Minamoto no Yoshitomo

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

In this Japanese name, the surname is Minamoto.
Minamoto no Yoshitomo
源義朝
Head of Kawachi Genji
Preceded byMinamoto no Tameyoshi
Succeeded byMinamoto no Yoritomo
Personal details
Born1123
DiedFebruary 11, 1160
NationalityJapanese
Spouse(s)Yura Gozen
RelationsTokiwa Gozen (concubine)
Children
Parents
Military service
AllegianceMinamoto clan
Branch/serviceMinamoto clan
Former Hiraji battle warfare Yoshimasa Shirakawa night view. It features Minamoto no Yoshitomo.

Minamoto no Yoshitomo (源 義朝) (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 (勝定寿院).

Hōgen Rebellion

[edit]

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, Tameyoshi was executed. 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.[1]

Heiji Rebellion

[edit]

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.[1]: 255–258 

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.[2]

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

[edit]

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.

See also

[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minamoto no Yoshitomo.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Sansom, George (1958). A history of Japan to 1334. Stanford University Press. pp. 210–211, 255–256. ISBN 0804705232.
  2. ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1977). The Samurai, A Military History. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 40. ISBN 0026205408.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co. page 60.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Minamoto_no_Yoshitomo&oldid=1218831441"