Tagawa Matsu
| Lady Tagawa | |
|---|---|
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| Born | October 3, 1601 |
| Died | January 5, 1646 (aged 43) |
| Spouse(s) | Zheng Zhilong |
| Children | Koxinga, Shichizaemon |
| Parent(s) |
Tagawa Shichizaemon (father) Weng Yi Huang (step-father) |
Tagawa Matsu (田川マツ), or Weng-shi (翁氏) (1601 – 1646), was the mother of Koxinga, a national hero in Taiwan, and daughter of Tagawa Shichizaemon (田川七左衛門), a vassal of Hirado Domain. She was a Nagasaki Japanese who lived most of her life in the coastal town of Hirado, then later migrated to China.
Tagawa Matsu was married to Zheng Zhilong (鄭芝龍), a Hoklo from Nan'an, Fujian, China who frequently traded with the Japanese in Nagasaki. She gave birth to Koxinga during a trip with her husband when she was picking seashells on the Senli Beach, Sennai River Bank (川內浦千里濱), Hirado.
The stone beside which she gave birth still exists today as the Koxinga Child Birth Stone Tablet (鄭成功兒誕石碑), which is 80-cm tall and 3-metre wide, and submerged during high tides.
Tagawa Matsu raised Koxinga in Japan by herself until he was seven, and her closeness with her son is evident in some of the accomplishment and decisions Koxinga made in his adult life.
In 1630, she was reunited with Koxinga by moving to Quanzhou, Fujian. In 1646, when Koxinga was away, the city was invaded by the Manchus. Koxinga, upon hearing of the invasion, immediately returned to Quanzhou, only to discover that his mother had hanged herself in a refusal to surrender to the Manchus. Some people say she was raped and killed by the Manchus. After this, Koxinga developed a growing and powerful antagonism with the Qing Empire.
In the Zheng family genealogy, Tagawa Matsu is recorded under the Sinicized name of Weng-shi. Some Chinese records indicated that this is because after she moved to Quanzhou, an old ironsmith neighbour, Weng Yihuang (翁翌皇), treated this foreigner newcomer like his own daughter.
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Wikipedia