Forgotten Samurai Women

For centuries, we have been told that samurai are all men. An elite brotherhood of sword-wielding warriors, living and dying according to bushido. But a discreet discovery in a Kyoto laboratory has just rewritten this history.

In 2022, researchers at Kyoto University conducted a DNA analysis on 105 skeletons from the Battle of Senbon Matsubaru, a little-known conflict from Japanese feudal times. What they discovered stunned historians. 35 of the warriors were women. They were not camp followers or civilians caught in the crossfire.

They had died with weapons in their hands, buried in full combat gear, their bones scarred by the fight. They fought, shed blood, and died like their male counterparts, but their presence has been erased from the archives.

Some may have disguised themselves as men. Others may have fought openly, perhaps under the orders of regional lords who needed all the competent fighters. We don't know all the details yet. But one thing is certain: their roles were real, and their stories were hidden.

It challenges everything we thought we knew about gender and war in feudal Japan. The myth of an exclusively male samurai class is no longer relevant. Because in the heat of battle, a warrior was a warrior, regardless of gender. This study does not just rewrite textbooks. It gives a voice to forgotten fighters, erased from manuscripts, but not from history.

Had you ever heard of samurai women before this? What else could history have erased?

Historical Footprints