JAJ35: Nakano Takeko (Badass women in Japanese History)

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Anyway, today, we have another episode for the Everything you never wanted to know about Japanese History series. And it’s actually the second episode in the Badass women in Japanese history sub-series! Yay! Finally, getting around to some research and translation.

So, I was thinking that maybe Tomoe Gozen would be a good topic. She was a semi-mythical warrior woman in the 12 century. But she’s semi-mythical. There’s no contemporaneous accounts verifying her existence. It’s very possible she existed, so I’ll probably come back around to her at some point, but I was looking into women warriors in Japanese history, and I came across another, much more recent example of a woman who kicked ass in battle. I mean, her story is still over 150 years old, but still. She was a badass woman who made her name in battle. Now, I don’t want to fall into the trap of history just being about the battles - the poets and scientists are also important, and I’ve got a few of them I hope to get to at some point. It’s just that, if you know about Japanese society, women making a name for themselves in war is...unusual. Or at least the perception is that it is rare, though in doing some reading, it seems might be less rare than is usually presented. Anyway...on with the story!

Today, we’re talking about a young woman by the name of Nakano Takeko. Nakano is her family name, in case you’re not familiar with Japanese naming conventions. And after reading a lot of Japanese history, it’s nice to talk about someone with a much more modern name. I’m sure there are people in Japan alive today with the same name. Nakano is a common surname in Japan - the 50th most common surname in the country - nearly 300,000 people have the name. And Takeko is, while a slightly old-fashioned given name, it’s still used for girls. I’ve known a few Takeko’s in my time in Japan. But that’s neither here nor there with regards to the story we’re talking about today.

So, Nakano Takeko was born in April of 1847 in Edo, which is the old name for Tokyo. Tokyo became Tokyo in 1868, when the capital of the country was moved - in fact, the moving of the capital is connected to Nakano Takeko’s story. We’ll get there eventually, but for now, let’s just say that the name Tokyo literally means “Eastern Capital,” as opposed to Kyoto, which was the capital before Tokyo, and the name Kyoto literally means “Capital City.” But today’s protagonist - Nakano - was born before the name change, when it was still Edo.

She was born into privilege. A LOT of privilege. Her father was an important Samurai from Aizu, a domain in northern Japan - modern day Fukushima. And this is something I want to talk about eventually, but during the Tokugawa Shogunate, the last of the Shoguns, everyone who was of any importance in Japan was required to maintain a residence in Edo, the Shogun’s seat of power. So, despite her father being based in the Aizu area, Takeko was born in Edo. Again, a bit of a tangent, but something kind of important in Japanese history. I promise, I’ll get back to the crash course in Japanese history eventually. But as for today’s story, besides her father being a samurai, Takeko’s maternal grandfather was also a fairly big deal samurai. Which, I mean, makes sense. Her father was a fairly big shot samurai, so his wife would almost have to be the daughter of another important samurai. Japan was just like most other places in that way - the elite partner with other elites to perpetuate their dominance and whatever. Not here to get into a debate about whether that’s good or not - it’s not, but that’s not important today. We’re talking about a young woman who did some ass kicking.

So Takeko was born into a lot of privilege. She was the oldest of three children - she had a younger brother - Toyoki, and a younger sister - Yūko. Starting around the age of 6 and continuing until she was 16, she received training in the confucian classics, calligraphy, and, importantly for our story, martial arts. At some point, she was adopted by her teacher, the famed swordsman Akaoka Daisuke. From what we know, she loved her studies - both mental and physical. She loved reading about strong women in Japanese history - empresses, women warriors and generals, because, yes, those exist. In particular, Tomoe Gozen - the semi-mythical woman warrior I mentioned at the top of the episode. Let me clarify just a bit about what I mean by semi-mythical. So, Tomoe Gozen appears in the Tale of the Heike, a 14th century epic, telling the story of the Genpei war, a major civil war in 12th century Japan - the war that led to the first shogunate in Japan. So the epic is compiled well over 100 years after the actual events, and the woman warrior Tomoe Gozen appears in the epic. Some of the figures that appear in the epic absolutely were real people. But a lot of them are unverifiable by any other means. And Tomoe Gozen is one of these figures. But she is a major character - a woman who is a prominent warrior in support of one of the warlords who are fighting in the Genpei war. And she shows up in a lot of subsequent literature as well. And while she may or may not be an actual historical figure, that’s not terribly important.

