit to the territory belonging to the Asakura family in Echizen province, Mitsuhide got to know Fujitaka, given Fujitaka was a retainer in Yoshiaki’s service at the time. After meeting Fujitaka, Mitsuhide, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, decided to leave the service of (Asakura) Yoshikage and work as a retainer to Nobunaga. In the eleventh month of Eiroku 11 (1568), Mitsuhide participated in a poetry recital together with Fujitaka. Together with Fujitaka, he was expected to become a liaison between Nobunaga and Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Thereafter, as a senior retainer of Nobunaga, Mitsuhide was granted territory in Shiga-gun in Ōmi province and Tango province. These would become the sites for Sakamoto castle, now found in Ōtsu City in Shiga Prefecture, and Kameyama castle in Tango province.
According to Taniguchi Katsuhiro, Mitsuhide entered into Nobunaga’s service in Eiroku 11 (1568), just before Nobunaga made his first entrance into the capital. When Ashikaga Yoshiaki made a request to Nobunaga to move from Asakura-controlled Echizen to Gifu castle in Minō province, Fujitaka and Mitsuhide did everything in their power to facilitate this. Both reported to Nobunaga that Yoshiaki had entered the capital in the ninth month of the same year, with both retainers accompanying him. In the tenth month of the same year, Yoshiaki was appointed to the position of shōgun.
Yoshiaki began to harbour resentment against Nobunaga’s ambitions and proceeded to organize political resistance to him, which in time would turn into full-blown conflict. Fujitaka decided then and there to forsake his ties to Yoshiaki and throw in his lot with Nobunaga, swearing fealty to Nobunaga in the fourth year of Genki (the first year of Tenshō, or 1573). Ultimately Yoshiaki would be driven out of Kyoto by Nobunaga, while Fujitaka would commence his service as a retainer to Nobunaga.
According to Tabata Yasuko, Fujitaka and Mitsuhide shared a close relationship ever since they had met while providing service to Yoshiaki. After later becoming retainers of Nobunaga, they endeavoured to help one another. When both of them were later tasked with pacifying Tanba and Tango provinces, both Fujitaka and his son would cooperate with Mitsuhide, regarding him as their leader. In Tenshō 7, following the pacification of Tanba and Tango, Mitsuhide was granted territory in Tanba while Fujitaka secured lands in Tango. Thereafter Mitsuhide would continue to be promoted to the position of military leader of the Kinnai region. Just before that, in Tenshō 6 (1578), Mitsuhide’s daughter Gracia married Fujitaka’s son Tadaoki on the orders of Nobunaga, thereby solidifying the relationship between both households.
Gracia’s Marriage
So Gracia’s marriage was organized on the orders of her father’s lord, Nobunaga. Nobunaga himself made strategic use of his birth daughters and adopted daughters to strengthen his feudal ties, yet he was also very actively involved in forging the marital relationships of his retainers. In the first month of Tenshō 2 (1574), Nobunaga held a council of his most senior generals at Gifu castle. While there, he issued an order that Mitsuhide and Fujitaka should strengthen their familial relationship. In the eighth month of Tenshō 6 (1578), upon his arrival at Azuchi castle in Ōmi province (Nobunaga’s new base founded in Tenshō 4 (1576), Fujitaka reported to Nobunaga on the marital arrangements made for his son, Tadaoki. While this marriage had been forged on the orders of Nobunaga, it is entirely plausible that both the Akechi and Hosokawa families were quite pleased that their bonds had been strengthened in this way. And so Gracia was married to Tadaoki in the same month.
The marriage ceremony took place at the main stronghold of the Hosokawa family in Yamashiro province, at Seiryūji castle. Both Gracia and Tadaoki were sixteen years old at the time. As was customary for military marriages during the Sengoku era, a palanquin was prepared to receive the bride. Retainers from both households then took their place on either side of the palanquin. First members of the Akechi household accompanied Gracia as far as the Hosokawa stronghold, whereupon they transferred the palanquin into the care of the Hosokawa. Following the wedding ceremony, both Gracia and Tadaoki continued to live at Seiryūji. In the following year (1579), their eldest daughter Chō was born, followed in 1580 by their eldest son Tadataka. Until Fujitaka and Tadaoki both moved to Hachimanyama castle in Tango province in the eighth month of 1580, Gracia would spend roughly two years living at Seiryūji.