Gracia Tama Hosokawa
I am a nerd for Japanese history and culture. I love it! I have come to know that much of how I live my life has been influenced by their culture despite the fact that I am a white American, so it is only natural that I blog about Japanese stuff from time to time.
I apologize for doing a rather poor job at posting on my new blog. This is only my third official post in 1 month and a half... I am working on doing better and hopefully with my Christmas break from college coming in a few days, I will be able to blog a lot more than before.
Let me explain how the rest of this month's posts, and January's, shall work. I will be blogging about this specific Japanese historical figure (Titled above) weekly until I am finished with the different aspects of her story. To put her story all in one post would be too much reading at once, so I am saving you guys that trouble. Along with that, I will also have a second post to be put up either at the same time or anywhere between 1 to 2 days afterwards. This other post could be about anything and won't be related. This is all my hope of how this month will finish out, but I tend to not always have the best control of my life, so let's just hope for the best! Now, shall we go forth?
Gracia Tama Hosokawa has become one of the most famous women of Japan to her people. Just look at the pictures below................
(Gracia has been put it several video games and other types of media.)
Why is Gracia Hosokawa so famous? In one way, it may be because of how counter-cultural she was to the Japanese world, especially considering the fact that she was a Japanese woman in the 1500s. It could also be because she became the first Japanese saint. Or maybe it was because God fulfilled some great purpose through this faithful servant of his (Christians were rare in Japanese culture). Well, let's go through her story and see if we can discover what is so special about this woman, shall we?
Gracia Hosokawa (1563-1600 A.D.) is more than just the perfect model of a Japanese wife, but she was also a model Japanese Christian. Being a Christian was no small feat in a place like medieval Japan, nor was being woman, yet, she gained more respect than many of the greatest of men during this time. The Japanese have likened her simplicity and purity to that of a snow-white lily, and her beauty to that of a cherry blossom. She was considered the perfect wife and mother and Gracia was a fervent upholder of God's Word. She was a self-sacrificing woman whose chastity and affection for her husband was seen as unique, and even more unique, was the chastity and affection shown back to her from her samurai husband.
Much of Gracia's life was that of suffering, but she lived by her faith and was happy because of it. She believed in God no matter what happened. Her strong faith was felt by everyone that ever came in contact with her and had even the simplest of conversations with her. She shone was an aura of righteousness and love. She has become a historical figure that I deeply admire.
Now that you have an overview of what's to come, it's time to end the post here. Tune in next week for more in depth discussion of this amazing woman. Next week will be more about setting up the cultural background of Japan that she lived in. This is important to understanding her. See you next week, but not really! I can't see you through a computer...
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