Rikei (理慶, 1530 – September 23, 1611) was a Japanese noble lady,calligrapher,poet and scholar. She was the eldest daughter ofKatsunuma Nobutomo (勝沼 信友), a Takeda samurai and retainer of theSengoku period with Takeda lineage. She lived as aBuddhist nun at Daizen-ji temple atMount Kashiwao and is most notable for her military history,Rikei-ni no Ki, or "Nun Rikei’s Account."

In 1582, the daimyō (大名) or warlordTakeda Katsuyori (武田 勝頼) rebelled against the rivalHojo clan, but because of his poor leadership skills, he was defeated by a reinforcing combined army led by lordOda Nobunaga andTokugawa Ieyasu. He, his young formal wife, and about ninety of their followers, mostly women, fled to Rikei's nunnery. However, because of Katsuyori's failure as an administrator, no one wanted to welcome or pity this retinue. Rikei, on the other hand, pitied their fate. She was familiar with the style of military tales, so she wroteRikei-ni no Ki or "The Nun Rikei's Account" to honor them so that their names at least could remain.

TheRikei-ni no Ki is one of three military accounts written by women in this time period (1600s), the others being theOan Monogatari and theOkiku Monogatari. Rikei's work starts with a description of the Takeda clan's genealogy, and then she moves into a description of the killings andritualistic suicides that the retinue committed in order to preserve their honor and avoid capture and humiliation. She also incorporated amyougouka, or prayer verse, in her account. After describing the death of Katsuyori's formal wife, she lists seven poems. The beginning of these verses form theacrostic "na-mu-a-mi-ta-hu-tsu," which is a Buddhist prayer that translates loosely to "Glory toAmitābha" or "May they rest in peace.".^[1]

• Ono Otsū

• 1530 births
• 1611 deaths
• Japanese women poets
• Japanese women historians
• 16th-century Japanese women writers
• 16th-century Japanese writers
• 17th-century Japanese women writers
• Writers of Edo-period Japan
• Women in the Sengoku period
• 17th-century Japanese women
• Buddhist clergy of Edo-period Japan
• 17th-century Japanese poets

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text