Tachibana Ginchiyo

was head of the Japanese Tachibana clan and onna-musha during the Sengoku period. She was a daughter of Tachibana Dōsetsu, a powerful retainer of the Ōtomo clan (which were rivals of the Shimazu clan at the time). Because Dosetsu had no sons, he requested that Ginchiyo be made family head.

Biography Tachibana Ginchiyo was the daughter of Tachibana Dōsetsu, a powerful samurai known as "Lightning God". Her mother was the daughter of Monchūsho Akitoyo(問注所鑑豊). Her mother and her former husband Yasutake Shigenori(安武鎮則) had a son Yasutake Moan(安武茂庵) and a daughter who married Netami Shigehisa(米谷比鎮久). According to one source, the chronicle of Komono clan, Dōsetsu had another daughter, Masachiyo(政千代) who died at 12 years old.

Princess Ginchiyo became the castellan of Tachibana Castle and the head of the Tachibana clan at 7 years old. She married Takahashi Shoun's (高橋紹運) eldest son, Tachibana Muneshige (立花宗茂) at the age of 13. At the age of 19, she entered Yanagawa Castle and lived a happy life as the wife of a feudal lord, but at the age of 27, due to the lack of children, Muneshige began taking concubines. She was a model samurai woman of the Warring States Period. Wishing to preserve the family line, and out of consideration for Muneshige, she decided to live separately from his concubine. At age 32, despite Ginchiyo's advice, her husband joined forces with the Toyotomi clan (Western Army) at the Battle of Sekigahara and was defeated. As a result, Muneshige's territory and castle were taken away and the couple were sent to live with Muneshige's mother in Haraaka Village, Tamana County (Nagasu Town), under the protection of Kato Kiyomasa. Two years later, Ginchiyo died of illness. She was 34 years old and given the posthumous Buddhist name "Koushoinden Senyo Ryosei Daizenjoni." She died without seeing Muneshige's return to daimyo status.

Tachibana Ginchiyo is enshrined as a god of compassion at Mihashira Shrine 三柱神社 located northeast of Yanagawa Castle alongside her father, Tachibana Dosetsu, and her husband, Muneshige.

Kyushu Campaign

In 1586 the Shimazu clan marched with his troops to conquer Kyushu, attacked the Ōtomo clan in the Bungo province and the Tachibana Castle in the north.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi led 200,000 men to conquer Kyushu, the Shimazu army retreated to the Higo Province. The Tachibana forces were eventually forced to flee during the Kyūshū Campaign. Tachibana castle fell to Hideyoshi, who entrusted it to Kobayakawa Takakage. Ginchiyo and Muneshige allied with Hideyoshi in the campaign against their traditional rival, Shimazu clan.

After the failure of Hideyoshi's campaign of Korea, Ginchiyo, who never gave birth to a child, divorced Muneshige and became a Buddhist nun.

Sekigahara Campaign

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the power of the Toyotomi clan declined, and Japan would go to war again. In 1600, in the Battle of Sekigahara, the Tachibana clan would ally itself with Ishida Mitsunari in the Western army against the Eastern Army of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ginchiyo first opposed Muneshige's decision to join the Western army.

At the Battle of Sekigahara, Muneshige participated in the attack against Kyōgoku Takatsugu, who was holed-up in Ōtsu Castle in Ōmi Province. The offensive included a total of 15,000 soldiers led by Mōri Motoyasu, Mōri Hidekane, and Tsukushi Hirokado. Muneshige did not, however, join the main Battle of Sekigahara as Takatsugu surrendered on the same day. After learning of the defeat of the Western Army, he advised the commander-in-chief, Mōri Terumoto, to hole-up in Ōsaka Castle, but this was rejected and he returned by sea route to Kyūshū. Early in the tenth month, he entered Yanagawa Castle. Letters of commendation dated 10/10 were given to retainers for their contributions in the Battle of Ōtsu Castle. Ginchiyo led a group of family samurai and servants to meet him.

Siege of Yanagawa (1600) Following the Western Army's defeat at Sekigahara, Eastern Army forces under Kuroda Kanbei and Nabeshima Katsushige advanced into Kyushu to eliminate remaining Ōtomo clan resistance.Tachibana Ginchiyo mobilized a defensive force composed of warrior nuns and loyal retainers to protect Yanagawa Domain.

Kuroda and Kato were old comrades-in-arms of Tachibana Muneshige from the days of the Korean invasion, and following the unexpected and challenging resistance of Ginchiyo, they proposed that she and her ex-husband should surrender and join them in a campaign against Shimazu Yoshihiro, who was also from the Western Army and fled from Sekigahara. Muneshige agreed, but Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the campaign to stop almost before it had begun because he did not want a further war in Kyushu. Ginchiyo and Muneshige were pardoned nonetheless.

Tachibana Ginchiyo died of illness on November 30, 1602, only 33 years old. She was buried in Ryōsei Temple in Yanagawa. Her death marked the end of the bloodline of her father, Tachibana Dōsetsu. Ginchiyo’s mother, Nishihime (Hōjuin) resided in the Ichizō home with Ginchiyo. After Ginchiyo’s death, a discussion ensued among relatives whereby Nishihime was then taken to be cared for in a home in Tanba and, in 1616, she died in Higo Province. On the day of mourning for Ginchiyo, invitees included members of the Monjūsho, the Netabi, and the Yasutake (the first family where she went for marriage), the Kido (the go-between for Dōsetsu), the Kongōin (the family for faith in Inari (god of harvest)), the Uda (descendants of the Ichizō in the village of Haraka where Ginchiyo resided and caretakers of her grave). .

In popular culture