Minamoto no Yoritomo

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Minamoto no Yoritomo
源 頼朝
Shōgun
In office
July 12, 1192 – February 9, 1199
MonarchGo-Toba
Preceded byShogunate established
Succeeded byMinamoto no Yoriie
Head of the Kawachi Genji (Minamoto clan)
Preceded byMinamoto no Yoshitomo
Succeeded byMinamoto no Yoriie
Personal details
BornMay 9, 1147[citation needed]
Atsuta, Owari Province
DiedFebruary 9, 1199 (aged 51)[1]
Kamakura, Kamakura shogunate
SpouseHōjō Masako
Relations
Children
Parents
Relatives
Signature
Genpei war
(1180 - 1185)

Minamoto no Yoritomo (源 頼朝, May 9, 1147 – February 9, 1199) was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate and of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first shogun in the history of Japan.[2] He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (shikken) after his death.

Yoritomo was the son of

bakufu) at Kamakura, beginning the feudal age in Japan
, which lasted until the mid-19th century.

Early life

Gate of Seigan-ji in Nagoya, the site of the former family villa and his birthplace

Yoritomo was the third son of

Minamoto (Seiwa Genji) clan, and his official wife, Yura-Gozen, daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, High Priest of Atsuta Shrine and a member of the powerful Fujiwara clan. Yoritomo was born in the family villa, on the western side of Atsuta Shrine, in Atsuta, Nagoya, Owari Province[3][4][5] (present-day Seigan-ji). At the time, his grandfather Minamoto no Tameyoshi was the head of the Minamoto clan. His childhood name was Oniwakamaru (鬼武丸). He was a descendant of Emperor Seiwa.[1]

In 1156, factional divisions in the court erupted into open warfare within the

: 210–211, 255 

The

Minamoto clan, while Yoritomo became the heir.[6]

Yoritomo and the

Taira clan, now under the leadership of Kiyomori, and the Minamoto clan, under the leadership of Yoshitomo, began to factionalize again.[6]
: 239–241, 256–257 

Four years later, Kiyomori supported

Taira took control of Kyoto. Shinzei's mansion was attacked by the Taira; Shinzei escaped, only to be captured and decapitated shortly thereafter. The Taira then burned the ex-emperor's palace, defeating the Minamoto. Yoshitomo fled the capital but was later betrayed and executed by a retainer.[6]

In the aftermath, harsh terms were imposed on the Minamoto and their allies. Only Yoshitomo's three young boys remained alive, so that Kiyomori and the Taira clan were now the undisputed leaders of Japan.[6]: 258–260  Yoritomo, the new head of the Minamoto, was not executed by Kiyomori because of pleas from Kiyomori's stepmother but was exiled. Yoritomo's brothers, Minamoto no Noriyori and Minamoto no Yoshitsune were also allowed to live.[7]

Yoritomo grew up in exile. He married into the Hōjō clan, led by Hōjō Tokimasa, marrying Tokimasa's daughter, Hōjō Masako.[7]: 147 [6]: 371  Meanwhile, he was notified of events in Kyoto.[8]

Family

Parents

Consorts and issues

  • Possible Wife: Yaehime (八重姫), daughter of Itō Sukechika (伊東 祐親)
    • Chizurumaru (千鶴丸), possible first son
  • Wife: Hōjō Masako[9] (北条 政子, 1156 – August 16, 1225), daughter of Hōjō Tokimasa (北条 時政)
    • Ohime (大姫, 1178 – August 28, 1197), Fiance of Minamoto no Yoshitaka (源 義高), first daughter
    • Minamoto no Yoriie (Japanese: 源 頼家, September 11 1182 – August 14, 1204), first son[2]
    • Lady Mihata (三幡, 1186 – July 24, 1199), second daughter
    • Minamoto no Sanetomo (源 実朝, September 12 1192 – February 12, 1219, r. 1203–1219), third son[10]
  • Concubine: Kame no Mae (亀の前)[citation needed]
  • Concubine: Daishin no Tsubone (大進局), daughter of Date Tomomune (伊達朝宗)
    • Jōgyō (貞暁, March 18, 1186 – May 27, 1231 ), also known as Kamamura Hōin (鎌倉法印), second son

Call to arms and the Genpei War (1180–1185)

Minamoto no Yoritomo scroll painting, late 14th century

In 1180,

Taira. Yoritomo took part in this, especially after tensions escalated between the Taira and Minamoto after the death of Minamoto no Yorimasa and Prince Mochihito himself.[6]
: 278–281, 291 

Yoritomo established himself as the rightful heir of the

Kamakura to the east. Not all Minamoto thought of Yoritomo as rightful heir, however. His uncle, Minamoto no Yukiie, and his cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka, conspired against him.[6]
: 296 

In September 1180, Yoritomo was defeated at the

Chiba). Yoritomo spent the next six months raising a new army.[6]
: 289–291 

Taira no Kiyomori died in 1181 and the Taira clan was now led by Taira no Munemori.[6]: 287  Munemori took a much more aggressive policy against the Minamoto and attacked Minamoto bases from Kyoto in the Genpei War. Nonetheless, Yoritomo was well protected in Kamakura.

His brothers Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Minamoto no Noriyori defeated the Taira in several battles, but they could not stop Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Yoritomo's rival, from entering Kyoto in 1183 and chasing the Taira south. The Taira took Emperor Antoku with them.[6]: 289–305  In 1184, the Minamoto replaced Antoku with Emperor Go-Toba as the new emperor.[6]: 319 

From 1181 to 1184, a de facto truce with the Taira-dominated court allowed Yoritomo the time to build an administration of his own, centered on his military headquarters in Kamakura. In the end he triumphed over his rival cousins, who sought to steal control of the clan from him, and over the

bakufu
(shogunate) at Kamakura, beginning the feudal age in Japan which lasted until the mid-19th century.

