Minamoto no Yoritomo- Japanese FigureMortal"First Shogun"

The Spared Boy

Yoritomo's father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, led the Minamoto clan during the Heiji Rebellion of 1160. The rebellion ended in disaster. Yoshitomo was killed fleeing the capital, and the victorious Taira clan under Taira no Kiyomori seized control of the imperial government.

The young Yoritomo, thirteen years old, was captured. Kiyomori's stepmother Ike no Zenni interceded for the boy, moved by his resemblance to her own deceased son. Instead of execution, Yoritomo was sentenced to exile in Izu Province, a remote region on the eastern coast.

He spent nearly twenty years there under the supervision of the Hōjō clan. He married Hōjō Masako, the daughter of his supervisor Hōjō Tokimasa. In 1180, Prince Mochihito issued a call to arms against the Taira. Yoritomo, now thirty-three, answered. His first battle at Ishibashiyama ended in defeat, and he fled by boat. But the eastern warriors of the Kantō rallied to him, and within months he had an army and a headquarters at Kamakura.

The Genpei War

Yoritomo commanded from Kamakura while his younger brother Yoshitsune led in the field. At Ichi-no-Tani, Yoshitsune drove cavalry down near-vertical cliffs into the Taira rear. At Dan-no-ura in 1185, his fleet annihilated the Taira in a naval battle where the child emperor Antoku drowned clutching the sacred sword Kusanagi.

The Heike Monogatari memorialized these battles. In 1192, the emperor granted Yoritomo the title Sei-i Taishōgun, and the warrior government at Kamakura became the seat of power in Japan.

Hachiman's Favor

The Minamoto claimed Hachiman, the deified Emperor Ōjin and god of war, as their tutelary deity. Yoritomo's ancestor Minamoto no Yoshiie had been called "Hachiman Tarō," Firstborn of Hachiman. Yoritomo prayed to Hachiman throughout the war and attributed each victory to the god's favor.

His most visible act of devotion was the Tsurugaoka Hachimangū shrine in Kamakura. Originally founded in 1063 by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, Yoritomo relocated it to a prominent hillside in 1180 and expanded it into the center of Minamoto authority. Its central avenue, Wakamiya Ōji, stretched from the seashore to the shrine grounds. Mounted archery ceremonies drew crowds along its length.

The Destruction of Yoshitsune

Despite Yoshitsune's victories, Yoritomo grew suspicious. His brother had accepted court titles directly from the emperor in Kyoto without authorization. In 1185, Yoritomo declared Yoshitsune an outlaw.

Yoshitsune fled across Japan and took refuge with the Northern Fujiwara in Ōshū. Under pressure from Yoritomo, Fujiwara no Yasuhira attacked and killed him in 1189. Yoritomo then used his brother's presence in Ōshū as a pretext to invade and destroy the Northern Fujiwara domain, extending his authority over all of Honshū.

The Gikeiki chronicled Yoshitsune's doomed flight. Noh plays staged his final stand. The term hōgan-biiki, sympathy for the defeated, takes its name from his court title.

The Ghosts at the Bridge

Yoritomo died on February 9, 1199, at the age of fifty-two. The Azuma Kagami records that he fell from his horse while returning from a ceremony at a new bridge over the Sagami River.

Legendary traditions gave the death a supernatural cause. Yoshitsune's vengeful spirit appeared before the horse at the bridge, causing it to rear and throw the rider. In another telling, the Taira dead rose from the waters of Dan-no-ura to haunt the ceremony. The drowned warriors, the hunted brother: the dead gathered at the bridge.