Minamoto clan

“ They were able men, and governed the country well. The shoguns were chosen by them from the Minamoto clan, boys being selected, some of them but two or three years old, who were deposed as soon as they showed a desire to rule. The same was the case with the mikados, who were also creatures of the Hojo clan. One of them who had been deposed raised an army and fought for his throne. He was defeated and exiled to a distant monastery. Others were deposed, and neither mikados nor shoguns were permitted to reign except as puppets in the hands of the powerful regents of the realm. ”

“ Yoritomo made the mistake of estimating his own personality more highly than the interests of the great clan he represented. He killed all the Minamoto leaders that seemed capable of disputing his sway, and he thus left the clan fatally weakened at the time of his death. Kamakura was then divided between two parties, the literary and the military. With the former were associated Masa, Yoritomo's widow, and her family, the Hōjō. A struggle ensued. Masa intrigued to preserve the succession for her own son in preference to her step-son, who had the right of primogeniture. ”

“ Here he spent several years devoting himself to the military duties which chiefly pertained to the government of that rough and barbarous province. He developed into the gallant and accomplished soldier who played a principal part in the wars which followed, and became the national hero around whose name have clustered the choicest traditions of his country.
Meanwhile, as we have seen, Yoritomo,114 the oldest [pg 138] son of Yoshitomo, and by inheritance the head of the Minamoto clan, had been banished to Izu and committed to the care of two faithful Taira adherents. ”

“ When finally the news reached Kyōto, it caused much consternation. A general was quickly dispatched against the rebels in the east, but before his arrival Masakado's cousin, Taira-no-Sadamori, and Fujiwara-no-Hidesato, the ōryōshi of Shimotsuke, defeated and killed Masakado. In the west, Sumitomo was able for a brief period to retain the ascendency, but he too was ultimately defeated and taken prisoner by Ono-no-Yoshifuru and Minamoto-no-Tsunemoto, who had been sent against him. Tsunemoto was a grandson of the Emperor Seiwa and founder of the renowned clan of Minamoto. ”

“ Even at that early age he showed great intelligence, read the Sacred Books with avidity, and surprised the priests by his diligence and quickness of memory. He was naturally a very high-spirited youth, and could brook no control and hated to yield to others in anything whatsoever. As the years passed by and he grew older, he came to hear from his teachers and school friends of how his father Yoshitomo and his clan the Minamoto had been overthrown by the Taira, and this filled him with such intense sorrow and bitterness that sleeping or waking he could never banish the subject from his mind. ”

“ These four braves were called Shitenno, or Four Kings of Heaven, and they participated in all the exploits and martial expeditions of their chief, and vied with one another in excelling in bravery and dexterity.
Minamoto-no-Raiko was no exception to the general rule of those ancient leaders of Japan, and he had under him Usui-Sadamitsu, Sakata Kintoki, Urabe Suetake, and Watanabe Tsuna (the clan or surname comes first in Japan) . Search the wide world from north to south and from east to west, and no braver warriors than the Shitenno of Minamoto-no-Raiko could you find. ”

“ The Heike or Taira clan were now in the ascendant (Yorimasa, it will be remembered, belonged to the Genji or Minamoto) , and Kiyomori, their despotic and unprincipled leader, was Prime Minister. All the important posts in the Government he gave to his sons, grandsons, and relations, who under these circumstances, seeing that they owed everything to him, did just as the tyrant ordered. All samurai who did not belong to the Heike clan he treated unjustly, even throwing those he did not like into prison, whether they were innocent or guilty of the crimes or behaviour deserving such punishment. ”

“ Having murdered all the competent members of his family, lest they prove rivals, he left no line except two ineffectual sons, neither of whom was worthy to govern. The power vacuum was filled by his in-laws of the Hojo clan, who very shortly eliminated all the remaining members of the Minamoto ruling family and assumed power. Not wishing to appear outright usurpers of the office of shogun, they invented a position known as regent, through which they manipulated a hand-picked shogun, who in turn manipulated a powerless emperor. ”

“ The Taira had fallen, and Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, one of the greatest statesmen Japan has produced, had established his headquarters at Kamakura, near the present Tōkyō. The influence of his clan had for generations been implanted in the eastern provinces, where the robust militarism stood in great contrast with the effeminate atmosphere of Kyōto. ”

“ Another interesting Japanese crab, the Doryppe Japonica, comes more often from the Inland Sea. A man’s face is distinctly marked on the back of the shell, and, as the legend avers, these creatures incarnate the souls of the faithful samurai, who, following the fortunes of the Tairo clan, were driven into the sea by the victorious Minamoto. At certain anniversary seasons, well known to true believers, the spirits of these dead warriors come up from the sea by thousands and meet together on a moonlit beach. ”

“ Masa, daughter of Hōjō Tokimasa, was one of the famous women of Japan. She was wooed and won by Yoritomo under romantic circumstances, and contributed largely to his rise. After his death, she turned her unusual intellectual and administrative ability to fostering the power of her own house, the Hōjō, at the expense of her husband's, the Minamoto. (See the Index.)
Masakado, a prominent member of the Taira clan in the tenth century, was one of the historic rebels of Japan. He was a governor in the East, but aspired to the control of the whole section, and set himself up as a pseudo-Emperor. ”

“ The Fujiwara clan, taking all the civil offices, resided in the capital, whereas the military posts fell to the lot of the Taira and the Minamoto, who, settling in the provinces, and being thus required to guard the outlying districts and to quell rebellions, found it expedient to surround themselves with men who made soldiering a profession. ”

“ He was delighted, and yet...
↑ A famous poem by Ōye no Chisato (ninth century) : ‘What so lovely as a night when the moon though dimly clouded is never wholly lost to sight.’ ↑ Kōkiden’s brothers. ↑ He had no right to such a costume; for though a son of the Emperor, he had been affiliated to the Minamoto clan and no longer counted as a member of the Imperial family. ↑ Korea. ”

