Chikurinin (person) (竹林院 (人物))
Chikurinin (year of birth unknown - June 27, 1649) was a woman who lived from the Azuchi-Momoyama period to the Edo period. She was the lawful wife of Nobushige (Yukimura) SANADA, and was a daughter (or a niece) of Yoshitsugu OTANI. She gave birth to several children, such as Yukimasa SANADA, Morinobu SANADA, Aguri (married to Satoyoshi GAMO), Shobu (married to Sadahiro KATAKURA), and Okane (married to Sadakiyo ISHIKAWA). She was called Takehime, Aki, Rise and the like.
Her father Yoshitsugu associated deeply with the Sanada family, and around 1594 she got married to Nobushige SANADA. In December, 1600, because her family took the side of the West squad in the Battle of Sekigahara, she accompanied Nobushige to Koya-san Mountain and they were confined. The living on Koya-san Mountain seemed to be hard, and so she made use of the tsumugi (pongee) technique in person to originate Sanada-himo Ribbon, and made the vassals peddle them around to earn their living.
When Nobushige was killed in Osaka Natsu no Jin (Summer Siege of Osaka) on June 3, 1615, Ieyasu TOKUGAWA ordered Nagaakira ASANO, the feudal lord of Kii, to search for her. On June 16, she was discovered hiding away with her daughter Aguri guarded by three samurai in Ito County, and on June 20, she was handed over to Ieyasu in Kyoto, but she was sentenced to innocence and from that time she lived with Kane's family in Kyoto.
On June 27, 1649, she died in Kyoto. Her homyo (a Buddhist name given to a person who has died or has entered the priesthood) was Chikurininden Baikei Eishun Daishi. She was buried in Myoshin-ji Daiju-in Temple (in the precincts of Ryoan-ji Temple).