Name Tokiwa Gozen Died 1180 | Children Minamoto no Yoshitsune | |
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Role Minamoto no Yoshitsune's mother Similar People Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Shizuka Gozen, Minamoto no Yoritomo, Taira no Kiyomori, Tomoe Gozen | ||
Tokiwa Gozen (常盤御前) (1138 – c. 1180), or Lady Tokiwa, was a Japanese noblewoman of the late Heian period and mother of the great samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Sources disagree as to whether she was a concubine or wife to Minamoto no Yoshitomo, to whom she bore three sons, of which the youngest was Yoshitsune. She was later captured by Taira no Kiyomori, whom she served as a concubine in exchange for assurances of the safety of her family, she born daughter to Kiyomori.
After leaving Kiyomori, Tokiwa married Fujiwara no Naganari.
Lady Tokiwa is primarily associated, in literature and art, with an incident in which she fled through the snow, protecting her three young sons within her robes, during the 1160 Heiji Rebellion.
She is also known as Hotoke Gozen, or Lady Buddha.