Ii Naotora

Female Naotora theory

There is only one contemporaneous document related to the person named "Ii Naotora" (井伊直虎) that she is believed to be the same person as Jirō Hōshi (次郎法師), the daughter of Ii Naomori (井伊直盛), who became the head of the Ii family despite being a woman. This theory is based on the "Ii Family Chronicle" (井伊家伝記), written in the mid-Edo period in 1730 (Kyōhō 15). It is said that Jirō Hoshi was engaged to Ii Naochika (井伊直親) but remained unmarried throughout her life and was the foster mother of Naochika's orphaned child, Ii Naomasa (井伊直政), who later became one of Tokugawa's Four Heavenly Kings.

Tetsuo Owada, a professor emeritus of Sengoku history at Shizuoka University who published a book about Naotora has said that this theory of misidentification of Ii Naotora is quite possible, since for generations, many of the heirs of Ii clan usually being called "Jiro", thus the name is suspected as just a pseudonym of various historical figures, although he did not deny the possibility that Ii Naotora was a daughter of Ii Naomori, a leader of Iinoya-is a part of Tōtōmi, who had been defeated by Imagawa Yoshimoto and became a vassal of Imagawa.

According to this theory, as Ii clan had no male heir, so Naotora's great uncle Ii Naomitsu tried to betroth his son Ii Naochika to her so that he could inherit the clan. Unidentified Imagawa clan retainers carried a report of the plans to Imagawa, who ordered Naomitsu and his son Naochika to commit seppuku. Naomitsu died, but Naochika, who was very young, was protected by a Buddhist priest named Nankei. Naochika managed to flee to Shinano. Naotora became a priestess, and was named Jiro-Hoshi aged ten by Nankei. In 1563, Ii Naohira and other men from Ii clan were ordered to break into Hikuma Castle as proof of their loyalty to the Imagawa. Otazu no Kata who was wife of Iio Tsurutatsu (lord of Hikuma castle) invited Naohira to a meeting with her husband and planned to eradicate it to claim prominence in Totomi. On September 18, Otazu no Kata then poisoned Naohira's tea and he died soon after. Following Naohira's death, Jiro Hoshi returned to secular life the male name Naotora and declared herself the nominal head of the Ii clan. It was recorded that Naotora, being a former nun, often acted to avoid battles, earning the respect of many civilians. She was responsible for the development of agriculture and the substantial expansion of the domains of her clan in the region of Enshū.

Synthesis theory

Michifumi Isoda, professor of International Research Center for Japanese Studies instead offered a synthesis theory which differ from the "Ii clan Biography", that both female Jirō Hōshi and male Ii Naotora both existed as different person, and became head of Ii clan on different occasions. Isoda offered this explanation based on the correspondence material from Seto Hokyu, a samurai under Ii clan, with the Imagawa clan, where the Imagawa recognized Jirō Hōshi as head of Ii clan in September 1568. However, after the Imagawa clan fall and the entrance of Tokugawa clan in the area on December, the name of Ii Naotora emerged as the head of Ii clan, thus Isoda suspected that the Tokugawa clan deposed Jirō Hōshi and installed Naotora as the head of Ii clan instead.

Meanwhile, professor Hirofumi Yamamoto from University of Tokyo giving his chronological concilliatory explanation regarding the letter co-signed by Jiro-Hoshi (daughter of Ii Naomori) and Sekiguchi Naotora (son of Ujitsune) that it indicated while Jiro-Hoshi inherited the Ii clan's surname, the official de facto control of Ii clan's territories including Iinoya castle was run by Naotora, until Ii Naomasa become old enough to inherit the position of Ii clan's leader.

Biography

During the early days of Naotora's reign in 1564, Niino Chikanori, a retainer of Ii clan, besiege the Hikuma castle to prove Naotora's loyalty to Imagawa Ujizane; Otazu and Tsurutatsu fought to defend the castle and Chikanori was killed. Naotora was presumed to have difficulty securing clan leadership because of the innumerable resistances from the Imagawa clan retainers. After numerous threats from Imagawa retainers to the Ii clan, Naotora finally allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu and actively participated in the Tokugawa expansions of the Matsudaira clan in Totomi and Mikawa Provinces.

At the same year, Ono Michiyoshi removed Naotora from leadership of the Iinoya region with the help of former Imagawa's retainers. Naotora escaped to Ryōtan-ji Temple in Hamamatsu, and later sent Naomasa to Ieyasu and sent Naomasa to his care. Later, Michiyoshi was finally captured by the Tokugawa clan and was executed, before his head was disgraced in public.

In popular culture Ii Hiroko (born 1965), the eldest daughter of the 17th generation of the Ii clan, authored "Ii-ka no oshie Hikone-han matsuei no musume ga kataru akasonae no seishin" a book of the history of Ii clan. In the historical fiction novel Kaname Azusawa, Tokugawa Ieyasu's wife Lady Tsukiyama was from the Imagawa clan and related to Naotora. In this novel, Naotora is portrayed as actively participating in Ieyasu's successful career that would later lead him to become the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. Ko Shibasaki portrayed her in the 2017 NHK Taiga drama . When she asked about the historical accuracy of Ii Naotora depiction in the series, she added that historical consideration was not the main focus of the drama, since it is mainly focusing on entertainment. Ii Naotora appears in the Capcom video games Sengoku Basara 4 and Sengoku Basara: Sanada Yukimura-Den, voiced by Maaya Sakamoto. She appears in the Koei Tecmo video games Samurai Warriors 4, Warriors Orochi 4, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and Warriors All-Stars, voiced by Yuka Saitō in Japanese and Erica Mendez in English (DOA5LR only). Ii Naotora is featured in episode 27 of Meow Meow Japanese History, voiced by Yū Kobayashi.