Masako Hojo
The nun who became shogun 1156-1225
From early on, Masako Hojo made sure to let everyone know she was not a woman to be trifled with. When her shogun husband cheated on her, she raised an army and destroyed the other woman’s house in a move referred to as uwanari-uchi – literally translated as ‘strike of the after-wife’. She was so respected and feared that when her husband died, rumours spread that her detached spirit had somehow haunted him to death – though in truth, she appears to have loved him rather intensely to the end of her days. After her husband died, she entered a monastery. But when her son proved himself an incompetent tyrant who couldn’t run the country or properly fend off assassins, she did what any good mother would do – she deposed him and took the reins herself, becoming the first and only nun to rule Japan.