Yodo-dono

Yodo-dono (淀殿) or Yodo-gimi (淀君; [jo.do(ꜜ).ɡʲi.mʲi, -ŋʲi.mʲi], 1569 – June 4, 1615), also known as Lady Chacha (茶々; [tɕaꜜ.tɕa]), was a Japanese historical figure in the late Sengoku period. She was the concubine and the second wife of Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As the mother of his son and successor Hideyori, she acted as Hideyori's guardian in the restoration of the Toyotomi clan after the fall of the Council of Five Elders, and alongside her son, led the last anti-Tokugawa shogunate resistance in the siege of Osaka.

She was the daughter of Oichi and sister of Ohatsu and Oeyo. When her two younger sisters became prominent members linked to the Tokugawa clan, she and her sisters became vital to maintaining the diplomatic relations between the two most powerful clans of the time, Toyotomi and Tokugawa. Her sister, Oeyo, was the wife of the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, and matriarch of the successive shoguns' lineage, thus receiving the political title Omidaidokoro.

In the efforts to exalt the Tokugawa Shogunate, Yodo-dono was frequently portrayed as a "wicked and wanton" woman who planned the Toyotomis' death. After Hideyoshi's death in 1598, she took tonsure as a Buddhist nun, taking the name Daikōin (大広院). She was also the founder of the temple Yogen-in (養源院).

Her time period being that of large turmoil and overhaul, Yodo-dono was involved in both politics and administration. The great wealth and changing fortunes of her family had also affected Yodo-dono's life. The surviving accounting books from luxury goods merchants provide insight into the patterns of patronage and tastes amongst the privileged class of women like Yodo-dono and her sisters.

Yodo-dono, also called Chacha (茶々) in her youth, was the eldest of three daughters of the Sengoku period daimyō Azai Nagamasa. Her mother, Oichi, was the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga.

After Nagamasa's death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi became Chacha's adoptive father and protector. However, her status changed when she became his concubine and again when she became the mother of his heir.

Lady Okurakyo no tsubone (Ono Harunaga's mother), Lady Aeba no tsubone (the second daughter of her grandaunt, Kaitsu-dono), and Otsubone (the wife of Maeda Toshiie's brother, Sawaki Yoshiyuki) were Chacha's wet nurses.

Yodo-dono's middle sister, Ohatsu, was the wife of Kyōgoku Takatsugu and the mother of Kyōgoku Tadataka.