On the grounds of the Tsurumaru Castle and adjacent to the Reimeikan History Museum is this statue of Tenshō-in. She was born in Kagoshima in 1836. When she was adopted by Shimazu Nariakira, one of the most powerful lords of the Edo period, she was given the name Atsu-hime. In that same year – 1853 – she was sent to Edo (renamed Tokyo in 1868) as a political move and became the third wife of Tokugawa Iesada, the 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. Part of the legacy of Princess Atsu was helping to negotiate the unconditional surrender of the Edo Castle (now Imperial Palace) after the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma in 1868.
