The Heike Monogatari describes her thus: strong, brave and unusually beautiful. A horsewoman who surpassed every man. An archer who made no mistakes.

Tomoe Gozen (gozen is an honorific title, not a proper name) fought in the Genpei War (1180–1185) on the side of Minamoto no Yoshinaka — the general who took Kyoto and thereby sealed his own downfall. She was his strongest companion in the field, perhaps his most important military support.

Portrayal of Tomoe Gozen by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, late 19th century © CC-PD-Mark

Who Was Tomoe Gozen? The Problem of the Sources

Tomoe Gozen appears mainly in the Heike Monogatari — a literary work describing the Genpei wars. This work was written roughly 30 to 50 years after the events and served not historical documentation, but literary remembrance and moral reflection on war and transient power.

In her analysis of the Heike Monogatari, Oyler shows that the work systematically constructs historical figures in literary terms: Yoshinaka as a coarse barbarian who plundered Kyoto (an exaggeration that legitimised Kamakura rule); Yoshitsune as a tragic hero; Yoritomo as a shrewd statesman.[4]

Tomoe in this context: she appears as a shining exception in Yoshinaka’s otherwise rough retinue — cultivated, brave, loyal. Her function in the text is partly literary. That does not make her fictional, but it does mean that we must not simply read the text as a historical biography.

What Cambridge Vol. 2 (Shively/McCullough) says about women in the Heian period is illuminating: some women in this era were indeed trained for combat and defence — especially with the naginata as a weapon for defending the house and the court.[2]

This makes Tomoe historically plausible, even if the details of the Heike Monogatari bear literary traits.

The Onna-musha: Tomoe Gozen in Context

Onna-musha (female warriors) existed as a category within the Japanese warrior class from the Heian era until the dissolution of the samurai estate. They fought, they defended castles, they wore armour. They are not over-represented in war chronicles — but they are present as soon as one looks.

They usually carried a shorter, lighter form of the naginata (polearm), the bow (yumi) and the dagger (tantō). Their primary function in armed conflicts was often the defence of household and castle while the male warriors were in the field. There were women who improved their martial skills in order to avenge the murder of relatives. For others, combat training was simply a survival strategy.[5]

In his Sourcebook, Conlan documents that women of the warrior class in the Kamakura period possessed property rights and inheritance rights — and also defended them in court. The Jōei Formulary (1232), the first legal document of the Kamakura shogunate, explicitly regulates women’s rights to land.[3]

This legal reality is important: onna-musha did not fight in spite of the system, but within a system that assigned them — limited but real — rights and roles.

Naginata with flowershaped diamonds in hexagonal shape, Edo period (1615-1868) © Samurai Museum Berlin

The Genpei War

The Genpei War (1180–1185) was the decisive civil war of Japanese history — the conflict that founded the Kamakura shogunate and made the warrior class the dominant political power in Japan.

On one side: the Taira clan, which dominated court politics in Kyoto. On the other: the Minamoto clan, which gathered support in the provinces.

Yoshinaka — Tomoe’s lord — was a Minamoto cousin who grew up in the north, assembled a fast and independent army and in 1183 was the first to reach Kyoto. His success was his problem: he was too early, too strong, too independent. His cousin Yoritomo, who later won the war and founded the shogunate, saw Yoshinaka as a rival.

Varley shows how the Heike Monogatari constructs Yoshinaka: as a rough northerner who did not know how to govern the capital, who plundered temples and frightened court society. This characterisation is a literary exaggeration — it legitimises, after the fact, Yoritomo’s decision to destroy Yoshinaka.[1]

Tomoe fought for Yoshinaka to the end. One of the best-known scenes in the Heike Monogatari: when the final defeat comes, Yoshinaka is said to have sent her away — she should save herself, because it would not be fitting for him to die with a woman. She obeyed. Or not. The sources differ.

The Death of Yoshinaka and Tomoe’s Departure

In 1184 Yoshinaka was overtaken and killed by Yoritomo’s troops — the imperial capital cleared of the troops he himself had once liberated.

Tomoe survived.

How? Why? What came afterwards — that is history’s great silence. The Heike Monogatari has her disappear with the final scene. Later sources offer various continuations: she became a nun. She married a warlord and lived to 90. She wandered through Japan.

All these variants are later additions — not contemporary evidence. Tomoe disappears from history just as abruptly as she appears.

For Oyler, this gap is telling: the Heike Monogatari no longer had any use for her after Yoshinaka’s death. She was Yoshinaka’s companion — not an independent heroine with a story of her own. Her disappearance is literary, not historical.[4]

This finding does not diminish the fascination. It merely shifts it: from biography to meaning. What did it mean in the early 13th century — for the narrators of the Heike Monogatari, for warrior society, for court culture — that a woman was described in this way?

Tomoe Gozen in Posterity: From Text to Icon

Kabuki plays showed her as a radiant female warrior. In the 19th century, when Meiji nationalism was looking for heroic female figures who combined modernisation and tradition, Tomoe was ideal.

Today she lives on in another medium: manga and anime have reinterpreted her dozens of times.

This popularity is not trivial. It shows what Tomoe means as a symbol: the possibility of female strength within a patriarchal society — not against the system, but through extraordinary individual ability. It is an image that lends itself to many connections.

Varley warns — implicitly, through his focus on literary construction — against adopting these images unquestioningly.[1] Tomoe Gozen has grown great through centuries of overwriting.

