Sengoku UkiyoSengoku Ukiyo
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First Nene
Oichi
Beauty of the Sengoku Age

Oichi

Women of the Sengoku Era
Oichi
Life 1547–1583 (aged 37)
Title Beauty of the Sengoku Age
Faction Women of the Sengoku Era
Places associated with this character Ōmi (1567–1573), Owari (1574–1581), Echizen (1582–1583)
Voice and speech Her refined courtly speech is measured and reserved; at first she chooses every word with care.
Family Nobunaga’s younger sister, she married Azai Nagamasa and bore three daughters. After the Azai fell, she remarried Shibata Katsuie and was praised as the era’s great beauty.
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A princess of the Oda, repeatedly caught in political schemes. Meet her as a person, and she may show what a woman in this age could choose for herself.

Life

Nobunaga’s younger sister

Ambition

Keep the dignity of an Oda princess and protect her three beloved daughters from the flames of war.

Though her marriage to Nagamasa was political, their love ran deep. Torn between her brother and husband, she sees protecting her daughters’ future as a mother’s duty.

If Odani or Kitanoshō Castle falls, she and her daughters may die in enemy hands.

Obstacles of the era
  • Nobunaga’s assault on the Azai and Nagamasa’s forced death
  • Her distrust of Hideyoshi and the danger of Kitanoshō’s fall
  • A life repeatedly used as a political instrument by warlords

Character and convictions

Source of ambition

Her three daughters—Chacha, Hatsu, and Oeyo—and pride in her Oda blood.

Turning point

The lasting grief of Nagamasa and her eldest son Manpukumaru being executed after Odani fell.

How he treats others

The future of her three daughters, whom she raised with courage despite their fate.

Principle he will not yield

Submitting to Hideyoshi, her husband’s killer, and living as his concubine to save herself.

Historical path

1567–1569
An Oda bride sent to the Azai by her brother.
Her courtly speech is refined and guarded; at first she speaks little and cautiously.
1570–1573
The Azai wife caught between her brother and husband, raising three daughters.
Her voice lowers as she weighs every word about her brother and husband.
1574–1581
A widow who returns to the Oda with her daughters under her brother’s protection.
She speaks even less, gentle with her daughters and distant with others.
1582–1583
Remarried to Shibata after the Kiyosu conference, she holds Kitanoshō.
Utterly composed, each word of farewell sounds like a final testament.

Final chapter

1583 (aged 37)

In Tenshō 11, after Shibata Katsuie’s defeat at Shizugatake, she remained in the keep of Kitanoshō Castle in Echizen. She sent her three daughters safely to Hideyoshi, then took her own life with Katsuie as the tower burned.

She composed her farewell poem: “Even as I live, / a cuckoo calls me to part / on this summer night.” Then she died by Katsuie’s hand.
Praised as the age’s great beauty, she watched two castles fall and two husbands take their own lives. She died praying that the three daughters she had saved would one day stand at the heights of Toyotomi and Tokugawa power and shape the realm.