Tagawa Matsu

Tagawa Matsu was a Japanese woman from a samurai family in Hirado. Tagawa met and married a Han Chinese Hoklo named Zheng Zhilong from Nan'an, Fujian, China who frequently traded with the Japanese in Hirado. They fell in love with each other and married.{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=5 January 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=45–}}

Zheng Zhilong was said to be "very good looking" and when he first came to Japan he was 18 years old.{{cite book|author=Matsuda Wataru|title=Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdPbAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA191|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-82109-7|pages=191–}}

Tagawa was a few years older than Zheng and was in her early twenties when they met. There are different accounts of how they met. In one of them, she, along with other Japanese girls from samurai families, was waiting on the Daimyō Matsuura at an evening party when she met Zheng. The meeting may have been deliberately arranged by Matsuura or her parents to help marry her off to a foreigner.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=Lord+Matsuura+samurai+girls+Iquan+Tagawa+Yazayemon&pg=PT28|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}} In another account, Zheng met Tagawa while talking to girls at the beach in Hirado.{{cite book|author1=James Albert Michener|author2=Arthur Grove Day|title=Rascals in Paradise|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pH0CDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|year=2016|publisher=Dial Press|isbn=978-0-8129-8686-0|pages=83–}} In another, Tagawa, an ashigaru's daughter, was given to him by the daimyō.{{cite book|title=The Travel Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gULAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1936|pages=298}}

Another account by {{ill|Liu Xianting|zh|劉獻廷}} in Guangyang Zaji (廣陽雜記) said that Tagawa was a widow when she met Zheng. It said that Zheng Zhilong fled to Japan when he was young and worked as a tailor. He lost his life savings of three coppers on a road and was looking for them but couldn't find them. He started crying but a Japanese widow who was standing inside the gate of her house saw him and asked him what was wrong. Zheng Zhilong told her and then she said to him "With your skill, you could easily make 3 million coppers, how could you arrive at this situation over 3 coppers?" She then invited Zheng to spend the night with her and they gave themselves to each other.[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%BB%A3%E9%99%BD%E9%9B%9C%E8%A8%98/02 劉獻廷 廣陽雜記 卷二] 鄭芝龍幼逃入日本，為人縫紉，以糊其口。余貲三錢，縫衣領中，失去，旁皇於路以求之，不得而泣。有倭婦新寡，立於門內，見而問之，芝龍告以故。婦曰：「以汝材力，三百萬亦如拾芥，三錢何至於是？」蓋其婦夜有異夢如韓蘄王之夫人也。遂以厚貲贈之，而與之夜合。芝龍後得志，取以為室，即賜姓之母也。{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=three+coppers+japanese+widow&pg=PT29|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

Tagawa gave birth to Koxinga during a trip with her husband when she was collecting seashells on the Senli Beach, Sennai River Bank (川內浦千里濱), Hirado. She gave him the Japanese name Fukumatsu. Zheng Zhilong gave him the Chinese name Zheng Sen; his name was later changed to Zheng Chenggong and he was granted the title Koxinga.

The stone beside which she gave birth still exists today as the Koxinga Child Birth Stone Tablet (鄭成功兒誕石碑), which is 80-cm tall and 3-metre wide, and submerged during high tides.

According to legend, there was a whale washing ashore and a storm was he was born.[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E5%A4%96%E7%B4%80/%E5%8D%B701 江日昇 臺灣外記 卷一]　甫出門，見天昏地黑，雨箭風刀，飛沙走石，鼓浪興波，令人震怖。天明，鬨說海濤中有物，長數十丈，大數十圍，兩眼光爍似燈，噴水如雨，出沒翻騰鼓舞，揚威莫當。通國集觀，咸稱異焉。閱三晝夜方息。空中恍有金鼓聲，香氣達通衢。一官妻翁氏正在肚疼昏迷間，夢同眾人岸上觀大魚跳躍，對懷直沖，驚倒。醒來即分娩一男。一官聞之，不勝喜躍，方扶在『氈踏緜』上坐，忽聞四處吶叫：「救火！」一官忙啟戶視之，見眾人齊來門首，作躊躇狀。問曰：「列位！火在那裡起？」眾曰：「都見是你家失火，故群來救。至此又無，豈不怪異？」一官曰：「我家那有火起？或是拙荊臨盆，燈火射出。」眾人方知翁氏生子，俱向一官作賀曰：「令郎後日必大貴！我們眼見光亮達天，非恍惚也。」一官謝不敢，眾散去。翁氏忙問一官曰：「外面何故這般喧嘩？」一官將眾人之出言說了一遍。翁氏曰：「此亦奇異，我方纔疼絞之時，略定睡去，如日在岸上，看那大魚一般搖擺騰翻，沖我懷中，驚倒醒來遂產。」一官曰：「想此兒必有好處，當祕之，善為撫養。」正秋七月十四〈（一作十五日）〉夜子時也。{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa+accompany|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

