Episode 432 - The Tale of Nakako, Part 2

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week: just what sort of scandal sent Nakanoin Nakako to the far end of Japan, and how did fate intervene to set her on a new course once again? And what can we learn from trying to trace a life like this through a tangle of sources which touch on it largely indirectly?

Show notes here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 432, The Tale of Nakako, Part 2.
0:24.6	The trouble started, as so many troubles do, right at the top.
0:29.5	The precise details of what became known as the Gekirin incident of 1609 are all somewhat murky.
0:37.5	We have three different sources for what went down, all of which disagree slightly and the
0:42.5	most comprehensive of which comes from much later and emphasizes literary flourish over
0:47.9	pure accuracy.
0:49.8	However, every account of the scandal that eventually remade Nakanoi Nakako's life seems to
0:56.0	agree that it would not have been as big of a deal, were it not for the rather unusual
1:00.5	temperament of Emperor Go Yose.
1:04.6	Go Yose lived an interesting life.
1:07.5	Born in 1571 with the given name Kazuhito, he was the second son of Emperor Ogimachi.
1:13.6	His older brother, Prince Sanehito, was twenty years his senior.
1:17.6	By the time the future Goyose was born, Kyoto was already a very different place.
1:22.6	Under the control of Oda Nobunaga, it was once again at the heart of power politics,
1:28.2	as the brilliant warlord vied for control of the country.
1:32.3	Of course, Nobunaga's ambition ended up costing him.
1:36.2	Goyose was actually a first-hand witness to this betrayal, which took place in the summer of
1:40.6	1882 in Kyoto, while Nobunaga was returning from campaign.
1:46.7	When Nobunaga's retainer, Akechimitsuhide, turned on his master and killed him in 1882,
1:52.7	Goyose was with his brother, Sanehito, in Nijol Palace, built just a few years earlier by
1:58.7	Nobunaga to house the crown prince in his family.
2:02.8	Nobunaga's son and heir, Nobutada, was also in Kyoto at this time and was staying in Nijo Palace,
	...

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