Hiki Yoshikazu

Hiki Yoshikazu ( Japanese 比 企 能 員 ; * unknown; † October 8, 1203 ) was a Japanese sword nobleman ( bushi ) of the Kamakura period , who was related to the ruling Minamoto clan due to his daughter's marriage . He and many members of the Hiki clan were killed on the pretext of an alleged conspiracy intended to assassinate one of the Minamoto heirs in order to gain power themselves.

Coming from Musashi Province , Hiki Yoshikazu gained importance at the Shogun court because he was adopted by Minamoto no Yoritomo's wet nurse.

Hiki's daughter was married to Minamoto no Yoriie , the second shogun of the Kamakura shogunate . Yoriie, who was seriously ill, proposed both his younger brother, Sanetomo , and his young son (Hiki's grandson), Minamoto no Ichiman , as successors; the two would thus share power and rule separate parts of the country. In this case, Hiki would have been the (unofficial) ruler of young Ichiman. Hiki therefore suggested to Yoriie, who was murdered shortly after by members of the Hōjō clan, to have Sanetomo killed. Hōjō Masako , Yoriie's mother and wife of the first Shogun Yoritomo, had overheard this conversation.

Although Hōjō Masako endeavored to formally accuse Hiki of high treason and to have executed, members of the Hōjō clan led by Hōjō Tokimasa were able to capture him first. In their quest to dominate the reign and control the shogunate as a puppet rule of their clan, Hōjō warriors murdered Hiki Yoshikazu. Then they attacked young Ichiman's palace, started fires, and killed both the young heir and a large number of members of the extended Hiki family.

swell

• Louis Frederic: Japan Encyclopedia . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2002.
• George Sansom: A History of Japan to 1334 . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1958.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hiki is the family name, Yoshikazu the first name.