Chris Perry, Author

Author: Chris Perry

The illusion of peace.

As we discussed last time, efforts to bring about peace between the Northern and Southern Courts were largely put to bed by the deaths of Shogun Yoshiakira and Emperor Go-Murakami in 1367-68.

In the Shogunate, Yoshiakira’s heir was his 10-year-old son, Yoshimitsu. As a minor, the Shogun’s power was actually wielded by Hosokawa Yoriyuki, who officially served as Kanrei or Shogun’s Deputy, but was de facto regent. Yoriyuki had earned his place in the government through years of service, including putting down a rebellion and killing his own cousin, Kiyouji.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki, a loyal, capable, but ultimately hugely unpopular political player.

Yoriyuki proved to be a strict, but highly capable politician. He passed, and more importantly, enforced laws against the increasing power of the Shugo (regional lords). For example, he imposed strict sumptuary laws, limiting extravagant spending and luxurious living on the part of the Samurai.

He also made it much more difficult for these lords, who were still technically regional governors, to pass laws on their own, even in the Shogun’s name. Instead, decision-making was to be centralised within the Shogun’s government, and by extension, Yoriyuki. He used the increased administrative power of the government to reduce, if not outright prevent, the practice of rival warlords fighting each other for land.

What had previously been a government that was based almost entirely on the decision and ability of the Shogun now took on a more bureaucratic style, with clear government systems, laws, and systems of enforcement.

Yoriyuki also proved adept at managing the ongoing conflict with the Southern Court. In 1369, he arranged the defection of the powerful Kusunoki Clan to the side of the Northern Court and the Shogun. The next year, he dispatched an army to Kyushu to deal with the Southern Court loyalists there. Its commander, Imagawa Sadayo, was named Kyushu Tandai, effectively military governor, with wide-ranging powers and autonomy from the government.

Yoriyuki would face serious political issues at home as well. In 1370, the Northern Court Emperor wished to abdicate in favour of his son, but a rival faction supported his nephew, and the crisis grew as members of the Shogun’s family, most notably his foster mother (Yoshiakira’s wife) Shibukawa Sachiko, began to get involved.

At this point, Yoriyuki stepped in, presenting the last will and testament of the previous Emperor to force a solution to the crisis that ultimately preserved the peace, but created several new enemies. Sachiko would prove not to be the forgiving kind.

More problems arose when a conflict between rival religious sects broke out over the Shogunate’s apparent favouring of one group over another. The Zen Buddhist Nanzenji had enjoyed Shogunate patronage for years, with the Shogun even going so far as to subsidise the construction of the temple’s Romon (a kind of towered gateway, common in Japanese temples).

An example of the kind of gate found at Japanese Temples, this one is from the Jingoji Temple in Kyoto.

Monks from the Onjoji Temple, which followed the more traditional Tendai Sect, protested this and asked the Northern Court to end construction. In response to this, one of the leading monks from Nanzenji (the Zen side, remember) criticised the Tendai Sect in his writing.

This went back and forth for a while, until the Onjoji side decided to petition the Emperor of the Northern Court directly. Yoriyuki prevented the petition from being delivered, but a compromise was reached, in which the offending Zen Monk would be exiled, but the construction of the Romon would continue.

The Tendai side was not satisfied with this, however, and continued pressuring the Northern Court to order the destruction of the romon. Finally, in the summer of 1370, the Northern Court, with Yoriyuki’s permission, gave in and ordered the romon destroyed. One of the leading Zen monks, Shunoku Myoha, resigned in protest, and Yoriyuki had earned himself another powerful enemy.

Shunoku Myoha, a powerful religious leader, and yet another figure who Yoriyuki managed to antagonise.

By the late 1370s, Yoriyuki had enemies at court, amongst the priesthood, with rival clans (especially the powerful Yamana, Toki, and resurgent Shiba Clans), as well as ongoing conflict with loyalists of the Southern Court. There was also the campaign in Kyushu, where the Kyushu Tandai, Imagawa Sadayo, was having a hard time dealing with Southern Court loyalists, and the powerful local clans, who saw little reason for loyalty to anyone but themselves.

Apparently, Yoriyuki, aware of these problems, repeatedly tried to resign his positions as kanrei, but was refused every time by Shogun Yoshimitsu, who had by now come of age. Yoriyuki probably knew the writing was on the wall; however, his fall wouldn’t be long in coming.

In 1378, a fresh uprising of Southern Court Loyalists broke out in Kii Province. A force led by Yoriyuki’s son, Yorimoto, was dispatched to put it down, but was defeated. In response, Shogun Yoshimitsu ordered another army raised, this time made up of warriors of the Shiba and Toki Clans, and commanded by the Yamana Clan.

Instead of marching against the rebels in Kii Province, however, this new army came to Kyoto, where they surrounded the Shogun’s palace and demanded that Yoriyuki be removed from power.

With effectively no force to oppose them, the Shogun had little choice but to agree to their demands, and Yoriyuki was dismissed, though he was allowed to return to his home province on Shikoku, where he became a monk. Meanwhile, in the Kanto region, another member of the Ashikaga Clan, Ujimitsu, made his own play for power in the region, aiming to have himself named Kanto Kanrei, which was the Shogun’s Deputy in the Kanto region.

The power in that area, however, was the Uesugi Clan, and when their leader Norikata brought his forces out in opposition to Ujimitsu, the plan quickly fell apart. Norikata entered into secret negotiations with the Shogun, who had the Northern Court issue an order naming Norikata Kanto Kanrei, further solidifying the Uesugi’s power in the region.

The most obvious beneficiaries of the so-called Koryaku Coup were the Shiba clan, as their leader, Shiba Yoshiyuki, was named the new Kanrei. He immediately tried to finish off Yoriyuki by having a rival clan, the Kono, attack and take his lands on Shikoku. This was part of the ongoing rivalry between the Kono and Hosokawa (Yoriyuki’s clan) and ended in failure when the Kono were defeated in battle and their leaders killed. In the aftermath, Shogun Yoshimitsu ordered no further action against Yoriyuki or the Hosokawa.

Shiba Yoshiyuki, who was named Kanrei following the coup.
_{^{Musuketeer.3 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24825386による}}

Turning his attention to the Kanto, the Shogun pardoned Ashikaga Ujimitsu, but the peace there was short-lived, and Ujimitsu, as commander of Kamakura (Kamakura Kubo), continued to oppose the Kanto Kanrei, Uesugi Norikata, often violently, and peace would continue to be elusive in the Kanto.

Another consequence of all this was the realisation that the Shogunate’s military weakness had become a political liability. Over-reliance on the often dubious loyalty of powerful clans was no longer viable, so the Shogun ordered the creation of the Hokoshu, a military force that was personally loyal to the Shogun, rather than local lords.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, as Shogun, would go on to increase the centralisation and overall power of the Ashikaga Shogunate, and in the years following the Koryaku Coup, he would eventually be responsible for bringing the Nanbokucho Period to an end, but more on that next time.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E5%8C%97%E6%9C%9D%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3_(%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_shogunate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%B3%E5%88%A9%E7%BE%A9%E8%A9%AE#%E5%B0%86%E8%BB%8D%E5%B0%B1%E4%BB%BB%E5%BE%8C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshimitsu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosokawa_Yoriyuki
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%A5%E5%B1%8B%E5%A6%99%E8%91%A9
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%8E%E5%BE%B3%E3%81%AE%E4%B9%B1
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%89%E5%85%AC%E8%A1%86
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dk%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BA%B7%E6%9A%A6%E3%81%AE%E6%94%BF%E5%A4%89
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%AF%E6%B3%A2%E7%BE%A9%E5%B0%86
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E9%A0%BC%E4%B9%8B#%E5%BA%B7%E6%9A%A6%E3%81%AE%E6%94%BF%E5%A4%89

August 7, 2025
On and on it goes…

As we mentioned previously, the word Nanbokucho literally means Southern and Northern Court, and it was this division that was the defining factor during the early years of the Ashikaga Shogunate (hence the name, I suppose).

There had been an abortive attempt at reconciliation during the so-called Shohei Reunification, when Ashikaga Takauji (the Shogun) had made a deal with the Southern Court in order to gain their support against his rebellious brother, Tadayoshi.

As we discussed last week, the Reunification fell apart almost as soon as Tadayoshi had been dealt with, as neither side could tolerate the other gaining power. No sooner was Tadayoshi dead than the Northern and Southern Courts went at it all over again.

In the immediate aftermath, Southern forces attacked Kyoto, taking the city, only to be driven out a month later by a Shogunate counterattack, and this didn’t just happen once either. In the period of 1352 to 1361, there were actually four Battles of Kyoto (though they also have other names in Japanese).

A modern view of Kyoto. A beautiful city today, a battleground in the 1360s
_{^{Sorasak boontohhgraphy – https://unsplash.com/photos/_UIN-pFfJ7cアーカイブされたコピー at the Wayback MachineImage at the Wayback Machine, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61767016による}}

Each time, Southern forces would attack, usually taking the city, only to be driven out again shortly afterwards by armies loyal to the Shogun. During this period, with Takauji’s health apparently failing, his son Yoshiakira began to take on more responsibility.

When Takauji died in 1358, Yoshiakira became the second Ashikaga Shogun, and almost immediately set about launching a major military campaign against the Southern Court, seeking to crush it once and for all. Yoshiakira’s forces were able to take Akasaka Castle, home of the powerful Kusunoki Clan (whom we’ve mentioned previously).

Despite this success, the Southern Court, led by the Kusunoki, resorted to guerrilla warfare in the mountainous terrain, and the conflict dragged on to the point that several Shogunate generals defected, or else just went home.

In 1361, buoyed by another defection, the Southern Court once again attacked Kyoto, but once again, they couldn’t hold it, and within a month, the Shogun was back in control of the capital.

This back-and-forth warfare did little but exhaust the resources of all involved, but generally, the Shogun had the advantage. This was further emphasised in 1363, when the powerful Yamana and Ouchi clans (previously supporters of Tadayoshi, and then the Southern Court) submitted to the Shogun.

Meanwhile, everywhere else…

Whilst the Nanbokucho period was violent and chaotic, the direct confrontations between the Northern and Southern courts actually only happened in a relatively small area of central Japan. So what was going on elsewhere in the country?

Well, it wasn’t good. During the Kamakura Shogunate, most of the warrior clans had paid at least lip service to the idea of loyalty to the Shogun, and things had been relatively peaceful. The Ashikaga Shogunate, in contrast, had practically no control outside of the areas of central Japan.