Later years and death

An ukiyo-e by Yoshitoshi depicting Yoritomo and his retainers releasing cranes to mourn for the war dead in the Mutsu and Dewa Conquest.

In December 1185, Go-Shirakawa granted Yoritomo the authority to collect the commissariat tax (the hyoro-mai or levy contribution of rice) and to appoint stewards (jito) and constables (shugo). Thus the Throne "handed to the leader of the military class effective jurisdiction in matters of land tenure and the income derived from agriculture".[attribution needed]

In the summer of 1189, Yoritomo invaded and subjugated

feudal state was now organized in Kamakura while Kyoto was relegated to the role of "national ceremony and ritual".[6]
: 317–318, 327, 329, 331 

Yoritomo gathered his gokenin in May 1193 and arranged a grand hunting event, Fuji no Makigari. On May 16, Yoritomo's 12-year-old son Yoriie shot a deer for the first time. Hunting was stopped and a festival was held in the evening. Yoritomo rejoiced in his son's achievement and sent a messenger to his wife Masako, but Masako sent the messenger back, saying that a military commander's son being able to shoot a deer is nothing to celebrate.[12]

The

executed later.[13]

Yoritomo was ordained as a

Buddhist monk in 1199 and left his home. He received the Buddhist name
Bukōshōgendaizenmon (武皇嘯厚大禅門). He died two days later at the age of 51.

Appearance and personality

According to The Tale of Heiji, Yoritomo was "more adult-like than others of his age", and the figure of a young warrior Yoritomo appears in the picture scroll of The Tale of Heiji. Genpei Jōsuiki describes Yoritomo saying "his face is large and appearance is beautiful." The imperial messenger Nakahara no Yasusada, who met Yoritomo in Kamakura in August 1183, said that "he is short and his face is large, his appearance is graceful and language is civilized."[14]

shudō with Yoshinao[who?], a member of the Imperial Guard.[16]

Historian Hideo Kuroda organized and examined the portraits and statues of Minamoto no Yoritomo and has concluded as follows. When comparing the statues of Minamoto no Yoritomo in Higashihirozo and

kariginu was remodeled into a sokutai, the formal dress of the shogun, by adding a hirao and sekitai. Kuroda argues that the statue was originally a statue of Hōjō Tokiyori sculpted in Kamakura in the 14th century, but after the original statue of Yoritomo was lost, an altered statue of Tokiyori was used as a replacement. On the other hand, he considers the inscription on the statue of Minamoto no Yoritomo in Kai Province, Zenkō-ji to be the name of the repairer instead of the name of the sculptor, and that it was made at the request of Hōjō Masako in the first quarter of the 13th century. Thus, Kuroda concludes that this statue is the only accurate depiction of Minamoto no Yoritomo.[17]

Legacy

Presumed portrait of Minamoto no Yoritomo, Kamakura period, Tokyo National Museum.

In the words of

George Bailey Sansom, "Yoritomo was a truly great man … his foresight was remarkable, but so was his practical good sense in setting up machinery to match his own expanding power."[6]
: 334–335 

Yoritomo's wife's family, the Hōjō, took control after his death at Kamakura, maintaining power over the shogunate until 1333, under the title of shikken (regent to the shōgun). One of his brothers-in-law was Ashikaga Yoshikane.[18]

Grave of Yoritomo in Kamakura

The stone pagoda traditionally believed to be his grave is still maintained today, adjacent to Shirahata Shrine, a short distance from the spot believed to be the site of the so-called Ōkura Bakufu, his shogunate's administrative-governmental offices.

Cultural references

He appears as a hero unit in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and as a hero unit in Total War: Shogun 2.

A character named "Yoritomo" appears in Book 6: "The Lords of the Rising Sun" in the Fabled Lands adventure gamebook series, where Yoritomo is the self-proclaimed shōgun and on the verge of war with "Lord Kiyomori".

He appears as the final boss in

Genpei Toma Den, an arcade game created by Namco in which the player character is Taira no Kagekiyo
, another Japanese historical figure.

He also appears as a prominent character in the 2021 anime series The Heike Story.

Eras of Yoritomo's bakufu

The years in which Yoritomo was shōgun are more specifically identified by more than one

nengō
.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Minamoto no Yoritomo at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. ^ a b Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in Japan Encyclopedia, , p. 635, at Google Books.
  3. ^ "系図纂要(Keizusanyo)"
  4. ^ "尾張名所図会(Owarimeishozue)"
  5. ^ "尾張志(owarishi)"
  6. ^ .
  7. ^ .
  8. .
  9. .
  10. ^ Nussbaum, p. 634
  11. .
  12. ^ Azuma Kagami (吾妻鏡). Japan. pp. Article May 22, 1193.
  13. .
  14. .
  15. .
  16. ^ Homosexuality & Civilization by Louis Crompton. Published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University in 2003. Page 420.
  17. .
  18. ^ Nussbaum, "Ashikaga Yoshikane" at Minamoto no Yoritomo, p. 56, at Google Books

References

External links

  • Ōmachi, by the Kamakura Citizen's Net, accessed on September 30, 2008
  • Atsuta History Course, (include "Seigan-ji Temple" Birthplace of Minamoto-no Yoritomo)
Military offices
Shogunate established
Shōgun
:
Minamoto no Yoritomo

1192–1199
Succeeded by