Minamoto no Yoriie

Minamoto no Yoriie ( Japanese 源 頼 家 ; * September 11, 1182 ; † August 14, 1204 ) was the 2nd Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate in Japan from 1202 to 1203 . He was the eldest son of the founder of the Kamakura shogunate, Minamoto no Yoritomo , his mother was Hōjō Masako .

After the death of his father in 1199 Yoriie was appointed head of the Minamoto clan and in 1202 as Seii Taishogun . At that time, however, the power of the shogun and the shogunate had already fallen into the hands of his grandfather Hōjō Tokimasa . For his part, Yoriie tried to subjugate the Hōjō clan. This failed, however, and he was placed under house arrest and murdered in 1204.

Minamoto no Yoriie's successor as the third Shogun was his younger brother Minamoto no Sanetomo .

Life

Born by Tokimasa's daughter Hōjō Masako in Hiki Yoshikazu's residence in Kamakura , Yoriie had as wet nurses the wives of such powerful men as Hiki himself, Kajiwara Kagetoki and Hiki's younger sister. Before he was born, his father Yoritomo Hōjō commissioned Tokimasa and his men to fetch stones to build the Dankazura shrine on Wakamiya yaji , where they prayed for the safe delivery of the child. When Yoriie later had an heir, Ichiman , the child was also born in the Hiki estate of Hiki's daughter Wakasa no Tsubone, a fact that reinforced the emotional bond. From this relationship, Hiki gained significant influence when Yoriie became a shogun and heightened the hostility of Hōjō Tokimasa, who instead had a close relationship with Yoriie's younger brother Senman (the future third shogun Sanetomo ), and in turn tried to use that relationship to his political advantage to use.

From a young age, Yoriie showed great interest in military arts such as fencing and horse riding. After the death of his father in 1199, the seventeen-year-old was appointed head of the Minamoto clan and in 1202 as seii taishogun . In any case, he was criticized for leaving his father's political line, and his mother forbade him from any political activity. On June 30, 1203 ( Shōji 1, twelfth day of the fourth month) his remaining power was officially taken from him, and a council of 13 elders, which was led by his grandfather Hōjō Tokimasa, took over. Yoriie then forged a plot with the Hiki to defeat the Hōjō clan. He failed, was placed under house arrest, forced to abdicate and possibly murdered in Izu on July 17, 1204. Yoriie's successor was his younger brother Sanetomo, the last of the Seiwa Genji lineage, who - at least nominally - ruled Kamakura.

Hiki Yoshikazu's rebellion

Yoriie's grave in Shuzenji

Seriously ill, Yoriie proposed both his younger brother Sanetomo and his young son (Hiki's grandson) Minamoto no Ichiman as successors; the two should share power and rule over separate areas. It seemed natural to them that Hiki would then have been the (unofficial) regent of young Ichiman. Hiki proposed to Yoriie, who was murdered shortly afterwards by the Hōjō clan, to have Sanetomo killed. Hōjō Masako, Yoriie's mother and wife of the first Shogun Yoritomo, reportedly overheard the conversation.

Hōjō Tokimasa invited Hiki Yoshikazu into his house as an excuse and murdered him. This resulted in a battle between the clans; the Hiki were defeated and wiped out by a coalition of the Hōjō, Wada, Miura and Hatakeyama clans.

Yoriie died in Shuzenji, a small town in today's Izu Province, murdered by his uncle Hōjō Tokimasa.

The three sons of Yoriie

Yoriie had three sons, Ichiman, Kugyō, and Senju-maru, all of whom died violent deaths, victims of the power struggle that followed Yoritomo's sudden death. Ichiman (1198–1203) was the oldest. His mother, Wakasa no Tsubone, was Hiki Yoshikazu's daughter, and the child was raised by the Hiki clan. There are different versions of his death, but in any case he died in the fire that destroyed the Hiki residence. The second son, Yoshinari, was the only one of the three to reach adulthood. He was forced to become a monk ( bonze ). In 1219 he murdered his uncle Sanetomo on the stone steps of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in the capital, Kamakura. He was executed for this act that same day.

The third son Senju-maru (千寿 丸; 1201-1214) was twelve when Izumi Chikahari rebelled against the Hōjō to make the child a shogun. After Chikahari's defeat, the child was forced to become a monk like his older brother Yoshinari. A year later, Wada Yoshimori also rebelled, but like Chikahari was defeated and Senju-maru died with the rest of the Wada clan.

literature

• Michinori Kamiya: Fukaku Aruku - Kamakura Shiseki Sansaku Vol. 1 & 2 . Kamakura Shunshūsha, Kamakura 2008, ISBN 4-7740-0340-9 .
• Katsuji Kusumoto: Kamakura Naruhodo Jiten . Jitsugyō no Nihonsha, Tokyo 2002, ISBN 978-4-408-00779-3 .
• Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, Käthe Roth: Japan encyclopedia . Harvard University Press , Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-674-01753-6 .
• Edmund Papinot: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie du japon . Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha, 1906.
• Isaac Titsingh : Nihon Odai Ichiran . Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, Paris 1834.
• Motohisa (Ed.), Yasuda: Kamakura, Muromachi Jinmei Jiten . Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, Tokyo 1990, ISBN 978-4-404-01757-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 源 頼 家 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved September 13, 2013 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Yasuda (1990: 592-593)
3. ↑ Kamiya Vol. 1 (2008: 44-45)
4. ↑ Kusumoto (2002: 70-73)