This meant that powerful local warlords in places like the Kanto or Kyushu (Eastern and Southern Japan, respectively) were more or less left to their own devices, though some would side openly with either the Shogunate or the Southern Court.

In Kyushu, for example, local forces, supplemented by warriors sent by both courts, fought a series of increasingly bloody battles, culminating in the Battle of Chikugo River in the summer of 1359. It is said that this battle had over 100,000 combatants, with more men killed (46,000) than during the entire Mongol Invasion. Victory for the Southern Court secured control of Kyushu for more than a decade.

The Battle of Chikugo River in 1359 was one of the largest ever fought in Japan, and gave control of Kyushu to the Southern Court for more than a decade.
_{^{Musuketeer.3 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27263125による}}

Elsewhere in Japan, strong central government was replaced by strongman local government, as Shugo, military governors that had once been appointed by the Shogun, now took on the role of hereditary lords, passing their titles on to their heirs and creating a powerful military aristocracy that was capable of enforcing local law and order themselves and saw no need to seek support from a Shogun that might be too distracted to help anyway.

This didn’t happen overnight, of course, the transition towards warrior rule was often gradual, and highly inconsistent across different provinces. The Samurai, who were often little better than thugs in their treatment of peasants, were not popular, and the Shugo quickly learned to lean on the (increasingly obsolete) legitimacy that came from being a “governor” instead of a “lord.”

Technically, each Shugo derived his authority from the Shogun, and by extension, the Emperor. Yes, it was the Shugo’s men who collected the taxes and enforced the law, but he did so in the name of the Shogun. Whether or not anyone actually believed this legal fiction is besides the point; by the 1360s, centralised control of the provinces was breaking down, and it would be centuries before it would be recovered.

Back at home

In 1361, Doyo (remember him?) pops up again, orchestrating the downfall of his rival Hosokawa Kyouji. Kyouji, however, wasn’t the type to go quietly, and as a member of the powerful Hosokawa Clan, based in Awa Province (where he fled), he was able to raise a significant army against the Shogun.

Awa Province, on Shikoku, the home province of the powerful Hosokawa Clan.
_{^{By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1652119}}

Like many of those who opposed the Shogun, Kyouji and the Hosokawa sought support from the Southern Court, and together they took Kyoto in December, but within a few weeks, they were driven out. Not long after, Kyouji was forced back to Shikoku, where he would be killed battling forces led by his own cousin.

Despite another victory for the Shogun and the Northern Court, this latest Battle of Kyoto had reinforced the belief that military power alone was not going to be able to settle the issue. Both Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiakira and Emperor Go-Murakami appointed officials who were in favour of peace, and tentative negotiations began shortly afterwards.

This wasn’t a smooth process, mind you. In 1366, the Shiba Clan, former loyalists of the Shogun and strong proponents of peace, were accused of plotting against the Northern Court and exiled. Instead of joining the Southern Court as others had done, the Shiba retreated to their stronghold in Echizen Province (in modern Fukui Prefecture), where they were pursued by Shogunate forces and eventually defeated in July 1367.

As a side note, the Shogun actually ordered several clans to send forces to deal with the Shiba, which they did. While this showed that the Shogun was able to call on considerable support when needed, it also laid the groundwork for later trouble, as it became increasingly clear that the Shogun, and by extension, the Ashikaga Clan, did not have the military strength to enforce policy on its own.

Echizen Province, stronghold of the Shiba Clan.
_{^{By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1655318}}

The path to peace was also complicated in 1367 by the Southern Court’s insistence that the Northern Court abide by the terms of the (failed) Shohei Unification, which the Shogunate unsurprisingly refused to do. This breakdown in negotiations almost led to a resumption of war, but cooler heads prevailed, and it seemed like things might work out.

Fate has a way of being uncooperative, however. Ashikaga Yoshiakira died suddenly in December 1367, followed in March 1368 by Emperor Go-Murakami. The third Shogun was Yoshiakira’s son, Yoshimitsu, who was still a minor and was thus aided by Hosokawa Yoriyuki (the cousin who had defeated Kyouji back in 1361).

At the Southern Court, Emperor Chokei took the throne. A hardliner, Chokei refused to continue negotiations with the Shogunate that weren’t predicated on the Northern Court submitting completely. This inflexible approach actually worked against the Southern Court’s interests, as several powerful figures who had been in support of peace (including some members of the influential Kusunoki Clan) defected to the Shogun’s side.

And so the war would go on. Hosokawa Yoriyuki would actually prove to be an effective administrator and did much to improve the position of the Shogunate before eventually falling foul of internal politics, but more on that next time.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E5%8C%97%E6%9C%9D%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3_(%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B2%9E%E6%B2%BB%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%89
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E6%B8%85%E6%B0%8F
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%90%8D%E6%99%82%E6%B0%8F
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%B3%E5%88%A9%E7%BE%A9%E8%A9%AE#%E5%B0%86%E8%BB%8D%E5%B0%B1%E4%BB%BB%E5%BE%8C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshiakira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period

August 5, 2025
Turmoil after Turmoil

In 1351, the rather misleadingly named Kanno ‘Disturbance’ ended with the death of Ashikaga Tadayoshi, brother to the Shogun, Takauji. The brothers’ relationship had broken down violently in the years leading up to 1350, and with Tadayoshi’s death, the political turmoil seemed like it might finally come to an end.

But you’ve seen the title of this post, so it’s time for some good, old-fashioned, post-turmoil turmoil!

As you may remember, the Nanbokucho Period is named for the Northern and Southern Courts in place at the time, rivals for the title of ‘real’ Emperor, with the Northern Court largely being puppets of the Shogun, and the Southern Court being descended from Emperor Go-Daigo, who had opposed the Kamakura Shogunate, and then been overthrown by the Ashikaga.

In order to secure enough support to overcome his brother, Takauji had taken the highly controversial step of approaching the Southern Court for help. In exchange, the Southern Court had extracted huge concessions; Takauji effectively agreed to let the Southern Court take over the Northern one.

Though this agreement would seem to suggest that the Southern Court was now in the ascendancy, things are rarely that straightforward. The Southern Court, no content to simply take over the Northern Court, intended to destroy the Shogunate entirely.

A reading of recent history might have shown them the error of that plan, but it appears no one thought to tell them. In February 1352, the Southern Court moved to dismiss Takauji as Shogun, nominating Prince Munenaga (Emperor Go-Daigo’s son) in his place. Munenaga, leading an army of Imperial loyalists, marched on Kamakura, successfully occupying it.

Prince Munenaga, the Southern Court’s pick for Shogun. The fact that he doesn’t appear on any official lists of Shoguns should tell you how that went.

Meanwhile, another Imperial army attacked Kyoto, held by Takauji’s son, Yoshiakira. Successfully driving the Shogunate forces out of the city, the Imperial army occupied Kyoto on February 24th, and for the first time in more than fifteen years, an Emperor could be said to rule from the ancient capital (in this case, Emperor Go-Murakami). The Three Sacred Treasures (The Sword, Mirror, and Jewel), as well as the three remaining retired Emperors, were taken to the Southern Court capital at Yoshino.

The Fight Back

Despite these early successes, and having nominally stripped Takauji of legitimacy by taking his title, the Imperial cause’s optimism would prove to be short-lived. The Emperor may have had prestige as a son of heaven, but Takauji had the warriors, and that was what counted.

Ashikaga Yoshiakira recovered from his set back quickly, gathering allies, he marched on Kyoto, retaking it on March 15th, an besieging Emperor Go-Murakami at the Otokoyama Hachiman shrine. The Shrine would hold out until May 11th before surrendering, though Go-Murakami would escape.

Go-Murakami, who happened to be the Emperor recognised by the Southern Court during all this.

In the east, too, Imperial fortunes quickly took a turn. Prince Munenaga had successfully occupied Kamakura, but a series of defeats in nearby Musashi Province meant he couldn’t hold the city, and Shogunate forces, led by Takauji himself, retook Kamakura by the end of March.

Despite political uncertainty, the military situation clearly favoured the Shogunate; however, for the time being at least, the Northern Court was little more than a concept. There was no Emperor, no regent, and no Shogun, at least not officially. There wasn’t even a retired Emperor, as they all remained as ‘guests’ at Yoshino, along with the Sacred Treasures, which were required in a coronation.

Side note: Emperor Go-Daigo actually dismissed these Sacred Treasures as ‘fakes’, but his heirs seemed to have either believed they were the real deal, or else accepted the political convenience of their existence, if not their provenance.

After much political wrangling over the summer, Kogimonin, mother to two previous Emperors, was convinced to accept the position of regent. In August, she issued an Imperial Edict, selecting Go-Kogon as the new Emperor, re-establishing the Northern Court, and the Shogunate at a stroke.

One of the key figures in this process had been Doyo. More than deserving of a post of his own, Doyo (originally named Sasaki Takauji, yes, same name as the Shogun), was one of the key political figures of the era, and his role in bringing about the Northern Court’s new Emperor was just the latest accomplishment in an impressive CV.

Doyo, one of the key political players in this period.

Doyo and his family would be at the centre of Shogunate power in Kyoto. With Takauji dealing with matters in the east, the actual rule of Kyoto was left to his son, the aforementioned Yoshiakira. In 1353, the already fragile peace was broken once again when Doyo got into a land dispute with the Yamana Clan. A direct consequence of this dispute was the Yamana defecting from the Shogun’s side, making common cause with the Southern Court, and marching on Kyoto.

This time, Yoshiakira, who had lost Kyoto during the last round of disturbances, made sure to evacuate the Emperor ahead of time. It was a good job he did, too, as Yoshiakira’s forces were defeated when they tried to hold the city, and, realising he lacked the strength to do it alone, he called on his dad, Takauji, to come to his aid.

As soon as word reached the Yamana that the Shogun himself was on the way, they retreated, and Ashikaga forces retook the city. There was some sporadic fighting, but the Yamana and their allies were handily defeated, and order was restored.

In the aftermath, Doyo had proved his value to the Shogunate as someone who was a cool head in a crisis, but he had also proven he was a troublemaker, quite happy to get into feuds with powerful warrior families, which was going to be a problem going forward.

Consequences

In the short term, the direct consequence of this turmoil was the consolidation of power in the hands of Ashikaga Takauji. In the early years, he had been obliged to share power with his brother and deal with the threat of the Southern Court, but now, he was in charge.

On the other hand, though, Takauji’s deal with the Southern Court had only served to increase its legitimacy, especially after the Northern Court was established. In later years, the ‘true’ Imperial line would be seen as the one that passed through the Southern Court, and the Northern Court was increasingly seen as nothing more than a Shogunate puppet.