The Weapons of the Onna-musha

When Tomoe Gozen is depicted today, one often sees a female warrior with the katana — the standard image of the samurai.

This is historically wrong on two counts.

First: the katana in its familiar form (worn in the belt, edge upwards) did not yet exist in the Heian period. Tomoe would have carried a tachi — the older, suspended long sword designed for mounted archers.

Second: women of the warrior class did not fight primarily with the sword. The more typical weapon was the naginata.

The naginata had a clear logic: it made fighting at a distance possible, without the physical proximity of sword fighting. For women, whose body weight and muscle mass were on average lower than those of male opponents, this was a means of tactical compensation. The naginata later became the prototypical women’s weapon of the samurai class — noblewomen trained systematically with it into the 19th century.

The Heian-period female warrior thus looked different from how we imagine her. Not a swordswoman — but an archer and naginata bearer.

Tomoe and the Heike Monogatari: Why Her Description Is Surprising

The Heike Monogatari describes warriors in conventional formulas: listing of ancestors, test of arms, description of battle. Tomoe is described differently — with a striking focus on her physical appearance (unusually beautiful, with long hair) and her fighting ability (superior in archery and swordsmanship, rides untamed horses).

Oyler interprets this double portrayal: the Heike Monogatari presents Tomoe as an exception that proves the rule.[4] Her beauty marks her as a woman; her fighting ability makes her unusual. Together this produces a literary figure that creates astonishment — not a normal female warrior, but an extraordinary woman in a male domain.

This is a different image from the one that modern feminist readings often make of Tomoe. In the text she is not something to be taken for granted — she is an exception, marked as such.

Yoshinaka and Tomoe: The Question of the Relationship

The Heike Monogatari deliberately leaves the exact relationship between Yoshinaka and Tomoe open.

Was she his warrior? His lover? His wife? Later sources sometimes call her mekakenagori — a kind of mistress or concubine. The Heike Monogatari itself is precise in its vagueness: she is loyal to him, she fights for him, he does not want her with him when he dies. Nothing more.

Oyler interprets this openness as a literary strategy.[4] A clear definition of the relationship would place Tomoe in a social category and thus restrict her extraordinary function as a warrior. The ambiguity allows her to be greater than any category.

For modern Japan — and the modern West — this openness is a licence for projection. Tomoe becomes a warrior without private constraints, a completely autonomous fighter.

Shively/McCullough show how complex the social roles of women were in the Heian period: there was room for manoeuvre, but it was embedded in structures of class, clan and gender.[2] Tomoe lived within this system, not outside it.

The Afterlife: From the Edo Period to Manga

Tomoe’s transformation into a figure of national culture took place in two phases.

In the Edo period: kabuki plays and woodblock prints made her famous. Utagawa Kuniyoshi created some of the best-known images of Japanese female warriors — Tomoe among them, depicted in full armour, with spear or sword, often on horseback. These images still shape how we imagine her today.

In the 20th century: Yoshikawa Eiji’s novel Shin Heike Monogatari (1950s) brought the Genpei era to life anew for a mass audience. Tomoe appears there as a heroine in a modern narrative style. Then manga, anime, games — every generation rediscovers her.

The interesting thing about this tradition: Tomoe is almost always portrayed as an exception — the extraordinary female warrior in a male world.

Depiction of Tomoe Gozen by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1840 — Woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting Tomoe Gozen, 1840 © CC-PD-Mark

Frequently Asked Questions about Tomoe Gozen

Who was Tomoe Gozen?

Tomoe Gozen was a Japanese female warrior (onna-musha) who fought for Minamoto no Yoshinaka in the Genpei War (1180–1185). She appears mainly in the Heike Monogatari and is regarded as Japan’s best-known female samurai. Most historical details are uncertain.

What does “Gozen” mean?

An honorific title for women of high rank — comparable to “mistress” or “lady”. Tomoe is her name; Gozen her title. The combination is the designation still used today.

Were there really female samurai?

Not directly. Onna-musha (female warriors) are documented in Japanese history. They fought mainly with the naginata, bow and tantō, predominantly in the defence of houses and castles.

How did Tomoe Gozen die?

Unknown. The sources end with Yoshinaka’s death in 1184. Later additions report her entering a convent or a long life as a nun — all without contemporary evidence.

Visit the Samurai Museum Berlin

Tomoe Gozen is Japan’s best-known female warrior, but not the only one. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Auguststraße 68, Berlin-Mitte.

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Sources and Further Reading

[1] Varley, H. Paul (1994). Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales. University of Hawaii Press. Used: Tomoe in the Heike Monogatari (p. 118); literary construction; the hōganbiiki concept.
[2] Shively, Donald H. & McCullough, William H. (eds.) (1999). The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge University Press. Used: women of the warrior class; combat training; onna-musha tradition.
[3] Conlan, Thomas D. (2022). Samurai Sourcebook. Hackett Publishing. Used: Jōei Formulary and women’s rights; primary sources of the Kamakura period.
[4] Oyler, Elizabeth (2006). Swords, Oaths, and Prophetic Visions: Authoring Warrior Rule in Medieval Japan. University of Hawaii Press. Used: literary construction of the Heike Monogatari; portrayal of Yoshinaka; Tomoe’s function in the text.
[5] Samurai Museum Berlin (2025). SMB Catalogue 2025. Display case C35V: onna-musha, naginata, yumi, tantō; description of the female samurai tradition (L. Dorfner).