A Woman Who Was One Of The Last Samurai
She asked her sister to decapitate her to prevent her from becoming a trophy to the enemies
Japanese women were fearsome, and there was never a reservation about women joining men in battle in early Japanese culture. The earliest instance goes back as far as 169 AD when Empress Jingū led an army to avenge her husband’s death.
This article is about a fearless woman who led an all-female battalion into the battle of Aizu and persuaded her sister to sever her head when she was shot so that she would not be paraded as a trophy.
Onna-bugeisha
Onna-bugeisha was a class of female fighters belonging to the Japanese nobility who fought along with the samurai. They were one of the bushi (samurai) clans of feudal Japan, trained to protect their family, household, and contribute to wars.
The women were trained in naginata (a long pole with a sword at the end), kaiken, and a form of martial art called Tantojutsu. They served well in the villages where male fighters were not available.
These women were fearless, skilled, and vicious when they had to protect their territory and Nakano Takeko was one of them
Nakano Takeko
Nakano Takeko, born in April 1847, was the daughter of Nakano Heinai, a samurai of Aizu and Nakano Kōko. She had two siblings — a brother, Nakano Toyoki, and a sister, Nakano Yūko.
She was a good-looking and highly educated young woman, trained in martial arts, Chinese Confucian classics, and calligraphy. She was adopted by her master Akaoka Daisuke, a renowned instructor of Matsudaira Teru. At the school, she taught many young women, including her sister, in martial arts.
She completed a certification in Hasso-Shoken, a branch of the preeminent Itto-Ryu tradition, and was offered employment at lord of Niwase’s estate, where she taught his wife naginata.
In the year 1868, she joined her adoptive family and, for the first time, set her foot in Aizu. There she taught naginata to the women and children at the Aizuwakamatsu castle. Takeko also caught the peeping toms of the women’s bathroom and had them prosecuted.
She was a fierce and independent woman who was inspired by Japanese female empresses, warriors, and generals. But it was Tomoe Gozen (an Onna-bugeisha who appeared in the 14th-century Japanese literature) who had the most impact on her.
Battle of Aizu
During the Boshin War (a Japanese civil war between 1868 and 1869), the loyalties were split between the Tokugawa shogunate and the people who supported the restoration of the Meiji Emperor.
Takeko was in favor of the Tokugawa shogunate as supporting the Meiji Emperor would mean the end of the Japanese Empire. She assembled a clan of forty women, including her mother Nakano Kōko, and sister, Nakano Yūko, and led them at the Battle of Aizu.
The team fought valiantly in sleet and rain. They had to fight independently as the samurai officials, especially Koyano Gonbei forbade them to join the battle.
At the defense on Yanagi bridge in the area of Nishibata, in Fukushima, the all-women battalion faced the firearms of the gargantuan troop of the Japanese Imperial. The men were stunned to see a female troop fighting against them that they stopped the firing.
But the women were fiery and fought like lionesses. Takeko herself brought down five to six men before the firing resumed.
When the troop starts firing, Takeko was struck by a lethal blow to her chest. As she lay bleeding, she called her sister, Yūko, and asked her to decapitate her. She said she did not want the enemies to brandish her head like a prize.
Overcome with grief, Yūko had to seek one of Aizu warriors, Ueno Yoshisaburō’s help in severing the head.
After the battle, the detached head was taken to the Hōkai temple of her family and was buried with honor with the help of the priest. Her weapons were donated to the temple.
In 1868, as the Meiji era began, new reforms were made. The samurai class was abolished in favor of a western-style army. This makes Nakano Takeko one of the last samurai in history.
