Saigo no Tsubone (西郷局)
Saigo no tsubone (1562 - July 1, 1589) was a woman in the Sengoku period (period of warring states) and Azuchi-Momoyama period. She was a grandchild from a daughter married into another family of Masakatsu SAIGO. She was adopted by her uncle, Kiyokazu SAIGO. In fact, she was a daughter of Tadaharu TOTSUKA. Her common name was Oai no kata. She has been known as a concubine of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA. She was reportedly the most beloved concubine. Her ingo (a title of respect given to close female relatives of the Emperor or a woman of comparable standing) was Ryusenin and Hodaiin.
The Saigo clan was a family of the Kikuchi clan, which had been a family of pedigree in Kyusyu region. It has been said that the Saigo clan related to her was the descendant of those who had moved to Mikawa Province. At the days of Masakatsu SAIGO who was her maternal grandfather, the Saigo clan had no influence in Mikawa Province, only keeping alive under the control of Yoshimoto IMAGAWA. Her mother married Tadaharu TOTSUKA in Totomi Province, probably under the orders of the Imagawa clan.
She grew up and married her first husband, who died before her, and then she became a widow. It has been said that she was wanted to be the second wife of her elder cousin Yoshikatsu SAIGO, whose lawful wife had been died as well. She had borne him a boy and a girl. Or, some say that Yoshikatsu was her first husband.
At the Battle of Takehiro in 1571, to obstruct the southern expansion of Nobutomo AKIYAMA who had been sent before the Takeda clan, Yoshikatsu cooperated with his relative, the Noda Suganuma clan, and unfortunately he was killed. Again she became a widow and unfortunately her child was too young to take over the head of the family.
Before long, she was wanted to be a concubine of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA as an adopted daughter of her mother's younger brother, Kiyokazu SAIGO, and gave birth to Hidetada TOKUGAWA, the second shogunate, and Tadayoshi MATSUDAIRA. However, in 1589, she died as young as 28 years old. After her death, in 1628, she was conferred Shoichii (Senior First Rank) by Hidetada. She was beautiful, gentle and sincere in nature, trusted greatly by Ieyasu, and liked by the surrounding vassals as well as her maids. Also, she seemed to be extremely short sighted. That was because she was sympathetic with blind women in particular, and always supplied them with cloths and foods as well as protected their living. Consequently, it has been said that when the Saigo no tsubone died, many blind women prayed her for happiness in the next life in front of the temples' gate every day.
The Saigo family was treated with consideration in the Hidetada's reign, in that her remaining son, who was a brother by a different father of Hidetada, was taken care of Yorinobu TOKUGAWA. Yet, since Hidetada did not lived as long as Ieyasu, he enjoyed prosperity for quite short time.
The best thing was, the family line of her uncle, Kiyokazu SAIGO was promoted to the daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) of Tojo Domain, Awa Province. Later, at the time of Tsunayoshi TOKUGAWA's shogunate, however, it rather incurred the displeasure and degraded from the daimyo of 10,000 koku crop yields. It ended in a hatamoto (direct retainers of the bakufu, which was a form of Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) of 5000 koku.
It has been said that at the time of Ienobu TOKUGAWA shogunate, it reinstated 5000 koku to recover 10,000 koku. However, that 5000 koku was also lost very easily and returned to the former state of 5000 koku.