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- In this Japanese name, the family name is Hosokawa.
Hosokawa Tama (細川玉), usually referred to as Hosokawa Garasha (細川ガラシャ), (1563 - August 25 (17th day of the 7th month by the Japanese calendar), 1600) was a Japanese noblewoman, daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide. She was named Tama at birth; Garasha, the name she is known by in history, is taken from her baptismal name, Gracia. She married Hosokawa Tadaoki at the age of fifteen; the couple had five or six children.
In the Sixth Month of 1582, her father Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed and killed his lord, Oda Nobunaga. Afterwards, Tama became known as a "traitor's daughter." Not wishing to divorce her, Tadaoki sent her to the hamlet of Midono in the mountains of the Tango Peninsula (now in Kyoto Prefecture), where she remained hidden until 1584. Tadaoki then took Tama to the Hosokawa mansion in Osaka, where she remained in confinement.
Tama's maid was from a Christian family, and her husband repeated to her conversations with his Christian friend Takayama Ukon. In the spring of 1587 Tama managed to secretly visit the Osaka church, and a few months later when she heard that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had issued a proclamation against Christianity, she was determined to be baptized immediately. As she could not leave the house, she was baptized by her maid and received the Christian name "Gracia".
In 1595 Tadaoki's life was in danger because of his friendship with Toyotomi Hidetsugu, and he told Gracia that if he should die she must kill herself, but when she wrote asking the priests about it, they answered she must not as a Christian kill herself. However, the danger passed.
The death of Hideyoshi in 1598 left a power vacuum with two rival factions forming: Tokugawa Ieyasu in the east and Ishida Mitsunari in the west. When Ieyasu went to the east in 1600 leading a large army, including Tadaoki, Ishida took over the impregnable castle in Osaka, the city where the families of many of Hideyoshi's generals resided. Ishida devised a plan to take the family members hostage, thus forcing the rival generals either to ally with him or at least not to attack him.
However, when Ishida attempted to take Gracia hostage, the family retainer Ogasawara Shōsai killed her; he and the rest of the household then committed seppuku and burned the mansion down. The outrage over her death was so great that Ishida was forced to abandon his plan. Most Japanese accounts said that it was Gracia's idea to order Ogasawara to kill her. But according to the Jesuit account written right after her death, whenever Tadaoki left the mansion he would tell his retainers that if his wife's honor were ever in danger, they should kill her and then themselves. They decided that this was such a situation; Gracia had anticipated it and accepted it.
A Catholic priest had Gracia's remains gathered from the Hosokawa mansion and buried them in a cemetery in Sakai. Later, Tadaoki moved the remains to Sōkenji, a temple in Osaka.
The Empress Shōken Haruko Ichijō, was the empress consort of Japan as the wife of Emperor Meiji, is a lineal descendant of lady Gracia Hosokawa,[citation needed] she appears to have had a good cooperation with Christians in the Red Cross and otherwise. Empress Shoken was a descendant of the Fujiwara clan and through Gracia Hosokawa also of the Minamoto clan.
Though popular culture states that the Vatican canonized her as a saint in 1862, there are no historical documents that prove this.
Gracia in historical fiction
Gracia frequently appears as a character in Japanese historical fiction, both novels and drama. One website lists her as a character in over 40 stage dramas, movies, TV dramas, etc., from 1887 to 2006.[citation needed] She is also frequently referred to in popular writing or talks on the history of the period. A work that has been translated into English is Ayako Miura's novel, Hosokawa Garasha Fujin (English title: Lady Gracia: a Samurai Wife's Love, Strife and Faith), which follows history fairly closely.
James Clavell used Gracia as the model for the character of Mariko in his novel Shōgun. Additionally Clavell gave the Japanese wife of Vasco Rodrigues (whose Japanese name was Nyan-nyan) the baptismal name Gracia. This book was later adapted for television as a miniseries. Elements of Mariko's story follows Gracia's quite closely, although the manner of her death is different and the two characters do not fundamentally have anything in common.
in video games
Gracia is also a playable character in Samurai Warriors 2 Xtreme Legends. In her story, she runs away from her father, Akechi Mitsuhide, and she is rescued by Saika Magoichi. She later gets married into the Hosokawa clan and gets help from Saika Magoichi in repelling Ishida Mitsunari's forces. In her special side story, she rescues many female officers from the series from Saika Magoichi. She will not be returning in Samurai Warriors 3, although it is unknown whether on not she will return in future expansions.
In Warriors Orochi 2, she and Akechi Mitsuhide are rescued by Xing Cai and Inahime at Wuhang Moutains. In Dream Mode, she, Cao Pi, and Guan Ping must surpass their fathers.
For some reason, she, Miyamoto Musashi, Ishikawa Goemon, and Sasaki Kojiro were removed from the Samurai Warriors series after Warriors Orochi 2.
There were artifacts from both her and the Hosokawa clan that were temperorary at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum from the Spring to mid-September 2009.
References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2009) |
- J. Laures, Two Japanese Christian Heroes, Rutland, VT: Bridgeway Press Books, 1959.
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