Finally, the most far-reaching consequence of this chaotic period was the increased power of regional warlords. Though we are still more than a century from the Warring States Period (Sengoku Jidai), the early days of the Ashikaga Shogunate had shown how weak central authority could be; the Shogun couldn’t rely on his own power to deal with threats, he had to seek support and alliances with local warlords.

A Samurai as they might have appeared in this era.

Increasingly, these warlords stopped being appointed officials of the Shogun, but became hereditary lords in their own right, a process that had already begun but was accelerated in this period. Sooner or later, this conflict between central and provincial authority would lead to a complete breakdown in government, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves; more on that next time.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A6%B3%E5%BF%9C%E3%81%AE%E6%93%BE%E4%B9%B1#%E6%99%82%E6%B0%8F%E9%9B%A2%E5%8F%8D%E3%81%A8%E9%81%93%E8%AA%89%E3%81%AE%E4%BC%B8%E9%95%B7
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%90%E3%80%85%E6%9C%A8%E9%81%93%E8%AA%89
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%97%E8%89%AF%E8%A6%AA%E7%8E%8B
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kann%C5%8D_disturbance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_shogunate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Takauji
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E5%9C%92%E5%AF%BA%E5%AF%A7%E5%AD%90#%E4%BA%8B%E5%AE%9F%E4%B8%8A%E3%81%AE%E6%B2%BB%E5%A4%A9%E3%81%AE%E5%90%9B%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B

July 31, 2025
Shaky Foundations

In 1336, Ashikaga Takauji overthrew Emperor Go-Daigo, bringing an end to the brief Kenmu Restoration, which had seen Go-Daigo and his supporters take power from the Kamakura Shogunate and their Hojo regents.

Go-Daigo’s self-serving policies, which sought to restore the power of the Emperor and the Court at the expense of landholding Samurai, had proved to many of the warrior class that Imperial rule wasn’t in their interest, and Takauji had had no problem rallying his supporters against the Emperor.

Ashikaga Takauji, serial turncoat and founder of the Ashikaga Shogunate.

However, it would be wrong to suggest that all the warrior class supported Takauji, there were plenty who remained loyal to Go-Daigo and the idea of ruling without a Shogun, and even after he was defeated, Go-Daigo was able to set himself up with a rival ‘Southern’ Court, opposing the ‘Northern’ Court which relied on the Shogun, thus beginning the Nanbokucho, or “Northern and Southern Court” Period.

There were political problems at home, too. Though Takauji had proven himself an effective warrior, he wasn’t much for politics, and so his brother, Tadayoshi, became responsible for day-to-day administration, and dealing with matters of justice, whilst Takauji dealt with military matters, including the appointment of Shugo, the military governors in the provinces.

It will surprise no one to know that this dual system didn’t lead to stable government, but initially, the presence of Emperor Go-Daigo at the Souther Court in Yoshino served as something the new Shogunate could rally against. A series of battles in 1338 and 1339 generally ended in favour of the Shogunate, and when Go-Daigo died in 1339, the initial phase of the conflict came to an end. However, the peace would be fragile and frequently broken, especially further from Kyoto.

Ko Moronao

The dual nature of the new government led to immediate power struggles, with rival factions siding with or against each other, and external opponents, mostly at the Southern Court, seeking to take advantage of the division. One figure that emerged early on was Ko Moronao, whom Takauji appointed Shitsuji or deputy in 1336.

Moronao was a talented warrior, but unlike Takauji, he proved to be a savvy politician as well and emerged as one of the most iconoclastic members of the new regime. He saw no need for an Emperor and favoured the rule of the Samurai without reference to either the Northern or Southern court.

Ko Moronao, general, iconoclast, and main political player.

In traditional Japanese historiography, Moronao is portrayed as uniquely violent and cruel, even by the standards of the time. Although not without controversy (he infamously ordered the burning of a famous shrine in which his enemy had taken refuge), Moronao’s main crime seems to have been his vociferous opposition to the Imperial Court, and it wouldn’t be until the post-1945 period that his reputation would begin to recover.

Moronao quickly found himself at odds with Tadayoshi, who was seen as conservative and increasingly courtly, and every time Tadayoshi made a decision with which Samurai disagreed, Moronao’s popularity would only grow, but it shouldn’t be understood that Moronao’s position was due entirely to his opposition to Tadayoshi.

Moronao was arguably the Ashikaga’s most effective commander, leading Shogunate forces to victory against the Southern Court and others throughout the chaotic period of the late 1330s and into the 1340s. Arguably, his most consequential victory came in 1348 at the Battle of Shijonawate. Here, Southern Court forces, under the leadership of the famed Kusunoki Clan, who had been advancing north since August of the previous year, were met and decisively defeated by the army of the Shogunate/Northern Court, led by Moronao.

The Southern forces were so completely defeated that Moronao was able to advance as far as their capital at Yoshino, capturing it temporarily before withdrawing. The Kusunoki Clan, with their famed loyalty to the ‘true’ Emperor, were badly mauled, and with that, a serious military threat to the Shogun and the Northern Court was ended.

The Kusunoki Clan meet their fate at the Battle of Shijonawate.

The Bigger they are…

Just as Moronao’s power seemed to be at its peak, his enemies at court moved against him. In 1349, in response to his alleged ‘misdeeds’, Moronao was stripped of his position as Shitsuji by Takauji, who was apparently pressured into doing it by Tadayoshi and his allies, the Uesugi Clan (I know, it’s another new name).

Tadayoshi, not satisfied with having Moronao removed from office, apparently tried to have him assassinated, and when they failed, he even tried to enlist retired Emperor Kogon (of the Northern Court), asking him to issue an official order for Moronao’s death.

Whether the Emperor refused, or there was simply no one to enforce the order, isn’t clear, but Moronao wasn’t about to hang around and let them try again. In August 1349, he and his brother marched on Kyoto at the head of an army. There was apparently relatively little fighting as Tadayoshi, taken by surprise, fled to his residence, where he was quickly surrounded and put under siege.

The crisis was eventually resolved by negotiation. Tadayoshi would leave Kyoto and become a monk, and his closest allies, those who had conspired against Moronao, were sent into exile. Though nominally a victory for Moronao, the position of Takauji remained controversial. He had facilitated negotiations, but his actual role in the events is unclear, with some speculating that he was actually working towards the removal of his brother.

Whatever the truth of it, the peace would not last long. Forces loyal to Tadayoshi had been gathering in the Chugoku region, but when Takauji gave the order for them to disperse, their leaders fled to Kyushu, far from Kyoto, and rebuilt their support. In late 1350, seeing the threat posed by the growing opposition, Takauji made the decision to personally march out and defeat them.

The Chugoku Region, where Takauji’s enemies gathered.
_{^{By TUBS – This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16385915}}

However, with his brother distracted, Tadayoshi took his chance and fled Kyoto, arriving in nearby Kawachi Province (near modern Osaka), before raising an army with the stated goal of overthrowing Moronao and his supporters.

Meanwhile, in the Kanto (around modern Tokyo), the Uesugi (remember them?) rose up as well, defeating forces that had remained loyal to Takauji and Moronao, handing effective control of Kamakura and the surrounding area to Tadayoshi.

In response to all this, Takauji turned his army around and had the Emperor of the Northern Court declare Tadayoshi and his supporters to be enemies of the throne. When he heard this, Tadayoshi made the shocking decision to openly declare for the Southern Court, which had, up until then, been the Shogunate’s most implacable foes.

Shogun Showdown

Takauji tried to return to Kyoto but was defeated by the combined Tadayoshi/Southern Court forces at Komyo-ji, and then again at Uchidehama shortly afterwards. These defeats convinced Takauji to seek peace with his brother, and the matter was settled by further negotiation.

In public, Takauji insisted that Moronao being allowed to become a monk was a prerequisite for peace, but allegedly, he secretly agreed with Tadayoshi that Moronao could be removed permanently. Peace was formally agreed on February 20th, and on February 26th, Moronao and his family were ambushed by forces loyal to the Uesugi (them again), and killed.

With Moronao removed, the official reasons for the conflict between Takauji and Tadayoshi were removed, but it will probably not shock you to learn that the peace didn’t hold. The fact that Tadayoshi had sided with the Southern Court was not forgotten, and his attempts at reconciliation fell on deaf ears. He compounded this issue by continuing one of his most unpopular policies, refusing to reward Samurai who fought bravely with land confiscated from their defeated enemies.

Takauji, for his part, sought to weaken his brother’s support by actively prosecuting his followers whilst overlooking the crimes of his own. This obviously bred considerable resentment amongst Tadayoshi’s base, but it had the side-effect of increasing support for Takauji; after all, he might reward you with land for supporting him, whilst opposing him carried the risk of prosecution.

In the Spring of 1351, one of Tadayoshi’s most capable generals was assassinated by unknown assailants. Later, one of his commanders was attacked but was able to flee. Then, in the summer, Takauji ordered forces to move against his brother’s allies in Omi and Harima Provinces, seeking to attack from two sides.

Alerted to the danger, Tadayoshi was able to flee Kyoto and made it to Kamakura. Although driven from the capital, he still controlled vast areas of the nation and could command the loyalty of thousands of warriors. Takauji, seeking any support he could, made an agreement with the Southern Court, effectively handing the entire Northern Court over to them in the so-called (and short-lived) Shohei Unification.

With support in Kyoto secured, Takauji set off for Kamakura, defeating his brother’s forces in a series of battles throughout late 1351 and into 1352, eventually forcing him back to Kamakura, where he had little choice but to surrender.

As punishment for his rebellion, Tadayoshi was confined to a temple in Kamakura, where he conveniently died only a few weeks later, allegedly by poison, but also possibly by a sudden illness.

The main hall (Hondo) at Jomyo-ji Temple in Kamakura.

Tadayoshi’s death brought an end to the political crisis in the short term, but it wasn’t to last. The reconciliation of the Imperial Court was already fraying at the edges, and it wouldn’t be long before conflict between Emperor and Shogun broke out again, but more on that next time.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A6%B3%E5%BF%9C%E3%81%AE%E6%93%BE%E4%B9%B1#%E8%96%A9%E5%9F%B5%E5%B3%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Tadayoshi
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%93%E5%87%BA%E6%B5%9C%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%89%E6%98%8E%E5%AF%BA%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A6%B3%E5%BF%9C%E3%81%AE%E6%93%BE%E4%B9%B1
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E5%B8%AB%E7%9B%B4
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E3%83%B6%E5%B4%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84_(%E5%8D%97%E5%8C%97%E6%9C%9D%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieges_of_Kuromaru
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kanegasaki_(1337)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shij%C5%8Dnawate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8D_no_Moronao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kann%C5%8D_disturbance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Takauji
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenmu_Restoration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_shogunate

July 29, 2025
Kamakura V – The More things change…

As we’ve already seen, by the mid-13th century, the Kamakura Shogunate was ruled in all but name by the powerful Hojo Clan, who ruled as shikken or regents for the Shoguns, who were nothing more than puppets.

