Minamoto no Yoshitomo
Template:Short description Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox officeholder
Template:Nihongo (1123 – 11 February 1160) was the head of the Minamoto clan and a general of the late Heian period of Japanese history. His son Minamoto no Yoritomo became shōgun and founded the Kamakura shogunate, the first shogunate in the history of Japan.
His Dharma name was Shōjō Juin (Template:Lang).
Hōgen Rebellion
With the outbreak of the Hōgen Rebellion in 1156, the members of the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans were called into the conflict. Yoshitomo and Taira no Kiyomori both threw their support behind Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Fujiwara no Tadamichi, while Yoshitomo's father, Minamoto no Tameyoshi, sided with the retired Emperor Sutoku and Fujiwara no Yorinaga. Yoshitomo, defeating his father and the forces of Sutoku and Yorinaga, became head of the Minamoto clan and established himself as the main political power in the capital of Kyoto. However, despite attempts to have his father pardoned,<ref name="The Tale of Hōgen - page ???">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Fcn he was forced to execute Tameyoshi personally.<ref>See Template:Lang, Template:Cite book</ref> In the aftermath of the rebellion, the Taira and Minamoto became two of the strongest and most influential clans in Japan, which turned the two clans into bitter rivals.<ref name=Sansom>Template:Cite book</ref>
Heiji Rebellion
In the first months of 1160 while Taira no Kiyomori was absent from the capital of Kyoto, Yoshitomo and Fujiwara no Nobuyori placed Go-Shirakawa under house arrest and killed his retainers, including the scholar Fujiwara no Michinori, in what is called the Heiji rebellion. The civil war wasn't to go on for very long as Kiyomori declared his support for the Emperor and rapidly defeated the rebel forces within the span of a month.<ref name=Sansom/>Template:Rp
While making his escape from Kyoto, Yoshitomo was forced to sacrifice his son Tomonaga to buy time. Even so, Yoshitomo was eventually betrayed and murdered while taking a bath. Three of his surviving sons, Yoritomo, Yoshitsune and Noriyori, were spared execution and exiled by the victorious Kiyomori. However, Yoshitomo's allies Yoshihira and Nobuyori were both executed.<ref name=Turnbull3>Template:Cite book</ref>
His grave in Aichi Prefecture is surrounded on all sides by wooden swords (bokuto), as by legend his last words were "If only I'd had a bokuto...".
Family
Yoshitomo fathered five sons in total. His two sons, Yoshihira and Tomonaga, lost their lives following the Minamoto Clan's defeat in the Heiji Rebellion in 1160. At the time of the outbreak of the Genpei War in 1180, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his eldest surviving son. His other two surviving sons were Minamoto no Noriyori and Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
- Father: Minamoto no Tameyoshi (Template:Lang, 1096–1156)
- Mother: Daughter of Fujiwara no Tadakiyo (藤原忠清の娘)
- Wife: Yura Gozen (Template:Lang, ?–1159), "Urahime" (Template:Lang), daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori (Template:Lang).
- Concubine: Tokiwa Gozen (Template:Lang, 1138–c.1180)
- 1st son: Minamoto no Yoshihira (Template:Lang, 1140–1160)
- 2nd son: Minamoto no Tomonaga (Template:Lang, 1144–1160)
- 3rd son: Minamoto no Yoritomo (Template:Lang, 1147–1199)
- 4th son: Minamoto no Yoshikado (Template:Lang, ?–?)
- 5th son: Minamoto no Mareyoshi (Template:Lang, 1152–1180 or 1182)
- 6th son: Minamoto no Noriyori (Template:Lang, 1150–1193)
- 7th son: Ano Zenjō (Template:Lang, 1153–1203)
- 8th son: Gien (Template:Lang, 1155–1181)
- 9th son: Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Template:Lang, 1159–1189)
See also
References
Bibliography
- Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co. page 60.