Murayama Taka (村山たか)
Taka MURAYAMA (1809 - September 20, 1876) was a woman who was active from the end of Edo period (last days of the Tokugawa shogunate) to early Meiji Period, and known as the heroine of a novel "Hana no shogai (life of flower)" by Seiichi FUNAHASHI.
Biography
In 1809, she was born as a daughter of Jibo Sonsho-in Temple in Taga Taisha Shrine, located in Taga-cho, Inukami County, Omi Province. Shortly after birth, she was placed with terazamurai (samurai who performed administrative functions at temples), the Murakami clan, and at the age of 18, she became a waiting woman to Naoaki II, a then lord of the domain.
At the age of 20, she went up to Kyoto to become geisya (a woman who gives fun with a song, a dance or a music instrument at a feast) and gave birth to a boy, however, since her son was an illegitimate child, she took him and went back to her hometown, Hikone. At that time, she met Naosuke II, who was placed in confinement at home in Hikone castle town, and a few years later, Naosuke encountered Shuzen NAGANO, and it is said that Taka and Shuzen NAGANO also established a deeper relationship. Before long, Naosuke became Tairo (chief minister) and it is said that they broke up after moving to Edo. However, at the time of Ansei no Taigoku (suppression of extremists by the Shogunate), Taka became a spy who sent information about tobakuha (anti-Bakufu, crushing-the-Bakufu faction) in Kyoto to Edo and largely supported Ansei no Taigoku.
After Naosuke II was assassinated in the Sakuradamongai Incident in 1860, she was arrested by samurai of sonnojoi ha (supporters of the doctrine of restoring the emperor and expelling the barbarians) and pilloried at Sanjo-gawara Riverside for three days and three nights in 1862. However, she could avoid capital crime, because she was a woman.
After that, she became a priest at Konpuku-ji Temple and called herself Myojuama, and died in 1876. Her graveyard was in Enko-ji Temple, the main temple of Konpuku-ji Temple, and her Mairihaka (graveyard only for worship) is in Konpuku-ji Temple.