Who Is Hotoke Gozen?
The dancer who gave up glory to become a nun
Hotoke Gozen was a famous sixteen-year-old shirabyōshi dancer who came to the capital from Kaga Province (today's Ishikawa Prefecture). She won Kiyomori's favor, but became a nun of her own will at seventeen.
In the chapter "Giō," unhappy at not being invited, she goes to Kiyomori's Nishi-Hachijō mansion on her own. About to be turned away, she is allowed to dance thanks to Giō's kind words, and instantly wins Kiyomori's heart. But when she sees Giō, who had helped her, thrown out and humiliated, she realizes that the same fate will one day be hers. She quietly slips out of the mansion and, dressed as a nun, visits Giō's hut in Saga, where they devote themselves to Buddhism together.
The tale says that all four women, Giō, her sister Ginyo, their mother Toji, and Hotoke Gozen, were reborn in the Pure Land.
