Badass Woman of History #3: Tomoe Gozen

Tomoe Gozen: Hero of the Genpei War

Despite what anime may have us believe woman samurai were not all that common in feudal Japan. However, the ones that did exist distinguished themselves among the warrior class. Most women born or married into a samurai family would receive some martial training, enough to try and be an effective guardian if the samurai's personal home was invaded and the children and elderly needed protecting or be given enough time to escape, they were called Onna-bugeisha; but never at the full intensity level of the actual samurai. Gozen's training is a surprise as she started off not as a daughter or wife of a samurai, but as a concubine to one, and on top of that seemed to have achieved full samurai status. Her life before her martial adventures is not documented, but what is fact is she was concubine and later wife to Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka of the Minamoto Clan, and her rise to fame took place during the civil war, known as the Genpei war, in which the Minamoto Clan challenged the Taira Clan for the imperial throne.

 Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka

The Genpei war, 1180-1185, was the climax of a decades long hated rivalry between the two most powerful clans in the empire, the the Tiara (the imperial family) and the Minamoto, descendants through marriage of the former imperial clan whose Emperor Shirakawa's abdication lead to the rise of the Tiara. There was a palace coup among different factions of the Tiara that placed a three year old boy, from the hard line branch of the Tiara, on the throne instead of the crown prince who was more conciliatory to the rivals of the Tiara, preventing the Minamota from gaining a foothold within the ruling government. The Minamoto declared war on the Tiara, calling to arms many of the minor clans and the Buddhist temples. The heads of the two main branches of the Minamoto, Lord Kiso and Minamoto no Yoritomo, declared their intent was not to overthrow the imperial family, but to place the rightful heir, Prince Mochihito on the throne.

Into this conflict, enter Tomoe Gozen. There are little to no sources of how she got involved, when she received her training, or exactly when during the war Lord Kiso fell in love with her and decided to elevate her from concubine to wife. But all the sources agree that she was strikingly beautiful, a marksmen (markswoman?) with a bow, skillful swordsman (swordwoman?), and had a remarkable way with horses. The Tale of Heike, considered one of the prime sources for information regarding the Genpie war confirms the other tales:

"Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors."

The first record of her exploits on the battlefield where during the Battle of Yokotagawara, 1182. Minamoto forces suffer several minor defeats at the hands of a Tiara loyalist governor of one of the eastern provinces, but manged to get away mostly unscathed and undeterred. The governor, whose name is lost to history, is "punished" for not bringing the rebellion to a swift end, and while a new governor is waiting to be named the Minamoto score their first major victory against a leaderless loyalist force. During the battle Tomoe was in the thick of the fighting and manged to collect the heads of 7 Tiara loyalist samurai, badges of skill and honor in a brutal age.

Statue of Tome Gozen and Kiso no Yoshinaka outside of the museum in Nagano

For the next year the war would be at a stalemate, with neither side making headway against the other. The Tiara forces, while larger and able to undeniably defend its strongholds, could not effectively pin down the rebels. The rebel forces under the Minamoto made several successful strategic runs on loyalist outposts and supply depots, but nothing that would put a major dent in the Tiara war machine. On top of that a famine had struck the country making fielding large scale armies impractical if not impossible. After avoiding a split with his cousin and fellow rebel leader Yoritomo, Lord Kiso received word of the Tiara recruiting a large army to set against him and this army could potentially worsen the famine in the surrounding regions as those being "recruited" were essential farmers. Tiara forces were spotted coming through a mountain pass between the eastern and western halves of Honshu, their goal to collect and train more farmers. The Battle of Kurikara, also known as the Battle of Tonamiyama, was about to begin. Kiso split his forces in three, he retained personal command of his samurai and archers while he gave command of his cavalry to Tomoe and command of his foot soldiers to his uncle Yukiie. While the other two forces went the long way around to get into position, as not to be seen, Kiso engaged in a deceptive ploy to make his army seem at full strength at his position, deploying standard archer attacks and agreeing to individual duels between samurai on both sides. At sunset, with his forces all in position, his samurai charged in a frontal assault while Tomoe's cavalry appeared behind the enemy position and Yukiie's foot soldiers rushed in on a flank. So heavy were the Tiara losses that they believed they could no longer hold the city of Kyoto which they were marching from, and fell back further into Tiara territory, handing the Minamoto rebel forces a major victory, turning the tide of the war in the rebels favor.

Depiction of Tomoe Gozen's cavalry charge

The Minamoto would dominate the battlefields for the next 2 years, Tomoe would be spotted in many small engagements either at her lords side as bodyguard or leading one of his elite samurai or cavalry units. It was said Tomoe collected many samurai head trophies for her lord/husband, and no warrior under estimated her for her gender. But the two lovers would not see the end of the war where a puppet Tiara emperor was placed on the throne and the Minamoto established the first Shogunate (military dictatorship). Near the end of 1154 Lord Kiso's cousin Yoritomo again made a play for sole leadership of Clan Minamoto, the family feud came to final blows at the Battle of Awazu. Lord Kiso and Tomoe, traveling with 300 troops, were ambushed by 6000 troops of Yoritomo and another cousin Yoshitsune. Fighting lasted all day as Tomoe and Kiso tried to break out of the encirclement, the larger force finding it not as easy as they had hoped. At one point Tomoe's sword is knocked fromher hand, but instead of fleeing her lord's side to try and recover it she picked up a large branch and weided like a great club. As dusk was approaching the two sides forces had been cut down significantly; the treacherous cousins had 1500 troops left, Kiso and Tomoe had 20. Kiso ordered Tomoe to flee the field with 4 others. There is dispute on why he did this; some say because he felt it would be dishonorable to die with a woman, but to me that explanation does not seem to hold water. This is a woman he raised out of near sexual slavery to be not only a wife but a trusted bodyguard and general in his armies. Surly, no one would find it shameful for him to die with his most loyal samurai and champion.  The other, is that he truly did love her and valued her person, not wanting to see her die needlessly. Call me a romantic, but I believe this makes more sense. So after beheading one last samurai for the protection of her lord husband she obeyed and left the field. Shortly after, Lord Kiso would find his horse stuck in the mud and while trying to free it he was struck dead by an arrow.

Battle of Awazu - Tomoe Gozen's Last Stand

But everything around the conclusion of Tomoe's whereabouts afterward are shrouded in mystery. The legend's end, favored by poets and playwrights, say she snuck back on the battlefield and removed her husbands head from his corpse so it cannot be taken as a trophy, then proceeded to drown it and herself in the ocean. Another account says she lost in a duel with a samurai by the name of Wada Yoshimori, becoming his concubine. And still another account that after the battle and lose of her husband she retired altogther from her violent career and become a nun in a Buddhist temple. We will probably never know what happened her, but in our modern era she has become a Japanese national and pop culture icon; and national parades, festivals, or re-enactments of Japanese history always find at least a couple of people costumed as the fearsome female samurai.

There is a fictionalized novel of her exploits at Amazon:

But for a more historical understanding her and other female samurai my I suggest:



Also along the right hand side of the blog you can find other recommended material on the Genpei War