Chikurin-in


Chikurin-in was a Japanese woman of the late Azuchi-Momoyama through early Edo period. She was Ōtani Yoshitsugu's daughter, then she was adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before marrying Sanada Yukimura. She is described as having been very beautiful. They had two sons and four daughters.

Life

Chikurin-in was known in her childhood as Takehime. She was also known as Riyohime and Akihime.
In 1594, she married Sanada Yukimura, the second son of Sanada Masayuki, daimyō of Ueda. It was a political marriage suggested by Hideyoshi to ensure an alliance between the Toyotomi and the Sanada.
After Hideyoshi's death, Japan was divided in two. Yukimura, Yoshitsugu and Masayuki joined the western coalition of Ishida Mitsunari, while Yukimura's older brother, Sanada Nobuyuki, joined the eastern coalition of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
After the Battle of Sekigahara, with Ieyasu's victory, Yukimura and Masayuki were exiled to Mt. Koya in the Kii Peninsula. Chikurin-in followed her husband. In exile she bore him two sons and some daughters. It is said that life in Kudoyama was difficult so, according to the tradition, she is supposed to had devise the Sanadahimo, that applied Tsumugi technology. She has supported the livelihood of her family by selling it.
In 1615, during the Osaka Campaign, Yukimura and his family escaped from the exile to join in the Toyotomi's forces. But, in the Summer Siege, Yukimura and his first son, Yukimasa, were killed.
Chikurin-in and her daughter Akuri were captured by Asano Nagaakira's troops and handed over to the Tokugawa, but both were spared and Chikurin-in became a nun. Her name as a nun was Chikurin-inden-baikei-eishun-daishi.
Chikurin-in went, in the first place, at the service of the Asano clan, in the second place, to Kyoto with one of her daughters. She died there the June 27, 1649.

Family