Despite this lack of legal status, women played important background roles in Japanese warrior society. Sadly, women are rarely mentioned in early histories. These histories were originally oral traditions that enshrined certain clans and warriors (almost all male) in legend. This lack of history doesn’t mean Japanese women kept to their kimono and were victims of rape and other atrocities of war. Quite the contrary, Japanese women of samurai class were expected to train in the use of weapons and could even be jito, stewards that supervised land when their men were absent (Amdur, 1996).
Let’s look at what roles samurai women actually held. Now, little is known of how lower classes (farmer, merchant, and artisan) lived compared to the samurai and other elite classes. The lower classes were not the concerns of chroniclers, but we can safely say that the women of these classes were concerned about their families just as much as samurai women. If anything, it might have been better to live in the lower classes. These women dealt with starvation and other deprivations, but they were also not subject to the same rigors of discipline and social expectations as samurai women.
Like what you ask? What is worse then starving?
Beheading your children and then slitting your own throat.
And yes, this actually happened during the Meiji Restoration.
Expectations of Samurai Women
The battle tales of Japan that chronicle the wars of the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi periods portrayed women in a few roles (Amdur, 1996):
- Tragic heroine: the woman who kills herself when her husband dies.
- Loyal Wife: the woman who is taken captive but retains her husband’s honor under questioning, torment, and more.
- Stalwart Mother: the woman who trains her son to take vengeance for his father.
- Merciful woman: the woman who encourages a samurai to indulge “unmanly” empathy, such as sparing an enemy’s family.
- Seductress: the woman who distracts a man from his duty.
- Spoils of war: women to be slaughtered or given to men as a reward for heroism.
As you can tell, half (or perhaps all?) of the roles are negative. The merciful woman inevitably causes her husband to die by the hand of those he spares. The first three – tragic heroine, loyal wife, and stalwart mother – exemplify samurai ideals. Be loyal to death. Protect the family’s honor. The other three – merciful woman, seductress, and spoils of war – are roles a good samurai woman are to avoid.
Now, I am being a little misleading. The battle tales predate the samurai class, but they were used by the class as a source for their ideas, among other sources. During the time of these battles, particularly the Heian and Kamakura periods, women in the forming samurai class were called bushi (ぶし). Bushi were women pioneers that helped settle new lands. And yes, that sometimes involved fighting. Bushi trained in the use of naginata, a halberd-like weapon useful for both fighting a man and a horseman. The naginata was considered the best weapon for women – although men used the weapon as well – because of women’s natural disadvantage in close quarters fighting. Naginata wielding women became an iconic image during the Warring States Period (Amdur, 1996).
As pioneers, bushi were expected to defend their families, build homes, farm, and just about anything else the American pioneer women did during the expansion of the United States. This background of being tough and loyal to the family became the foundation of what samurai women were expected to be.
Warring States Period
The samurai class was firmly established during this period of history. Because of the constant warfare between the city states, samurai women had many brutal challenges placed upon them. Women were often the final defense of the town or castle. They would also lead other women to battle. In one account, the wife of a samurai lord, after witnessing women and children killing themselves, armed herself, lead 83 surviving soldiers, and challenged the enemy general. The general, claiming women are unfit to be warriors, retreated from her. He managed to escape when his soldiers attacked the woman’s squad. She cut her way through the mess and back to the castle (Amdur, 1996). These tales made naginata wielding women a new part of the samurai ethos.
However, the main weapon women used showed just what was expected of her. The kaiken (Not the kaioken of Dragonball Z, by the way) or dagger was carried by bushi women at all times. They were not expected to actually fight with the dagger. After all, she would often face several men armed with spears and katana. If she was captured, she was certain to face rape and be used to dishonor her family and husband. Instead, the kaiken was used for jigai. Jigai was the female version of seppuku, only instead of spilling her guts all over the ground, she cut her jugular vein. This avoided an “ugly” death that would be an affront to the dignity of a samurai woman (Amdur, 1996).
Edo Period
During this period, bushi were expected to make the family and her husband her entire life. Then her male sons and her mother-in-law. I already wrote about these expectations if you want to learn more.
Above all, samurai women were expected to be strong, subservient, and endure.
