Shigashi

Shigashi (志賀氏) (-d.1587) was a Japanese noble lady and Japanese warrior from the Sengoku period. Shigashi means the lady from Shiga clan and her real name is unknown. She was the wife of Bekki Shigetsura (戸次鎮連) the retainer of Ōtomo clan, the nephew and the son-in-law of famed samurai Bekki Akitsura a.k.a. Tachibana Dōsetsu. She is best known for her role during conflicts between the Shimazu clan and the Ōtomo clan in Kyushu.

Biography Shigashi is documented in by Satō Kuratarō(佐藤蔵太郎) in 1927 based on various documents and stories about Tsuruga Castle. Satō selected episodes that he considered historically correct and described the list of documents he cited but did not provide detailed source of quotation of each part. Shigashi was the daughter of the Ōtomo retainer Shiga Chikamori(志賀親守). Her husband, Shigetsura was the Bekki clan head after his father-in-low Bekki Akitsura once retired. Later, Akitsura inherited the headship of Tachibana clan as Tachibana Dōsetsu. Shigashi was the sister of Shiga Chikatsugu, a retainer of the Otomo clan.

When the army of Shimazu clan approached Ōtomo land during the Kyushu campaign, Shigetsura and some retainers betrayed Ōtomo clan and draw the enemy into their castles. Ōtomo clan ran into difficulty because the enemy's base suddenly appeared in own land.