As far as I can tell, Tomoe Gozen (Lady Tomoe) [note that Gozen is not a surname, plus Japanese usually put family names first before given names], is
either fictional or largely romanticized. For one thing,
Heike Monogatari (
The Tale
of Heike) is an "epic account" (many places compare it with The Iliad, which is clearly fictional and/or romanticized in many places). You can
find some overview info about her at
Wikipedia and
Samurai archives which give sources, including quoting her description from
the English translation by McCullough (1988) (if you want, I can grab the original Japanese also...but figure many people here won't be able to read
it):
Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman
she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode
unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an
oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.
Sounds pretty epic. It also sounds like she's every male samurai's aspiration. Not only was she basically perfect in appearance but also perfect in
fighting abilities. I mean...like
too perfect. Furthermore, while women did fight occasionally during these times for various reasons, it is
not until much later (approximately 17th century onward) that clear historical accounts of women samurai seem to appear, as far as I can tell. When I
say historical accounts, I mean that it is not only a signal story/account/document, but that several different contemporary accounts of that person
exist and corroborate most or all of the same facts/details about the same person. I also cannot find any other contemporary details about Tomoe
Gozen. It seems that
Heike Monogatari inspired additional stories which appeared after her purported death, which is fairly common. For
example,
Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) had lots of offshoot stories, but Genji was largely historical fictional as well and was written
prior to
Heike Monogatari, so it's not impossible that this was a work of fiction with a basis in history.
Now, it seems to me that if she was such an amazing samurai, and a woman to boot (which was rare around this time), it would have sparked more
historical accounts of her deeds and existence, in general. I'm not claiming that she did not exist, but we don't even know her surname... This
seems a bit odd, since she was known for more deeds than Yoshinaka's other warriors. There's also the fact that people don't seem to know about her
pre-marriage history, nor do all historians agree when/where/how she died. This may have been intentional on her part...or it could be because she
was fictional and there was nothing to agree upon - just inspiration from the story.
My point is that you should be careful assuming too much about her existence and do a lot of research before you easily settle on using her for
seances. Assuming she's real...great! But assuming she's not, you may have spirits who are taking advantage of your assumptions and/or lack of
knowledge on the subject. Just be careful.
This leads me to a question, actually. If you call upon a fictional entity (based on memes, fiction, etc.) in a seance... what happens? I mean, if
you have an interaction with something, what would that mean? Would it mean that because you call upon it, it exists anyway - in the way that you
imagine it? Or would it mean something else entirely (such as spirits taking advantage of you)?