Tomoe, the Legendary Woman Samurai
One bushi in particular is enshrined in Japan’s battle chronicles. Tomoe Gozen appears with other women in Heike monogatari, a chronicle of the Genpai War. Tomoe was a legend for her skill as a mounted warrior, archer, and her beauty. There are various conflicting accounts of her lineage and final fate, but the attention she garnered shows just how impressive she was in a patriarchal society. A noh play even suggests Tomoe may have retired and became a noh entertainer (Brown, 1998).
In any case, Tomoe appears during the battle of Yokotogawara. There, she kills seven mounted samurai. Two years later, she is appointed as Kiso no Yoshinaka’s commanders and leads 1,000 horseman to a crucial victory. In 1184, she survives a debacle that the chronicle says reduced her force from 300 warriors to just five. Soon after, Tomoe appears in one final battle. In one account, Tomoe is denied a warrior’s death. Her lord, in fact, orders her away from the battlefield despite her desire to die beside him in the final fight. Like a samurai woman should, she obeys his orders to retreat, reports the result of the battle to his wife and child, and prays for her fallen lord. After this final battle, Tomoe’s life becomes speculation. She is said to have married Wada Yoshimori that produced a legendary warrior Asahino Saburo Yoshihide. The legend also states he inherited his immense strength from his mother (Brown, 1998).
Whether or not the Asahino’s lineage is historical doesn’t matter. What matters is how important Tomoe was. She became one of the best examples of what a samurai woman was supposed to be. She was denied a warrior’s death, but the chronicle makes it plain that she was not dishonored by following her lord’s final order. While she may be an exception, the fact she became a legend is a male-oriented society is important to consider. She became the leading commander of Yoshinaka’s army and trusted to report a final message to his wife. The chronicle illustrates the expectation of samurai women to endure – even endure what Tomoe would have considered the dishonor of retreating from a warrior’s death.
The exploits of samurai women like Tomoe became popular subjects for kabuki theater. While the roles are played by men – called onnagata – female warriors became a popular theme. One play, called Kagamiyama or Mirror Mountain premiered in 1782 and appealed directly to samurai class women. The play’s portrayal of life in a lord’s home and the behavior of the women must have been close to reality because of the play’s popularity. It was based on true incidents of a samurai class maidservant taking revenge for the humiliation of her mistress in 1724. So about 550 years after Tomoe, samurai class women were still involved in fighting and vengeance (Klens-Bigman, 2010).
The Women’s Army – the Joshigun
One clan, the Aizu, had the deepest loyalty to Tokugawa rule. This loyalty led to one of the final actions of female samurai.
In 1868, Imperial forces besieged the last Aizu stronghold of Aizu-Wakamatsu: Crane Castle. The pressure of the superior firepower from Imperial forces led to few options. Retreat into the castle, commit suicide, flee to the countryside, or charge into final combat. Some of the warrior women who lost their husbands and sons in the fighting prior opted for suicide. Some even killed themselves to save the castle’s rations for those better fit to fight. According to accounts, 230 people killed themselves (Wright, 2001).
The members of the Joshigun had other plans. They decided to fight and die. We even know some of their names. The wife of a magistrate, Kawahara Asako, executed her family members before joining the final battle still covered in her family’s blood. She cut off her mother-in-law’s and daughter’s head to avoid their capture (Wright, 2001).
What did Kawahara Asako feel as she decapitated her own daughter? Relief that her daughter won’t have to suffer rape and torture? A sense of duty as a samurai? Certainly sorrow.
Together, 20 to 30 women gathered with the remaining Aizu samurai. The Aizu commander denied them permission to join to fight before relenting from Nakano Takeko’s (the leader of the women’s delegation group) insistence and threats to kill herself on the spot to shame the commander. The next morning, the remaining Tokugawa supporters attacked in an effort to break through the imperial forces to get to Crane Castle (Wright, 2001).
The members of the Joshigun determined not to be taken alive. When imperial troops learned they were females, many died tried to take these women as captives. However, the attack did have some success. Some of the troops managed to cut through the imperial forces and reinforce Crane Castle. Most of the castle’s defenders were women. Many of these women were tasked with covering cannon balls with wet mats and rice sacks to reduce the damage of the resulting explosion (Wright, 2001).
