Author: Wu Tengfei
From the moment he killed his husband's concubine, Ah Fu made a decision about his future life.
Her father, Toshizo Saito, was originally a vassal of Oda Nobunaga, the "Sixth Heaven Demon King", but betrayed him during the "Honnōji Rebellion", cooperating with the Lord to put Nobunaga to death.
As the daughter of a traitor, Ah Fu witnessed her father being hung on the head of the public, thus passing through a very dark period of growth, in the process of being snubbed and ridiculed by the world, Ah Fu did not sink, on the contrary, she grew into a strong and self-reliant woman.
Kasuga Bureau Afuku
After marrying the fallen samurai Inaba Masanari, Because her family was not rich, she lived an unusually poor life with the two children left by her deceased ex-wife, as well as the three children born to herself and Masanari, during which time the family was attacked by thieves, and Ah Fu, who rose up against her, killed the concubine who laughed at her when she was humiliated.
The notoriety of "the jealous woman who killed her husband's concubine" has been so far away that in the days of depression, the wheel of fate has been spinning continuously, and one day she finally stops the happy fate in front of Afu, and she hears the news that in Edo Castle, takechiyo, born to Hidetamaro, the second shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, is looking for a nursing mother.
She immediately made the decision to apply. Although she had a father who was a rebel thief, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun who established the Taiping Dynasty and is now the Grand Imperial Palace, did not value her past, but her calmness and courage impressed Ieyasu and eventually won her the position of nursing mother.
After deciding to become the tokugawa family's nursing mother, Afu rei and Inaba Masanari divorced, leaving all the children at home except for the eldest son, Inaba Masakatsu, and when she held Takechiyo in her arms, Afuku and the child's life have since concluded a fateful contract of mutual protection.
In Edo Castle, the place where the shogun handled political affairs was called Chuo, and the place where the shogun Masamune Midai and the female officials and maids lived was called Daio, and after Afu entered Daio, because the Oda Nobunaga who was betrayed by her father was the uncle of the second shogun Hidetada Masamune and Theo of Odaiso, from the beginning Afu was coldly looked at and ostracized by Ae.
On the other hand, in order to ensure that the heirs are not spoiled, can be more impartially educated, and have a more independent personality, the Great Imperial Palace Ieyasu stipulates that the son must be raised by the nursing mother, and Ae watches his son grow up under the care of Afu, so he has hatred for Afu, and even dislikes his son Takechiyo.
Hidetada Masamuro, Ookumi Kitchen Ae
Entering Edo Castle, Afu not only made the eldest son Masakatsu a minor surname (samurai) of Takechiyo, but also made the sons of her husband's ex-wife a small surname, in addition to Takechiyo, she also raised and cared for ten small surnames, including the eldest son and her husband's ex-wife's son, and these small surnames would later become close vassals of the third generation of shogun Takechiyo, thus laying a solid foundation for Afu's future power.
When Takechiyo and Afu's relationship grew deeper, on the other end, Ajiang fell in love with his second son, Tadashi, and because Hidetada was a strict wife, Tadashi also gained the favor of his father, while Takechiyo, who was the son of the world, was ostracized, and even rumors spread that he might be deposed by Hidetada.
Hearing this rumor, Afu resolutely decided to go to Surufu to meet with Ōmisho Ieyasu, and in the precarious situation at that time, she was likely to be killed if the news leaked, but she did not hesitate to take the risk, and released false information about the visit to Ise Jingu shrine as a smoke bomb, and then set off from Edo Castle.
When he saw Ieyasu, Afu bravely uttered rumors that Takechiyo might be deposed, and said that if he did not distinguish between the two of them, he might affect the stability of the world and plunge the Tokugawa family into turmoil for power, thus touching Ieyasu's heart. So Ieyasu personally visited Edo Castle and personally determined the heir to Takechiyo at the banquet, and the bond between the two was even more unshakable because Afu had brought back the extremely dangerous situation for Takechiyo.
Kasuga Bureau Afuku and Iemitsu (i.e. Takechiyo when he grew up)
Although the matter of the heir had been established after Ieyasu's interference, Ajiang, who favored his second son, Tadatoshi, refused to give up and tried to continue to exert pressure on Hidetada to change the heir, but he did not expect that Hidetada, who had always been afraid of Uchiha, would take measures to summon his retainers, and publicly established Takechiyo's status as the "eldest son hereditary system".
