Lady Otsuya

Lady Otsuya (おつやの方 Otsuya no Kata) was a Japanese female samurai (onna-bugeisha) from the Sengoku period. She was the aunt of the famous samurai Oda Nobunaga, the wife of Tōyama Kagetō and foster mother of Oda Katsunaga. She was the ruler of Iwamura Castle until the last days of her life.

Siege of Iwamura Castle
At the apex of the anti-Nobunaga coalition, in 1572, Takeda Shingen ordered Akiyama Nobutomo, one of the "Twenty-Four Generals" of Shingen, to attack the castle, but Otsuya and her husband were prepared to defend. After days of resistance, Tōyama Kagetō, the commander of the castle's garrison, fell ill and died. Lady Otsuya became the female lord of Iwamura castle. Toyama used to be subordinate to Takeda, but at that time Nobunaga Oda's aunt Lady Otsuya had a hostile relationship with Takeda. She didn't surrender for months and continued to defend the castle until March 6, 1573 when she made an agreement with the Takeda clan￼￼. Akiyama Nobutomo negotiated the castle's surrender with Lady Otsuya, and she settled in a peace treaty without bloodshed and ceased attacks. The adopted son of Otsuya and the official keeper of the castle, a seven-year-old lord called Gobōmaru (Oda Katsunaga) was taken to the Takeda home in the province of Kai as a hostage. In accordance with the surrender treaty, Lady Otsuya married Akiyama. Otsuya surrendered the castle to the Takeda and became a member of it and an enemy of Nobunaga. On March 15, 800 soldiers led by Nobuharu Baba, who were attacking Iwamura Castle, attacked the Oda Army and Oda Nobunaga pulled 10,000 soldiers. When Nobunaga learned that the soldiers at Iwamura's castle, led by his aunt, had attacked the troops of the Oda clan, he decided to counterattack.

Final Siege
On April 12, 1573 Shingen died, and on December 22 of the same year, the Battle of Mikatagahara took place, an event that led Lady Otsuya to lead the defense of Iwamura Castle once again. The Iwamura Castle was a battlefield from 1572 to 1575. When Oda army defeated the army of Shingen's son, Takeda Katsuyori, in the Battle of Nagashino, Oda Nobutada and others surrounded Iwamura castle. In 1575, Oda Nobunaga decided to attack and take his aunt's castle, but she defended it against Oda's fierce assault for a half a year. After six months of battle, she left the castle to respond to Oda's false plea for peace. However Nobunaga reneged on his word and had Otsuya and Nobutomo crucified as traitors on December 23, 1575.