In Kyoto, the Emperor, whilst technically being the overlord of everyone as a son of heaven, was also just a figurehead, whose position and finances relied entirely on the goodwill of the Hojo. Successive Emperors accepted this situation with varying degrees of good grace, concluding that comfortable irrelevance was better than uncomfortable exile.

Hojo power, however, became a double-edged sword; as their power grew, so did their arrogance. They began to rely on an increasingly small pool of retainers to fill powerful positions, and this led to disillusionment amongst other Samurai houses, who saw their path to wealth and influence blocked by entrenched Hojo interests.

This situation worsened in the aftermath of the Mongol Invasions. Despite successfully defending the country, the cost of mounting the defence had been ruinous to Hojo finances, and the expected rewards of land and titles were not forthcoming (the Samurai didn’t fight for honour, you see.)

This brewing resentment took time to reach a boiling point, but as the 14th century went on, anger towards the government in Kamakura continued to grow, and the Hojo, in what they believed to be an unassailable position, were practically blind to it.

In 1318, Emperor Go-Daigo took the throne. His choice of name was significant, as it had been Emperor Daigo (the Go prefix means ‘later’) who had successfully opposed the power of the Fujiwara during the Heian Period, and Go-Daigo intended to emulate his namesake, and overthrow the Shogunate and restore independent Imperial Rule.

Go-Daigo’s plans were first uncovered during the so-called Shochu Incident in 1324, where comrades of the Emperor were arrested after being accused of plotting against the Shogun. In response, the Emperor sent a letter to the Shogun, ‘ordering’ them to find the real culprits. It is generally believed that the Shogunate were well aware of Go-Daigo’s involvement, but, wanting to avoid a direct conflict with the Court, they played along, and several conspirators were exiled, whilst the Emperor himself remained officially blameless.

Go-Daigo, though, didn’t learn his lesson, and tried again in 1331; he gathered supporters and retainers, evidently planning to launch a coup against the Shogunate. Once again, his plans were discovered, and the Shogunate dispatched forces to Kyoto to put the planned uprising down. Go-Daigo fled, but was captured shortly afterwards and exiled to the remote Oki Islands (off the coast of modern Shimane Prefecture).

The Hojo replaced Go-Daigo with Emperor Kogon, but partisans of Go-Daigo, including his son, Prince Morinaga (sometimes called Moriyoshi) and legendary Samurai, Kusunoki Masashige, continued to oppose the Shogun, until 1333, when Go-Daigo escaped from exile.

Landing in Hoki Province, Go-Daigo made his base at Mt Senjo and gathered a new “Imperial” Army. In April, Go-Daigo won the Battle of Mt Senjo, gaining him support of many powerful warlords in Western Japan, allowing him to march on Kyoto and take the city in June, re-establishing himself as Emperor.

Hoki Province, where Go-Daigo landed after escaping from exile.
_{^{By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1682393}}

The Hojo dispatched Ashikaga Takauji, one of their foremost generals, with orders to crush Go-Daigo and reassert Shogunate power. Takauji marched, but for reasons that are still unclear, he switched sides, turned his army around, and launched an attack on Kamakura. One possible reason for Takauji’s defection is that the Ashikaga Clan were descendants of the Minamoto, the family that had established the Shogunate, and he hoped to be named Shogun himself, but his real reasons will probably never be known for sure.

Deprived of their main army, the Hojo suffered a series of defeats, culminating with the Siege of Kamakura in July 1333, where the Hojo were surrounded, and would eventually commit mass suicide in a cave behind the Tosho-ji Temple in Kamakura, bringing their power and their family to an end.

The alleged site of the cave where the Hojo Clan committed mass suicide.

In the aftermath of Go-Daigo’s victory, he almost seemed to go out of his way to piss away the goodwill he had accumulated in the years leading up to the so-called “Kenmu Restoration”. The problems stemmed from the fact that those who had supported the overthrow of the Shogunate had done so for a variety of reasons, ranging from genuine loyalty to the Emperor to an ambition to replace the Hojo as regents.

Commoners hoped for land reform, and though there is little evidence of specific goals, it has been speculated that they were hoping for something akin to land redistribution, ending the peasant’s reliance on powerful, and often fickle, landlords.

The Samurai who had fought for the Emperor sought rewards in land and titles, hoping to replace the governors and administrators put in place by the Shogunate.

Finally, Imperial Courtiers hope for a true return to Imperial Rule, where the whole nation was under their control, and they could get back to the good old days of poetry, fancy clothes, and absentee landlordism.

In the end, all three factions were to be disappointed. Go-Daigo, like the proverbial dog chasing a car, didn’t know what to do with power once he’d got it, beyond a vague notion that he should be in charge.

In the first place, the commoners were never likely to get land reform; the Emperor had relied on the land-owning Samurai to do the fighting for them, and they were (unsurprisingly) likely to get on board with sharing the land that they had come to view as rightfully theirs.

So what about the land taken from the Hojo and their allies? Well, that might have gone to the Samurai who had fought for the Imperial cause, but instead, Go-Daigo either took it for himself, or else gifted it to courtiers and cronies, alienating the Samurai who had expected a reward for their efforts.

Finally, we have the Emperor and his courtiers. For whatever reason, they seemed to believe that they could just rule without the Samurai, despite all evidence telling them otherwise. Positions in regional governance, which had been the domain of Samurai for nearly 300 years at this point, went instead to courtiers.

Quite what he had thought was going to happen isn’t clear, but within two years, the Emperor had managed to alienate just about everyone, so it should come as no surprise that his position soon became extremely precarious.

Emperor Go-Daigo, who really didn’t know what he was doing.

Ashikaga Takauji, the man whose defection had proved essential to the ultimate Imperial victory, now emerged as the leader of the Samurai opposition to the Emperor. The problem started when Takauji began appointing governors to Provinces himself, ignoring Imperial instructions.

This was exactly how the first Shogunate had gotten started, and it wasn’t long before the Imperial court rightly guessed what Takauji was up to. In response, the Emperor named his son, Morinaga, Shogun, a move which further antagonised the already restless Samurai, as the title of Shogun, even before it became a powerful political position, had always been awarded to a member of the military class.

Takauji doesn’t seem to have considered himself a turncoat in this case; the Ashikaga were descendants of the Minamoto, after all, so he portrayed himself as the redeemer of their power and, by extension, the power of the warrior class, earning himself the respect and loyalty of the disaffected Samurai.

Prince Morinaga continued to be the leader of the opposition to Takauji, and so Takauji had him arrested on some flimsy pretext and transported to Kamakura. The situation there was tense, with Hojo loyalists launching sporadic, often poorly organised revolts, until the summer of 1335 when the son of the last Hojo regent, Tokiyuki, successfully took control of the city.

In fleeing the city, Takauji’s brother, Tadayoshi, had Prince Morinaga beheaded, leaving Kamakura to the Hojo rebels. Upon hearing the news of the city’s fall, Takauji asked the Emperor to bestow the title of Shogun on him, to give me the authority to crush the rebellion and restore order. The Emperor refused, guessing correctly what Takauji was up to.

Takauji raised an army and took Kamakura back anyway, and when he was ‘invited’ to Kyoto to explain himself, he refused. At this point, civil war was inevitable, and both sides ordered all Samurai in the realm to join their side.

Again, it’s not clear exactly what Go-Daigo thought was going to happen, after all, he’d spent five years pissing off just about everyone, so it should have come as no surprise when the vast majority of warriors, and peasants too, for that matter, joined Takauji.

Takauji’s forces quickly secured Kyoto in February 1336, only to be driven out in a counter-attack a short while after. Regrouping in the west, he advanced again, defeating the Emperor’s forces at Minatogawa and securing final control of the capital in July.

The Battle of Minatogawa, where Ashikaga Takauji overcome the forces of Emperor Go-Daigo.

Not long after, Takauji had the new Emperor, Komyo, declare him Shogun, giving birth to the Ashikaga, or Muromachi Shogunate. Go-Daigo was down, but not out, however, and he would return to plague the new government, but more about that next time.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BB%BA%E6%AD%A6%E3%81%AE%E6%96%B0%E6%94%BF
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AD%B7%E8%89%AF%E8%A6%AA%E7%8E%8B
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A5%A0%E6%9C%A8%E6%AD%A3%E6%88%90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusunoki_Masashige
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Moriyoshi
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A3%E4%B8%AD%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%89
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genk%C5%8D_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenmu_Restoration

July 24, 2025
Kamakura IV – You can’t invade Japan…

“…unless you’re the Mongols…” – John Green, Crash Course World History

By the 1260s, the Mongol Empire was the most powerful state the world had ever seen. Throughout the 13th century, united under their leader, Genghis Khan and his heirs, the Mongols had conquered everything from China to Poland, sweeping aside any who opposed them, and spreading Mongol law and customs across Asia and into Eastern Europe.

In 1260, Kublai was elected as Great Khan. The grandson of Genghis, he had established the base at Khanbaliq, in modern Beijing, would go on to declare himself Emperor of China in 1271 (establishing the Yuan Dynasty), and took part in the subjugation of Korea, which had only finally submitted (and even then, as only a vassal) in 1259.

Kublai Khan, Great Khan, Emperor of China, and would-be conqueror of Japan.

Though China would not be completely subjugated until 1279, the Mongol position in Asia was strong enough that Kublai could turn his eyes elsewhere in search of new conquests. Japan presented a unique challenge; though Mongol armies were dominant on land, they had relatively little power at sea, and Japan, as an island nation, presented an opportunity to enhance Mongol prestige, but came with considerable risk.

At first, Kublai tried to get the Japanese to submit without a fight. In 1266, he sent an embassy with a letter inviting the Japanese to send tribute. The embassy was turned away without even delivering its letter. Kublai, apparently not believing that a Mongol embassy would be treated so disrespectfully, sent another mission which met with similar stonewalling.

In 1269, Kublai sent a third mission, this time to the island of Tsushima, demanding to know why there had been no response to his earlier letters. At this point, the Imperial court in Kyoto got nervous and suggested that it might be better to deal with the Mongols diplomatically. However, the Hojo Regents in Kamakura rejected this approach; a letter was apparently drafted, but evidently never sent.

