Lake BiwaLake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. It is located entirely within Shiga Prefecture (west-central Honshu), northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Lake Biwa is an ancient lake, over 4 million years old. It is estimated to be the 13th oldest lake in the world. Because of its proximity to Kyoto, references to Lake Biwa appear frequently in Japanese literature, particularly in poetry and in historical accounts of battles. The name Biwako was established in the Edo period.
Ise ProvinceIse Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was Seishū. The name of Ise appears in the earliest written records of Japan, and was the site of numerous religious and folkloric events connected with the Shinto religion and Yamato court. Ise province was one of the original provinces of Japan established in the Nara period under the Taihō Code, when the former princely state of Ise was divided into Ise, Iga and Shima.
Japanese clansThis is a list of Japanese clans. The old clans (gōzoku) mentioned in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki lost their political power before the Heian period, during which new aristocracies and families, kuge, emerged in their place. After the Heian period, the samurai warrior clans gradually increased in importance and power until they came to dominate the country after the founding of the first shogunate. There are ancient-era clan names called Uji-na or Honsei. The Imperial clan – descended from Amaterasu.
Kōdai-in(died October 17, 1624), formerly known as Nene, One, Nei, was an aristocrat and Buddhist nun, founder of the temple Kōdai-ji in Kyoto, Japan. She was formerly the principal samurai wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi under the name of Toyotomi Yoshiko. When she rose in higher political status, she took the title of "Kita no mandokoro". As the matriarch figure of the Toyotomi clan, she led all diplomatic affairs that had to do with the imperial court, and monitored the daimyos' families who were being held hostage at Osaka Castle.
