Hideyori's Mother: In 1593, Yodo-dono Bore the Heir of the Toyotomi

In 1593 (Bunroku 2), at Ōsaka Castle. Yodo-dono, concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (this site's id 2), bore a boy.

This was the later Toyotomi Hideyori. He was the heir the fifty-seven-year-old Hideyoshi had longed for.

For Hideyoshi, who had once gained a child, Tsurumatsu, only to lose him young, this birth was a joyous event to be wild with delight over.

Yodo-dono, as the mother who had borne the ruler of the realm's heir, gained a position without peer at Ōsaka Castle.

The strange fate of bearing the child of the man who had taken her kin pushed Yodo-dono to the center of the Toyotomi house.

Hideyoshi, who had been on the side that drove her father Azai Nagamasa and her mother Oichi to death, ironically took Chacha as his concubine.

It is transmitted that Hideyoshi desired Chacha, who resembled the late Oichi. The humiliation of becoming the wife of her enemy, and the reality of surviving.

Certain sources telling how Yodo-dono received this fate are scarce. But Yodo-dono would become a presence deeply involved in the Toyotomi house, not merely a favored consort.

That turning point was the birth of the heir.

In 1589, Yodo-dono bore her first child, Tsurumatsu. The joy of Hideyoshi, long unblessed with a natural son, was great, but Tsurumatsu died young at three.

Hideyoshi's dejection was deep. But in 1593, Yodo-dono again bore a boy, Hideyori.

For the aged ruler of the realm, it was hope beyond compare. Hideyoshi doted on Hideyori and, as the child who should inherit the Toyotomi headship, entrusted all of his future to him.

Yodo-dono, as the mother of that Hideyori, gained an immense position.

Hideyori's birth laid on Yodo-dono a heavy destiny along with glory. When Hideyoshi departed the world in 1598, the still-young Hideyori became head of the Toyotomi house.

As his guardian, Yodo-dono was put, in effect, in the position of bearing the Toyotomi house.

The realm leaned toward Tokugawa Ieyasu (this site's id 3). Amid that current, how to protect her child Hideyori and the Toyotomi house.

As a mother, Yodo-dono's lonely struggle was about to begin. The girl who had once lost her father and mother would now, as a mother protecting her own child, stand against the rough waves of the age.