Oichi

Oichi (1547-1583), also known as Lady Oichi, was the younger sister of Nobunaga Oda and the wife of Nagamasa Azai and Katsuie Shibata. She chose to die with her husband, Katsuie after the Battle of Shizugatake, being incinerated when Kitanosho Castle burned to the ground.

Biography

Oichi was the daughter of Nobuhide Oda and the younger sister of Nobunaga Oda, and she was known for her beauty and for her resolve. In 1560, while paying her respects to a fallen soldier, she meet Nagamasa Azai under a peach blossom tree, and that the two of them fell in love.

They fought alongside each other at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 and at the Battle of Mt. Inaba Castle in 1567, and Nobunaga gave them his blessing to marry afterwards. They had four children, and their marriage served as an alliance between the Oda and Azai clans. However, Nagamasa betrayed his alliance with Nobunaga in 1570 after Nobunaga attacked the Asakura clan, traditional allies of the Azai, and so Oichi warned her brother of Nagamasa's betrayal by sending him a sack of beans.

Oichi and her three daughters were allowed to leave Nagamasa during the Siege of Odani Castle in 1573, and Nagamasa chose to commit seppuku after it became clear that he would lose.

In 1582, Oichi remarried to the Oda general, Katsuie Shibata, and, when Katsuie chose to die at Kitanosho Castle following his defeat at the Battle of Shizugatake, she decided to stay with him as their castle burned to the ground and killed those inside of it.

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