Sengoku period
The Sengoku period is a period in Japanese history marked by social upheaval, political intrigue and near-constant military conflict. Japanese historians named it after the otherwise unrelated Warring States period in China, it was initiated by the Ōnin War, which collapsed the Japanese feudal system under the Ashikaga shogunate, came to an end when the system was re-established under the Tokugawa shogunate by Tokugawa Ieyasu. During this period, although the Emperor of Japan was the ruler of his nation and every lord swore loyalty to him, he was a marginalized and religious figure who delegated power to the shōgun, a noble, equivalent to a generalissimo. In the years preceding this era the Shogunate lost influence and control over the daimyōs. Although the Ashikaga shogunate had retained the structure of the Kamakura shogunate and instituted a warrior government based on the same social economic rights and obligations established by the Hōjō with the Jōei Code in 1232, it failed to win the loyalty of many daimyōs those whose domains were far from the capital, Kyoto.
Many of these Lords began to fight uncontrollably with each other for control over land and influence over the shogunate. As trade with Ming China grew, the economy developed, the use of money became widespread as markets and commercial cities appeared. This, combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, led to the desire for greater local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy; as early as the beginning of the 15th century, the suffering caused by earthquakes and famines served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt and taxes. The Ōnin War, a conflict rooted in economic distress and brought on by a dispute over shogunal succession, is regarded as the onset of the Sengoku period; the "eastern" army of the Hosokawa family and its allies clashed with the "western" army of the Yamana. Fighting in and around Kyoto lasted for nearly 11 years, leaving the city completely destroyed; the conflict in Kyoto spread to outlying provinces. The period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan.
After Tokugawa Ieyasu's final victory at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled down into several centuries of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. The Ōnin War in 1467 is considered the starting point of the Sengoku period. There are several events which could be considered the end of it: Nobunaga's entry to Kyoto or abolition of the Muromachi shogunate, the Siege of Odawara, the Battle of Sekigahara, the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, or the Siege of Osaka; the upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, throughout Japan regional lords, called daimyōs, rose to fill the vacuum. In the course of this power shift, well-established clans such as the Takeda and the Imagawa, who had ruled under the authority of both the Kamakura and Muromachi bakufu, were able to expand their spheres of influence. There were many, whose positions eroded and were usurped by more capable underlings; this phenomenon of social meritocracy, in which capable subordinates rejected the status quo and forcefully overthrew an emancipated aristocracy, became known as gekokujō, which means "low conquers high".
One of the earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun, who rose from humble origins and seized power in Izu Province in 1493. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Late Hōjō clan remained a major power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Other notable examples include the supplanting of the Hosokawa clan by the Miyoshi, the Toki by the Saitō, the Shiba clan by the Oda clan, in turn replaced by its underling, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a son of a peasant with no family name. Well-organized religious groups gained political power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance and rebellion against the rule of the daimyōs; the monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect formed numerous Ikkō-ikki, the most successful of which, in Kaga Province, remained independent for nearly 100 years. After nearly a century of political instability and warfare, Japan was on the verge of unification by Oda Nobunaga, who had emerged from obscurity in the province of Owari to dominate central Japan, when in 1582 Oda was assassinated by one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide.
This in turn provided Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had risen through the ranks from ashigaru to become one of Oda's most trusted generals, with the opportunity to establish himself as Oda's successor. Toyotomi consolidated his control over the remaining daimyōs and, although he was ineligible for the title of Sei-i Taishōgun because of his common birth, ruled as Kampaku. During his short reign as Kampaku, Toyotomi attempted two invasions of Korea; the first spanning from 1592 to 1596 was successful but suffered setbacks to end in stalemate. When Toyotomi died in 1598 without leaving a capable successor, the country was once again thrust into political turmoil, this time Tokugawa Ieyasu took advantage of the opportunity. Toyotomi had on his deathbed appointed a group of the most powerful lords in Japan—Tokugawa, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Mōri Terumoto—to govern as the Council of
Shōgun
The Shōgun was the military dictator of Japan during the period from 1185 to 1868. The shogunate was their government. In most of this period, the shōguns were the de facto rulers of the country, although nominally they were appointed by the Emperor as a ceremonial formality; the shōguns held absolute power over territories through military means. An unusual situation occurred in the Kamakura period upon the death of the first shōgun, whereby the Hōjō clan's hereditary titles of shikken and tokusō dominated the shogunate as dictatorial positions, collectively known as the Regent Rule; the shōguns during this 134-year period met the same fate as the Emperor and were reduced to figurehead status until a coup d'état in 1333, when the shōgun was restored to power in the name of the Emperor. Shōgun is the short form of Sei-i Taishōgun, the individual governing the country at various times in the history of Japan, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867; the tent symbolized the field commander but denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary.