Being in her early twenties, and being older than Zheng Zhilong, there is a possibility that Tagawa was a widow before she met Zheng, since it was unusual for a woman to not be married by this age. Tagawa was the first woman Zheng fell in love with, and they were viewed as having a common-law marriage already. However, the group of traders working with Captain China wanted to arrange for a Chinese woman, Lady Yan, to marry Zheng Zhilong.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=Iquan+Yan+Sixi&pg=PT30|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

After the birth of Koxinga, Zheng Zhilong still sometimes visited Tagawa in Japan, according to sources from their time.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=Tagawa+Iquan+visited+occasion&pg=PT51|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

She had another son named Shichizaemon in 1629 and gave him her family's surname, Tagawa. Sources say that Zheng Zhilong was the father, and that he visited Hirado to impregnate her with Shichizayemon{{cite book|author=Japan Society of London|title=Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O7ROAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1936|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Company|page=89}} and that he received the surname Tagawa because he was adopted by Tagawa Matsu's parents, but others say that Shichizaemon was the product of an unknown Japanese man, which is why he was given Tagawa's surname rather than Zheng's.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa+hirado&pg=PT68|date=2011-10-24|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=2016-01-05|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=45–}} He became an ashigaru samurai.{{cite book|author1-link=Tonio Andrade|author=Tonio Andrade|title=Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHUgTnxgotUC&pg=PA62|date=2011-10-03|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3953-7|pages=62–}} The Taiwan Waiji does not mention Shichizaemon.{{Cite journal |last=Sazvar |first=Nastaran |date=2010 |title=Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662): Ein Held Im Wandel Der Zeit: Die Verzerrung Einer Historischen Figur Durch Mythische Verklärung Und Politische Instrumentalisierung |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41417880 |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=58 |pages=153–247 |doi=10.1179/mon.2010.58.1.005 |jstor=41417880 |issn=0254-9948|url-access=subscription }} Louise Lux attributes both sons to Tagawa and Zheng Zhilong and says in 1624 he was 20 years old.{{cite book|author=Louise Lux|title=The Unsullied Dynasty & the Kʻang-hsi Emperor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfxVAAAAYAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1998|publisher=Mark One Printing|pages=83}} "Japan Magazine: A Representative Monthly of Things Japanese, Volume 19" attributes both sons to Tagawa and Zheng Zhilong.{{cite book|title=Japan Magazine: A Representative Monthly of Things Japanese|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mnVAAAAMAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1928|publisher=Japan Magazine Company|pages=441}}

Tagawa Matsu raised Koxinga in Japan by herself until he was seven, and her closeness with her son is evident in some of the accomplishment and decisions Koxinga made in his adult life. Koxinga was sent to live with his father in China in 1630.{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54|date=2016-01-05|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=54–}} The Taiwan Waiji (臺灣外記) says "every night he would face east and look to his mother, hiding his tears."{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=historical+novel+tagawa&pg=PT68|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}{{cite book|author1=James A. Michener|author2=A. Grove Day|title=Rascals in Paradise|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ay9PAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84|date=15 April 2014|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8041-5151-1|pages=84–}}[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E5%A4%96%E7%B4%80/%E5%8D%B703 江日昇 臺灣外記卷三] 九月北風起，國王同鄭芝龍書，送其子交芝燕、芝鶚載歸。翁氏臨別之際，悲喜交集〈（喜者，喜其父子相會；悲者，悲未得見夫君，今反失其子）〉，牽衣慟泣。芝燕、芝鶚共慰之，勸曰：「歸去商量，自當設法再來迎接。」隨解纜。順風十月到安海。芝龍望見其子儀容雄偉，聲音洪亮，屈指已七歲矣。追憶生時奇兆，甚喜。延師肆業，取名森，字大木，讀書穎敏。但每夜必翹首東向，咨嗟太息，而望其母〈（日本在東）〉。森之諸季父兄弟輩數窘之；獨叔父鄭鴻達甚器重焉〈（達字聖儀，別號羽公，庚戌進土）〉。每摩其頂曰：「此吾家千里駒也！」有相士見之曰：「郎君英物，骨格非常！」對芝龍稱賀。芝龍謝曰：「余武夫也，此兒倘能博一科目，為門第增光，則幸甚矣。」相者曰：「實濟世雄才，非止科甲中人。」性喜『春秋』，兼愛『孫吳』。制藝之外，則舞劍馳射；楚楚章句，特餘事耳。事其繼母顏氏最孝。於十一歲時，書齋課文，偶以小學『酒掃應對』為題，森後幅束股有「湯、武之征誅，一酒掃也；堯、舜之揖讓，一進退應對也。」先生驚其用意新奇。 Tagawa Matsu did not come because she did not want to abandon Shichizaemon and was not willing to send the younger Shichizaemon on the dangerous ship ride.{{cite book|author1=近松門左衛門|author2=Mark Van Doren|title=The battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's puppet play, its background and importance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJwPAAAAYAAJ&q=time+to+visit+shichizaemon+born|year=1951|publisher=Taylor's Foreign Press|pages=45}}

