When
Hosokawa Morihiro resigned from his post as
prime minister of Japan, he read the
death poem of Hosokawa Garasha, one of his ancestors and noted
Christian, who died in the political struggle that led to the
battle of Sekigahara. Garasha's husband, the
daimyo Hosokawa Tadaoki, had allied with
Tokugawa Ieyasu and as a result,
Ishida Mitsunari attempted to take her hostage and bargain Tadaoki into joining his side. Choosing death over becoming a political tool, but being a devoted Christian, Garasha had her servant pierce her chest with a knife.
The Hosokawa family, of which Hosokawa Morihiro is the head of, traces their ancestory back to the Fujiwara, the Heian period emperors Kammu through Seiwa, and the Seiwa line of Minamoto princes. The Hosokawa are actually a line of the Ashikaga, the Ashikaga themselves a line of the Minamoto, and the Hosokawa were retainers of the Ashikaga shoguns of the Muromachi period. They incidently instigated the Onin War which led to the sengoku warring states period. After the fall of the Muromachi shogunate, they became retainers and daimyo under Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Under the Edo shogunate, they were among the tozama domains daimyo, first of Kokura, then finally Higo province. Higo is the present day Kumamoto prefecture.
Back to Garasha, by the way, her father was none other than Akechi Mitsuhide. That made her a cousin of Oda Nobutada, first son of Oda Nobunaga.