The shōgun's officials were collectively the bakufu, were those who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority. In this context, the office of the shōgun had a status equivalent to that of a viceroy or governor-general, but in reality, shōguns dictated orders to everyone including the reigning Emperor. In contemporary terms, the role of the shōgun was equivalent to that of a generalissimo; the title of Sei-i Taishōgun was given to military commanders during the early Heian period for the duration of military campaigns against the Emishi, who resisted the governance of the Kyoto-based imperial court. Ōtomo no Otomaro was the first Sei-i Taishōgun. The most famous of these shōguns was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. In the Heian period, one more shōgun was appointed. Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named sei-i taishōgun during the Genpei War, only to be killed shortly thereafter by Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In the early 11th century, daimyō protected by samurai came to dominate internal Japanese politics.
Two of the most powerful families – the Taira and Minamoto – fought for control over the declining imperial court. The Taira family seized control from 1160 to 1185, but was defeated by the Minamoto in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the central government and aristocracy and established a feudal system based in Kamakura in which the private military, the samurai, gained some political powers while the Emperor and the aristocracy remained the de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun by the Emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shōguns as the head became known as a shogunate. Yoritomo's wife's family, the Hōjō, seized power from the Kamakura shōguns; when Yoritomo's sons and heirs were assassinated, the shōgun himself became a hereditary figurehead. Real power rested with the Hōjō regents; the Kamakura shogunate lasted for 150 years, from 1192 to 1333. In 1274 and 1281, the Mongol Empire launched invasions against Japan.
An attempt by Emperor Go-Daigo to restore imperial rule in the Kenmu Restoration in 1331 was unsuccessful, but weakened the shogunate and led to its eventual downfall. The end of the Kamakura shogunate came when Kamakura fell in 1333, the Hōjō Regency was destroyed. Two imperial families – the senior Northern Court and the junior Southern Court – had a claim to the throne; the problem was solved with the intercession of the Kamakura shogunate, who had the two lines alternate. This lasted until 1331, when Emperor Go-Daigo tried to overthrow the shogunate to stop the alternation; as a result, Daigo was exiled. Around 1334 -- 1336, Ashikaga Takauji helped; the fight against the shogunate left the Emperor with too many people claiming a limited supply of land. Takauji turned against the Emperor when the discontent about the distribution of land grew great enough. In 1336 Daigo was banished again, in favor of a new Emperor. During the Kenmu Restoration, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shōgun arose.
Prince Moriyoshi, son of Go-Daigo, was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun. However, Prince Moriyoshi was put under house arrest and, in 1335, killed by Ashikaga Tadayoshi. In 1338, Ashikaga Takauji, like Minamoto no Yoritomo, a descendant of the Minamoto princes, was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun and established the Ashikaga shogunate, which lasted until 1573; the Ashikaga had their headquarters in the Muromachi district of Kyoto, the time during which they ruled is known as the Muromachi period. While the title of Shōgun went into abeyance due to technical reasons, Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who obtained the position of Imperial Regent, gained far greater power than any of their predecessors had. Hideyoshi is considered by many historians to be among Japan's greatest rulers. Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established a government at Edo in 1600, he received the title sei-i taishōgun in 1603, after he forged a family tree to show he was of Minamoto descent.
