nun). Suwa was born in 1555 as daughter of Iida Naomasa who served the Takeda clan. Then she became a wife of Kamio Tadashige, a retainer of the Imagawa clan. During the marriage she had two sons, after the death of her husband, she was called by Ieyasu.

In May 1579, Ieyasu invited Suwa to a meeting at Hamamatsu Castle. He offered to have her join the Tokugawa family as his concubine. Suwa accepted and became a member