Ikeda Sen, or Anyoin, was a late-Sengoku period onna-musha.
18 Facts About Ikeda Sen
1.
2.
Ikeda Sen was the daughter of Ikeda Tsuneoki and the older sister of Ikeda Terumasa.
3.
Ikeda Sen was a woman trained in martial arts and was commander of a unit that consisted of 200 female musketeers.
4.
Ikeda Sen's older brother Ikeda Motosuke was born in 1559, and her younger brother Terumasa was born in 1565, so by that reasoning, we can assume Ikeda Sen was born around 1563.
5.
Sen's father, Ikeda Tsuneoki, served Oda Nobuhide, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
6.
Ikeda Sen was one of the elders of Kiyosu Castle, and later became the lord of Inuyama and Ogaki Castles.
7.
Ikeda Sen's first husband, Mori Nagayoshi, was a famous samurai serving the Oda family.
8.
Ikeda Sen served the Oda clan alongside her entire family.
9.
Ikeda Sen was involved with so many powerful figures at the time that it is presumed that she was in a high position in Japanese society.
10.
Ikeda Sen's army surrounded the temple and eventually set it on fire.
11.
In 1582, Ikeda clan took part in Hashiba Hideyoshi's forces at the Battle of Yamazaki after the Incident at Honno-ji, helping defeat Akechi Mitsuhide, who killed Sen's former lord, Oda Nobunaga.
12.
Ikeda Sen volunteered for the army of the Hashiba, there is no concrete evidence that she participated in the battle, but there are anecdotes that she led a unit of Teppo, or Musketeer's unit.
13.
The veracity of these facts remains unknown, but not improbable due to the Ikeda Sen clan being one of the main leaders of the campaign against Akechi Mitsuhide.
14.
The plan was adopted, and Ikeda Sen's army began to move silently so that its movements were not noticed, but Ieyasu's army discovered the conspiracy and pursued it.
15.
Ikeda Sen was said to have commanded a squad of about 200 women.
16.
Ikeda Sen joined with Tsuneoki, Nagayoshi, and Terumasa in fighting for Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute.
17.
Ikeda Sen 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.
18.
Ikeda Sen survived the entire Period of Warring States, dying in 17th-century.