The Tokugawa shogunate lasted until 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned as shōgun and abdicated his authority to Emperor Meiji. Ieyasu set a precedent in 1605 when he retired as shōgun in favour of his son Tokugawa Hidetada, though he maintained power from b
National Diet Library
The National Diet Library is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the National Diet of Japan in researching matters of public policy; the library is similar in scope to the United States Library of Congress. The National Diet Library consists of two main facilities in Tōkyō and Kyōtō, several other branch libraries throughout Japan; the National Diet Library is the successor of three separate libraries: the library of the House of Peers, the library of the House of Representatives, both of which were established at the creation of Japan's Imperial Diet in 1890. The Diet's power in prewar Japan was limited, its need for information was "correspondingly small"; the original Diet libraries "never developed either the collections or the services which might have made them vital adjuncts of genuinely responsible legislative activity". Until Japan's defeat, the executive had controlled all political documents, depriving the people and the Diet of access to vital information.
The U. S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur deemed reform of the Diet library system to be an important part of the democratization of Japan after its defeat in World War II. In 1946, each house of the Diet formed its own National Diet Library Standing Committee. Hani Gorō, a Marxist historian, imprisoned during the war for thought crimes and had been elected to the House of Councillors after the war, spearheaded the reform efforts. Hani envisioned the new body as "both a'citadel of popular sovereignty'", the means of realizing a "peaceful revolution"; the Occupation officers responsible for overseeing library reforms reported that, although the Occupation was a catalyst for change, local initiative pre-existed the Occupation, the successful reforms were due to dedicated Japanese like Hani. The National Diet Library opened in June 1948 in the present-day State Guest-House with an initial collection of 100,000 volumes; the first Librarian of the Diet Library was the politician Tokujirō Kanamori.
The philosopher Masakazu Nakai served as the first Vice Librarian. In 1949, the NDL became the only national library in Japan. At this time the collection gained an additional million volumes housed in the former National Library in Ueno. In 1961, the NDL opened at its present location in Nagatachō, adjacent to the National Diet. In 1986, the NDL's Annex was completed to accommodate a combined total of 12 million books and periodicals; the Kansai-kan, which opened in October 2002 in the Kansai Science City, has a collection of 6 million items. In May 2002, the NDL opened a new branch, the International Library of Children's Literature, in the former building of the Imperial Library in Ueno; this branch contains some 400,000 items of children's literature from around the world. Though the NDL's original mandate was to be a research library for the National Diet, the general public is the largest consumer of the library's services. In the fiscal year ending March 2004, for example, the library reported more than 250,000 reference inquiries.
As Japan's national library, the NDL collects copies of all publications published in Japan. Moreover, because the NDL serves as a research library for Diet members, their staffs, the general public, it maintains an extensive collection of materials published in foreign languages on a wide range of topics; the NDL has eight major specialized collections: Modern Political and Constitutional History. The Modern Political and Constitutional History Collection comprises some 300,000 items related to Japan's political and legal modernization in the 19th century, including the original document archives of important Japanese statesmen from the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century like Itō Hirobumi, Iwakura Tomomi, Sanjō Sanetomi, Mutsu Munemitsu, Terauchi Masatake, other influential figures from the Meiji and Taishō periods; the NDL has an extensive microform collection of some 30 million pages of documents relating to the Occupation of Japan after World War II. This collection include the documents prepared by General Headquarters and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the Far Eastern Commission, the United States Strategic Bombing Survey Team.
