10 questions · History
Minamoto no Yoritomo was not yet thirteen when his family’s world collapsed. His father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, had risen against the Taira in the Heiji Rebellion, lost, and was killed while fleeing in early 1160. Yoritomo too was captured. According to tradition he owed his life to Ike no Zenni, the victor’s stepmother: she begged Taira no Kiyomori to spare the boy because he reminded her of a son she had lost young. Kiyomori sent him into exile in Izu, and in doing so made the most fateful mistake of his life. Yoritomo spent twenty years in exile under watch. He prayed, went hunting and fell in love with Hōjō Masako, daughter of a local warrior who was supposed to be guarding him. The marriage made the Hōjō his most important allies. When an imperial prince called for war on the Taira in 1180, Yoritomo rose up. The start was a disaster: at Ishibashiyama his small army was routed, and he escaped only by hiding in a hollow tree, or so the legend says. Yet the warriors of the east flocked to him. Yoritomo set up his headquarters at Kamakura, far from the imperial court in Kyoto, and left the campaigns to his brothers. Once his half-brother Yoshitsune had decided the war in 1185, Yoritomo saw the celebrated hero above all as a rival and had him hunted down, until Yoshitsune met his end with the Fujiwara at Hiraizumi in 1189. At the same time he spread a network of military governors and estate stewards across the whole country. In 1192 the emperor granted him the title Sei-i Taishōgun. It began a rule of warriors that would shape Japan for almost 700 years. Yoritomo himself had little time left: he died early in 1199, reportedly after a fall from his horse. His son Yoriie succeeded him, but real power soon passed to his widow’s family. Masako, who became a nun after his death, steered politics so firmly that people called her the “nun shogun”. The Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, which Yoritomo moved to its present site in Kamakura, still draws countless visitors today.
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1192
The title made him supreme military commander of the realm; warrior rule then governed Japan for almost 700 years.
💡 Did you know? Many historians date the real founding of his government to 1185, when he was allowed to appoint military governors.
Kamakura
It lay sheltered between hills and sea, far from the imperial court, in the homeland of his followers.
💡 Did you know? The whole era until 1333 is named the Kamakura period after the town.
Izu
He lived there for twenty years under the watch of local warriors loyal to the Taira.
💡 Did you know? It was there that he found in the Hōjō the allies who later helped him to power.
Minamoto no Yoshitomo
He had risen against the Taira in 1159 and was murdered by one of his own retainers early in 1160.
💡 Did you know? Yoshitsune was also his son, born in the year of the rebellion to a different mother.
Hōjō Masako
After Yoritomo’s death she became a nun, yet together with her family she steered the shogunate’s politics.
💡 Did you know? In 1221 she is said to have rallied hesitant warriors against the imperial court with a fiery speech.
Ishibashiyama
His small army was crushed by Taira troops; he fled across the sea to Awa and gathered new warriors.
💡 Did you know? Legend says an enemy warrior found him in his hiding place but did not give him away.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune
Yoritomo begrudged the victor over the Taira his fame and his closeness to the imperial court.
💡 Did you know? Under pressure from Kamakura, Fujiwara no Yasuhira attacked him in 1189; afterwards Yoritomo destroyed the Fujiwara too.
Minamoto no Yoriie
He became shogun in 1202, but a council of retainers led by the Hōjō curbed his power.
💡 Did you know? He was deposed in 1203 and murdered the following year; his brother Sanetomo succeeded him.
Taira no Kiyomori
Kiyomori gave in to the plea of his stepmother Ike no Zenni, who wanted to save the boy.
💡 Did you know? He died of a fever in 1181, shortly after Yoritomo had begun the war against his family.
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū
The shrine is dedicated to Hachiman, god of war and protector of the Minamoto, and became the heart of the town.
💡 Did you know? On its great staircase Yoritomo’s son Sanetomo, the third shogun, was murdered in 1219.
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