The Mongol Cometh.

Several more attempts at diplomacy were made, but all came to nothing. The Shogunate seems to have taken the threat of invasion seriously as early as 1268, though, and began preparing defences. In China, the first serious preparations weren’t made until 1274, when Kublai and the Mongols(more correctly, the Yuan Dynasty at this point) began the mobilisation of troops, ships and supplies.

The first invasion force made landfall on the island of Tsushima in November 1274, but it’s not entirely clear how big the opposing forces were. As is common with these things, the numbers vary wildly, with Chinese sources saying the Japanese have over 100,000 warriors, whilst the Japanese claim to have been outnumbered 10 to 1, both of which are clearly exaggerations.

Most scholars put the total Mongol forces at around 30,000 (including sailors), but what is certain is that they quickly conquered Tsushima and nearby Iki Island, using them as a base for stage two of their plan. Mongol forces (around 6000) landed at Hakata Bay, in modern Fukuoka, on November 19th.

Here we see the mismatch in fighting styles between the Mongols and Japanese. The Japanese tried to fight in their own way, with individuals announcing themselves and seeking challengers from the opposing side until one side overcame the other. The Mongols, however, fought as units, not individuals, and they made use of early gunpowder weapons, like primitive hand grenades, which terrified the Japanese and their horses and disrupted their tactics.

“According to our manner of fighting, we must first call out by name someone from the enemy ranks, and then attack in single combat. But they (the Mongols) took no notice at all of such conventions; they rushed forward all together in a mass, grappling with any individuals they could catch and killing them.” – Hachiman Gudokan

The Japanese fought bravely, but were outmatched by Mongolian tactics and gunpowder weapons.

The fighting was brief and badly organised, and though the Mongols were able to drive the Japanese back and even burn Hakata, they made no further progress. Overnight, apparently fearing a Japanese counterattack, the Mongols retreated to their ships, and by the next morning, they were gone.

Japanese sources say that unfavourable winds blew the Mongol fleet back out to sea, whilst Chinese sources make reference to a storm that scattered the fleet either in Hakata Bay or when it was on its way back to Korea.

Either way, the first Mongol invasion was over. There are no reliable accounts of Japanese losses, though they appear to have been heavy, especially on Tsushima, where the Mongols killed and burned everything before them. As for the Mongols, they may have lost up to half their forces, though again, the sources aren’t entirely clear.

Scholars disagree about whether this first ‘invasion’ was an actual attempt to conquer territory in Japan, or was instead a reconnaissance in force, designed to test the fighting abilities of the Japanese before a major effort was launched.

The Empire Strikes Back

The Japanese at the time certainly believed that the Mongols would be back, and as soon as the last invader disappeared, preparations were made for their return. Potential landing sites in Kyushu were fortified with castles, and stakes were driven into river beds, and at Hakata, a 2-meter wall, the Genko Borui, was built to prevent a second sacking of the city.

For his part, Kublai made another attempt at diplomacy and dispatched another embassy, which had orders to refuse to leave until an answer was received. They certainly got an answer when the regent of the day, Hojo Tokimune, had them beheaded. Their graves can still be seen at Joryu-ji Temple in Fujisawa.

The stele marking the graves of the envoys, in Fujisawa.
_{^{By kamakura – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3082856}}

Another embassy was sent in July 1279 and met the same fate, this time at Hakata, and in 1280, Kublai gathered his men, and together they made plans for a second invasion of Japan.

By this time, China had been fully conquered, and using his newly acquired resources, Kublai was able to amass more than 1500 ships, and 100,000 men, with a further 40,000 in Korea. These numbers are probably exaggerated, but it does go some way towards showing how large the invasion was when compared to the first.

The Mongol forces were divided into two: the Eastern and the Southern Army. The Eastern Army landed on Tsushima again in June, and once again, the island and nearby Iki Island were quickly conquered. The Eastern Army was supposed to wait for the Southern Army, but its commanders instead attacked Kyushu directly, landing at Hakata and nearby Nagato Province (in modern Yamaguchi Prefecture).

The attack in Nagato was a failure, and the one at Hakata ran into the wall that had been built for that purpose. The Japanese had learned their lesson; they no longer sought out individual battles with the Mongols, instead remaining behind their defences and driving the invaders back with their bows (the preferred weapon of the Samurai at the time).

The Mongols landed, but couldn’t overcome determined Japanese defenders, who had learned their lesson.

Though driven back, the Mongols busied themselves with occupying the abundant islands around northern Kyushu, turning some of them into bases from which they raided the mainland. The Japanese lacked the naval strength to face the Mongol fleet directly, and instead launched night attacks on Mongol ships, inflicting minor damage and proving to be a nuisance rather than a serious strategic threat.

The situation got worse for the Japanese when the Mongol Southern Fleet finally arrived, and the combined fleets based themselves at Takashima Island, where they made plans to renew the attack on Kyushu.

At the same time, an army of some 60,000, dispatched by the Shogun to oppose the invasion, was making its way towards Kyushu, but before it reached Chofu, where it intended to cross from Honshu (Japan’s main island) to Kyushu, the weather had intervened.

And they were scattered.

In mid-August, the weather took a sudden turn, experienced sailors amongst the Mongol Fleet recognised the signs sought cover in Imari Bay, but it was already too late. On August 15th, a typhoon smashed into the Mongol Fleet, devastating it; those ships not sunk outright were stranded ashore where the Japanese made short work of their crews.

The few Mongol ships that managed to survive the storm limped back across the sea to Korea, with some Chinese sources claiming that the losses may have been as high as 90%. The Mongol Invasion of Japan had failed, and though there were discussions about mounting a third attempt, they came to nothing, and Japan would remain free of foreign occupation until 1945.

Despite having seen off the invasion, the Shogunate and the Hojo Regents were in no position to celebrate. Traditionally, warriors, victorious in war, were granted land taken from their defeated enemies, or at least could expect a share of the loot.

The problem was that there was no land, and precious little loot to be shared out, and this led to growing resentment amongst the men who had actually done the fighting and dying and the popularity and prestige of the Shogunate was badly shaken.

Another consequence of the failed invasion was a sharp rise in Japanese amongst the Wako, pirates who were a serious problem for coastal Chinese communities for decades afterwards, so much so, that Wako raids were cited as one of the reasons for an eventual Chinese ban on trade with Japan, though that would come long after the Mongol Yuan Dynasty had fallen.

In Japan, too, the unsuccessful invasion led to some significant changes. Firstly, the belief that Japan was a land with divine protection became widespread, with the Kamikaze (literally, Divine Wind) being cited as the source of the Typhoon that had smashed the Mongol Fleet.

Military technology was changed too; prior to the invasion, the Samurai had favoured the bow or spear as their primary weapon. When forced to fight up close with the Mongols, their swords were found to be too easily bent or broken, and this led to innovations in sword manufacturing that produced shorter, lighter, but stronger blades, giving birth to the iconic swords we know today.

The Hojo and their puppet Shoguns would continue to rule Japan for decades after the threat of invasion had passed, but their rule was shaky, and the 14th century would see them face their final challenge, one of their own.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%83%E5%AF%87
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_of_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kublai_Khan

Not that many this week, eh?

July 22, 2025
Kamakura III – The Jokyu War

We’ve already talked about Imperial decline during the Heian Period. Over many centuries, central control eroded, until eventually the provinces proved to be ungovernable. Eventually, the power of the Imperial Court was usurped by Minamoto no Yoritomo, who established the Kamakura Shogunate in Kamakura, obviously.

You may not be surprised to hear that the Emperor wasn’t best pleased with this turn of events. Although the actual power of the Emperor had been largely theoretical for decades, there had always been a veneer of ‘Imperial’ authority. The rise of the first Shogunate, however, did away with that.

With supreme military power firmly in Yoritomo’s hands, there was little the Emperor could do to change the status quo. However, as we’ve discussed, Yoritomo’s heirs proved not to be the model of their father. By the dawn of the 13th Century, the Kamakura ‘Shogunate’ was in fact ruled by regents, or Shikken, from the Hojo Clan.

In 1219, the regent was Hojo Yoshitoki, who shared power with his influential sister Hojo Masako, the so-called ‘Nun Shogun’. That year, Masako’s son, Sanemoto, the third Shogun, was assassinated, bringing an end to the line of Minamoto Shoguns (Yoritomo and his two sons). Although the Hojo were already in effective control, the end of the ‘legitimate’ line of Shoguns presented an apparent opportunity for their enemies to challenge them.

Emperor Go-Toba

In a period where Emperors were often well-decorated figureheads, Go-Toba stood out. He was highly educated, as most courtiers were, but he had also shown skill at martial arts, earning him respect and loyalty from warrior families in the west and north. Unfortunately for him, the Throne still drew its income from its land holdings, and when the Shogunate appointed officials to oversee those holdings, the money taken in taxes often didn’t find its way to the Emperor.

Emperor Go-Toba, whose attempts to restore Imperial power would start the Jokyu War.

After Sanemoto’s assassination in 1219, the Hojo approached Go-Toba about the possibility of one of the Emperor’s sons becoming the next Shogun. Go-Toba attempted to negotiate, seeking the removal of Shogunate officials from Imperial holdings.

The Shogunate sent a force of 1000 men under Yoshitoki’s brother in an attempt to intimidate the Emperor. Go-Toba wasn’t easily scared, however, and negotiations broke down, although the Emperor would offer a concession; he would allow a member of the Imperial family to become Shogun, as long as it wasn’t a prince of the main royal line.

The Hojo were satisfied with this, and Kujo Yoritsune, who was only a little over a year old, was chosen as the fourth Shogun. However, because Yoritsune was a baby, the position of the Hojo as regents was secure, and, for a time at least, peace endured.

The elevation of a member of the Imperial house to the position of Shogun did nothing about the underlying issues, however, and in July 1219, just a few months after the previous negotiations, the military governor of the area around Kyoto, (who had been appointed by the Shogun) was attacked and killed by warriors acting on the Emperor’s orders.

Some records say that the governor had been planning to launch a coup and make himself Shogun, with Go-Toba, made aware of the plot, acting to stop the plot before it came to fruition. Other sources, however, point out how unlikely it is for Go-Toba to have had a Shogunate official killed as a favour to the Shogun, and it is more likely that the governor either discovered, or was made aware of, the Emperor’s plans, and was removed accordingly.

