Tsukiyama-dono

Lady Tsukiyama or (d. 9 September 1579) was a Japanese noble lady and aristocrat from the Sengoku period. She was the chief consort of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the daimyō who would become the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate. She was the mother of Ieyasu's first child, Kamehime, and gave birth to Ieyasu's heir apparent, Matsudaira Nobuyasu. As principal consort, Tsukiyama led many of the political achievements of the former Matsudaira clan. She was an important figure at the beginning of Ieyasu's career, who later led to the beginning of Tokugawa Shogunate. She is best known for possibly initiating a conspiracy against Oda Nobunaga. Whether or not she cheated Ieyasu into joining the Takeda clan; the veracity of this event remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Sengoku period, known as the Nobuyasu Incident. Life Lady Tsukiyama was the daughter of Sekiguchi Chikanaga, an Imagawa retainer. Her mother was Imagawa Yoshimoto's former concubine and daughter of Ii Naohira. Lady Tsukiyama was also known as before she married Tokugawa Ieyasu. Sena was related to Ii Naotora who was the female lord of Ii clan. Sena's actions were vital for the Ii clan to ally with Ieyasu. The Ii family members became one of the most important retainers of the Tokugawa shogunate. In January 1557, Lady Tsukiyama married Tokugawa Ieyasu. The marriage was arranged by Imagawa Yoshimoto, ostensibly to help cement ties between the Imagawa clan and the Tokugawa clan. Two years later, on 13 March 1559, she gave birth to Ieyasu's eldest son, Matsudaira Nobuyasu. In 1560, she gave birth to a daughter, Kamehime. When Ieyasu moved to Hamamatsu in 1570, he left Lady Tsukiyama and their eldest son at Okazaki Castle. During this time, he had started an affair with Lady Saigō. In 1573, one of Tsukiyama's maid servants, Oman, became pregnant by Ieyasu. Oman bore him a son, Hideyasu, though Ieyasu was slow to claim lest it anger his wife.