Mochizuki Chiyome

Mochizuki Chiyome (望月 千代女), also known as Mochizuki Chiyojo (望月 千代女) or Mochizuki Chiyo (望月 千代), was a feudal Japanese noblewoman of the 16th century who created an all-female group of ninja agents in service of the Takeda clan.

Chiyome, a descendant of the 15th century ninja Mochizuki Izumo-no-Kami (望月出雲守) of the Kōga-ryū, was the wife of Mochizuki Moritoki, a samurai lord of Shinano's Saku District and himself a distant relative of Izumo-no-Kami. After Moritoki was killed in the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima in 1561, Chiyome was left in the care of the daimyo Takeda Shingen, the leader of the Takeda clan and an uncle of her late husband. It was then when Shingen approached her and gave her an important mission to recruit women and create an underground network of kunoichi (female ninja) and employ them against the rival warlords. Takeda’s plan was to have fully trained female operatives who could act as spies and agents used to gather information and deliver coded messages to his allies; Chiyome was the best candidate for this, since she came from a long line of Kōga ninja. She accepted the task, set up her operation in the village of Nezu () in the Shinshu region (the present-day city of Tōmi, Nagano), and began her search for potential candidates for training.

Chiyome recruited prostitutes and other wayward women, victims of the civil wars of the Sengoku period, and young girls who were either orphaned, lost or abandoned. Many people believed that she was helping these women and giving them an opportunity to start up a new life, but in reality they were trained to become information gatherers and verifiers, seductresses, messengers and, when necessary, assassins. The women were taught all the skills of a miko (Shinto shrine maiden or a wandering priestess), which allowed them to travel virtually anywhere without suspicion, receiving religious education to complete their disguise. Over time, Chiyome's kunoichi learned to effectively use more disguises such as actresses, prostitutes or geisha, which allowed them to move freely within villages, towns, castles and temples, and get access to their targets. Eventually, Chiyome and her kunoichi had set up an extensive network of some 200-300 agents that served the Takeda clan and Shingen was always informed of all activities, putting him one step ahead of his opponents at all times until his mysterious death in 1573, after which she disappeared from historical records.

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