The devastated Ah Jiang can no longer return to heaven, and Ah Fu's efforts and painstaking efforts over the years have finally not been disappointed, Takechiyo grew up under her careful care, although the two have no blood relationship but love the same mother and son, but from a young age to witness the struggle between the birth mother A Jiang and the nursing mother Afu, so they lost interest in women.
Takechiyo, who has been obsessed with dancing for many years and prefers women's clothing, often mixes with beautiful teenagers, and suddenly in Edo Castle, "the general prefers male color" gossip is everywhere, and those confidants who have been promoted from small surnames to close attendants do not dare to admonish, but Ah Fu often persuades, but the total effect is not great.
One of Hidetada's designated vassals often intervened to prevent Takechiyo from getting close to the beautiful boy, and even denounced the close attendants, including Afu's son, for failing to fulfill their duty to dissuade the lord, and Afu, who was very dissatisfied with this, often complained to Takechiyo, and as a result, Takechiyo officially became the third generation general of the Tokugawa shogunate and changed his name to Tokugawa Iemitsu, not only did the assistant minister reduce his salary, but also ordered him to stay at home for life.
This shows the great influence of Afu on Takechiyo.
When the three generations of generals Iemitsu succeeded to the throne, they summoned all the daimyōs and issued a famous proclamation of succession: "I am a general born!" My grandfather, Ieyasu, and my father, Hidetada, both served under Oda and Toyotomi, and were also ranked as officials like all of you, but I was different. In the future, I will only treat you as subordinates, and those who are dissatisfied will go back to the territory and fight with me with bows and arrows and iron cannons! How is it? Sign up!"
The aura of the King's Landing shocked all the daimyo present, and all of them bowed down to the emperor with joy and sincerity, and the majesty of the third generation of generals of Jiaguang was established since then, and for Ah Fu, years of forbearance and hardships were finally exhausted.
The third generation general Takenchiyo (renamed Iemitsu after succeeding to the throne)
After Iemitsu succeeded to the throne, Afu became the most powerful general ban (governor) of Ōo, holding absolute power, and since then he has created the most complete harem system in the Tokugawa shogunate, and established the rule of forbidding men from Ōo, and since then, thousands of women in Ōori will only submit at the feet of the shogun.
Empress Dowager Afu, who became Empress Dowager Daio, was granted the right to sit on an equal footing with Ae, and then, on the orders of the shogunate, went to see Emperor Mizuo in the name of Iemitsu and was given the title of "Kasuga Bureau" as a female official of the Imperial Palace, but was forced to receive the general's mother, Emperor Mizuo, who was humiliated and angry, and abdicated, thus achieving the shogun's intention to force the emperor to abdicate.
Because of this, Ah Fu's position in the shogunate was more solid, she was no longer just a shogun's mother, but also a shogun who relied heavily on the family, and at that time, there was even such a saying in the shogunate and the daimyo: the world of the three generations of shoguns, that is, the world of the Three Generations of Shogun Kasuga, that is, the world of the Dai-O'ao Empress Kasuga Bureau.
Tokugawa 3rd Shogun: Iemitsu (young name Takechiyo)
Afu, who was in charge of Ōo and was involved in political affairs, then bothered with the issue of Iemitsu's heirs, and married Iemitsu, the daughter of the famous Takashi clan in Kyoto, and had no interest in this Godaiso (the honorific title of the shogun's main chamber), so Afu secretly made up his mind to marry the side chamber for Iemitsu.
Moreover, in order to avoid the separation of public powers, the shogunate would not let them have children in the imperial palaces where the shoguns married from Kyoto, which also doomed the filial piety to become the high-level decoration of the shogun's family, and the responsibility for procreation had to be borne by the side chambers.
One of the most special is the 7th generation of The Famous Nunnery Temple in Ise, Keiko-in Temple. In the sixteenth year of Kanei (1639), Keiko-in, who had taken over the post of head of the temple, went to Edo Castle to pay respects to the shogun, but he did not expect that Iemitsu, who had always preferred male color, was attracted to her beautiful and peaceful face.