The unfortunate fellow apparently took his own life when his residence (which was within the grounds of the Imperial Palace) was surrounded and burned by Imperial loyalists, and whatever the reasons, this was a direct attack by forces representing the Emperor on those representing the Shogun. The Emperor then asked the Shogunate, Court Officials, and local temples and shrines to donate money to help rebuild the burned residence, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, most of them refused to pay up.

During rebuilding work, rumours spread that Go-Toba was quietly gathering allies and raising an army. It was also alleged that he had asked shrines and temples around the capital to invoke the power of the gods on the Emperor’s behalf, which was quite the provocation, apparently.

War Begins

Then, in Spring 1221, Go-Toba gathered troops in the capital under the pretext of protecting religious sites and ceremonies. On May 15th, he dropped the pretext; however, when forces loyal to the Imperial Side attacked the offices of the Shogun in Kyoto, burning them and killing the officials, which, as declarations of war go, is pretty definitive.

On the same day, Go-Toba issued a formal Imperial decree, ordering all the warriors of the nation to arrest Yoshitoki, who was declared an outlaw and enemy of the court. Within a few days, warriors from across western Japan had risen against the Shogun, and Go-Toba believed, rather flippantly, that the issuance of an Imperial decree would fatally undermine the Shogunate.

This is one of those times that later writers absolutely love to dramatise. It’s all honour, loyalty, duty unto death, etc. but the reality is that, despite an Imperial Decree, and a counter-decree from Hojo Masako, the majority of the warriors across the nation (those who were directly tied to either side through blood or obligation) sided with whoever they thought would benefit them the most if they won.

In those calculations, the Shogunate had the advantage; the Shogun had the right to distribute land, and most of the warrior families expected to be rewarded with the lands and titles of those who had sided with the Emperor and the court, who was generally believed to have been likely to favour himself and his courtiers, in the event of their victory.

So, for all their vaunted ‘honour’, the Samurai would (and not for the last time) side with those they thought would give them the best deal, and by the time they marched, the armies loyal to the Shogun are said to have numbered nearly 200,000.

A later illustration of a Samurai as they might have appeared during the Jokyu War.

The Shogunate army was actually three separate forces, with 40,000 men heading by a northern route, another force of 50,000 heading through the mountains, and the third, largest force of 100,000, following the main Tokaido Road, with all three marching on Kyoto.

The Imperial side seems to have been caught off guard by first the size, then the speed of the Shogunate forces. It appears that the Emperor had believed his decree would be enough to secure mass defections, and when the opposite occurred, the forces loyal to the throne were out of position and hugely outnumbered.

Resistance was scattered and ineffective, with some sources suggesting that the main army took just 22 days to complete the march from Kamakura to Kyoto, which might be an exaggeration, but goes some way to highlighting how badly prepared the Imperial Army was.

Though the court was able to gather warriors from Western Japan, the numbers were nowhere near what they had expected, and besides, the rapid advance of the Shogunate army meant that reinforcements wouldn’t have been able to reach the capital in time.

In desperation, Go-Toba went to Mt Hiei, on the outskirts of Kyoto, and pleaded with the famed warrior monks for support. The monks, partly out of opposition to the Emperor, and partly due to their fear of the strength of the Shogun, refused to help, and Go-Toba was left with an army of around 18,000 to defend the capital.

Outnumbered 5 to 1, Imperial forces took position near Uji, and on June 13th, another Battle of Uji (the third in 50 years) took place. Despite brave resistance, the Imperial side was overwhelmed, and on June 15th, Shogunate forces were in Kyoto. What followed was an orgy of violence, as the houses of Imperial officials and supporters were ransacked and burned, and the citizens suffered at the hands of the rampaging army.

As Kyoto burned, Go-Toba sent a message to the Shogunate army, withdrawing the Imperial order to arrest Yoshitoki, and blaming the whole thing on his ministers and advisors. Abandoned by the Emperor, some of his supporters fought on in vain, but the final defeat was inevitable, and by July, serious fighting was over, with a few fugitives evading capture until October.

In the aftermath, Go-Toba was exiled, and eventually replaced as Emperor by Go-Horikawa, and the estates of those who had been killed fighting for the Court, or proscribed afterwards, were distributed to the Shogun’s supporters. Direct control was established over Kyoto, and any semblance of independent military strength was ended; every warrior was now the direct vassal of the Emperor, or else.

The Shogunate also took control of the purse strings for the court. Prior to the war, the Emperor had held land in his own right and drawn income from it, but now, those lands were ruled directly by the Shogun, and the government in Kamakura could now decide how much, if any, cash the Emperor would get.

The end of the Jokyu War would mark the zenith of Shogunate, and therefore Hojo power, and for a time, they would rule more or less unchallenged, but some 60 years later, a new threat would emerge.

Since the dawn of the 13th Century, a previously fractured and quarrelsome people had been united under a single ruler and gone on to conquer an empire the likes of which had never been seen. Though this great conqueror was long dead, his sons and grandsons had continued his work, and in 1260, a new ruler was enthroned, one who would go on to make himself master of China and Korea before seeking new conquests across the sea.

In 1274, Kublai Khan, grandson of the Great Genghis, had ambitions to make himself master of the world, and he cast his eyes on Japan.

The Mongols were coming.

Sources
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%BF%E4%B9%85%E3%81%AE%E4%B9%B1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura_shogunate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuma_Kagami
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dky%C5%AB_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Go-Toba
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E9%B3%A5%E7%BE%BD%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%87

July 17, 2025
Kamakura II – Rise of the Hojo

When Minamoto no Yoritomo died in 1199, he left an impressive legacy. From a boy of 12, exiled to a far-flung province after a failed rebellion, to effective master of Japan in less than forty years.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, those who came after him would not live up to his example. As we mentioned briefly last time, one of the main pillars of Yoritomo’s support had been his marriage to Hojo Masako, and through her, the support of the powerful Hojo Clan.

The Hojo

First, it’s important to make the distinction between this clan and the later Hojo Clan, who would play an important role in the same area during the Sengoku Jidai. This later clan would take the name and symbol of the earlier clan, but they don’t seem to have been directly related.

The original Hojo Clan came from Izu Province, in what is now Shizuoka Prefecture. Their exact origins are open to speculation, with some sources suggesting they are descended from an offshoot of one of the Taira Clans, whereas others speculate that they are named after an area in the Tagata area of modern Shizuoka.

Izu Province, in modern-day Shizuoka, is the homeland of the original Hojo Clan.
_{^{By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1682541}}

Whatever their exact origins, the Hojo were one of the buke or warrior families that rose during the latter years of the Heian Period, but again, scholars aren’t clear on how powerful they actually were. The size of their territory seems to have been relatively small, suggesting only limited military strength. On the other hand, it is located close to important transport links, suggesting access to wealth that went beyond mere manpower, and their later dominance of the Kamakura government suggests they were no country bumpkins when it came to the business of administration.

Murky origins aside, we know that Hojo Masako married Yoritomo in around 1177, and initially, Masako’s dad, Tokimasa, was against it, for apparently political reasons, worrying that the Taira, who were in charge in Kyoto at this point, would have something to say about a Hojo marrying the leader of their enemy.

Apparently, the Taira didn’t have much to say about it, however, and Tokimasa would eventually come around to the new arrangement, proving to be one of Yoritomo’s most steadfast supporters.

Family Feud

I’m planning to write a post about Hojo Masako herself later, so I’ll skip over the details of her marriage to Yoritomo, but suffice it to say, she proved to be not only a faithful wife but a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

A later image of Hojo Masako as the “Nun Shogun”

After Yoritomo died in 1199, Masako shaved her head and became a nun, though she would continue to reside in Kamakura, earning the nickname “Nun Shogun” for her political power. Yoritomo’s heir was Yoriie, and when he came to power, Masako’s father, Hojo Tokimasa, had himself appointed regent, or Shikken.

Yoriie wasn’t thrilled about this, as he favoured his wife’s family, the Hiki Clan, and almost as soon as he was formally proclaimed Shogun in 1202, he began to make moves to replace Tokimasa, his grandfather, with Hiki Yoshikazu, his father-in-law.

Obviously, Tokimasa and Masako weren’t just going to let that happen, and in 1203, when Masako got word that Yoriie and Yoshikazu were planning a sort of palace coup, she informed her father, and the Hojo moved first.

Hojo forces assassinated Yoshikazu, and then had the Hiki residence burned, killing most of the extended family. They even went as far as to kill Yoriie’s son and nominal heir, Ichiman, because it had been alleged that the Hiki planned to rule as his regents, in the same way the Hojo had for Yoriie.

Yoriie himself was exiled (then assassinated a year later), and his replacement as Shogun was his younger brother (another of Masako’s sons), Sanemoto, who was only 12 at the time. Little Sanemoto seems to have been closer to his mother than Yoriie had been, which suited Masako, but not Grandpa Tokimasa, who saw his influence over the Shogunate decline.

By 1205, Tokimasa was the most powerful man in Kamakura, but he wasn’t unopposed. Firstly, he was widely believed to have been behind the assassination of Yoriie, which upset Masako to say the least, and not long after that, Tokimasa went even further by ordering his sons (Yoshitoki and Tokifusa) to execute his son-in-law. They protested, but Tokimasa insisted, and the boys, who had apparently quite liked their brother-in-law, began openly siding with their sister, Masako, against Tokimasa.

Then, amidst rumours that Tokimasa planned to have the Shogun killed, and replaced with someone more pliable, Masako and her siblings went to him and told him that he’d better step down, or face open rebellion. Surprisingly, Tokimasa agreed and resigned as regent, shaving his head and becoming a monk, living out the rest of his days in relative peace before passing away in 1215, aged around 78.

The Nun Shogun

Sanemoto would be confirmed as Shogun in 1205. His uncle, Yoshitoki, became regent, and Masako maintained her position as the “Nun Shogun”, the power behind the throne. Masako and Yoshitoki oversaw a period of relative peace, dominating the weak-willed Sanetomo.

Sanetomo seems to have been a bit of a non-entity, which probably suited Masako and Yoshitoki but led to serious issues down the line. Sanemoto was a talented poet, but there is evidence that he may have been an alcoholic, and possibly homosexual as well, despite being married, it was remarked by contemporaries how he seemed to have little to no interest in women.

Now, being a permanently pickled friend of Dorothy might sound like a grand old time, but the problem with a hereditary system of government, even one in which you are a puppet, is that you need someone to inherit the government.

During this time, Masako went to the Imperial Court in Kyoto to see if a son of the Emperor might be available for adoption as Sanetomo’s heir. The Emperor, perhaps unsurprisingly, had little reason to do the Shogunate a favour and refused, leaving the succession in doubt.

