Oeyo


Oeyo, Gō, Ogō or Satoko : 1573 – September 15, 1626) was a prominently-placed female figure in late-Sengoku period. She was daughter of Oichi and the sister of Yodo-dono and Ohatsu. When she rose in higher political status during the Tokugawa shogunate, she took the title of "Ōmidaidokoro". Following the fall of the Council of Five Elders, Oeyo and her sisters were key figures in maintaining a diplomatic relationship between the two most powerful clans of their time, Toyotomi and Tokugawa. Due to her great contributions to politics at the beginning of the Edo period she was posthumously inducted into the Junior First Rank of the Imperial Court, the second highest honor that could be conferred by the Emperor of Japan.
Oeyo married three times, first to Saji Kazunari, her cousin, then to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's nephew, Toyotomi Hidekatsu. She had a daughter with Hidekatsu named Toyotomi Sadako later married Kujō Yukiie. Her third and last husband Tokugawa Hidetada became the second Tokugawa shōgun. She was also the mother of his successor Iemitsu, the third shōgun. She had Senhime, Tamahime, Katsuhime, Hatsuhime, Takechiyo, and Tadanaga. Hatsuhime was adopted by Oeyo's sister Ohatsu, who is the wife of Kyōgoku Takatsugu.
Surviving record books from merchants of luxury goods provide insight into patterns of patronage and taste amongst the privileged class of women like Oeyo and her sisters.

Genealogy

Oeyo, also known as Ogō, was the third and youngest daughter of the Sengoku-period daimyō Azai Nagamasa. Her mother, Oichi was the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga. Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the adoptive father and protector of Oeyo in the period before her marriage.
Oeyo's oldest sister, styled Yodo-dono, Cha-Cha in birth name, was a prominent concubine of Hideyoshi who gave birth to his heir, Toyotomi Hideyori.
Oeyo's middle sister, Ohatsu was the wife of Kyōgoku Takatsugu and the mother of Kyōgoku Tadataka.

Family

After Hidetada resigned the government to his eldest son in 1623, Oeyo took a Buddhist name, Sūgen'in or Sogenin. Her mausoleum can be found at Zōjō-ji in the Shiba neighborhood of Tokyo.

Honours

's 2011 Taiga drama, , is based on the life of Oeyo who is played by the actress Juri Ueno.

Notable Descendants

Together with Odai no Kata and Lady Saigo, Oeyo was the matriarch who stabilized the Tokugawa shogunate. Her descendants became shoguns, aristocrats and other prominent political figures. It is speculated that her son, Iemitsu, was the last direct male descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, thus ending the patrilineality of the shogunate for the third generation.