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Aya-Gozen

Japanese monk (1524–1609)

Summary

Japanese monk (1524–1609)

Field	Value
name	Aya-Gozen
image	Nagao Masakage and His wife.jpg
alt
caption	Aya-Gozen with her husband Nagao Masakage
birth_name
birth_date	1524
death_date
known_for	Half-sister of Japanese warlord Uesugi Kenshin
father	Nagao Tamekage
spouse	Nagao Masakage
children	4, including Uesugi Kagekatsu
relatives	Uesugi Kenshin (brother)
Uesugi Kagetora (son-in-law)
family	[[File:Kuyo Tomoe (inverted).svg	15px]] Nagao clan
[[File:Japanese Crest Uesugi Sasa.svg	15px]] Uesugi clan

Uesugi Kagetora (son-in-law)

Lady Aya was a Japanese noblewoman from the Sengoku period. She was the half-sister of Japanese warlord Uesugi Kenshin. She was also the mother of Uesugi Kagekatsu and the first wife of Nagao Masakage. Aya is best known for her role in events before and after the siege of Otate; she lamented the Uesugi civil war for succession after Kenshin's death and refused to support either heir.

Life

Aya was the second daughter of Nagao Tamekage. Her mother is believed to have later born Uesugi Kenshin. The term -gozen is an honorific suffix; her given name was Aya. She had two sons and two daughters by Nagao Masakage: their oldest son in childhood, so their second son, Kagekatsu, was adopted into the Uesugi clan, as reportedly were their daughters. Aya-Gozen moved to Kasugayama Castle in 1564. According to legend, she was a highly intelligent woman and skilled in recognizing talent, being responsible for employing various samurai to work for Kenshin. She recommended Naoe Kanetsugu to serve her son, Kagekatsu. It was rumored that Kanetsugu tried his best to care for her in gratitude.

After Kenshin's death, a dispute arose between Kagekatsu and Kagetora; Aya-Gozen tried to protect Kagetora's heir after the death of her eldest daughter Seienin (Kagetora's wife). Although she was with Kagetora, she returned to Kikuhime (Takeda Shigen's daughter and Uesugi Kagekatsu's wife) and Osen no Kata's (Naoe Kanetsugu's wife) care. After the conflict, she returned to Kasugayama Castle. Later, Sentōin received protection from Kagekatsu and accompanied him during transfers to Aizu in 1598 and to Yonezawa in 1601.

In 1609, she died at Yonezawa Castle, and was enshrined at Risen-ji. Owing to her efforts toward its construction, she is called a founder of the temple. The actual characters to write her name are confirmed from the death register kept at the temple. Her Buddhist name was Sentō-In. As for why she was named as such, the reasons are still debated even to this day.

References

(1982). "歴史と人物". 中央公論社.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1524-births 1609-deaths 16th-century-japanese-women 17th-century-japanese-women women-of-the-sengoku-period nagao-clan japanese-buddhist-clergy 16th-century-japanese-nobility 17th-century-japanese-people

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