Born the eldest daughter of Azai Nagamasa, lord of Odani castle in Ōmi, and Oichi, sister of Oda Nobunaga (birth year debated). Her name was Chacha; her younger sisters were Hatsu and Gō.
Her uncle Nobunaga took Odani castle, and her father Nagamasa took his own life. Chacha, her mother and sisters were rescued and raised under the Oda.
Shibata Katsuie, whom her mother had remarried, was defeated by Hideyoshi and took his life together with her mother at Kitanoshō castle in Echizen. The three sisters were sent out and taken in by Hideyoshi—her second castle to fall.
Around this time she became Hideyoshi's consort—a hard fate, wedded to the man who had driven her parents to their deaths.
She bore Tsurumatsu, Hideyoshi's first son. Overjoyed, Hideyoshi gave her Yodo castle in Yamashiro, hence the name Yodo-dono. But Tsurumatsu died two years later in infancy.
At Osaka Castle she gave birth to Hideyori and, as mother of the Toyotomi heir, gained great influence.
Hideyoshi died, and from the next year she lived with Hideyori in Osaka Castle, striving to protect the Toyotomi house on her young son's behalf.
The grown Hideyori met Tokugawa Ieyasu at Nijō Castle in Kyoto. Seeing the imposing young man, Ieyasu reportedly grew more wary of the Toyotomi.
War broke out between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi. Her sister Hatsu mediated the truce; her other sister Gō was on the Tokugawa side as wife of shogun Hidetada.
In the Summer Siege, Osaka Castle fell, and she took her own life together with Hideyori—her third castle to fall.
Shibata KatsuieOda NobunagaTokugawa IeyasuAzai NagamasaOichiOda Nagamasu (Urakusai)Nene (Kōdai-in)Toyotomi Hideyori
Date MasamuneSanada Yukimura (Nobushige)Tachibana MuneshigeKuroda NagamasaItō MancioHasekura TsunenagaUkita HideieYuki Hideyasu
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.