The Fate of Princess Tamahime, and the Lord of Kaga's Revenge
Love Loss and Revenge, Samurai Style
The Fate of Princess Tamahime, and the Lord of Kaga's Revenge
The Warlord of Kanazawa, Maeda Toshiie was 56 years old when his fourth son, Maeda Toshitsune was born. Toshitsune’s mother was the daughter of a lower class samurai, working as a maid in Bizen Nagoya Castle at the time of Hideyoshi’s Korean Campaign. The woman was taken on as a concubine, but rarely saw the man who fathered her child. Toshitsune first met his father, Lord Maeda Toshiie, when he was four years old, and a year before Toshiie’s death in 1599. Toshiie treated the child well, and ensured that he was taken care of.
When Toshitsune was nine-years-old, he and the granddaughter of the Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and daughter of the second Shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, the three-year-old Princess Tamahime, were wed in a marriage of convenience to strengthen ties and forge peace between the once rival Tokugawa and the Maeda clans.
To cater to the gorgeous and extravagant wedding procession that took some 90 days between Edo and Kanazawa, all roads and bridges were redeveloped and upgraded security was firmly set in place, inns were specially constructed for the entourage, and teahouses were built every two kilometers along the route. Kyogen performers and other comedians followed to keep the young princess from getting bored, and she was entertained by feudal lords along the way.
A special palace surrounded by trees and ponds filled with colorful carp was built for her within the confines of the Maeda clan’s Kanazawa Castle, and a small village known as Edo-machi was constructed as the residences of her ladies in waiting and other servants.
Despite it being an arranged marriage, Princess Tamahime and young Lord Toshitsune formed a very close and happy relationship. Between the ages of 16 and 22, Princess Tamahime had given birth to some eight children, three sons and five daughters. Unfortunately, in 1622 Princess Tamahime died young. Like most tragedies, strange tales about the situation arose.
The story goes that Princess Tamahime was cared for by a nurse who saw the Maeda as inferior to the Tokugawa born princess and resented the fact that the couple had become so close. The nurse also feared that the closeness of the couple would lead to information on the Tokugawa Shogunate falling into the hands of the Maeda clan, and so to keep them apart, after the last child was born, whenever Toshitsune would come to visit Tamahime in her quarters, he would be told she was ill, and resting, and was sent away. Princess Tamahime was unaware of the deceit, and feared her husband had abandoned her, and she fell to loneliness and anxiety, so much so that she stopped eating and became ill. In 1622, aged just 24, Princess Tamahime died.
Having lost his beloved wife, Toshitsune himself fell into a depression. When he discovered via Tamahime’s diary and will that it was the machinations of the nurse, plotting to keep them apart that had lead to the Princesses’ death, Toshitsune in anger petitioned his father-in-law, the Shogun Hidetada, for permission to have the nurse executed. Hidetada, on hearing the story granted that permission.
The old nurse then faced the wrath of Toshitsune. The story goes that he had her thrown naked into a huge wooden tub containing some sake and many hungry snakes. It is said that the snakes bit and ate the woman, leaving only her bare bones behind.
The truth is that after on her death Lord Toshitsune wept openly, and had the Tentoku-in established in her honor. The dolls she made as a lonely child and other artifacts from her life remain in the Kanazawa City based temple.
I didn't know about this sad story. Poor Tamahime and Toshitsune.