The Laws and Preliminary Records Collection consists of some 170,000 Japanese and 200,000 foreign-language documents concerning proceedings of the National Diet and the legislatures of some 70 foreign countries, the official gazettes, judicial opinions, international treaties pertaining to some 150 foreign countries. The NDL maintains a collection of some 530,000 books and booklets and 2 million microform titles relating to the sciences; these materials include, among other things, foreign doctoral dissertations in the sciences, the proceedings and reports of academic societies, catalogues of technical standards, etc. The NDL has a collection of 440,000 maps of Japan and other countries, including the topographica
Bungo Province
Bungo Province was a province of Japan in eastern Kyūshū in the area of Ōita Prefecture. It was sometimes called Hōshū, with Buzen Province. Bungo bordered Buzen, Hyūga, Higo and Chikuzen Provinces. At the end of the 7th century, Toyo Province was split into Bungo; until the Heian period, Bungo was read as Toyokuni no Michi no Shiri. It is believed that the capital of Bungo was located in the Kokokufu "old capital," section of the city of Ōita, but as of 2016 no archaeological evidence has been found; the honor of the holiest Shinto shrine of Bungo Province was given to Usa Shrine known as Usa Hachimangu or Usa Jingu in Usa district. Usa shrine had not only religious authority but political influence to local governance, but their influence was reduced until the Sengoku period. During the Sengoku period, in the middle of the 16th century, Bungo was a stronghold of the Ōtomo clan; the Ōuchi clan in the western Chūgoku Region was influenced to Buzen politics. In the middle of the period, both clans declined.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi took the power in Kyūshū, 120 thousand koku of Buzen province was given to Kuroda Yoshitaka since 1587, who made Kokura part of Kitakyushu, his site and built the castle. Other parts of the province were given to other daimyōs. In the year 1600 the Dutch ship piloted by the Englishman Will Adams foundered on Bungo's coast; when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu interviewed Adams, his suspicions that the Jesuits, allowed to operate in Japan since the 1540s, were intent on gaining control of the country, were confirmed. When the time was right, in 1614, Ieyasu banished all Christian activity. Thus, Adams' landing in Bungo proved significant to the nation's subsequent history. < Hearn, Lafcadio. Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, "The Jesuit Peril" chapter.> In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. Maps of Japan and Bungo Province were reformed in the 1870s. Sasamuta-jinja and Yusuhara Hachiman-gū were the chief Shinto shrines of Bungo. Ōita Prefecture Amabe District Kitaamabe District - dissolved Minamiamabe District - dissolved Hayami District Hita District - dissolved Kusu District Kunisaki District Higashikunisaki District Nishikunisaki District - dissolved Naoiri District - dissolved Ōno District - dissolved Ōita District - dissolved Kitsuki Domain Mori Domain Funai Domain Media related to Bungo Province at Wikimedia Commons Murdoch's map of provinces, 1903
Ōnin War
The Ōnin War was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. Ōnin refers to the Japanese era. A dispute between Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen escalated into a nationwide war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of daimyō in many regions of Japan; the war initiated the Sengoku period, "the Warring States period". This period was a long, drawn-out struggle for domination by individual daimyō, resulting in a mass power-struggle between the various houses to dominate the whole of Japan; the Ōnin conflict began as a controversy over. In 1464, Yoshimasa had no heir, he persuaded his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, to abandon the life of a monk, named him heir. In 1465, the unanticipated birth of a son to Yoshimasa put these plans in question; the infant, caused friction between the shōgun and Hosokawa against Tomiko, the wife of Yoshimasa and mother of Yoshihisa, Yamana. Hosokawa had always worked with the shōgun's brother Ashikaga Yoshimi, supported his claim to the shogunate.
Yamana took this as an opportunity to oppose Hosokawa further, supporting the child as heir to the shogunate. War broke out in the city of Kyoto; this was regarded by the Ashikaga shōgun as an act of rebellion, thus the Ashikaga and their supporters were forced to try to stop it. The Ashikagas tried to prevent the outbreak of war over the next heir, but the situation escalated into a war that designated the leader of the victorious party as the next shōgun. In 1467 the uncertainty had caused a split amongst the warrior clans, the succession dispute became a pretext for a struggle for military supremacy. In the end, there was no clear-cut winner; the complex array of factional armies fought themselves into exhaustion. Hosokawa's Eastern Army of about 85,000 and Yamana's Western Army of about 80,000 were evenly matched when mobilized near Kyoto; the fighting started in March. In May 1467, a Yamana mansion was attacked. In July, according to Sansom, Yoshimasa appointed Hosokawa commanding general in an attempt to "chastise the rebel" Yamana.
