Taira no Tokiko

Taira no Tokiko (平 時子, 1126–1185) was a prominently-placed female figure in late-Heian period. She was the wife of Taira no Kiyomori, mother of Taira no Tokuko, as well as grandmother of Emperor Antoku. Later she took the vows to become a nun, after which she was generally referred to by her Buddhist name as the "Nun of the Second Rank" (Nii no Ama 二位尼).[1]

Nii no Ama rescuing boy-Emperor Antoku from a dragon, in a print by Yoshitsuya Ichieisai.
In this Japanese name, the family name is Taira.

After Kiyomori's death in 1181, Tokiko's son, Taira no Munemori became the head of the Heike family. After this, she became the representative pillar of the Heike family. According to the Tale of the Heike, Taira no Tokiko drowned herself during the Battle of Dan-no-ura together with the boy-Emperor Antoku.[2] She also took with her into the sea the Sacred Sword, i.e., one of the Three Imperial Regalia of Japan.

Honours
  • Japanese Court Upper Rank: Junior Second Rank (従二位)

See also

References
  1. McCullough, Helen Craig. (1988) The Tale of the Heike. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1418-1, p. 210.
  2. McCullough 1988, pp. 377–78

Further reading
  • Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). [ Jien (1221)], Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
  • Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida. (1975). The Tale of the Heike. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0-86008-189-3
  • McCullough, Helen Craig. (1994). Genji and Heike. Selections from The Tale of the Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2258-7
  • Watson, Burton and Haruo Shirane. (2006). The Tales of the Heike (abridged). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13802-4
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