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Hino Tomiko

Type Figure Region Japan Time c. 1440–1496 Also known as Hino Tomiko、富子、从一位

Hino Tomiko was the principal wife of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, eighth shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, who long controlled the inner court and finances …

Timeline

  1. 1455–1460Kyoto · KinkiOf court noble Hino clan origin, she married Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1455 and became the shogun's principal wife. Leveraging her natal family's influence and inner-court connections, she gradually intervened in shogunate household affairs and finances, accumulating resources for later influence over the succession question.
  2. 1461–1470Kyoto · KinkiAfter bearing the legitimate son Yoshihisa in 1465, Tomiko strongly advocated her son as shogunal heir, clashing fiercely with the faction of Yoshimasa's brother Yoshimi, originally designated as heir. She used marriages and rewards involving children born of concubines to win over daimyō, and Kyoto politics deteriorated through the 1460s over succession and fiscal issues.
  3. 1470–1496Kyoto · KinkiAfter the Ōnin War subsided in 1477, Tomiko continued to influence the shogunate for a long time. After the successive deaths of Yoshimasa and Yoshihisa, she continued to manage household affairs and intervened in the choice of the ninth shogun; she took religious vows in her later years and died in Kyoto in 1496, one of the most powerful female politicians of the late Muromachi period.

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