Koshōshō

Koshōshō is the historical nickname for Motochika's concubine. According to Chōsokabe Kyukkikō and Chōsokabe Keizu, Koshōshō was supposedly much older than her mate. She gave birth to one of his sons –who is only known under his title in historical records, Inner Bureaucrat of the Right– and one daughter, Kozaishō. While her mention in historical texts ends here, she is the topic of many unverifiable stories and legends.

Voice Actors

 * Ryoko Shiraishi - Sengoku Musou 4

Japanese Folklore
Edo period folklore commonly depicts Koshōshō as an "evil wench" who schemes and condescends anyone who stands against her. Proud of her beauty and shamefully adulterous, she believed in marriages for convenience and would be seen walking with different men in a heartbeat. These tales argue that her son and daughter were not Motochika's biological children. Other tales insist that she was instead an innocent refuge forced by circumstance to leave her home. To distinguish between the two Koshōshō personas, the harlot incarnation might be called Ōgata-dono.

The Ōgata-dono version insists that she was Okamoto Bokusai's daughter. She was first Hosokawa Mochitaka's concubine (or wife) who gave birth to her lord's most cherished son, Saneyuki, sometime in her early youth. After her husband was killed by Miyoshi retainers, Ōgata-dono was sent to become Miyoshi Yoshikata's concubine for the sake of a political treaty. She gave birth to Nagahara and Sogō Masayasu during this time. The peace treaty lasted until Saneyuki and Nagahara disputed territorial rights. Ōgata-dono despaired the conflict between her two sons; in an effort to pacify the siblings, she sought an audience with Saneyuki. Either the gesture was deemed treacherous to the Hosokawa retainers or her son did not approve of her actions because a death warrant for her life was soon issued. Nagahara thought the order was a dastardly attack on traditional values and intensified his efforts to crush his adversary. During the intensified bloodshed, Ōgata-dono fled westward. Alternatively, it is said her apathetic promiscuity is primarily responsible for the feud in the first place. Both her sons loved her dearly and wanted to reclaim her as their own mother, but Ōgata-dono couldn't care less about them. As the sons obliterated one another, Ōgata-dono simply accepted it as a prime chance for her to leave both families.

Ōgata-dono's ties to the Miyoshi landed her her next husband, Shinohara Jiton, a Miyoshi family retainer within Awa Province. She enjoyed flaunting her position as the matriarch of Shōzui Castle and apparently bullied the castle servants in order to keep her many side affairs a secret from Jiton. Motochika's invasion in 1582 meant she did not enjoy her power for long, and she was forced to flee when the castle fell. Without guards or servants to help her, she wandered aimlessly into Ogō and was found by Motochika's forces. The Tosa Monogatari argues that Ōgata-dono was Jiton's political hostage over his lover. She was to stay within the retainer's domain until the Hosokawa-Miyoshi ended. Jiton was defeated by Motochika before the opportunity came to pass. Ōgata-dono was given to Motochika after the siege for a peace treaty. Ōgata-dono continued her promiscuous life when she was accepted into the Chōsokabe. Motochika supposedly didn't mind her lack of responsibility as long as she didn't leave him. She is fabled to have given birth with at least four other different men, although it is unclear with whom and when her other affairs took place.

While the Ōgata-dono scenario has been heralded as true for generations, modern research and historical records draws doubt on its plausibility. The nearly absent Bokusai, the dubious Hosokawa-Miyoshi family ties and the large discrepancy between the birthrates of her many alleged children are the main reasons for doubting its accuracy. If Ōgata-dono really did have that many husbands/lovers within her lifetime, she would have been in her mid-to-late fifties by the time she finally gave birth to Motochika's children.

Modern knowledge of female fertility has led to many disbelieving this incarnation in favor for another set of legends about Koshōshō. She has said to have been the daughter of one of Mitsuhide's younger sisters, or her his niece, who was born approximately twenty or so years after Mitsuhide. When Ishigai Yoritoki, a Saitō retainer who served under the Akechi clan, fled westwards into Ogō he brought his immediate family and a handful of other refugees from the failure of Yamazaki with him. Motochika was indebted to the departed Mitsuhide since his attack at Honnōji canceled the grueling defenses for Shikoku. To show his appreciation to the scattered Akechi, he sought to care for them and to ensure the safety of Mitsuhide's remaining lineage to the best of his ability.

Koshōshō isn't recorded to have been among the refugees, but legends will insist as much when Yoritoki enters the Chōsokabe's service. Yoritoki, his wife and daughters perish four years later during the early movements of Hideyoshi's invasion of Kyushu. Motochika had suffered immensely himself as his treasured son, Nobuchika, had perished only days before. Hearing the news of Yoritoki's demise was said to have broken his spirit. It is during this fragile time that Koshōshō came to his side to comfort him. He was able to overcome his grief as he remembered the tragedy which befell the AKechi and was encouraged by Koshōshō to once again fight for his clan's safety. Forever grateful for her presence, Koshōshō quickly became Motochika's concubine.

Proponents for this legend argue that it would fix problems for feasible childbearing since Koshōshō would roughly be in her mid thirties. It does, however, roughly contradict with the historical note of Koshōshō being older than Motochika. Again, other interpretations of this scenario insist that she was actually in close proximity to Mitushide's age, thereby rearing the issue of her low childbearing success rate. This story has also been argued to likely be a romanticized tale of Yoritoki's unnamed daughter and Motochika's mistress; Koshōshō and her imposed ties to the Akechi is believed to have been added after the fact in fiction.

Regardless of the incarnation, Koshōshō's fate after giving birth to Motochika's children remains disputed. She may have perished due to complications from childbirth or she could have died to illness before Motochika's death. She could have become a nun to continue living past her lord for a time or could have lived to see past her clan's political demise. Koshōshō's blank slate for her origins and life will remain littered with stories until more historical records mentioning her are discovered.