Sansom states "heavy fighting continued throughout July" and "several hundred large buildings were destroyed, destruction continued day after day". Hosokawa was soon cornered in the northeast portion of Kyoto around his mansion, while Yamana controlled the south and west. Yamana received 20,000 reinforcements under Ōuchi Masahiro in September. However, Sansom states Hosokawa was able to bring the "sovereign and the abdicated Emperor" to the Bakufu from the Emperor's Palace, before it was seized by Yamana with 50,000 men. Hosokawa received Akamatsu troops as reinforcements. On 1 November, Yamana was able to capture the Shōkoku-ji after bribing a monk. Sansom states "The chronicles of the time paint a dreadful picture of the carnage", "the two adversaries faced one another without action for the rest of the year". Hosokawa attempted an attack on New Years Day, again in April, but for the most part "the two armies now remained glaring at one another month after month". A central trench ten feet deep and twenty feet wide separated the two armies.
Several monasteries were burned, including the Tenryū-ji. Yoshimi went to the side of Yamana, forcing the shōgun to name his son Yoshihisa as his heir in 1469. In a strange switch of allegiances, the war became one of brother against brother; the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado declared him a rebel. Both Yamana Sōzen and Hosokawa Katsumoto died in 1473, then, the war continued on, neither side figuring out how to end the war; however the Yamana clan lost heart as the label of "rebel" was at last having some effect. Ōuchi Masahiro, one of the Yamana generals burnt down his section of Kyoto and left the area on 17 December 1477. By 1477, ten years after the fighting had begun, Kyoto was nothing more than a place for mobs to loot and move in to take what was left. Neither the Yamana clan nor the Hosokawa clan had achieved its aims, other than to whittle down the numbers of the opposing clan. During this ordeal, the shōgun was not instrumental in alleviating the situation. While Kyoto was burning, Ashikaga Yoshimasa spent his time in poetry readings and other cultural activities, in planning Ginkaku-ji, a Silver Pavilion to rival Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion that his grandfather, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, had built.
The Ōnin War, the shōgun's complacent attitude towards it, "sanctioned" private wars and skirmishes between the other daimyō. No part of Japan escaped the violence. Although the battles in Kyoto had been abandoned, the war had spread to the rest of Japan. In Yamashiro Province, the Hatakeyama clan had split into two parts that fought each other to a standstill; this stalemate was to have serious consequences. In 1485, the peasantry and jizamurai had had enough, revolted. Setting up their own army, they forced the clan armies to leave the province; the Ikki became a powerful force, much more than an armed mob. By 1486 they had set up a provisional government for Yamashiro province; the Ikki would form and appear throughout other parts of Japan, such as Kaga Province, where a sect of the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists, the Ikkō, started their own revolt during the Ōnin War after being enlisted by one of Kaga's most prominent warlords, Togashi Masachika. The Ikkō, who had a complex relationship with the Jōdo Shinshō leader Rennyo, appealed to the common peasants in their region, formed the Ikkō-ikki.
By 1488 the Ikkō-ikki of Kaga Province took control of the province. After this
Gokenin
A gokenin was a vassal of the shogunate of the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods. In exchange for protection and the right to become shugo or jitō, in times of peace a gokenin had the duty to protect the imperial court and Kamakura, in case of war had to fight with his forces under the shōgun’s flag. From the middle of the thirteenth century, the fact that gokenin were allowed to become de facto owners of the land they administered, coupled to the custom that all gokenin children could inherit, brought to the parcelization of the land and to a consequent weakening of the shogunate; the gokenin class ceased to be a significant force during the Muromachi period and was supplanted by the figure of the daimyō. During the successive Edo period, the term came to indicate a direct vassal of the shōgun below an omemie, meaning that they did not have the right to an audience with the shōgun; the terms gokenin and kenin are etymologically related but have different meanings. Confusion can arise because in documents sometimes this last word is used together with the honorific -go prefix.
