rejectedprincesses: Tsuruhime Ohori (1526-1543): The Savior of Omishima Island Tsuruhime Ohori (鶴姫大祝

rejectedprincesses:Tsuruhime Ohori (1526-1543): The Savior of Omishima IslandTsuruhime Ohori (鶴姫大祝) had to take charge from an early age. At 16, with her priest father dying from illness and her older brothers killed by invading jerk-of-the-year Yoshitaka Ouchi, Tsuruhime was left with two options: submit to the aforementioned jerk, or declare herself a living god and start ripping new assholes.She chose the latter.The god in question was the deity of the family shrine on the island where she was raised. Her upbringing to that point had been your standard Japanese shrine maiden affair: tending the shrine grounds, helping with prayers, and hour upon hour of rigorous martial arts training. She put this training to use upon taking the helm of the temple, by gathering an army to drive the Ouchi fleet back into open waters.Several months later, the Ouchi came back, to which Tsuruhime’s reaction could best be translated as “FUCK THAT SHIT.” While the fleet commander was partying on his ship, she donned some claw gauntlets, climbed onto his boat like a literal ninja, and challenged him to one-on-one combat. The commander, surprised at the sudden appearance of a new guest, graciously answered her honorable challenge by openly laughing at her and assuming she was a prostitute.She replied with equal graciousness by cordially murdering him in front of all his men. She then continued her application to the Party Crasher Hall of Fame by tossing grenade after grenade into the fleet until the Ouchi gave up and ran away. Presumably yelling “YOU COME TO MY HOUSE?!” as she did so.That’s the majority of her story - there is more, but it devolves into a discussion of “did she actually exist?” For the longer version, click through to the main RP site here. Regardless, the citizens of Japan celebrate her legend to this day with parades and festivals. She’s often referred to as the Joan of Arc of Japan, but hey, she stands well enough on her own.ART NOTES/TRIVIAHer outfit is the one in which she is regularly depicted, in both art and parades. The armor is the one that is held in Oyamazumi Shrine.Her birth name was just “Tsuru.” At some point, probably when she took the reins of the shrine, she went through a ceremony to become a “hime” — an honorific title literally meaning “princess,” which was often bestowed to upper-class women. From then on, she was Tsuruhime, or “crane princess.” Ohori is the family name. In Japanese they’re usually reversed, so you’ll see her name as Ohori Tsuruhime a lot.Tsuruhime regularly shows up in TV shows and other media – most recently, an anime/game series called Sengoku Basara. I haven’t seen it. Maybe you have! Let me know what you think if you do!CITATIONSThe best English-language info I could find on Tsuruhime is in Stephen Turnbull’s Samurai Women 1184-1877. Turnbull is often regarded with some skepticism by the historian community, so take with a pinch of salt — but there is a great illustration of Tsuruhime attacking the Ouchi in there.Additionally, I translated some info from her Japanese Wikipedia page. Obviously, Wikipedia is only so trustworthy, and so is my translation (I’ve not studied the language in years), but a) the claims made there seemed to be backed up with appropriate links, and b) I had a friend double-check my translation.SHOUT-OUTSFirst off, thanks to @jedda-martele for sending in an ask about Tsuruhime a while back! I initially thought she was just asking about the fable of the crane wife (also often called tsuruhime), which is totally different. Nevertheless, you all guessed (or gamed Google) correctly:ladyzweihander, withthechangingwind, scribeofthecodex, gehayi, jollyhippo, @alchemicalheart, Alana Ju, tadanoitsuki, Rue, Vittoria, areliasawthestarsand, aliadayne, kzvsmith, itskarmagoshdammit, awsmpup, BaltimoreHon, hanniex33, thenorthpohl, Yas, @evry1hereisken, @Steampunk_Gypsy, flower_power1979, Haritha, Tony, Sari L., njeallje, elegantmess-southernbelle, infomaniacgirl, manythreadstogether, Kevin O., Lily, Archie Stephan, fontrum, wiigii, Madhavi, Kaelin King, wynndrosinger, @e-meersie, Fallon, Ladyzfactor, Gigi Paderes, Akio :3, Anna S, Raven Hempel, Megan Cox, nseelen, Ava Brown, Desiree Bellman, IAMKAMI, DanieleB, TheJerboa, jillgracemNEXT WEEK ON REJECTED PRINCESSESDespite what her biography title might suggest, she did not actually lead a platoon of nuns.(submit guesses here, please! and let me know what you think of me doing shorter, tl;dr versions here, versus longer versions on the main RP site, like I did with this entry) -- source link

More pics about