The women did what they could to hold out with diminishing supplies. There is a story of a 60-year-old mother sneaking out of the castle to find food for the wounded. She was attacked by a soldier who she promptly stabbed to death with her kaiken. Despite efforts like this and attacks to break the siege by diminished outside forces, Crane Castle surrendered after a month. At least 4 of the Aizu warrior women survived. Yamakawa Sakuko, saw her mother killed during the fighting. She was 9 years old at the time. Three years later, she found herself selected by her former enemies to go to the United States and become the first Japanese woman to be certified in nursing (Wright, 2001). The daughter of one of the last samurai women became a healer.
Warrior Women Today
The history of samurai women left a quiet mark on Japanese women. Quiet, because it is no where near as well known as the exploits of their male counterparts. However, women like Tomoe exemplified what it meant to be a female samurai – strong, enduring, yet dedicated to family. While we view many of the ideals as perhaps toxic and misogynistic today, the ideas of endurance and inner strength are important for both genders in modern society. We live in a time of rapid change and uncertainty. Samurai ideals came from a similar age of change and uncertainty. These ideals left an impression on Japanese culture that can still be seen in the corporate world. We have similar ideals of endurance and hard work here in the United States because of how own pioneering period. Women, in particular, embodied these ideals because of the burdens of birthing and raising children.
As a guy, I will say it is unfair how much of a burden biology can be for women. Most gender roles rotate around the ability of women to give birth. Even today, the ability to have children shapes how society treats women. Samurai culture is interesting in how men and women shared many of the same expectations. The ultimate expectation of an honorable death was perhaps equally painful. For men, it was the expectation of stoically spilling out your own guts. For women, it was the expectation of killing your children and then yourself to avoid capture.
Actually, never mind. It looks like women still have the heaviest burden in even this.
Final thoughts on samurai and suicide.
Okay, I know this is a really long article. So, I will keep this section short. Samurai culture often seems to revolve around suicide. We have to keep in mind that the stories we have are just a small window. The vast majority of samurai were unlikely to kill themselves. However, the expectation was still there if it had to be done. In addition to Japanese culture, I also study early Christian history. Understand, I come from a different culture (obviously). So that said, my opinion is a result of my upbringing. That said, I view martyrdom and a samurai’s suicide as equally fruitless. A dead person cannot help anyone. The idea of honor is silly. All you have to do is travel a fair distance and no one will even know who are you (or in a samurai’s case, travel to Korea or northern Japan) and much less care. It is better to remain alive to teach others than die. Perhaps your name will live on, but the influence a living person has upon history is even greater through his/her influence on people. Even if the name of that person is forgotten. Hundreds of nameless samurai women who lived and died attest to the power of this type of legacy,
References
Amdur, E. (1996). The Role of Armsbearing Women in Japanese History. Journal of Asian Martial Arts. 5 (2). 11-35.
Klens-Bigman, D. (2010). Fighting Women of Kabuki Theater and the Legacy of Women’s Japanese Martial Arts. Journal of Asian Martial Arts. 19 (3) 64-77.
Brown, S. (1998). From Woman Warrior to Peripatetic Entertainer: The Multiple Histories of Tomoe. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 58 (1). 183-199.
Wright, D. (2001). Female combatants and Japan’s Meiji Restoration: the case of Aizu. Ware in History 8 (4) 396-417.
And you forgot to mention Uchida Ieyoshi, he tried to capture Tomoe Gozen in the battle of Awazu in 1184 but she swung her katana and killed him! She saved herself from suffering and what would’ve been rape, because that’s what they did to women in Japan in those days, just like the book of Judges in the bible!
There are many details to the story. I hope my sketches will inspire people to go and read the stories of Tomoe and others for themselves.
Thank you Mr. Kincaid for all of these strong and feminine women that you have mentioned in your article and I am glad that I also mentioned strong and feminine women right here in the comments! I pray that I find a warrior wife who is dainty, soft, feminine, brave, compassionate, nice, confident and strong both mentally and physically like these women! We could both workout and train in fighting and self-defense together and have children and live happily ever after! Goodbye Mr. Kincaid and may the Heavenly Father bless your work!
