Page 88 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

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Fifth month of the fifth year ofKeichd gamasa was first an ally of Oda Nobunaga, wrap). She holds a Buddhist sutra scroll in
[1600] but later turned against him and was de- her right hand, indicating that the portrait
Humble monk Ikyd burns incense and feated by Nobunaga's forces at the Battle commemorates her death. The painting is
respectfully adds this inscription. of Anekawa in 1570. Three years later Na- an idealized portrayal of one who was re-
Ikyô [square relief seal] gamasa stood siege in Otani Castle in puted to be "the most beautiful woman
This inscription is for Tachibana Nagatoshi, Omi, his garrison headquarters, and he under heaven."
ruler ofYamanaka Castle, Junior Fifth died in action at twenty-eight. Oichi no This painting joins two others—a por-
Rank, Toyotomi's vassal and a member of Kata escaped death, having been sent to trait of Oichi no Kata's first husband, Na-
the court. MS Nobunaga's encampment. She then mar- gamasa, and a portrait of Nagamasa's
ried Shibata Katsuie (1522-1583). When father, Hisamasa—at Jimyóin, the Asano
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) attacked mortuary temple on Mount Kôya. The
22 OichinoKata Katsuie at Kitanoshô Castle in Echizen in portraits of Nagamasa and Oichi no Kata
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 1583, she entrusted her three daughters to are assumed to have been painted in 1589
96.0 x 40.9 (373/4 x i6Vs) Hideyoshi and, when Katsuie committed to commemorate the seventeenth anniver-
Momoyama period, 1589 suicide, took her own life as an expression sary of Nagamasa's death and the seventh
of loyalty to her husband. She was then anniversary of Oichi no Kata's. They were
Jimyóin, Wakayama Prefecture probably then offered to Jimyóin to join
Important Cultural Property thirty-six. Her daughters became wards of
Hideyoshi, and one of them, Yodogimi, be- the portrait of Hisamasa, which was
Oichi no Kata (1547-1583), a younger sister came his favorite consort. Another mar- painted in 1569. AY
of Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), married Asai ried Hidetada, the second Tokugawa
Nagamasa (1545-1573), a ranking warrior shogun.
from Omi Province (present-day Shiga In this portrait Oichi no Kata sits on a
Prefecture) when she was seventeen. Na- tatami mat wearing a white kosode and
over it a patterned red koshimaki (waist

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