Footprints of Gracia Hosokawa (seven episodes)
About 400 years ago, during Japan's Warring StatesPeriod,
there was a Christian woman who loved Jesus Christ
with all her heart and followed Him with absolute trust.
3. Daughgter of Traitor
However, in 1582, an incident happened in Kyoto which changed
Tama's life drastically. This was the famous Honnoji Incident,
in which Tama's father Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled against his lord
Nobunaga; then, invaded and destroyed Nobunaga's castle.
"Nobunaga is dead! Mitsuhide has risen up in revolt!" Feudal lords all over Japan were thrown into uproar. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a punitive force against Mitsuhide, and Mitsuhide was killed by local people on the eleventh day after the Honnoji Incident. Tama's
mother, sisters and brothers at Sakamoto Castle (located in modern Otsu)
where Tama grew up, found themselves surrounded by the army. They set the
castle on fire and burned themselves to death. Tama herself also came to be called the "daughter of a traitor". The Hosokawa family immediately walked out on Mitsuhide and took the Hideyoshi side.
Variano says in "Nihon Junsatsuki" that the Japanese are the proudest people in the world, that they
hate shame more than anything else. A Japanese will choose hara-kiri, an
honorable death, if he has humiliated or embarrassed his family. Tama considered
suicide but Maria stoppped her, saying, "God, who gave the precious
life to you, does not permit a suicide".
The Hosokawa family worried about how to treat Tama. Professing loyalty
to Hideyoshi, Tama's husband was divorced the daughter of a traitor officially,
but actually she was confined in the mountains of Minodo (now Yayoi-cho,
in Kyoto Prefecture.)