Thanks for sharing the stories you had with JP’s readers!
What is JP’s readers?
The people who read this blog. I sometimes use the abbreviation JP to refer to this website.
Thank you, and also all of these women should be given the woman of the year award for all of their heroic acts of bravery and physical strength that they did, and for their mental strength as well! I will find a righteous and feminine warrior woman to merry! Have a nice day and continue your righteous work!
And here is one more strong and feminine woman who should also get the woman of the year award and would also every strong man would want to merry her as well, and the misogynists also tried to erase her (she was erased for over 3000 years until they discovered her!)from the history books but thank Our Heavenly Father that they failed! “Fu Hao was a worrior-qween, military commander, landowner, administrator, royal consort, and mother of the heir to the throne of the shang dynasty. She lived during the 13th century BCE and was one of the three royal consorts of the twenty-first king of the Shang dynasty, Wu Ding, (her husband.)who ruled from the last Shang dynasty capital at Yin located in modern-day Anyang, in Henan province. Fu Hao was a high-born princess of a vassal state of a Shang Dynasty and was an exceptional marshal with outstanding military achievements. She was also a feudal lord with her fief and army and was in charge of the most saint worship ceremonies of the empire Shang as an honorable priestess. Fu Hao’s remarkable life can be pieced together from objects found in her lavish tomb near Yinxu, Anyang, Henan, China.” And she also fought along side her husband and together they won the earliest ambush war in Chinese history, it was also the largest-scale war of the century! She received military training in her youth, her husband granted her a bronze jue, which was a symbol that empowered her to lead a military campaign. All of these positive examples of strong, righteous, compassionate, feminine and attractive brave women that we have mentioned (and the ones that we didn’t mention!)are a perfect inspiration for all women and girls around the world to be friendly and stand up for themselves when they need to and that they too can be powerful and still be feminine and ladylike while doing it! And here is the website for more info on her http://www.chinafetching.com/FuHao.
And by the way Mr. Kincaid, I found out that unfortunately Jael wasn’t able to stop Sisera from raping her, and she killed him because if the Israelite soldiers have found her in their with him, they would’ve probably had killed her. Judges 5:27 says “At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.”Now you and I can see why Jael is blessed above women and women in the tent, because it actually sounds like she killed him while he was raping her, since there is no mention of Sisera sleeping. So just like Mrs. O’Connell and the woman of Thebez, Jael is also a nice, peaceful and feminine woman who did not take trash from anyone either! And Judges 5:28-30 shows how Sisera’s on mother was just as evil and reprobated as her son! And it shows that women can misogynists and be hateful against there own gender as well! If Jael had known martial arts, she would’ve been able to stop Sisera from raping her like how Mira O’Connell stopped Michael Magirl from raping her! All three of these women are true heroines for bringing peace and safety to their communities, and also saving their communities, themselves and future victims by killing these evil men that were trying to hurt and murder them, they all deserve an award! And all three of these true stories show why women have been and are currently in everyone’s military, because women have a right to defend themselves when war and violence comes to them!
I hope archaeology and other discoveries will continue revealing how women have had a less passive role in history than people have long thought.
Mrs. O’Connell was 31 years old when Michael Magirl attempted to rape her and he was 51 years old, here is how she overpowered him, ” Plant one foot down, put one foot on his hip,kick him off in the direction of your foot that is planted, still holding on to the gun she did just that. It worked perfectly-his175-pound frame rolled off the bed and onto the floor. She doesn’t remember precisely how the gun got into her hand but there it was! Before he could recover she pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger three times.” All women and girls need to take self-defense classes! The move that she did on him was a jiu-jitsu move! I know that her husband was proud of her for killing that rapist and that she was able to defend herself when he wasn’t there to defend her, because her and her husband had a divorce which is why he wasn’t there to protect her!
For anyone wondering about this case, here is an ABC report. The case dates to 2002: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125846&page=1
And also at the dojo where she trains, they gave her a cool nickname, “A REAL SCRAPPER”! She stood tall and strong and came out on top while Michael Magirl ( A highly trained Marine Corporal!) is on the bottom!
