Iga no Kata (伊賀の方)
Iga no Kata (the date of birth and death unknown) was a woman who lived in the beginning of the Kamakura period. Iga no Kata is also called Igashi. She was a daughter of IGA no Tomomitsu, who was a gozoku (a member of a local ruling family) from the FUJIWARA no Hidesato house based in the Kanto region. She was the second wife (called keishitsu) of the second regent of the Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun), Yoshitoki HOJO. Her brothers were Mitsusue IGA and Mitsumune IGA. Her children were Saneyasu HOJO, wife of Sanemasa ICHIJO, and the seventh regent Masamura HOJO.
After the sudden death of her husband Yoshitoki, in July 1224, Iga no Kata and her older brother Mitsumune attempted to make her biological son Masamune the regent of the bakufu, and her son-in-low Sanemasa ICHIJO the shogun. The attempt however failed because ama shogun (nun warload) Masako HOJO made Yasutoki HOJO, who was Masamura's older half brother, the successor of Yoshitoki. Iga no Kata, Mitsumune, and Sanemasa were deported (Incident of the Iga clan known as Igashi no Hen). Her other son Masamura did not get himself involved in the incident and later became the seventh regent. On August 29, Masako ordered the hairu (exile) of Iga no Kata to Hojo in Izu Province, and Iga no Kata was confined there. Four months later, on December 24, the bakufu was informed that she had fallen into critical condition, and it is suspected that she died shortly thereafter.
The older brother of Sanemasa, Soncho, testified that Iga no Kata poisoned Yoshitoki and killed him.