ねね（高台院）

Nene (1548–1624), known after her retirement as Kōdai-in, was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's beloved wife — the woman who was with him from his days as an obscure foot soldier and stayed the course through his rise to supreme power. Oda Nobunaga respected her enough to write her a personal letter reassuring her about Hideyoshi's infidelities; the great warrior-generals of the Toyotomi cause — Katō Kiyomasa, Fukushima Masanori, Kuroda Nagamasa — addressed her as 'O-ne-sama' and brought her their troubles. She outlived everyone: Hideyoshi, the era of Toyotomi power, and the fall of Osaka Castle in 1615. She founded the magnificent Kōdaiji temple in Kyoto with funds from Tokugawa Ieyasu, creating one of the masterpieces of Momoyama culture. The temple's makie lacquerwork is among the finest surviving examples of the period's aesthetic. The swords and armor she received and preserved from the Toyotomi era now stand as precious witnesses to the culture of the age — and Nene herself, who watched Hideyoshi build his sword collection from scratch and understood better than anyone what those blades meant to the man and to the era, stands as one of the most important witnesses to the golden age of the Japanese sword as a cultural object.