In 1219, Sanemoto was assassinated by his nephew, Kugyo, Yoriie’s second son, and arguably the man who would have been Shogun, had it not been for Hojo politicking. In a dramatic winter scene, Sanemoto was ambushed on the steps of a temple. As the snow fell heavily around them, Kugyo cut the Shogun down and fled the scene.

The stairs at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu in Kamakura, where Sanetomo was assassinated. Some stories tell of Kugyo hiding behind the Ginkgo Tree on the left.
_{^{By No machine-readable author provided. Abrahami assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=863448}}

Kugyo himself would be tracked down and killed later, but his exact reason for the killing has been a matter of some speculation. He was the son of the murdered Shogun Yoriie, so it might have simply been a question of revenge. Another possible explanation is a plot involving Regent Yoshitoki, who was trying to get rid of the last legitimate heir to Yoritomo, thus cementing Hojo power.

Historians generally doubt the idea that Kugyo, who had no reason to support Hojo ambitions, was working with Yoshitoki, but regardless, Sanetomo’s death would prove highly fortuitous for the Hojo.

Whatever his failings, Sanetomo had been the last legitimate son of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and with his death, the line of Minamoto Shoguns ended. Masako and Yoshitoki then selected Kujo Yoritsune as the next Shogun. His claim was tenuous at best; his grandmother had been Yoritomo’s niece, and what was more, he was only a year old when Sanetomo was assassinated.

While Yoritsune came of age, the country was effectively ruled by Masako and Yoshitoki, and it was during this period that Masako would really earn the nickname “Nun Shogun”.

It is important to note that the prejudice against female rulers wasn’t as ingrained as you might imagine. Whilst European sources tend to portray women who rule in their own right as something unnatural, Japanese sources are generally positive about Masako and her reign. Of course, it does help that most of the sources we have were written by people who had reason not to antagonise the Hojo, but still, it is an interesting side note.

Hojo Masako would continue to be the effective ruler of Japan until her death in August 1225, but she and the Hojo would not rule unchallenged. In 1221, the Emperor Go-Toba decided he’d had enough of being a figurehead and tried to do something about it.

Sources
_{^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Sanetomo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuj%C5%8D_Yoritsune
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%97%A4%E5%8E%9F%E9%A0%BC%E7%B5%8C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugy%C5%8D_(priest)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura_shogunate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_Masako
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuma_Kagami
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soga_Monogatari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_clan
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%94%BF%E5%AD%90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiki_clan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoriie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiki_Yoshikazu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_Tokimasa#Minamoto_no_Sanetomo
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%99%82%E6%94%BF}}

July 15, 2025
Kamakura I – A Good Start

According to historians, the Kamakura Period (named for the eponymous city in modern Kanagawa Prefecture) began in 1185. You probably know by now that history is never that neat. For starters, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the ‘first’ Shogun of this period, wasn’t actually granted the title until 1192.

Despite some unclear dates, the reality is that Imperial power had been in decline for centuries. The rising warrior class (Samurai) had had effective control of the provinces for years, and one clan, the Taira, would rise to take effective control of the government, though their leader, Taira no Kiyomori, would not take the title of Shogun and nominally ruled through the Emperor.

Taira control came to an end at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185, and they were replaced by the Minamoto. We’ve already discussed them, but in summary, the Minamoto, much like the Taira, were a sprawling extended family whose wealth and power did not come from Imperial prestige or titles, but control of the land and the armed men who protected it.

After Dan-no-Ura and the end of the Genpei War, the Minamoto were in control, but here’s where history takes a turn. Previously, clans like the Soga, Fujiwara, and Taira had taken control of the capital, and they exerted influence on the court through political appointments, marriages, and the occasional use of force. The clans would sometimes become powerful enough to reduce Imperial rule to a mere concept, but the illusion of Imperial power was always formally maintained.

The Minamoto were different. Firstly, they didn’t base themselves in the capital, even after their victory over the Taira. The Minamoto base, and centre of their power, was at Kamakura, and that is where they remained. After 1185, Yoritomo would pay lip service to the Emperor, but he began appointing his own provincial administrators, cutting the court out of the process entirely.

In 1189, Yoritomo undertook an invasion of the northern provinces of Dewa and Mutsu. These provinces were ruled by the remnants of the Northern Fujiwara clan and had been largely independent since the outbreak of the Genpei War in 1180. It was also an area that harboured Minamoto rivals to Yoritomo.

Before the outbreak of what would become known as the Oshu War, Yoritomo sought the permission of the Imperial Court to lead the army against the ‘rebels’. This was a formality, but technically the Emperor still had the right to select the General of ‘his’ army.

However, Yoritomo didn’t wait for permission to be granted. Instead, he summoned warriors from across Japan, and they answered the call from as far away as Satsuma Province in southern Kyushu (in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture). Throughout the summer, the Imperial Court made a lot of noise, trying to dissuade warriors from joining Yoritomo, but it did no good. If Japan had been waiting for a sign that power had definitively shifted, then this was it.

The Oshu War in 1189 put an end to even the pretence of Imperial authority over the warrior class.

The Oshu War lasted around 40 days, and Yoritomo achieved a complete victory. The Court, apparently trying to save face, offered its formal congratulations and a retroactive ‘permission’ for the war. Though the formalities had been observed, no one was fooled; Yoritomo was the boss now.

Yoritomo’s main rival at court was the Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had abdicated in 1158 and ruled as an insei or cloistered Emperor, influencing events at court for years. Though the two men would cooperate occasionally, especially against the Taira, it wasn’t long before the relationship broke down. Luckily for Yoritomo, and unluckily for Imperial power, Go-Shirakawa died in 1192, and the last real opposition to Minamoto dominance died with him.

It is debated as to whether or not Go-Shirakawa actually sought to prevent Yoritomo from taking the title of Shogun, but the timing is certainly interesting. Go-Shirakawa died in April 1192, and Yoritomo was raised to Shogun in July, giving some credence to the idea that the only obstacle had been the Emperor.

The title of Shogun, more appropriately, Seii taishōgun, is literally translated as Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians (which is a bit of a mouthful, I agree), and had always been a temporary title before. In the Yamato Period and early Heian, the Emperor would issue a ceremonial sword to a General before sending him against the Empire’s enemies (usually the Emishi Tribes in what is now northern Japan).

The title seems to have fallen out of use in the 10th century as the Emishi had ceased to be a threat, and there was no longer any need for a Supreme Commander. Yoritomo’s assumption of the title reflected the new reality. His was not a government that was based on divine origins, or the glitz and glamour of Imperial ceremony. He had taken power through military strength, and he would rule Japan in the same way.

Though Yoritomo was obviously a capable commander and administrator, he also took advantage of powerful alliances in and around his home provinces. His marriage to Hojo Masako (an important figure in her own right) brought him the support of the powerful Hojo Clan, who would go on to play an important role in the Kamakura Government.

The strength (and, ironically, the eventually fatal weakness) of the Kamakura government was its decentralisation. Japan had been divided into provinces during the Taika Reforms over 500 years earlier, with each province being further divided into districts.

The system had relied on officials appointed by the Imperial Court to run it, and when Yoritomo took over, he replaced Imperial Officials with Gokenin. This new system was pretty much the same as the one it had replaced, with officials appointed by the Shogun to oversee lands that they didn’t own.

The home of a Gokenin from later in the period.

The power of the Shogun came from the exclusive right to appoint these officials, but over time, they become de-facto hereditary, meaning that later Kamakura-based Shoguns would face exactly the same problem as the Emperors had, nominal vassals who were in reality heavily militarised, semi-independent principalities, who were not interested in obeying the government.

The Great Hunt

All that was in the future, and Yoritomo was focused on establishing the power of his regime in the short term. In the summer of 1193, Yoritomo called all his retainers to a great hunt in Suruga Province, not far from his capital. The so-called ‘Fuji no Makigari” (Hunt near Mt Fuji) was apparently attended by upwards of 700,000. Though that does seem implausibly high (and probably is), it does go some way to showing how high-profile an event this was. There were also a few incidents that highlight the complexities of power, both within the family and outside it.

Firstly, when Yoritomo’s son and heir, Yoriie, killed his first deer, Yoritomo stopped the hunt to call for a celebration. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to shoot anything with a bow, let alone a deer, but it’s not easy, and Yoriie was only 12, so good for him, right?

Well, it turns out, not so much, when Yoritomo sent a message to his wife, and the boy’s mother, Hojo Masako, inviting her to the celebration, she sent a message back stating that the son of a Shogun being able to shoot a deer was no reason to celebrate.

Hojo Masako, the original Tiger Mum.

Another incident, which wasn’t political exactly, but still a bit weird, was when Kudo Kagemitsu, a famous archer, shot at a deer and missed three times. He would claim to be baffled, and that the deer must have been the one that the Gods of the mountains rode. Which I’m sure it was. It’s a convenient excuse anyway. Kagemitsu would apparently get sick and collapse that very evening, and Yoritomo even considered calling off the hunt, but he didn’t, and they carried on for another week, so there’s that.

The third incident is certainly the most serious, and has a name that probably explains itself: The Revenge of the Soga Brothers.

These Soga aren’t the same as the Soga who had first dominated the Imperial Court in the Yamato Period; instead, they were a clan based in Sagami Province (most of modern-day Kanagawa) near Odawara. The target of the Soga’s vengeance was Kudo Suketsune, who had accidentally killed their father in a dispute over land, or a woman, or something. It’s complicated, but Samurai love a vendetta, and even though Suketsune’s death had been an accident, the Soga Bros, Sukenari and Tokimune, swore revenge.

Now, the exact details of the attack are recorded in the Soga Monogatari, which is of unknown authorship, and tends to sensationalise quite a lot of what happened, and the Azuma Kagami, which is heavily biased towards the Kamakura government. Both sources share some similarities and some differences, but the basic outline is that the brothers attacked and killed Suketsune either at an inn or in a mansion, where he was attended by one or possibly two prostitutes.

The Soga Brothers take their revenge.

The sources agree that the brothers killed Suketsune with their swords, but the Soga Monogatari says they also killed one of the prostitutes, or maybe just cut her legs off, which I guess was fine?

Both sources agree that the brothers attacked and killed many warriors, with the Azuma Kagami suggesting that this was part of an attack on the Shogun, whilst the Monogatari says it was all about killing as many enemies as possible, to make their mark on history.

Both sources also agree that Sukenari, the elder brother, was cut down in the melee, but Tokimune was captured, and subject to interrogation, before being put to death.

