Separate Households: Why Ginchiyo and Muneshige Did Not Live Together

Tachibana Muneshige, who entered the Tachibana as adopted son-in-marriage in 1581, from the following year on did not live together with his wife Ginchiyo.

Ginchiyo held her own residence in one corner of Tachibana-yama Castle; Muneshige conducted business in the main bailey.

An exceptional form of marriage among warriors of the late Sengoku.

The Tachibana Family Records transmits several reasons. First, that Ginchiyo held independent ruling authority as the inheritor of the headship.

Second, that maintaining an independent armed force by Ginchiyo was required as Dōsetsu's testamentary intent.

Third, that Ginchiyo herself was a woman trained in martial arts, and led a corps of female retainers.

The Edo-period Tachibana Family Records transmits that Ginchiyo organized a corps of female warriors and bore a part of the defense of Tachibana-yama Castle.

At the Shimazu attack on Iwaya Castle in 1586, it is said that she led this female corps to defend a part of the castle.

Corroboration in contemporary sources is thin, but in the Edo-period Tachibana house it was passed on as house tradition.

The separation of Muneshige and Ginchiyo was an agreement that exceeded the common sense of spousal relations among warriors of the time.

Muneshige respected the weight of Ginchiyo's headship inheritance for the rest of his life, and preserved her position as principal wife to the end.

Even after the Tachibana house was stripped of holdings at Sekigahara, Ginchiyo acted separately from Muneshige.

The separate-households marriage was an exception among the warriors of the time, but in the Tachibana house it was a particular solution born of Dōsetsu's testamentary intent and the weight of Ginchiyo's headship inheritance.

The couple's relationship is an important case for thinking about the position of women in warrior society of the late Sengoku, and is now an object of modern women's history research.