Under the ritsuryō legal system in use in Japan from the seventh to the tenth century, a kenin was a human being who, while property of a family, could be inherited but not sold and, unlike a slave, had some rights. For example, the inventory of a temple's wealth mentions thirteen kenin, among them four women, who were in effect servants. From the beginning of the Japanese Middle Ages, the relationship between lords and vassals tended in the absence of real blood ties, to be seen as an ancestral bond where each side inherited the rights and duties of the previous generation. Both sides thought of and spoke of their relationship in terms suggesting kinship, hence the use of the term gokenin, the prefix "go-" denoting prestige having been added after the Heian period; this social class evolved during the Kamakura shogunate based on the personal and military relationship between the shōgun and individual gokenin. Until it was assumed Kamakura shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo coined the word and the role when he started his campaign to gain power in 1180.
The Azuma Kagami, diary of the shogunate, uses the term from its first entries. The first reliable documentary evidence of a formal gokenin status and of actual vassal registers however dates to the early 1190s, it seems therefore that the vassalage concept remained vague for at least the first decade of the shogunate's life. In any event, by that date the three main administrative roles created by the Kamakura shogunate were in existence; the right to appoint them was the basis of Kamakura's power and legitimacy. Gokenin vassals were descendants of former shōen owners, former peasants or former samurai who had made a name for themselves in Minamoto no Yoritomo's army during his military campaigns against the Taira clan and were rewarded after victory, they and the bands of samurai they hired provided the shōgun with the military force. They collected local taxes and ruled over territories they were entrusted with, but nominally didn't own; because the shōgun had usurped the emperor's power to nominate them, they owed loyalty only to him.
The gokenin title was earned by participating to an initiation ceremony, writing one's name in a register and making an oath of vassalage. The Kamakura government retained the power to appoint and dismiss, but otherwise left gokenin shugo and jitō alone and free to use tax income as they saw fit; as long as they remained faithful, they had considerable autonomy from the central government. In time, because gokenin officials were dismissed, their powers and land ownership became in practice hereditary. By the end of the shogunate, the government was little more than a coalition of semi-autonomous states. After the fall of the Kamakura in 1333, changes in the balance of power forced the Ashikaga to try to modify the state's economy and structure; the process of reversing the extreme parcelization of the land would occupy the next couple of centuries. The dynasty tried to eradicate local warlords and concentrate power in its hands, but this in fact only increased the level of hostility, it seized the lands of the Hōjō clan, former rulers of Kamakura, of all defeated gokenin but, at seeing the Ashikaga keep those lands for themselves, to the point where they had direct control of 25% of the country, their own allies started fearing for themselves and their heirs.
The ensuing turmoil gave inadvertently rise to the figure of the daimyō feudal lord, although the term wouldn't be in wide use for the first half a century. Many daimyōs were shugo or jitō of gokenin extraction or noblemen, but most were new faces who had supplanted their superiors. Crucially, because resisting the Ashikaga required a strong central power and a smooth succession, among them inheritance was no longer shared, but passed on intact to a single heir, not a blood relative, but a promising man adopted to be heir. In the Edo period, gokenin were the lowest-ranking vassals of the Tokugawa shogunate, next to the hatamoto. Unlike a hatamoto, a gokenin was not of omemie-ijō status – in other words, he was not allowed to have an audience with the shōgun. Deal, William. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-5622-4. John Whitney Hall, Peter Duus. Yamamura Kozo, ed; the Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22354-6.
Iwanami Kōjien Japanese dictionary, 5th Edition, CD version Mass, Jeffrey. Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese History. Stanford Univer
Minamoto no Yoritomo
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199, his Buddhist name was Bukōshōgendaizenmon. Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, his official wife, was a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, a member of the illustrious Fujiwara clan. Yoritomo was born in Atsuta in Owari Province. At that time Yoritomo's grandfather Minamoto. Like Benkei, his childhood name was Oniwakamaru. In 1156, factional divisions in the court erupted into open warfare within the capital; the cloistered Emperor Toba and his son Emperor Go-Shirakawa sided with the son of Fujiwara regent Fujiwara no Tadazane, Fujiwara no Tadamichi as well as Taira no Kiyomori, while Cloistered Emperor Sutoku sided with Tadazane's younger son, Fujiwara no Yorinaga. This is known as the Hōgen Rebellion; the Seiwa Genji were split. The head of the clan, sided with Sutoku. In the end, the supporters of Go-Shirakawa won the civil war, thus ensuring victory for Yoshitomo and Kiyomori.