And also Jael and The woman of Thebez stood tall and strong and came out on top as well while Sisera and Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal are on the bottom! And Jael also killed Sisera because after he violently raped her he obviously threatened to murder her and he would’ve had murdered her after he woke up so that no one would find him and he could escape his well deserved death! He would’ve continued with his evil and rape more Israelite women (Or women in general since he raped Jael!)and he also would’ve gone back and got more reinforcements, and he wanted to hide the fact that he broke the piece between King Jabin and the Kenites by raping Heber’s wife, people will one day see that she is not a killer/murderer and that she is a heroine! All three of these women are piece makers because they killed these evil men that were trying to murder them, thus putting an end to thier evil once and for all!
Have you considered starting a blog that focuses on this part of history? It sounds like it deeply interests you.
You mean the part of history about women being heroines?
Wait, you are talking about the part of history about what really happened between Jael and Sisera when he went to her tent! I would love to do a blog about that and look at the original Hebrew and see if the translators left things out on purpose so that Jael would look guilty and Sisera would look inncent! The truth will be revealed and she will be known as the heroine she is! (Just like how everyone else knows that The Woman of Thebez and Mira O’Connell are heroines!)
It seems you are passionate about the topic of heroines in history just in general. Starting a blog (even a freebie on WordPress.com or Tumblr) could give you a good outlet for exploring this untold history.
And I have a very powerful statement that the famous prophetess Deborah said to the brave, masculine and heroic Barak after he said that he would not go without her, he wanted her to share in the victory with him. But she was just letting him know that he would not be the one to kill Sisera it would be a woman, Judges 4:9″And she said, I will surley go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.” And Sisera is guilty and is not just afraid of being fought as a criminal and a warrior, but as a man, so he asks Jael to lie for him like the coward he was, Judges 4:20 “Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.” And now I will show you Judges 5:24-31 ” Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots? Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself, Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil? So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.” And I will make a blog or write a book about heroic and strong women one day!
And I will mention another heroine from the bible called The Wise woman of Abel.
There was this man of Belail named Sheba and he was the son of Bichri. And he went to a city in Israel named Abel of Beth-maachah and Joan and his men chased there and they were about to throw the wall of the city down, but this brave woman in the city saw what they were doing and she wanted to speak to Joab. 2 Samuel 20:16-22″Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear,hear;say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joan? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid. And he answered, I do hear. Then she spake, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter. I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? And Joan answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so: but a man of mount Ephraim,, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, Evan against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joan, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joan. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joan returned to Jerusalem unto the king.” So this woman was prepared to fight of she had to, and she had Sheba killed and saved her city and Israel from another civil war! And also like Deborah and Mira O’Connell she was also in a position of power! And she also saved her life and the lives of others because if another civil war broke out her and her people might have been killed!
I’ve figured it out, Sisera was planning on taking Jael back to his people as a prize to be made into a sex slave to be raped over and over again and then killed and Jael was not about to be raped again and let that happen to her, so she took up for herself and killed Sisera, which is why she is praised for it by Our Heavenly Father in Judges CH 5! (Which is why he didn’t want anyone to know that he was there in her tent!) So Her, The woman of Thebez, The wise woman of Abel, Tomoe Gozen and Mira O’Connell all took up for themselves and brought about piece in their communities and Joab is the only real man here since he wasn’t trying to hurt or murder The wise woman of Abel, speaking of which in 2 Samuel 11:21 he did mention the brave and righteous act of The woman of Thebez “Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the the wall? then say thou, They servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” And Uriah was also a real man as well, it was not known at the time that Abimelech was a evil and hateful misogynist who was trying to murder the woman and the people that were in the tower with her and that she was a heroine for killing that weak man that was trying to murder her and her people and she saved the rest of Israel as well because he would’ve not have stopped until all of Israel was burning up, I am glad that he proudly let us all know in the conversation with his armour bearer that a woman was the one who killed him and implied that he wanted to murder her and her people! And Just like Joab and Uriah, Barak is also a real man as well because instead of trying to hurt women he wanted the prophetess Deborah to come with him and be apart of the victory as well! But we don’t know if Deborah fought or not but if she did than she must’ve been a great fighter, I think that she was the one who called down rain storm since she was a prophetess!