“ During the great civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans in the twelfth century, a Minamoto general, Kumagaya, is said to have been so touched by the likeness to his own son of a youthful adversary, named Atsumori, that he spared his life and connived at his escape from the battle of Ichi-no-tani, a famous valley near Kōbe. This theme had to be embroidered with improbable episodes and extravagant actions to satisfy public taste. Accordingly, Kumagaya saves Atsumori’s life in a supremely sensational manner. ”

“ He ever a grew wilder as he grew older, till at last he acted so rudely and wilfully, respecting and obeying no one set over him, that even his own father found him unmanageable.
Now it happened when Hachiro was thirteen years old that a learned man, named Fujiwara-no-Shinsei, came to the Palace of the Emperor one day to give a lecture on a certain book. During the lecture he said that there could not be found in the whole of Japan a warrior whose skill in archery could match that of Kiyomori, the chief of the Taira clan, or of Yorimasa, the Minamoto knight. ”

“ An instance of the latter case is furnished by the story of the Taira family, whose fighting men gradually fell under the charm of the court life, and succumbed with comparative ease to the misfortunes that afterward overtook them. Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, however, fixed his headquarters at Kamakura and did not visit Kyōto except for very brief intervals. His habits of life were frugal and simple; he encouraged the samurai to adopt a severe military regimen, and he set his face resolutely against costly ostentation and enervating excesses. ”

“ A little later than the Taira arose another family, the Minamoto, whose equivalent Chinese name was Gen. It sprang from the Emperor Seiwa (a.d. 859-880) . His son Tadazumi became minister of war. Tadazumi had two sons, who were granted the family name of Minamoto; the descendants of one of them, Tsunemoto, being created military vassals.
The almost constant wars in which the empire was engaged led to the extension of the military class. From the time now under discussion the military class came to be looked upon as a distinct and separate part of the population. ”

“ By the beginning of the twelfth century, the military power, as distinguished from that of the Court and the priests, had fallen, in tolerably equal proportions, into the hands of two families, the Taira and the Minamoto. [1] Both were descended from Emperors, and both were divided into a number of clans established in different parts of the Empire. The Taira had their headquarters in Kyōtō, and their clans were paramount in the provinces near the capital. The Minamoto's sphere of influence was in the north and east. ”

“ One of the first steps taken by the Minamoto chief to consolidate his power was to establish the relation of lord and vassal between himself and the great local magnates of the eastern provinces who had espoused his cause, and to secure their allegiance by confirming them in the possession of their estates. For the better organization of his military forces he created an office called samurai-dokoro, a species of headquarter staff department, which was presided over by Wada Yoshimori in the capacity of bettō. Thus all the military men throughout the east were brought completely under his sway. ”

“ Ultimately the Minamoto family prevailed, in the person of the famous warrior Yoritomo, about 1185 A.D., and seven years later, when his authority had been firmly established, he received from the reigning sovereign the title of Sei-I-Tai-Sho-Gun—i.e. ”

“ In those days any cause was legitimized if its advocates could show an Imperial edict or point to the presence of the sovereign in their midst. Thus, in the Heiji insurrection, the Minamoto received their severest blow when Fujiwara Korekata contrived that, under cover of darkness, the Emperor, disguised as a maid-of-honour in the household of the Empress, should be transported in her Majesty's suite, from the Kurodo palace to the Taira mansion at Rokuhara. The Minamoto were thus transformed into rebels, and the Taira became the representatives of Imperial authority. ”

“ Thus, even men who have been disloyal on the present occasion may serve a loyal purpose at some future time."
*Kamakura was always exposed to pressure from the north. It had long been proverbial that white the eight provinces of the Kwanto could defy the whole empire, 0-U (Oshu and Ushu-Mutsu and Dewa) could defy the eight provinces.
**In allusion to the fact that owing to the Emperor's presence in the camp of the Taira during the emeule, the Minamoto occupied the position of rebels. ”

“ Degenerating into a mere court-nobility, they made little effort to exert any direct authority in other than civil directions, entrusting military matters almost wholly to the Buke. In the eighth century the distinction between military and civil organization had been made upon the Chinese plan; the great military class then came into existence, and began to extend its power rapidly. Of the military clans proper, the most powerful were the Minamoto and the Taira. ”

“ It became necessary, therefore, to remove all potential foes from the Minamoto rear, and accordingly Hojo Tokimasa received orders to overrun Suruga and then to direct his movements with a view to concentration on the Fuji. Thither Yoritomo marched from Kamakura, and by the beginning of November, 1180, fifty thousand Taira troops were encamped on the south bank of the river and twenty-seven thousand Minamoto on the north. A decisive battle must be fought in the space of a few days. ”

“ Thus their race is polluted and accursed, and they are hated accordingly.
Now this is how the Etas came to be under the jurisdiction of Danzayémon:—
When Minamoto no Yoritomo was yet a child, his father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, fought with Taira no Kiyomori, and was killed by treachery: so his family was ruined; and Yoshitomo's concubine, whose name was Tokiwa, took her children and fled from the house, to save her own and their lives. But Kiyomori, desiring to destroy the family of Yoshitomo root and branch, ordered his retainers to divide themselves into bands, and seek out the children. ”

“ If at the same time he possessed administrative and organizing qualities, then the prestige and influence exerted by his name, added to the [76] support of his clansmen, would often secure this power for several generations to his descendants. In this way the Sugiwara, Fujiwara, Taira, the Minamoto, and others whose names and exploits are familiar to every child in Japan, had risen to fame and to the control of the State. ”