In 1645, she was reunited with Koxinga by moving to Quanzhou, Fujian.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=Tagawa+chose+to+leave+Japan+for+good+in+1645+Fujian&pg=PT115|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E5%A4%96%E7%B4%80/%E5%8D%B705 江日昇 臺灣外記 卷五] 十月，日本國王懼芝龍威權，認翁氏為女，粧奩甚盛，遣使送到安平，即成功生母也。 She moved to Anhai despite the Japanese ban on leaving.{{cite book|author=Ching-hsiung Wu|title=T'ien Hsia Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7VAAAAMAAJ&q=anhai+descendants|year=1940|publisher=Kelly and Walsh, Limited|pages=435}}

In 1646, when Koxinga was away fighting the Manchu Qings, the city was invaded by the Manchus. Koxinga, upon hearing of the invasion, immediately returned to Quanzhou, only to discover that his mother had killed herself in a refusal to surrender to the Manchus. After this, Koxinga developed increasingly powerful antagonism with the Manchus.

She is said in one source to have killed herself by stabbing herself in the neck.{{cite book|author1=James Albert Michener|author2=Arthur Grove Day|title=Rascals in Paradise|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pH0CDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA77|year=2016|publisher=Dial Press|isbn=978-0-8129-8686-0|pages=84–}} Koxinga cried when he found out his mother died.[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E5%A4%96%E7%B4%80/%E5%8D%B706 江日昇 臺灣外記 卷六 ] 二月，韓代奉貝勒世子命，統滿、漢騎步突至安平。鄭芝豹、芝鵬等懼兵威，不敢戰；斂其眾，挈家資、子女於巨艦，棄城出泊外海。成功生母倭婦翁氏手持劍不肯去，強之再四亦不行。大兵至，翁氏毅然拔劍割肚而死。成功聞報，擗踴號哭，縞素飛師前來。而韓代見船隻塞海，亦不敢守，棄之同泉。功殮其母，收整城池，與芝豹、芝鵬等守之。 The Japanese celebrate how Tagawa committed suicide while fighting and claim that the Manchus said "If the women of Japan are of such sort, what must the men be like?" and that the Manchus were afraid of Japanese because of her, and they would not want to fight Japanese men if Tagawa was what Japanese women were like.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=samurai+go+quietly+typical+japanese+moat+coxinga&pg=PT122|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}} The Japanese play The Battles of Coxinga said "Even though she was a woman, she did not forget her old home, and paid reverence to the land that gave her birth. Until her last breath she thought of the honor of Japan."{{cite book|author1=近松門左衛門|author2=Mark Van Doren|title=The battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's puppet play, its background and importance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJwPAAAAYAAJ|year=1951|publisher=Taylor's Foreign Press|pages=155}}{{cite book|author=Monzaemon Chikamatsu|title=Major Plays of Chikamatsu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UcWBA4cgpuIC&q=honor+japan&pg=PA264|year=1990|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-07415-5|pages=264–}} The Japanese claim she committed suicide while fighting and that she preferred "death" and had the "Yamato spirit" while what really occurred is unknown because of the many different versions offered from different sources.{{cite book|author1=近松門左衛門|author2=Mark Van Doren|title=The battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's puppet play, its background and importance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJwPAAAAYAAJ&q=tagawa|year=1951|publisher=Taylor's Foreign Press|pages=47}} The Japanese Foreign Affairs association during World War II cited Tagawa as an example of a Japanese who had "the spirit of facing certain death in order to live up to a cherished cause".{{cite book|title=Contemporary Japan: A Review of Japanese Affairs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4wTAAAAIAAJ&q=cheng|date=January 1943|publisher=Foreign affairs association of Japan.|pages=331}}

