nobunaga\'s wife [Archive]

FwSeal

04-07-2001, 08:22

Nobunaga's wife was a daughter of Saito Toshimasa (Dosan) and was known as Ouhime and Kichou. Her mother was known as Omi no kata and was a daughter of Akechi Suruga no kami Mitsutsugu. Her dates are unclear, but she is generally thought to have been born between 1533-1535. Toshimasa and Oda Nobunaga struck up a truce in 1548 and that year the marriage of Dosan's daughter to Nobunaga was held.
Nobunaga is said to have been cold toward his wife, whom he distrusted - and with reason. She was known to be acting as a spy for her father. Nobunaga in fact used this to his advantage and through her sent Dosan false information. According to one well-known story, Nobunaga weakened Dosan's power by telling Kichou that he'd arranged for two of her father's chief retainers to betray the Saito. Kichou duly passed this on to her father and the latter had the two men executed. It might be mentioned here that a wife acting as a spy of sorts for the family she came from was not at all uncommon. That Dosan fell for Nobunaga's tricks may be due to the fact that, ostensibly, relations between Dosan and his son-in-law were fair to good.
After Saito Dosan's death in 1556, Kichou's usefullness to Nobunaga was much diminished and her spying was now held against her. Moreover, she had not produced a son. There isn't much more in the historical record about Nouhime/Kichou - we don't even know when she died. I'll try and find more.
In 1557 one of Nobunaga's concubines, a daughter of of Ikoma Kurando Ieyasu Iemune named Kitsuno, gave birth to Nobutada. Kitsuno is famed as Nobunaga's one and only love. How true that may or may not have been, she bore him three children and enjoyed great favor. When she died in 1566 after difficult child births that ruined her health, Nobunaga is said to have wept throughout the night and had her buried within view of his castle. He had numerous other consorts and concubines, but Kitsuno always stands out.