What is important is that Nakano Takeko loves reading about her. And is inspired by her. And Nakano is learning the use of swords from a famed swordsman. Eventually, Nakano Takeko earns her menkyo - certification or license - in a style of swordsmanship using one blade. Now, the weapon Nakano is most associated with is the naginata, which is a polearm that resembles a European Glaive, if you’re into your obscure weapons. Basically, take a Japanese short sword, and put it on a long stick, and you’ve got yourself a naginata. Obviously a bit of an oversimplification, but you get the basic idea. Now the naginata has a strong association with female fighters in Japan. It was not exclusively used by women, but it is strongly associated with them. Part of the reason is leverage. With the long pole, the force applied is amplified in such a way as to make it extremely effective against much larger, stronger opponents. And apparently, Nakano was extremely gifted with a naginata. Again, this kind of goes against the image a lot of people have of women in Japan, especially if you’ve visited modern Japan, but it was extremely common for the daughters of samurai to receive weapons training.

And Nakano Takeko was skilled enough that she would later go on to teach Naginata to other women in the households of other samurai. She ended up in Niwase, a domain in modern day Okayama, out in western Japan. She was employed as both the domain lord’s wife’s secretary and naginata teacher. After a few years of this, she left Niwase to go to Osaka with her teacher who was also her adoptive father. Here, she seemed to have been helping with some security detail in Kyoto - which is not far from Osaka. As to why security details were needed, well, I mean, there were a bunch of feudal lords and their retainers still running about, so there was always a need for security details, but by this point - 1863 - the country was beginning to descend into widespread unrest.

In the early 1850s, Commodore Matthew Perry from the US had sailed into Japan and demanded that the US be given access to the country. Japan, under the Tokugawa Shogunate, had been following isolationist policies for over 200 years. But when the Convention of Kanagawa, a very one sided treaty, was signed in 1854, opening two ports to the US, it showed a major weakness within the shogunate. And this treaty led to other similar treaties between 1854 and 1858 with other major powers - the UK, Russia, France. And all of these very uneven treaties led, very directly, to the Boshin War - a civil war between supporters of the Emperor and the Shogun. The Boshin war began in 1868, the same year as the Meiji Restoration - when the Meiji Emperor and his supporters reasserted the power of the emperor over the shogun. Which was a pretty big deal. Japan had been ruled by various shoguns - warlords essentially - for nearly 700 years. And with the sudden intrusion of foreign powers in the 1850s, some segments of the ruling class began questioning whether or not the Tokugawa Shoguns were the best option for the country. Some of the ruling class still backed the Shogunate, and some began backing a restoration of power to the throne. The emperor had never been deposed, despite nearly 7 centuries of sidelining. And this is obviously a topic in and of itself for at least one episode, if not an entire mini-series. For today’s episode, suffice to say that this was the environment that Nakano Takeko was coming of age.

During the increasing unrest, she decided that it was time to leave the Osaka-Kyoto area and headed back to Edo to be with her birth family. Eventually, she and her birth family ended up back in Aizu in northern Japan - modern Fukushima. Probably sometime in early 1868. Here, she was teaching naginata to the women and children of the local samurai. At this point, she’s probably 20, 21 years old. By this point, the forces supporting the emperor are pretty much routing the supporters of the shogun. But the shogun’s supporters were not going out quietly. And one of the domains that was standing loyally for the shogun was the Aizu domain - the domain that the Nakano family served. And Takeko wasn’t one to abandon her family and friends.

Not going to get into the ins and outs of the Boshin War and who I think was more in the right, imperial supporters or shogunal supporters. Again, that’s another episode or mini-series some day.

Eventually, the imperial forces began to move into Aizu. And it became clear that shit was about to get really real. Commence the Battle of Aizu. Takeko, along with her mother Koko, and younger sister Yuko, and about a couple dozen other noblewomen formed the Women’s brigade. Now, it is worth noting that Aizu was noted as a militarily strong domain, a place where everyone who was anyone received military training, including the girls and women. So most of the women of the castle knew their way around a naginata.

As the fighting grew nearer to the castle, the women debated what to do about Yuko, Takeko’s younger sister. She was only 16 - though this was 1868, so she would have been considered more or less an adult at that point, but she was apparently very beautiful - as was Takeko. And given the imperial forces take no prisoners pattern up to that point, I guess the worry was that Yuko would have been raped before being killed had she fallen into enemy hands. Pretty shitty that that was a thing they had to consider, but that was a thing. In the end, it was decided that Yuko was best off joining the Women’s brigade and fighting alongside her mother and older sister.

Another thing that was discussed was what to do if one of them was mortally wounded in battle. The decision was made that, to avoid becoming a trophy for the enemy, if one of them was to die or be mortally wounded in battle, it was best to behead the wounded party and retreat with the head to avoid the enemies taking the head as a trophy - a thing that Japanese samurai did.