The Qing being responsible for killing Tagawa was something Zheng Zhilong had to live with since he did not know the Qing were going to kill her. The Qing did not trust him because they were the ones who got Tagawa killed so he might turn against the Qing if they let him go.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}} His Japanese blood is believed to be the cause for his violent propensity according to a Spanish missionary.{{cite book|author=Tonio Andrade|title=Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHUgTnxgotUC&pg=PA83|date=3 October 2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3953-7|pages=83–}}

Tagawa's real first name is unknown and she is only known by her surname Tagawa in Japan and China. According to Japanese folklore in Hirado her name was Matsu.{{cite book|author=Patrizia Carioti|title=Cina e Giappone sui mari nei secoli XVI e XVII|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_QvAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=2006|publisher=Edizioni scientifiche italiane|isbn=978-88-495-1291-5|pages=170}}角田文衛『日本の女性名――歴史的展望』国書刊行会 2006年（底本 教育社歴史新書 1980年–1988年 全3巻）p.287

In the Zheng family genealogy, Tagawa Matsu is recorded under the Sinicized name of Weng-shi. Some Chinese records indicated that this is because after she moved to Quanzhou, an old ironsmith neighbour, Weng Yihuang (翁翌皇),館森鴻《朱成功傳》：泉州鐵匠翁姓，住飛鸞台，為某邑主鍛鍊刀劍，曾娶田川氏女子。芝龍即聘其女而生成功，此即翁氏之由。 treated this foreigner newcomer like his own daughter.

There are a small number of Chinese sources mistaking Tagawa Matsu as Weng Yihuang's blood daughter, with a Japanese mother surnamed Tagawa. Chinese on Taiwan who seek to downplay Tagawa Matsu's Japanese identity accept this theory that she was the daughter of the Chinese Weng Yihuang and a Japanese Tagawa woman, making Koxinga only one fourth Japanese through one Japanese grandmother.

According to hearsay heard by Tatemori Kō, Tagawa Matsu was the daughter of a Japanese woman Tagawa and the Chinese swordsmith Weng (Ō in Japanese), Tagawa married Weng after the Hirado Daimyo had a sword forged for him by Weng after he went from China to Japan, and then the Tagawa woman and Weng had a daughter (Tagawa Matsu) who married Zheng Zhilong, according to the 1913 book Shu Seiko Den by Tatemori Ko.{{cite book|author=Japan Society of London|title=Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O7ROAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1936|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Company|page=84}} The Taiwan source "Free China Review" also claims this.{{cite book|title=Free China Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAUjAQAAMAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1971|publisher=W.Y. Tsao|pages=22}}{{cite book|title=Free China Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_AiAQAAMAAJ&q=tagawa+weng+father|year=1969|publisher=W.Y. Tsao|pages=25}}{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa+weng+father&pg=PT29|date=2011-10-24|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

This is unlikely, as this would necessitate either Weng Yihuang moving to Japan (as he was an ironsmith, neither a sailor nor a trader) or the migration of the Tagawa women back and forth between the two nations (as traveling of women was restricted).

Other sources say that Weng Yihuang was her stepfather, that Weng Yihuang married Tagawa Matsu's widowed Japanese mother after Tagawa Matsu's Japanese father died and adopted her as his stepdaughter.湯錦台《開啟台灣第一人鄭芝龍》，頁七十五。伊能嘉矩《台灣文化誌》：「有泉州鐵匠翁翊皇其人，曾寄寓於平戶而歸化於日本，因無子而以田川氏之女為子。其間鄭芝龍疊次來遊，遂娶此女云。」史籍中無田川之名諱。但由平戶市教育委員會所製作的導覽牌上，則稱「鄭芝龍和平戶的女性（傳說為「田川マツ」）生下鄭成功。」「マツ」即「松」。

