Sena

Sena (瀨名) is the niece of Yoshimoto Imagawa, one of the three feared daimyo of the Tokaido region. She later became the first wife of Ieyasu and mothered both Nobuyasu Matsudaira and Kamehime. She was best known for possibly initiating the conspiracy against Nobunaga for her husband's benefit.

Role in games
A proud member of the Imagawa, Sena was first sent to Mikawa to bargain for a potential alliance between her uncle and Ieyasu Tokugawa. Unfortunately, their meeting draws the attention of Mikawa's neighbor, Nobunaga Oda, who disrupts their meeting and enlists the aid of the Tokugawa instead.

In response, Yoshimoto launches a campaign for Mikawa, and Sena would support her uncle as he occupied the province as well as causing Ieyasu to switch sides. The sudden change of sides causes riots to occur within Mikawa, and Yoshimoto sends Sena to aid Ieyasu in quelling his people for the upcoming battle against the Oda. Seeing that Sena had taken a liking to the young lord, Yoshimoto decides to leave her under Ieyasu's care. During the decisive battle at Okehazama, however, her uncle is killed, and, without anywhere left to go, Sena decides to stay with the Tokugawa instead.

As her uncle's death caused irreparable damage to Suruga, Ieyasu consults Sena before he leaves to conquer her clan's domain. While happy for her lord's concern, Sena assures him to not worry of hurting her if it means furthering the Tokugawa clan. To conquer her family's territory, the Tokugawa form an alliance with Shingen Takeda and launch a joint attack against the Imagawa-Hōjō army. Despite Kenshin Uesugi arriving to challenge Shingen once again, the battle ends in a success as the Tokugawa are able to take most of Sena's homeland.

As Nobunaga's ally, Ieyasu and Sena move to stop Shingen Takeda's march at Mikatagahara. At the cost of several loyal retainers. When Nobuyasu establishes contact with Katsuyori Takeda, Ieyasu and Nobunaga immediately move to kill the renegade noble. Due to her maternal instinct and resentment for her uncle's demise, Sena is ultimately compelled to aid Nobuyasu in his failed rebellion.

Though he defeats her, Ieyasu is unable to bring himself to kill her. To prevent her husband from being implicated further, Sena takes her own life instead.

During the hypothetical version of Nobuyasu's betrayal, the Tokugawa forces learn of Nobuyasu's intentions before Nobunaga does, and move to stop him. Thanks to the help of Sandayū Momochi, they are able to push Katsuyori away before he can meet Nobuyasu, but Sena still moves to protect her son and engages Ieyasu. As she is wounded, Hanzō arrives and reveals that the true instigator for Nobuyasu's plot was actually Sandayū.

Because of this, Sena turns back to the Tokugawa side and helps Ieyasu defeat Sandayū's ninjas before they can cause further damage within Mikawa's retainers. Thanks to this, she appears alongside Ieyasu at the hypothetical Yamazaki to reinforce Nobunaga.⁹

Voice Actors

 * Haruka Terui - Samurai Warriors 5
 * Hitomi Shogawa - Nioh

Historical Information
The daughter of Sena Ujihiro, she was adopted by Imagawa Yoshimoto when she was young. In 1557, she married Matsudaira Motoyasu and have the son and daughter are Nobuyasu and Kamehime.

When Yoshimoto was killed in Okehazama, Motoyasu so change his name to Ieyasu and formed allied with Oda Nobunaga in March, 1562. When her father was committed suicide by order of Imagawa Ujizane, she decided go to Sunpu Castle, along with Ishikawa Kazumasa to exchange the hostages. The Imagawa had to deliver the mother and her children, while she would deliver the Udono brothers, Ujinaga and Ujitsugu return to Imagawa. She moved to Okazaki after the exchange and in 1567, Nobuyasu married the daughter of Nobunaga, Tokuhime.

There is a story that she is angry against Oda because her adoptive father, Yoshimoto was killed by them. So she sent a letter to Takeda, hoping for Takeda to get rid of Oda. Takeda received her letter and also certified that she would marry one of Takeda's elite generals.

However, when Nobunaga learned about this, so she committed suicide at Lake Sanaru in Fuchi county, Tōtōmi Province (which is now part of the city of Hanamatsu).