So the battle began, and the imperial forces were overwhelming. However, the forces defending Aizu were able to hold the larger imperial forces more or less at bay for a couple of days. But, ultimately there was little hope of defeating the imperial forces.

Still, Takeko and her women warriors offered their services to the commander of the Aizu forces, who, as a traditional Japanese man of the day, said no. He likely felt that allowing women to fight alongside his men would have been an embarrassment, despite the fact that Takeko and her women were highly trained soldiers. However, other members of the chain of command eventually allowed the women to officially fight as their own unit. The women fought bravely, while not alongside their male compatriots, at the very least parallel to them.

On October 10th, Takeko and the other women ended up confronting a group of imperial soldiers - and I’m not sure if it was a offensive or defensive strike, I’ve seen both, but that’s largely irrelevant. Apparently, the opposing commander initially thought that the women’s brigade was a group of young boys. The women were wearing hakama - a type of trousers that are worn over a kimono, and while not exclusively worn by men, are more commonly worn by men. I’ve also seen some claims that the women had cut their hair. But for whatever reason, the opposing commander initially thought the women were young boys, but then realized the truth that Takeko, her mother, sister and the others were, in fact women. He ordered his men not to fire, unaware of the fact that Takeko and the others were, in fact, out for blood in defense of their home country. Reports are that Takeko killed 5 or 6 men by herself. Now, if we’re being honest, that’s quite likely an exaggeration. I guess it’s not out of the realm of possibilities, but it does seem slightly unlikely that one woman, no matter how badass she may have been, was able to kill six soldiers before they were able to stop her. The entire women’s brigade killing 6 soldiers? That seems very realistic. Regardless, the women, armed with naginata - polearms, going up against modern (for the day) firearms? The women were doomed from the start. Eventually, the imperial soldiers realized what was going on and opened fire on the women’s brigade. One shot struck Takeko in the chest and she fell from the wound.

Nakano Takeko was dead. But, as she and her mother and sister had agreed, Yuko tried to carry out her older sister’s last wish - cut off her head to prevent the opposing soldiers from claiming it as a trophy. Yuko, tired - probably both physically and emotionally - was unable to perform the act by herself, and asked for the aid of another soldier from the Aizu domain.

Now, here’s one part of the story I don’t quite get - I know that there was a code of battlefield conduct, but I’m not sure exactly how Yuko would have had the time to try to cut off Takeko’s head herself, realized she didn’t have the strength, find a warrior from Aizu to ask, and have him do the beheading - all of this without the enemy, who had adopted pretty much a scorched earth policy at this point. Something in the timeline doesn’t quite add up to me, but who knows. Regardless, the story goes that Yuko took Takeko’s head to a nearby temple for a proper, honorable burial. She also gave Takeko’s naginata to the temple. Apparently, it’s on display at the temple to this day. I take that with a small grain of salt. I mean, I suppose it could be true, but there’s little to guarantee that it is.

After Takeko’s death, the warriors of Aizu managed to postpone the inevitable for another week or so. But in the end, Aizu fell. While the Boshin War would continue for a short time after this - up in Hakodate with the establishment of the Republic of Ezo - the battle of Aizu signalled that the end was nigh for the supporters of the shogun.

Anyway, as I said, Nakano Takeko’s naginata is possibly on display at a small temple in Fukushima. And she is still a hero in that region. And for good reason. The women of Aizu, led by Takeko, showed themselves to be badasses - supposedly nearly 10 percent of all the soldiers who surrendered at the end of the battle were women. While plenty of people in Japan are probably aware of the women warriors throughout the history of the country, that doesn’t seem to stop the sexism and gender discromintaion that is very common here. It’s kind of an odd thing, honestly.

I know I’m going slightly off track here, but some of Japan’s most successful athletes are women. Now, I know athletes and warriors aren’t the same thing, but in a world where all out, bloody hand to hand combat is largely gone, athletes work as something of a proxy. So, just follow along for a minute here - think about soccer, for example. The Japanese women’s soccer team has won the world cup. They are regularly contenders. The men’s team? Meh. Middling at best. And yet, the women’s team is treated pretty poorly, despite all the media coverage. I know, Japan’s not alone in that, but. Yeah. Just something that I think about from time to time. I guess what I’m saying is...well, I’m not exactly sure.

The main point is that Nakano Takeko was a badass. And she should be remembered for stepping outside the box that Japanese society tried to put her in as a woman. So, good for her, even if it was in the name of upholding the shogunate, which, by the 1860s was pretty outdated and problematic. Not that the other side wasn’t problematic. Everything’s problematic if you look hard enough!

And that’s where we’ll leave it with today’s edition of Everything you never wanted to know about Japanese history.

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