The Zheng family's enemies attacked Tagawa by suggesting she was a Japanese prostitute Zheng Zhilong picked up, while Tagawa's Japanese descendants claim she was a descendant of the Japanese Imperial family.{{cite book |author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa+prostitute+princess&pg=PT28|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}{{cite book|title=T'ien Hsia Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzEZAAAAIAAJ|year=1938|pages=493}} This traces her descent to Japan's 50th Emperor, Kammu Tenno, 19 generations from Tagawa Matsu through Taira no Shigemori and Tagawa Yazayemon 田川 弥左衛門. The English diplomat R. A. B Posonby-Fane pushed the theory that Tagawa was a Japanese woman from a high class Samurai background. It is agreed by modern historians that she was neither and that she was a Japanese girl from an average Samurai family, not of high rank and not a prostitute. There is no proof for either the accusation that she was a prostitute or the claim that she was of aristocratic descent.{{cite book|title=T'ien Hsia Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DQZAAAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+sources+chinese+prostitute|year=1940|pages=416}}{{cite book|author=Ching-hsiung Wu|title=T'ien Hsia Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7VAAAAMAAJ&q=tagawa+sources+chinese+prostitute|year=1940|publisher=Kelly and Walsh, Limited|pages=416}}{{cite book|author1=近松門左衛門|author2=Mark Van Doren|title=The battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's puppet play, its background and importance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJwPAAAAYAAJ&q=chinese+certainly+tagawa+partizans|year=1951|publisher=Taylor's Foreign Press|pages=45}} Donald Keene pointed out that there was a real marriage between Zheng Zhilong and Miss Tagawa despite Zheng also later marrying a Chinese woman, so she was not a prostitute or a courtesan.{{cite book|author1=近松門左衛門|author2=Mark Van Doren|title=The battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's puppet play, its background and importance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJwPAAAAYAAJ&q=tagawa+outranked+real|year=1951|publisher=Taylor's Foreign Press|pages=45}}

Japanese sources say she was full blooded Japanese. Japanese sources say that her samurai father was either Lord Matsuura's Samurai Tagawa Yazayemon or her father's name was Tagawa Shichizaemon whom she named her second son after.{{cite book|author=Ryōtarō Shiba|title=The Tatar Whirlwind: A Novel of Seventeenth-century East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJ0PAAAAYAAJ&q=time+to+visit+shichizaemon+born|year=2007|publisher=Floating World Editions|isbn=978-1-891640-46-9|pages=426}}{{Cite web|url=http://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/modules/d3ndlcrdentry/index.php?page=ref_view&id=1000151732|title=中国明の軍人・鄭成功の母「田川マツ」について書かれた本を探しています。}}{{Cite web|url=http://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/detail?page=ref_view&id=1000151732|title = 中国明の軍人・鄭成功の母「田川マツ」について書かれた本を探しています。}} According to stories passed down by Japanese in Hirado, Tagawa Matsu's father was Tagawa Shichizaemon (田川七左衛門) whom she named her second son after.

The samurai Tagawa Yazayemon was an ashigaru according to Hirado folklore and there was nothing else describing him as that according to Inagaki. In Taiyo, an article was written by Matsui Nobuaki which said that Tagawa Yazayemon was not Tagawa Matsu's father but instead her father was Tagawa Shichizayemon.{{cite book|author=Japan Society of London|title=Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O7ROAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1936|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Company|page=87}}

Wong said he cannot link her to the Ashigaru or the Tagawa samurai family.{{cite book|author=Young-tsu Wong|title=China's Conquest of Taiwan in the Seventeenth Century: Victory at Full Moon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tL4vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|date=2017-08-05|publisher=Springer Singapore|isbn=978-981-10-2248-7|pages=39–}}

The Tokugawa Japanese Shogunate compiled work, the Account of the Keicho Era (Keicho shosetsu) says that "While Zhilong was initially in Hirado, he married a woman, née Tagawa of a samurai family."{{cite book |author=Matsuda Wataru|title=Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdPbAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-82109-7|pages=192–}}{{cite book|author=NA NA|title=Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rQYDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|date=30 April 2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|isbn=978-1-137-08365-4|pages=192–}}{{cite book|title=Sino-Japanese Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywcvAQAAIAAJ&q=tagawa+hirado|year=1993|publisher=Sino-Japanese Studies Group |pages=22}}{{cite book|author=Wataru Masuda|title=Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rz2x_TF-oIC&q=time+to+visit+shichizaemon+born|year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1120-8|pages=192}}

In Koxinga Memorial Temple (鄭成功祠) in Tainan, Taiwan, Tagawa Matsu's ancestral tablet is placed in a chamber called the Shrine of Queen Dowager Weng ({{zh|c=翁太妃祠|p=Wēng Tàifēi Cí|l=Shrine of Royal Consort/Queen Dowager Weng}}). The title "queen dowager" is a posthumous title based on the princeship/kingship of Koxinga (Prince-King of Yanping Prefecture) in the Southern Ming Empire.

