The Female Samurai They Tried to Erase (Tomoe Gozen)

We picture the samurai as men. But the warrior class of old Japan was not made of men alone — and the most famous woman among them rode at the very front of the army. Her name was Tomoe Gozen. The old chronicles call her a warrior worth a thousand, ready to face a demon or a god, on horseback or on foot. A deadly archer and a master of the katana, she fought in the Genpei War for the warlord Minamoto no Yoshinaka — and when his cause collapsed at the frozen battlefield of Awazu in 1184, she was one of the last few warriors still at his side. This is the story of the onna-bugeisha — the women of the samurai class trained for war — and of Tomoe's unforgettable last stand: the enemy she cut down, the strange final order her lord gave her, and the way she rode off the battlefield and straight into legend. 🔔 Subscribe to Daughters of History for more of the women history tried to erase. And tell us in the comments which forgotten woman we should cover next. — Chapters: 0:00 A warrior worth a thousand 0:35 The onna-bugeisha 1:45 Tomoe Gozen 2:55 The Genpei War 4:05 The last stand at Awazu 5:15 Into legend 6:20 They proved otherwise — Sources & further reading: Tomoe Gozen — Wikipedia; The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) Onna-bugeisha / onna-musha — JSTOR Daily, World History Encyclopedia Battle of Awazu (1184), Minamoto no Yoshinaka, the Genpei War; later female warriors (Nakano Takeko) Disclaimer: A respectful popular-history account. Tomoe appears in the literary Tale of the Heike, not in primary war records, so parts are legend; the onna-bugeisha and women warriors of Japan are historically attested. #TomoeGozen #FemaleSamurai #WomenInHistory #OnnaBugeisha #Japan #GenpeiWar #Naginata #HistoryDocumentary #ForgottenWomen