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Hosokawa Tama (細川玉), usually referred to as Hosokawa Garasha 細川ガラシャ, 1563 - August 25 (by the Japanese calendar the 7th Month, 17th day), 1600) was a Japanese noblewoman, daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide. She was named Tama; Garasha, the name she is known by in history, is taken from her baptismal name, Gracia. She married Hosokawa Tadaoki at the age of fifteen; the couple had five or six children.

In the Sixth Month of 1582, her father Akechi betrayed and killed his lord, Oda Nobunaga. Afterwards, Tama became known as a "traitor's daughter." Not wishing to divorce her, Tadaoki sent her to the hamlet of Midono in the mountains of the Tango Peninsula (now in Kyoto Prefecture), where she remained hidden until 1584. Tadaoki then took Tama to the Hosokawa mansion in Osaka, where she remained in confinement.

Tama's maid was from a Christian family, and her husband repeated to her conversations with his Christian friend Takayama Ukon. In the spring of 1587 Tama managed to secretly visit the Osaka church, and a few months later when she heard that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had issued a proclamation against Christianity, she determined to be baptized immediately. As she could not leave the house, she was baptized by her maid and received the Christian name "Gracia".

In 1595 Tadaoki's life was in danger because of his friendship with Toyotomi Hidetsugu, and he told Gracia that if he should die she must kill herself, but when she wrote asking the priests about it, they answered she must not as a Christian kill herself. However, the danger passed.

The death of Hideyoshi in 1598 left a power vacuum with two rival factions forming: Tokugawa Ieyasu in the east and Ishida Mitsunari in the west. When Ieyasu went to the east in 1600 leading a large army, including Tadaoki, Ishida took over the impregnable castle in Osaka, the city where the families of many of Hideyoshi's generals resided. Ishida devised a plan to take the family members hostage, thus forcing the rival generals either to ally with him or at least not to attack him.

However, when Ishida attempted to take Gracia hostage, the family retainer Ogasawara Shōsai killed her; he and the rest of the household then committed seppuku and burned the mansion down. The outrage over her death was so great that Ishida was forced to abandon his plan. Most Japanese accounts said that it was Gracia's idea to order Ogasawara to kill her. But according to the Jesuit account written right after her death, whenever Tadaoki left the mansion he would tell his retainers that if his wife's honor were ever in danger, they should kill her and then themselves. They decided that this was such a situation; Gracia had anticipated it and accepted it.

A Catholic priest had Gracia's remains gathered from the Hosokawa mansion and buried them in a cemetery in Sakai. Later, Tadaoki moved the remains to Sōkenji, a temple in Osaka.

Reference for the 10/17/2006 version:
J. Laures, Two Japanese Christian Heroes, Rutland, VT: Bridgeway Press Books, 1959.
Laures was a major historian on that period; he know all the Jesuit sources well.
The information in the article was also in Japanese sources, and a few details were only in Japanese sources.

Zhu Rong

Jun 27 2007, 11:44 PM

and no Matsu.

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Katsuie Shibata
Toshiie Maeda
Kojiro Sasaki
Hosakawa Gracia

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But wait...in SWCJ her bio says she is fictional

Gairyuki

Jun 28 2007, 01:20 AM

So how come we don't have so much hype for Ieyasu's wife? Hideyoshi's? Tadakatsu's?

Gairyuki

Jun 28 2007, 12:14 AM

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Katsuie Shibata
Toshiie Maeda
Kojiro Sasaki
Hosakawa Gracia

Yeah. Shibata Katsuie, Maeda Toshiie, Sasaki Kojirou, and Hosokawa Gracia have been announced too. 8 new characters~

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But wait...in SWCJ her bio says she is fictional

No it doesn't. >_>

And her name is Hosokawa, not Hosakawa. Also, I'm having trouble understanding where all this Matsu-hype is coming from. Capcom? :rolleyes:

GoldenSummit

Jun 28 2007, 12:25 AM

Gairyuki

Jun 28 2007, 01:20 AM

So how come we don't have so much hype for Ieyasu's wife? Hideyoshi's? Tadakatsu's?

No idea on that one.. I don't know of Ieyasu's wife, nor Tadakatsu's, but then I'm not "into" sengoku history, and know very little.

But then, Matsu would probably just have a generic story, exactly the same as Toshiie's, like most "related warriors" have.

Willxdiana

Jun 28 2007, 01:57 PM

1:23
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HiNrD6e1mY4
I kind of wanted her magic to be like this or very Christian like...

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I'm extremely disappointed if they leave out Gracia's religion. Without it she wouldn't be the Gracia I know.

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Interesting concept. Her costume reminds me of SW1 Oichi a lot. I'm more interested in seeing how her weapons work. o.o;

LoW

Jun 28 2007, 12:35 PM

I don't think she will be overpowered. Zuo Ci can cast magic but he certainly isn't overpowered character. Someone like Lu Bu is much better than him and he can't cast magic >_>.

I'm extremely disappointed if they leave out Gracia's religion. Without it she wouldn't be the Gracia I know.

Now then, any suggestions for her Story Mode? I've come up with this:

1st stage: Any battle for Oda forces where she fights with Mitsuhide. Anegawa or Odani would be good.

2nd stage: Incident at Honnouji.

3rd stage: Battle of Yamazaki. If it was her first battle, we would see almost nothing between her and Mitsuhide. If it was her last, we wouldn't see nothing between her and Mitsunari. That's why it would be best to have Yamazaki in the middle of her story.

4th stage: Gracia's Escape (Osaka Castle. Wasn't that the castle where she was held hostage?). This stage could be pretty fun. Alone in a huge castle with tons of enemy soldiers and generals to kill. Fun, fun.

5th stage: Battle of Sekigahara. Well, she didn't die at the hands of Mitsunari so she could give her support to Eastern army.

Dream: Mitsuhide Unites Japan. Same as Mitsuhide's Dream except that it would be from Gracia's view.

Ein

Jun 28 2007, 09:08 PM

Without her religeon, she isn't even that notable of a character I think. I mean her greatest definning attribute would be that she dies. And I don't think some girl committing suicide would be the great of a level honestly. Running around an Empty map. And you'd have to like... keep running into traps or something until she dies... Actually... that would be kinda funny...