Samurai are the Japanese counterpart of European chivalry, a special caste of real warriors. It would seem that there could be no place for a woman in their ranks. However, Japanese women - delicate chrysanthemums that adorn the world - also sometimes became samurai, and none of them disgraced their honor either in peaceful life or in battle.
The birth of onna-bugeisya
Life in samurai families was based on the principles of the strictest subordination. The male warriors wanted to see charming wives next to them - graceful, submissive to their husbands and absolutely loyal to their clan. For the girl, the law was the word of the father, for the woman - the husband, and if the husband died, the eldest of the sons stood at the head of the clan. Most Japanese women were quite content with this role: while men served their overlord, they managed the household, raised children and supported their husbands in every possible way. There was even a special concept - "find", meaning the help of a samurai's wife in the family.
But sometimes girls from samurai families showed a penchant for martial arts, and then they began to educate onna-bugeisha - female warriors. Interestingly, the bushido (samurai code of honor) welcomed the ability of a woman from a samurai family to rise above her own imperfect sex and demonstrate a fortitude that is not inferior to the heroism of a man-chin-samurai.
The training of women in the military profession pursued several important goals at once. The main one was the protection of their own home: while the samurai fought in countless feudal clashes, their women, if necessary, had to be able not only to defend their homes, but also to save the lives of household members - the elderly, children and servants.
A trained onna-bugeisha could calmly set off without any protection - she was her own bodyguard. If there was no one who could avenge the insult or murder of the overlord, a woman from a vassal samurai family took on this role. Legends praising the bravery of these warriors emphasize that in matters of honor they were much more scrupulous than the representatives of the stronger sex.
Finally, the fighting skills of the onna bugeisha became truly invaluable during the war. Since there are very few records of the participation of women in the battles of the past in Japanese sources, historians traditionally believed that these cases were isolated. However, recent archaeological excavations in Japan have shown the opposite: of the hundreds of remains found at the site of one of the battles of the late 16th century, more than three dozen were female. Similar results were obtained in studies of other military operations of samurai detachments.
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Naginata over the door of the house
In the samurai clans, where the future onna-bugeisha were brought up, they did not make any allowances and were taught samurai science on an equal basis with the brothers. To nurture courage, girls were sent at night to a forest thicket or to a cemetery, forbidden to return before dawn. To make the little ones as hardy as possible, they were loaded with hard housework. And since the samurai had to eat as little as possible, the trainees were constantly kept on a strict diet. True, samurai training was not limited to physical training. Novice warriors trained their minds just as hard: they studied music, poetry, calligraphy and mathematics. A special place in teaching was given to the study of the already mentioned bushido code - all its postulates children had to memorize and learn to apply in life.
A substantial part of the time of future warriors was occupied by exercises with various weapons. The first of them - the kaiken dagger - was given to the girl on the day of her majority (at the age of 12), and from that time he became her constant companion. The advantage of the kaiken was the ability to instantly use it in close combat or throw it at the enemy at a fairly large distance. And if a woman-warrior was defeated in battle, the dagger became an instrument of death for herself. Unlike male samurai, women did not do hara-kiri for themselves, but committed jigai (female ritual suicide) by opening their carotid artery with a kaiken. Before the ritual, onna-bugeisha tied her ankles in order to maintain a decent posture after death.
Another "female" type of weaponry was considered to be the naginata - a one-sided blade mounted on a long (up to two meters) handle. It was often hung over the lintel of the door so that you could quickly use it when the enemy attacks. The naginata became especially useful when confronted with cavalry, because it gave a gain in distance. By the beginning of the 17th century, the popularity of the naginata had become so great that every girl of the samurai family was taught how to use this weapon. Later, training with naginata for girls entered the school curriculum and remained in it until 1945.
Onna-bugeisha was trained not only to fight any enemy, but also to cut off one's own life without hesitation in the face of dishonor or captivity. Just as fearlessly, they had to take the life of their own children, if they could not save them. And if the men on the battlefield could not commit the act of suicide themselves, the woman warrior was ordered to provide them with this last service.
Equal to a thousand warriors
No matter how limited the information about onna-bugeisha that has survived to this day, the history has preserved the names of some of them. The first mentions of women fighting on an equal basis with samurai men date back to the XII century. It is curious that the warriors in question lived at the same time and could well have known each other.
A certain Hojo Masako became famous for having no equal in possession of naginata. She was born into a noble feudal family and was brought up in the samurai traditions. When the girl reached marriageable age, she received the creator of the shogunate (a military government under which the emperor performed only representative functions) as her husband, Kamakura. Spouse Masako continuously fought for his power on the battlefield and died in one of the battles. Then the widow took up the management of the property and managed to keep it intact and prosperous. And when she retired, she achieved the transfer of the regency title to her nephew.
Among the opponents of the Kamakura shogunate, Hangaku Gozen was well known - she not only fought herself, but also commanded a detachment of 3 thousand people. One day, her squad entered into battle with an enemy army of 10 thousand soldiers and fought bravely, but was defeated. Hangaku was wounded and taken prisoner: she was taken to the shogun's court in Kamakura. Sources say that the shogun favorably accepted the captive, and one of the courtiers fell so deeply in love with her that he convinced the overlord to give permission to marry the girl.
Japanese folklore has preserved information about the beautiful archer Tomoe Gozen, who fought as a senior officer on the side of the Kamakura shogun. One of the versions of her biography says that the brave onna-bugeisha died in the battle, standing shoulder to shoulder with her husband. Another version says that the soldiers who survived the lost battle convinced her to hide from the battlefield, since death in front of a woman was condemned in the samurai code. Tomoe left the site of the battle and went to the monastery, where she became a monk. The Tale of House Taira says that she "was a skilled archer, a glorious warrior, one equal to a thousand warriors!"
The last heroine
Centuries passed, feudal strife faded into the past, and the aristocrats no longer needed samurai armies. And the women-warriors were the first to stop fighting - they could bring much greater benefit now in the household. The last famous warrior was Nakano Takeko, a participant in the "War of the Year of the Dragon." The girl received a classical samurai education and even taught martial arts, but dreamed of applying her skills in real battles. And soon a suitable opportunity presented itself for this.
In early 1868, the Emperor of Japan issued a decree restoring the full imperial power (known as the "Meiji Restoration"), the Tokugawa shogun did not recognize the decree as legitimate, and a civil war, known as the "War of the Year of the Dragon", broke out in the country. However, the era of the shogunate was inexorably moving towards the end, the Tokugawa troops suffered defeat after defeat, and six months later he was forced to surrender.
The last stronghold of the rebels was the Aizu principality, where the remnants of the shogun's forces gathered. Each person was counted, therefore, when Nakano appeared to the head of the army, wishing to fight for the Tokugawa, the samurai could not refuse the girl. With the consent of the command, she recruited jo shitai - a detachment of women who are ready to die for the old regime. The last onna-bugeisha in Japanese history fought to the end, but the forces were too unequal. Samurai detachments of Aizu were killed, in one of the last battles Nakano Takeko was also mortally wounded.
The girl asked her sister Yuko to act according to the old military tradition: cut off her head after death and bury her in the ground so that she would not fall to the enemies. Yuko fulfilled Nakano's last wish and buried her sister's head on the grounds of the Hokaiji Shrine.
Although Nakano Takeko opposed a unified, centralized Japan, she is revered to this day as a fearless warrior. A monument is erected near her grave. And in the main city of the province of Aizu, a festival is held every autumn, in which girls dressed in the costumes of Takeko and members of her squad participate.
Ekaterina KRAVTSOVA