Hiding Place of Hosokawa Gracia
This mountaintop was likely the hiding place of historical figure Hosokawa Gracia (1563–1600). Oral history from the nearby town of Midono, together with war chronicles recorded a century after Gracia’s lifetime, suggests this was the location where she spent two years in confinement.
Gracia was born Akechi Tama, daughter of samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide (1528–1582). At the age of 16, she was married to Hosokawa Tadaoki (1563–1646), a samurai who eventually gained control of Tango Province (present-day northern Kyoto Prefecture). In 1582, Gracia’s father, Mitsuhide, betrayed Japan’s first great unifier, Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), at Honnoji Temple in Kyoto. This became known as the Honnoji Incident and culminated in Nobunaga’s death. Gracia’s life was then in danger, so she was separated from her children and banished to live in isolation.
Eventually she was sent to Osaka, where she converted to Christianity and took the baptismal name Gracia. When the city was captured by her husband’s enemies in 1600, samurai code demanded she die rather than be taken hostage.
Little remains of Gracia’s time on this mountaintop, except the two-tiered clearing. A stone monument was erected in her memory on the upper level in 1936. There is another visible clearing in the distance where historians believe guards were stationed to protect Gracia in case of an attack.