Ikeda Sen


Ikeda Sen, or Anyōin, was a late-Sengoku period onna-musha. She was the daughter of Ikeda Tsuneoki and the older sister of Ikeda Terumasa. Mori Nagayoshi was her first husband. She was a woman trained in martial arts and was commander of a unit that consisted of 200 female musketeers
Despite having little historical record about her life, Ikeda Sen is described as a female samurai who participated in notable military campaigns and received 10,000 koku, being a female lord or a possible daimyo.
When the Sekigahara Campaign began in the fall of 1600, Ikeda Sen was said to have led her squad of women musketeers in other battles in which the Ikeda family participated, including the Battle of Yamazaki and the Battle of Sekigahara. If the speculation that she was present in the Sekigahara Campaign is true, she probably participated in the Battle of Gifu Castle alongside her brother and Fukushima Masanori.
According to Edo's initial manuscript, Tōdaiki or "The Present Chronicles", which recorded income from the rice wages of several warriors, Ikeda Sen received 10,000 koku. She had land in her own right, her fiefdoms with a recipe equivalent to 10,000 koku, it is considerably high for a warrior, making Sen a possible daimyo. Because there is little detail about this, Ikeda Sen's life and fate is uncertain.

Genealogy

Ikeda Sen's grandmother, Yōtoku-in, was the wet nurse of Oda Nobunaga, a major daimyo. Yōtoku-in's position as Nobunaga's foster mother, exacerbated the wealth of the Ikeda clan and its political influence.
Sen's father, Ikeda Tsuneoki, served Oda Nobuhide, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was one of the elders of Kiyosu Castle, and later became the lord of Inuyama and Ogaki Castles. Her younger brother, Ikeda Terumasa would become the lord of Yoshida Castle in Mikawa province.
Sen's brother, Terumasa, was offered a powerful political marriage, he married Tokugawa Tokuhime, the daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and would become known as the Shogun of the West after building the remaining Himeji castle.
Ikeda Sen's first husband, Mori Nagayoshi, was also a famous samurai serving the Oda family. Nagayoshi served the Oda shortly after inheriting the Mori clan and became famous for his monstrous strength and ferocity. His reputation with his fellow retainers varies between a foul mannered ruffian to a man of refined penmanship. His younger brother was Nobunaga's closest page, Mori Ranmaru.

In popular culture