Tagawa's ancestral tablet was saved after the Qing attack.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Clements|title=Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLQTDQAAQBAJ&q=tagawa+ancestral+tablet+descendants&pg=PT132|date=24 October 2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7382-6}}

Tagawa Matsu's descendants through Koxinga live in both mainland China and Taiwan and her descendants through Shichizaemon live in Japan. Her descendants through her great-grandson Zheng Keshuang served as Han Bannermen in Beijing until 1911 when the Xinhai revolution broke out and the Qing dynasty fell, after which they moved back to Anhai and Nan'an in southern Fujian in mainland China. They still live there to this day.{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&q=beijing+returned&pg=PA239|date=5 January 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=239–}} Her descendants through her grandson Zheng Kuan live in Taiwan.{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA233|date=5 January 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=233–}} Zheng Daoshun was the son of Shichizaemon and he adopted the Zheng surname.{{cite book|author=Xing Hang|title=Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c.1620–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ10CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA304|date=5 January 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-45384-1|pages=239–}}

The "Asiatic Society of Japan" said "It was five years after the birth of Tei Seikō [Koxinga] that his father [Zheng Zhilong] left for China and accepted the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial forces. Soon after his departure, his wife gave birth to a second son who was named Shichizaemon" who spend his life wholly in Japan and did not develop the love for adventure and renown which made his elder brother so famous. " "The descendants of Shichizaemon served the Government for many years as interpreters of Chinese, and there reside to this day in Nagasaki certain Japanese who point with pride to their ancestor."{{cite book|author=Asiatic Society of Japan|title=Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpVJAQAAMAAJ&q=visit+shichizaemon+born&pg=RA3-PA121|year=1895|publisher=R. Meiklejohn|pages=3–}}

One of Tagawa's Chinese descendants, Zheng Xiaoxuan (鄭曉嵐) the father of Zheng Chouyu, fought against the Japanese invaders in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Zheng Chouyu (鄭愁予) was born in Shandong in mainland China in 1933 and called himself a "child of the resistance" against Japan and he became a refugee during the war, moving from place to place across China to avoid the Japanese. He moved to Taiwan in 1949 and focuses his work on building stronger ties between Taiwan and mainland China.https://www.shs.edu.tw/works/essay/2009/11/2009111500062180.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521104806/https://www.shs.edu.tw/works/essay/2009/11/2009111500062180.pdf |date=2018-05-21 }} {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}{{cite book|title=二刻拍案驚奇全|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yO53CwAAQBAJ&q=%E9%84%AD%E5%AE%B6%E9%9A%A8&pg=PA300|publisher=右灰文化傳播有限公司|pages=300–|id=GGKEY:KLY7X8TDRE8}}{{cite book|title=保定府志: 79卷, 卷首1卷|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xYkrAAAAYAAJ&q=%E9%84%AD%E5%AE%B6%E9%9A%A8&pg=PP306|pages=306–}}https://www.shs.edu.tw/works/essay/2008/03/2008033121092323.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517095257/http://www.shs.edu.tw/works/essay/2008/03/2008033121092323.pdf |date=2018-05-17 }} {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}} Zheng Chouyu was born in mainland China, he identified as Chinese and he felt alienated after he was forced to move to Taiwan in 1949 which was previously under Japanese rule and felt strange and foreign to him.{{cite book|author=Chung-To Au|title=Modernist Aesthetics in Taiwanese Poetry Since The 1950s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNuWwKyA49oC&pg=PA154|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-16707-0|pages=154–}} He is Koxinga's 11th generation descendant and his original name is Zheng Wenji.{{cite news |date=2016-10-25 |title= 八旬诗人郑愁予 鼓浪屿聊诗歌 |url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/book/2016-10/25/c_129336326.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520234934/http://www.xinhuanet.com/book/2016-10/25/c_129336326.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 20, 2018 |work=北京晚报 }}

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Category:1601 births

Category:1647 deaths

Category:House of Koxinga

Category:Japanese emigrants to China

Category:17th-century Japanese women

Category:Deified Japanese women