ATSUHIME

Atsuhime was born in Satsuma (Kagoshima) in 1835 under the family of Imaizumi. In he infancy, she was a very active child. She lived in Satsuma for 19 years, and her sensibility and her broad mindedness was highly recognized. When she turned 19, she was adopted to the family of Shimazu Nariakira, then became adopted to Konoe family, which　 is　one of the imperial family sharing　some connection to Simazu. In 1856, she finally got married to Tokugawa Iesada, who is the 13th shogun of Edo Baakufu. At that time, there were problems he had in terms of leaving successors. The first one is his health conditions. He was reported as someone constantly in sick so that he needed someone healthy. The other problem was the early death of Iesada’s two former wives from Imperial family. Because of these issues, Atsuhime was invited to be the ooku of Edo castle. Despite that, Iesada died in 1858 after one and half year when he got married to Atsuhime. She then started calling her as Tensho-In and managed ooku as the wife of former shogun.

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During the Bakumatsu period, Atsuhime technically became an opponent of Satsuma, sine Satsuma is one of groups that formed a new government army, but she devoted herself to strived for the existence of Tokugawa family, and in the end, she was able to give up on the Edo castle without war and single drop of blood. She died in 1883, and her achievement was still valued.