Who they were
Daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, she married the exile Minamoto no Yoritomo, binding the Hojo to his cause. After taking religious vows on his death, she came to be called the “nun shogun” (ama-shogun).
What they did
After Yoritomo died in 1199, she outmaneuvered rivals through the successions of her sons, the second and third shoguns, as the Hojo became hereditary regents under her father and her brother Yoshitoki. In the Jokyu War of 1221, her address rallying the vassals to the shogunate’s defense — recorded in the Azuma Kagami chronicle — helped crush the retired emperor’s rising. She died in 1225.
Legacy
Masako ranks among the most powerful women in Japanese political history. The Hojo regency she anchored ran the shogunate for a century more.