Sutoku was placed under house arrest, Yorinaga was fatally wounded in battle. Tameyoshi was executed after numerous pleas from Yoshitomo. Nonetheless, Go-Shirakawa and Kiyomori were ruthless, Yoshitomo found himself as the head of the Minamoto clan, while Yoritomo became the heir. Yoritomo and the Minamoto clan descended from the imperial family on his father's side. Nonetheless, in Kyoto, the Taira clan, now under the leadership of Kiyomori, the Minamoto clan, under the leadership of Yoshitomo, began to factionalize again. Kiyomori was supported by Fujiwara no Michinori, while Yoshitomo was supported by Fujiwara no Nobuyori; this was known as the Heiji Rebellion. The ex-Emperor's and Shinzei's mansions were burned, while Shinzei was decapitated. Nonetheless, the Minamoto were not well prepared, the Taira took control of Kyoto. Yoshitomo fled the capital but was betrayed and executed by a retainer. In the aftermath, harsh terms were imposed on their allies. Only Yoshitomo's three young boys remained alive, so that Kiyomori and the Taira clan were now the undisputed leaders of Japan.
Yoritomo, the new head of the Minamoto, was exiled. Yoritomo was not executed by Kiyomori because of pleas from Kiyomori's stepmother. Yoritomo's brothers, Minamoto no Noriyori and Minamoto no Yoshitsune were allowed to live. Yoritomo grew up in exile, he married into the Hōjō clan, led by Hōjō Tokimasa, marrying Hōjō Masako. Meanwhile, he was notified of events in Kyoto thanks to helpful friends. Soon enough, Yoritomo's passive exile was to be over. Father: Minamoto no Yoshitomo Mother: Yura Gozen, daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori Siblings: Half-siblings: Ano Zenjo Gien Minamoto no Yoshitsune Minamoto no Noriyori Minamoto no Tomonaga Minamoto no Yoshihira Natural siblings: Bomon-hime married Ichijō Yoshiyasu Minamoto no Mareyoshi Wife: Hōjō Masako Concubines: Daishin no Tsubone Kame no Mae Children: Sentsurumaru, son of Yoritomo with Yaehime, daughter of Itō Sukechika was killed by Sukechika. Minamoto no Yoriie by Masako Minamoto no Sanetomo by Masako O-hime married to Minamoto no Yoshitaka by Masako Otohime by Masako Jogyo by Daishin no Tsubone In 1180, Prince Mochihito, a son of Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa, humiliated by the Taira because of the Taira-backed accession of the throne of his nephew, Emperor Antoku made a national call to arms of the Minamoto clan all over Japan to rebel against the Taira.
Yoritomo took part in this after things escalated between the Taira and Minamoto after the death of Minamoto no Yorimasa and Prince Mochihito himself. Yoritomo set himself up as the rightful heir of the Minamoto clan, he set up a capital in Kamakura to the east. Not all Minamoto thought of Yoritomo as rightful heir, his uncle Minamoto no Yukiie and his cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka conspired against him. In September 1180, Yoritomo was defeated at the Battle of Ishibashiyama, his first major battle, when Ōba Kagechika led a rapid night attack. After losing a battle with the Heike clan at Mt. Ishibashiyama in 1180, Minamoto no Yoritomo fled into the Hakone mountains, stayed in Yugawara escaped From Manazuru-Iwa to Awa. Yoritomo spent the next six months raising a new army. In 1181, Taira no Kiyomori died, the Taira clan was now led by Taira no Munemori. Munemori took a much more aggressive policy against the Minamoto, 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 key 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. In 1184, Antoku was displaced by the Minamoto with Emperor Go-Toba as the new emperor. 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 from him control of the clan, over the Taira, who suffered a terrible defeat at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. Yoritomo thus established the supremacy of the warrior samurai caste and the first bakufu at Kamakura, beginning the feudal age in Japan which l
