What evidence do we actually have of female samurai? I know there are stories about specific women such as Tomoe Gozen, but I read something in Steven Turnbull's "Samurai Women 1184-1877" that really made me think:
"The archaeological evidence, meagre though it is, tantalizingly suggests a wider female involvement in battle than is implied by written accounts alone. This conclusion is based on the recent excavation of three battlefield headmounds. In one case, the battle of Senbon Matsubaru between Takeda Katsuyori and Hojo Ujinao in 1580, DNA tests on 105 bodies revealed that 35 of them were female. Two excavations elsewhere produced similar results."
I can't find the actual article he is referring to. Does anyone know what article this came from? Do we have any other type of evidence of female samurai, other than written accounts?
Searching for this article was interesting. It turns out that Turnbull has messed up the reference on a few fronts, which sadly is quite common in his books, particularly his earlier books.
First of all, the place in question is "Senbon Matsubara" in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture not "Senbon Matsubaru", (it's Senbonhama ie. Senbon beach on google maps) which Turnbull and every other source citing Turnbull used. Academic references often are just to the Numazu city head mound.
The actual open-accesss article is in Japanese only, but there's an English abstract for the article.
The article in question is (in translation) 'The Head-Burial Site in the Numazu City and the Skulls of the Medieval Japanese)' by Hisashi Suzuki, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon Volume 97 (1989) Issue 1 Pages 23-37.
There weren't DNA tests showing that 1/3 of the remains belong to females. The estimate of 1/3 female comes from
- On the basis of temporal bones, total number of skeletons buried in the site are estimated to be over 105 individuals, of which 2/3 are supposed to be of male sex and 1/3 of female.
Definitely need some more elaboration on the results, the context of the head burial, and what the results mean. Alerting /u/ParallelPain who will probably be interested in yet another Turnbull mess.