Never Separated from My Wife - Tadataka Hosokawa and Kinkata Shigenoi

Even in the days when marriage was decided based on the wishes of the family or parents, there were some couples who just couldn't break up.  

On the eve of Sekigahara, when Tadaoki Hosokawa went to subjugate Uesugi, he told his wife Garasha that if she were to be kidnapped as a hostage by Mitsunari Ishida, she should choose death. .

Meanwhile, the eldest son Tadataka's wife Chiyo (daughter of Toshiie Maeda) was advised by her older sister Gohime (wife of Hideie Ukita) and evacuated to the Ukita mansion to survive.

Tadaoki was furious and ordered Tadataka to divorce her, but Tadataka refused and was disowned and disinherited. After that, Tadataka lived in Kyoto with his wife and children for about 10 years, but his children died young and Chiyo returned to Kaga(Maeda family). After the death of his grandfather, Yusai, he received support from the Kumamoto clan and continued to live in Kyoto as a cultural figure until his death.  

Tadaoki is a multi-faceted person, and while he is an excellent military commander and literary master (tea master), he often does things that go too far out of anger and later regrets them. He did not divorce his wife Garasha, who became the daughter of a rebel (Mitsuhide Akechi) during the Honnoji Incident, and they had a second son (Okiaki) and a third son (Tadatoshi), so he remained close at least until Garasha turned to Christianity and was baptized and seems like they were a good couple. Although he was cold towards his wife who refused to renounce Christianity, he was deeply saddened after her death and asked for a church funeral in order to comply with her wishes. Ten years after the end of the Osaka War, he reconciled with Tadataka and gave him 60,000 koku in Yashiro to persuade him to move to Kumamoto, but he refused. I think that in his true feelings, he deeply loved both Garasha and his son.

After Tadataka Hosokawa was disinherited, he called himself Kyumu Nagaoka, but his sons who were born after his divorce inherited Tadataka's retirement allowance, and his grandson was invited as the chief retainer of the family (Nagaoka Naizen family). Takachika(or Ryugen) Hosokawa, a political commentator who was active on TV progrum "Jiji Hodan", was from this family, and compared to Morihiro Hosokawa(the former prime minister), he said that his own family was actually his home as described above.  

During the Jokyu War (1221), there was a court noble named Mitsuchika Hamuro who wrote an imperial edict to hunt down and kill Yoshitoki Hojo at the direction of the retired Emperor Gotoba. Although he initially reprimanded the retired emperor for his reckless plan, he was unable to stop him, and was eventually captured by Nobumitsu Takeda and killed in Kai. The man who married Mitsuchika's daughter was Kinkata Shigenoi. His father, Sanenobu, had been trying to get his eldest son, Kinkata, to advance through the ranks based on the authority of the Gotoba cloistered government, but after the war he turned around and forced him to divorce Mitsuchika's daughter. Kinkata refused, and an angry Sanenobu prevented him from attending the court, so Kinkata took his wife (and concubines) with him and became a monk. He was also disinherited and was succeeded by his younger brother.

Insei(Retired emperor's government system) has the nature of keeping a distance from and competing with the extremely powerful Sekkan family, so among families such as the Kanshuji school (Hamuro family) and the Kan-in school (Shinoi family) are one or two notches lower in rank than the Sekkan family, excellent persons tend to be appointed as close vassals of the court. Although this system was a valuable gateway to success for members of the elite family, I believe there was intense competition to win over the retired emperor and make him more important. Judging from his father's mission, it was natural for him to distance himself from those who had fallen from power under the Gotoba regime and change his policy towards supporting the Kamakura shogunate, so his wife strongly persuaded him to choose Gonmon Fuyu (Political powered and Rich families). Because Kinkata suddenly left home, his eldest child was transferred to his younger brother Kinmitsu, but the Shigenoi family survived over 700 years after that and reached the Meiji Restoration.

There are no descendants like Takachika Hosokawa who claim to be the true head family.