Upon learning of this news, Kasuga Bureau Afu cherished Iemitsu's first affection for women, and ordered his courtiers to snatch Keikoin back to Daio, forcing the highly respected niji master to return to the customs, locking her up in Ōori, and after growing her long hair, forcing her to become Iemitsu's side room. He took the name Awan.
At that time, it was simply appalling to force Nijun to return to the world and be a side room, and it was widely believed that this practice would lead to hell after the death of the person, but Ah Fu did not care, which showed that she could put aside all concerns and principles for the sake of her family.
After Kasuga-kan Afuku succeeded in making the niji temple master Keikoin-in temple a side chamber and personally named it Awan, her plan to take the side chamber for Iemitsu has just officially begun, based on the values that "the side chamber is used to give birth to children, and the more heirs of the Tokugawa family, the more the world can be peaceful".
Later, those who married into Daio included Ah Le, the daughter of the old cloth shop, who was met by Ah Fu when he went to Asakusa to visit the temple one day, and was taken in by a glance because of her sweet appearance, and was arranged to be given to The Family Light at a literary and art meeting, so she was accepted at first sight as a side room, and Ah Le later gave birth to the fourth generation of generals.
Afu then had the maid who had entered Daio with Takako Godai become a side chamber, named Asha, who gave birth to Tsunashige, the father of the future sixth shogun Ieyabu, while the other side chamber Ayu gave birth to the fifth shogun Tsunayoshi for the Tokugawa family.
Under the unremitting efforts of Ah Fu, Jiaguang finally realized the beauty of female color at the age of thirty-two, and became a father at the age of thirty-five, until his death at the age of forty-eight, with a total of eight side chambers, five sons and a daughter.
As for Ah Wan, who was initially snatched into Theo by the people of Afu, she was loved by the female officials of the Great Ao because of her generous and benevolent character, and was also loved by the family and became pregnant, but considering that she was born into a public noble family, once she gave birth to a child, it would probably become a reason for the public nobles to fight for the rights of the shogunate, and the Imperial Doctor of the Afu Sect gave her an abortion pill, and Ah Wan could not get pregnant from then on, and could only bury the deepest pain of this woman in her heart.
In order to make the world ruled by Iemitsu more stable, Afu told Iemitsu that the long-term threat of Zhongchang should be relieved of the consequences, and her advice was finally adopted, and in the tenth year of Kwanyong (1633), Tadao received the order to kill himself and was forced to carry it out, and all threats from Iemitsu were eliminated from then on.
Kasuga Bureau Afuku and Iemitsu
When Ieko was suffering from smallpox at the age of twenty-six, she had prayed to the gods that if Iemitsu recovered, she would no longer take medicine, and when she was sick in bed, she really refused to take any medicine or even acupuncture in order to keep her promise.
Worried about this, Jiaguang not only visited her from time to time, but also begged her to accept medication, and even put forward the term of allegiance to persuade "taking medicine is also a kind of allegiance", and also emotionally said to Ah Fu, "If you are not there, then what should I do?"
However, in order to let Jiaguang continue to be peaceful, Ah Fu still stubbornly kept the promise he made when he made a wish to the gods, resulting in a more and more serious illness and eventually died.
No matter how much the general Iemitsu persuaded, Kasuga Bureau Afu always refused to take the medicine
On the day of Afu's death, the family did not drip rice and water all day, presumably for this shogun whose merit in Tokugawa history was second only to Ieyasu, the influence of the strange woman in his life was not eliminated until the moment of the end of his life!
After Ah Fu's death, Ah Wan, who was sent by her to snatch into Da'ao and was forced to have an abortion, accepted the responsibility of being responsible for the etiquette guidance of the female officials of Da'ao, making Da'ao's overall style softer and more elegant, and became the general ban (general manager) of Da'ao in the third year of Zhengbao (1646), and When Ah Fu was alive, he probably did not think that his heir would actually be Awan!
In the history of the Japanese harem, Kasuga-kan Afuku established the Otsuki system for the shogunate and had absolute real power, and has been widely praised, and her legendary life, even today, is still a popular theme in major films, novels, and anime works, and is active on Japanese screens and screens.
Empress Ooku: Kasuga Station Afuku