Otsuya no kata (おつやの方)
Otsuya no kata (year of birth: unknown - date of death: January 2, 1576) was a person who lived from the Sengoku period (period of warring states) to the Azuchi Momoyama Period. She is a daughter of Nobusada ODA and an aunt of Nobunaga ODA. Her common name is Iwamura dono.
Personal Profile
She was the wife of Kageto TOYAMA. Since Kageto died of illness without having a child in 1571, Otsuya no kata adopted Bomaru (later Katsunaga ODA), the fifth son of Nobunaga, as an heir. However, he was still so young that she succeeded to the head of the family and became the chatelaine of Iwamura-jo Castle.
After that, when Nobutomo AKIYAMA attacked Iwamura-jo Castle on December 28, 1572, she fell in serious straits without reinforcements. Then Nobutomo proposed marriage to her as a condition for peace negotiations, which she accepted to become his wife. Judging from the fact that Bomaru was handed over to the side of Takeda, it is considered to have been a practical bloodless surrender of the castle.
Then the Takeda army was defeated in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. After Iwamura-jo Castle had fallen to the enemy on January 2, 1576, the Toyama clan of Iwamura was also supposed to be involved with Nobutomo. Otsuya no kata was also caught by Nobunaga ODA to be executed by crucifixion with her head upside down toward the ground.
She is believed to have then said that Nobunaga also must die suddenly.
Since 1992, the residents living in the houses along Hondori (main street) in Iwamura-cho, Ena City, Gifu Prefecture, have hung a noren (a short [split] curtain hung at the entrance of a room) indicating the names of female members of each family to the memory of Otsuya no kata, who was the chatelaine of the area.