Yodogimi was a concubine of the military dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi and mother of his heir, Hideyori.
Background
Yodogimi was born in 1569. She was the eldest daughter of Asai Nagamasa, a daimyo who held a domain in the northern part of Omi Province and resided in Odani Castle. Her mother, known as Oichi-no-kata or Odani-no-kata, was a younger sister of the military leader Oda Nobunaga. She lived a life characterized by dramatic reversals of fortune. Known by the personal name Chaeha.
Career
In 1573 Asai Nagamasa defied Nobunaga and was attacked and wiped out by the latter. At this time Chaeha, her mother, and her two younger sisters were taken into custody by Nobunaga. (One of her younger sisters later became the wife of Kyogoku Takatsugu, the other the wife of Tokugavva Hidetada, the second of the Tokugawa shoguns.)
In 1582, after the assassination of Oda Nobunaga, Chacha’s mother married Shibata Katsuie, one of Nobunaga’s generals. Chaeha and her sisters accompanied their mother to her new home in the castle of Kita-no-sho in Echizcn. But the following year Shibata Katsuie was defeated in battle by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the castle of Kita-no-sho fell into the hands of the latter. Chacha’s mother committed suicide, and Chaeha and her sisters were led off to Hideyoshi’s headquarters.
After having been intimately involved in the tragic downfall of two domains, Chacha’s fortunes took a turn for the better. She became a concubine of her captor Hideyoshi and soon enjoyed great favor. In 1589 she took up residence in Yodo Castle south of Kyoto and the same year bore Hideyoshi his first son, Tsurumatsu, who died in infancy. Chacha by this time was the most highly favored of Hideyoshi’s concubines and was referred to by him as Yodo-no-nyobo or Yodo-no-mono. She was commonly known as Yodo- dono and later by the nickname Yodogimi.
In 1590 she accompanied Hideyoshi on his campaign against Odawara and in 1592 resided at his headquarters in Nagoya when he launched his first campaign against Korea. In 1593 she returned to Hideyoshi’s principal residence, Osaka Castle, where she bore his second son, Hideyori. Neither Hideyoshi’s wife, a daughter of the Sugihara family, nor any of his other concubines had borne him any sons, and as a result Yodogimi’s position outshone even that of Hideyoshi's wife.
After Hideyoshi's death in 1598, Yodogimi remained in Osaka Castle and plotted with Ishida Mitsunari and other prominent leaders concerning possible ways to stem the rising power of Tokugawa Ieyasu and restore the Toyotomi family to eminence. But Hideyoshi’s followers were split into two factions, those siding with Yodogimi and the more militant group siding with Hideyoshi’s wife of the Sugihara family. After Ishida Mitsunari was defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the power of Yodogimi’s group waned, and it became apparent that Ieyasu was not to be overthrown. Yodogimi’s continued efforts at resistance all met with failure, and in the two attacks on Osaka Castle in the winter of 1614 and the summer of 1615, the last vestiges of resistance to Tokugawa rule were wiped out. In the latter attack, the castle was destroyed by fire, and Yodogimi and her son Hideyori committed suicide. Yodogimi was something over forty at the time of her death. Hideyori’s wife, Sen-hime, the daughter of the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, was rescued from the flames and sent to Edo, where the following year she married Honda Tadatoki.