Hojo Masako Boiled Potatoes

Remembering making boiled potatoes in home economics class when I was in junior high school, I decided to try making something similar, even though I don't remember the recipe.

4 small potatoes
Aonori (dried green seaweed) to taste
30 grams of butter
Black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of salt

Names ending in 'ko' are likely female. Well, there might be fewer women with names ending in 'ko' these days, but regardless, I'm cooking while fantasizing about Hojo Masako.
Actually, this might overturn the premise from the start, but there is no evidence that Minamoto no Yoritomo's wife was named Masako.
It was a name given for convenience in documents when the Imperial Court granted her the third rank in the sixth year of Kenpo (1218), and it is unlikely she was actually called that. The fact that Yoritomo calls her Masako in period dramas is impossible. Well, dramas have to be easy to understand, so it can't be helped.

Masako was born as the eldest daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, a samurai in Izu Province. (As mentioned above, her real name is unknown, but I will write it this way for convenience.)
One day, she heard a strange dream from her younger sister.
'I had a dream where the sun and the moon entered my palms at the same time.'
'That is an omen of something not good. I will buy that dream from you.'
She said this and exchanged her own kosode (kimono) for her sister's dream.
Buying a formless dream is a strange story. Does this mean people in this era normally believed in spiritual things?
If she bought a nightmare for her sister, you might think how kind she is, but actually, this is a lucky dream. If she knew that and bought it, is she quite the strategist?

Her father, Hojo Tokimasa, was the overseer of Minamoto no Yoritomo, a nobleman exiled from the capital. However, his daughter Masako fell in love with Yoritomo. Fearing that if the Taira clan in the capital found out, the Hojo family itself would be in danger, he tried to make them break up, but the two eloped to Hakone Gongen.
In the end, Tokimasa gave in and became Yoritomo's father-in-law and supporter.
This was the beginning of the lucky dream Masako bought.
The subsequent developments are as most Japanese people know. Yoritomo raised an army, destroyed the Taira clan, opened a shogunate in Kamakura, and became the head of the samurai government. (Actually, the name 'shogunate' is also a historical term used for convenience. There was no organization clearly named that.)

Hojo Masako is said to be one of the three great wicked women of Japan. The other two are Hino Tomiko and Yodo-dono.
They are likely called that because of the image of having a fierce temper and being stronger than men. As an anecdote that tells of this, there is the story of 'uwanari-uchi' (a wife attacking her husband's mistress).
While Masako was away for childbirth, Yoritomo had a tryst with a woman named Kame no Mae. Upon learning this, Masako ordered Maki Munechika to destroy the mansion where Kame no Mae lived.
However, the custom of 'uwanari-uchi' was commonly practiced until the Edo period, so it cannot be said that only Masako was particularly terrifying.
After this, Munechika was blamed by Yoritomo for not informing him in advance. Was this just collateral damage from a marital quarrel?
However, she was by no means just a fierce woman. When Shizuka, the beloved concubine of Minamoto no Yoshitsune who was brought to Kamakura, performed a song and dance longing for Yoshitsune and Yoritomo was enraged, she spoke of the time they eloped to Hakone Gongen, persuaded Yoritomo that Shizuka's feelings were the same as hers at that time, calmed her husband's anger, and protected Shizuka.
It is said that when Shizuka returned to the capital, she gave her many gifts.

After Yoritomo's death, his two sons who succeeded him, Yoriie and Sanetomo, were both killed. It is sometimes said that she was involved in that as well. Furthermore, she exiled her father, Tokimasa, to Izu.
Masako, who became a nun, was even called the Nun Shogun. Together with her younger brother Yoshitoki, she sometimes stood on the front lines to protect the shogunate.
The story of her giving a speech to the retainers who were hesitant to draw their bows against the Imperial Court during the Jokyu War, telling them to remember the favors they received from the late Yoritomo, is one such example.

When they have crumbled nicely, sprinkle with aonori and it is complete.
Although potatoes are high in carbohydrates, they contain potassium, which helps excrete salt, magnesium, which helps prevent high blood pressure, and dietary fiber.
Aonori contains trace elements such as iodine, manganese, and nickel. It is said that only Japanese people can digest and absorb seaweed.
The yellow of the potatoes and the green of the aonori are colorful. The black pepper tightens the flavor of the butter.

I believe that Hojo Masako, as a woman, wanted to protect the system of the shogunate that she had built together with Yoritomo. She had the resolve not to let anyone, not even her father or son, stand in her way. Given that the shogunate she built with her husband was more important to her than her own family, she might indeed be considered more masculine than most men.
After the Minamoto shoguns died out after three generations, Masako's younger brother, Yoshitoki, welcomed a shogun from the Sekkan family. However, the Azuma Kagami describes Masako as the Kamakura-dono—the de facto head of the shogunate—from the time of Sanetomo's death until her own passing. This truly makes her the 'Nun Shogun'.

While flour-coated potatoes are often used as a side dish for meat, I have seasoned them thoroughly with black pepper and salt so that they can stand proudly as a main dish.
Thinking of Hojo Masako, a woman who was never a mere accessory to men, but who demonstrated her will through action and could be said to have effectively ruled Japan for a time, I enjoyed this Hojo Masako flour-coated potato dish.