The Rogue Princess and the Onna Musha - E-book - ePub

Lady Hsi Ling Shih is a mythical woman also known as the Goddess of Silk. It is said that as she was resting in the imperial gardens under a mulberry tree, suddenly a silkworm cocoon fell into her hot teacup. Still sitting there, she decided to toy with the cocoon using her chopsticks. She dunked the cocoon several times as it floated to the surface. When asked what she was doing she said I am trying to remove the cocoon from my teacup.
It was then she noticed a shining thread starting to unravel from the cocoon. She began wrapping the single strand of silk around the chopsticks. Gradually the chopsticks were covered with silk. Later she unraveled the silk and noticed its strength. Shortly thereafter, Lady Hsi Ling Shih became curious and discovered a settlement of silkworms living in the mulberry tree and this inspired her to practice unravelling the single strand of silk which later developed silk weaving methods known today as sericulture.
Princess Hsi Ling Shih's (Wake-hime) was an independent woman. She had made her bones in life after escaping her stepmother's deceit and jealousy via a lonely and courageous sea voyage to Gogoshima island. She endured five intense years of training in military strategy as a Shinobi infiltrator and mercenary, skilled in the art of poisons, guerrilla warfare and Military siege. Wakegoro was confident enough to send her on multiple clandestine  missions because of her attractiveness.
Later he extended her training to become a bodyguard for officials and espionage missions. After completing multiple missions and receiving several sponsors, she was  adopted into the maritime Kono family clan of Kaizoku, sea tribes.  During this five years of training Wake-hime also received intensive training as an Onna-musha, a women Samurai, with its moral code of Bushido concerning attitudes, behavior, and lifestyle.
This severe cross training between Shinobi and Samurai was accepted by the Kono family clan because of her prominence.