And Mr. Kincaid, here are some other examples of female warriors in the bible Exodus 38:8 “And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it oof brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” They were also guards! John 18:16″ But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest ,and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.” And there is this other woman outside of the bible named Nancy Wake and she was a WW2 heroine who was leading an undercover raid and this SS soldier was about to sound the alarm, but she killed him with a Judo chop to the throat, she saved her life as well as the lives of her men! The raid was a success and she saved many other lives as well during war!
In the bible in the book of Judges women were treated like trash in the Hebrew culture, Jael killed Sisera to stop him from raping her and a few chapters later there is this evil misogynist named Abimelech who at the end traps civilians in a tower and tries to burn down the tower to murder them, but a woman in the tower throws down a piece of a millstone at his head and breaks his skull open, fatally wounding him. Judges 9:54″Hastily he called to the youngman his armour bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his youngman thrust him through, and he died.” In that culture the hatred of women was so great that to die at the hands of a woman, evan a woman that you were trying to murder was looked down upon. That’s how great the misogyny was during that time in that culture. It was looked down upon for a woman to kill a man in self-defence! I am glad that our culture is not like that, actually some women unfortunatly right here in the USA are thrown in jail for killing in self-defence especially when they kill a man to save thier lives.
Historical accounts like in Judges appear often in literature. You’re right; there’s still many who look down on women in that way. Although, nowadays misogyny is often more subtle.
And Mr. Kincaid, have you ever heard of Mira O’Connell? At her home in Albuquerque New Mexico,she overpowered and killed a man in self-defense, who tried to rape her back in 2002. His name was Michael Magirl, and he was a sexual predator who had been raping women for years raping women in New Mexico and finally mat his match in Mrs. O’Connell, he threatened to kill her if she continued to struggle, than she used a martial arts move on him, and was able to wrestle the gun from his hand while he had her pinned down and she rolled him onto the floor and fired three shots and two of them struck him (Just like Sisera and Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal, and Abimelech was outright trying to murder the woman of Thebez and her people!) and after she took off his mask and went to a neighbor’s house to call 911 he crawled into the hallway and died. Her father owned a company called ERGO GRIPS which made grips for guns which is why she was so good with a gun. And after killing that serial rapist, she became a police sergeant and after 15 years her father made her the owner of his company!
Thank you for the modern example of a warrior woman! Recent research has discovered the cochlea cavity in female skulls is shaped differently from men. Archeologists are using this data to show warrior burials once-thought to be male were actually female warriors. Here’s a good documentary that focuses on one burial: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/viking-warrior-queen/5180/
Female warriors may have been more common than researchers once thought. There’s also evidence that women hunted alongside men during the Paleolithic eras.
And Mr. Kincaid, I found out that Michael Magirl wasn’t just an ordinary rapist. He was a Vietnam veteran who fought for the united states and he was a Corporal in the Marine Corps. But he went from hero to zero when he chose to be evil and become a rapist and finally met his death at the hands of this strong, heroic and righteous woman! This shows that with proper training, an average physically fit woman could easily take down and defeat a bigger stronger and physically fit man who is trying to harm her!
And Mira O’Connell is 5’6″ and weighed 135 Ibs (during the attack!) And Michael Magirl was 6 feet tall and weighed 170 pounds! So it is pretty awesome that she was able to overpower, beat and kill him, because he was a highly seasoned warrior who was a marine as well as a corporal!
Great read! Of the 4 Aizu women who survived, was one of them the younger sister of Takeko Nakano? Any history as to where she went after?
Yamakawa Sakuko was the one mentioned in the article. They didn’t speak about any of the other survivors that I remember. Sorry I don’t have more information.
“The idea of honor is silly.” What a sad modern view. I am glad that I don’t believe this.
I’ve read many old accounts, Western and Japanese, that frown upon the subjective idea of honor; the view isn’t really modern. The idea of honor has led many to lie, cheat, kill, abuse, and more which is what the criticisms focus upon. The Tale of Genji, for example, hints at this with its observations.
I wish them all have a good afterlife in heaven.
I also wish them peace.