Lady Acha

Lady Acha or Acha no Tsubone (阿茶局, March 16, 1555 - February 16, 1637) was a Japanese noble woman from the Sengoku period to the early Edo period. She was a concubine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Due to her intelligence, Ieyasu entrusted her with management of the family's affairs, sending her to negotiate peace during the Siege of Osaka. Her contributions to the stabilization of the Tokugawa shogunate and service to the country were notable for the court; being enducted to the Junior First Rank of the Imperial Court the second highest honor that could be conferred by the Emperor of Japan. Early life Lady Acha's first name was Suwa. Her pseudonym was Acha no Tsubone, Minbukyo, Yegonvie, Unko-in, Kamio Ichii and Ichii no ama (first nun). Suwa was born in 1555 as daughter of Iida Naomasa who served the Takeda clan. Then she became a wife of Kamio Tadashige, a retainer of the Imagawa clan. During the marriage she had two sons, after the death of her husband, she was called by Ieyasu. In May 1579, Ieyasu invited Suwa to a meeting at Hamamatsu Castle. He offered to have her join the Tokugawa family as his concubine. Suwa accepted and became a member of the Tokugawa clan, Ieyasu gave Suwa the name ''Acha no Tsubone''. She controlled the housekeeping of the Tokugawas. In the Tokugawa clan Under the influence of Oda Nobunaga, the ''First great unifier of Japan'', the Tokugawa clan participated in several conflicts against the Takeda clan until the last resistance of Takeda Katsuyori in the Battle of Tenmokuzan.