This story was romanticised as heck later on, especially during the Edo Period, and why not? After all, what’s more inspiring than a story about a pair of brothers who avenge their murdered father before going on to slaughter a bunch of people who had nothing to do with it?

Whether or not the Soga Brothers actually attempted to kill the Shogun, this episode highlights the often chaotic and bloody reality of a government run by warriors.

Yoritomo would become a monk, and then almost immediately die in February 1199, leaving his son Yoriie as the second Shogun. Yoriie would immediately come under the influence of his grandfather, Hojo Tokimasa, and mother, the aforementioned Hojo Masako. Pretty soon, the same problems that had plagued the Imperial Court began affecting the Shogun’s court too, but more on that next time.

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura_shogunate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_%C5%8Csh%C5%AB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoritomo
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BA%90%E9%A0%BC%E6%9C%9D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Go-Shirakawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_Masako
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gokenin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji_no_Makigari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Soga_Brothers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuma_Kagami
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soga_Monogatari

July 10, 2025
The Genpei War

Oh yes, here we go, a good old-fashioned war post! All those posts about economic and social decline are finally paying off! Let’s get into it!

So, as we’ve discussed, by the mid-12th Century, the Imperial Court was in a bad way. Over the centuries, the throne had been dominated by one powerful clan after another, who would marry into the Imperial family again and again in order to maintain that domination, at the cost of turning their gene pool into more of a muddy puddle. Luckily, Heian Era Japan didn’t have a concept of genetics, so I’m sure it was fine.

The first of these families had been the Soga, who had been overthrown by the Fujiwara in the Isshi Incident in 645. The Fujiwara had had more or less complete control until the Emperors started abdicating to become insei, that is, cloistered Emperors, or an Emperor with all the power of the throne and none of the restraints that the Fujiwara had taken advantage of.

With the Fujiwara weakened, their enemies started circling. The Hogen Rebellion in 1156 marked the end of Fujiwara power, as the rival Taira and Minamoto families teamed up to take them down. In a betrayal that will surprise no one, the Taira then shafted the Minamoto in the post-rebellion settlement, taking most of the power and the influence over the Emperor for themselves.

The Minamoto were understandably a bit put out by that, so they launched a rebellion of their own in 1160. The so-called Heiji Rebellion failed, and the Minamoto were effectively wiped out, their leadership either killed or banished to the provinces.

For the next 20 years, the Taira ruled as the Fujiwara had, but the problem with a violent takeover is that once one group does it, everyone wants to have a go. The Taira, like the Fujiwara before them, became overly enamoured with court life and neglected the provinces.

This was unfortunate because, as I mentioned earlier, it was the provinces to which the Minamoto had been banished, and they weren’t in a forgiving mood when it came to the Taira.

The Heiji Rebellion in 1160 marked the triumph of the Taira over their Minamoto rivals, at least temporarily.

The leader of the Taira at this point was Kiyomori. He had led the Taira forces that had overthrown the Fujiwara and then seen off the Minamoto, and he was probably feeling pretty pleased with himself. Using his influence (and presumably the implicit threat of force), he rose through the ranks at court, eventually becoming Daijo-Daijin, which was basically the head of the government and second only to the Emperor (in theory).

Now, there had obviously been Daijo-Daijin before Kiyomori, but he was significant because he was the first from the buke or warrior families to rise to that rank. Previously, the formal ranks of the Imperial Bureaucracy had been held by members or allies of the Fujiwara, and Kiyomori was an outsider who was seen as having used martial strength to gain his position, which was true, to be fair.

In 1171, Kiyomori cemented his power at court by having his daughter, Tokuko, marry Emperor Takakura. Now, none of this was particularly new; the Fujiwara had been doing it for centuries, after all, but Kiyomori was different; he was a thug.

The Fujiwara, for all their faults, had always played the game properly. They knew the rules, understood court etiquette, wrote beautiful poems, all that stuff. Kiyomori wasn’t like that. He’d taken power through military strength, and that was how he intended to keep hold of it. He wasn’t afraid to throw his weight around, and it was a risky business to oppose him.

In 1177, in response to an alleged coup (the Shishigatani incident), Kiyomori ordered the arrest of dozens of conspirators. That these conspirators were all people who had reason to be offended by Kiyomori was convenient, and some sources speculate that the plot never existed at all, as it appears to have relied entirely on the testimony of a single monk, who Kiyomori had tortured and then beheaded.

Regardless of whether it was real or not, Kiyomori had reinforced his power. Those who had ‘opposed’ him were dead or exiled, and he filled the vacant posts with family members and allies, further cementing his power and the fury of the opposition against him.

In 1178, Tokuko gave birth to a son, Antoku, and Kiyomori decided it’d be a good time to remind everyone at court who was really in charge. The so-called Political Crisis of the Third Year of the Jisho Era (which is a bit easier to say in Japanese, I assure you) was basically a military coup d’etat. Kiyomori brought thousands of his warriors from the provinces to the capital and took over.

There was no longer any pretence, Kiyomori was dictator in all but name, and shortly after the coup, he had Emperor Takakura abdicate in favour of the two-year-old Antoku, who obviously couldn’t rule himself, at which point Kiyomori kindly stepped in as regent.

You remember what I said about violent takeovers? Well, Kiyomori was about to learn that lesson. The Taira had driven out the Minamoto, but they hadn’t destroyed them, and for twenty years, Kiyomori had ruled in such a way that he alienated just about everyone.

In 1180, Prince Mochihito, who had been in line for the throne before Kiyomori raised the infant Antoku in his place, raised his banner in rebellion, calling for the opponents of the Taira to gather an army and march on the capital. Unfortunately, for Mochihito, his plan was discovered, and he was forced to flee, eventually arriving at the temple of Mii-Dera in Nara.

What follows is largely recorded in The Heike Monogatari, which is a pretty epic read, but is largely a fictionalised account of the war, presenting an idealised version of events, in which heroic warriors do heroic things against impossible (and often implausible) odds.

What we do know is that Mochihito, outnumbered and overwhelmed, was defeated at the Battle of Uji, just outside modern Kyoto, where he was either killed or executed shortly afterwards. Despite his unsuccessful attempts at raising an army, Mochihito’s call to arms did serve to galvanise the opposition to the Taira.

Prince Mochihito, whose failed rebellion and death at the Battle of Uji served to inspire the opposition to Taira rule.
_{^{ColBase: 国立博物館所蔵品統合検索システム (Integrated Collections Database of the National Museums, Japan), CC 表示 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92525963による}}

It is at this point that Minamoto no Yoritomo enters the stage, he definitely deserves a post of his own, but the short version is that he was 13 in 1160, and the Taira, perhaps feeling pity over his youth, hadn’t executed him, banishing him to the provinces instead.

Yoritomo, however, had a long memory, and he had spent the last twenty years gaining strength, first over his own clan, and then the surrounding area. His base was the city of Kamakura, in modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture, and it was a relatively long way from the capital.

When news of Uji reached him, Yoritomo set off looking for a fight. He called for help from the surrounding clans, and although there seems to have been some support, very few actually showed up to fight. In September 1180, Yoritomo had managed to gather just 300 men, and he was attacked by a force ten times that size at the Battle of Ishibashiyama.

Despite this defeat, Yoritomo was able to escape by sea to Awa Province (in modern Chiba Prefecture), from where he would continue the fight. Meanwhile, the Taira, under Kiyomori, sought to take revenge against the monks who had hidden Prince Mochihito, and attacked and burned the city of Nara.

Meanwhile, Yoritomo’s uncle was defeated at the Battle of Sunomatagawa in June 1181. The story goes that the Minamoto tried to sneak across a river at night in order to attack the Taira on the other bank. Apparently, their plan failed because Taira sentries were able to distinguish friend from foe by checking who was wet, or not. That seems like remarkable awareness for a battle in the dark, but regardless, the Minamoto failed to surprise the Taira and were defeated.

Later that year, Yoritomo’s cousin (and sometimes rival) Yoshinaka raised an army in the north and defeated the Taira army sent to stop him, after which, fighting died down for a while.

Taira no Kiyomori had died earlier in 1181 (the story goes that his fever was so hot anyone who tried to tend him would be burned), and not long after, a famine broke out that would spread across the nation. You can’t fight if you can’t eat, and so what followed was a two-year lull in the fighting, which I imagine wasn’t much comfort to the starving peasants.

The fighting would resume in 1183, and the Taira would have some initial success, but at the Battle of Kurikara Pass in June of that year, the Taira were decisively defeated, and the momentum shifted to the Minamoto. It was Yoshinaka (Yoritomo’s cousin) and Yukiie (Yoritomo’s Uncle, but not Yoshinaka’s father, I know, it’s confusing) who actually led the Minamoto to the capital.

As Kiyomori was dead, it fell to his son Munemori to lead the defence of the city. He did this by taking young Emperor Antoku and fleeing west, as you do. It was at this point that the cloistered Emperor, Go-Shirakawa (yeah, he’s still alive at this point!) threw in his lot with Yoshinaka and the Minamoto, calling on them to pursue and destroy the Taira.

Unfortunately, Yoshinaka had different plans. Fancying himself the rightful leader of the Minamoto, he engaged in a plot against his cousin, Yoritomo, who was by now marching from the East towards the capital. It seems he was initially joined by Yukiie, who then got cold feet and let details of the plot slip.

Yoshinaka himself became aware that the plot had been discovered and moved first, setting fire to several parts of the capital and taking Go-Shirakawa hostage. It was at this point that Yoritomo’s brothers, Yoshitsune and Noriyori, arrived with a considerable force. They drove Yoshinaka out of the capital, and then killed him at the Second Battle of Uji , bringing an end to the Minamoto Clan’s feuding (for now.)

A scene from the Second Battle of Uji. The bridge had been pulled up, hence the need to swim.

After this, the momentum was decisively on the side of the Minamoto. They pursued the Taira, who had originally set up camp at Dazaifu, in Kyushu, and fortifying their positions around the Inland Sea, which were the lands the Taira had originally held.

The Minamoto went on the offensive and defeated the Taira at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani, near modern-day Kobe, followed up by another victory at Kojima. These successes allowed the Minamoto to drive the Taira out of their strongholds along the coast of the Inland Sea.

The Taira, in possession of what was apparently the only navy in Japan at the time, and certainly the strongest, retreated to Shikoku, knowing that the Minamoto couldn’t follow. The Minamoto weren’t going to just let the Taira get away, however, and although it took time, they built up their naval strength before launching an attack at Yashima, in modern-day Takamatsu, that took the Taira fortress there, which had also been used as a makeshift palace for Emperor Antoku.

Driven out of yet another stronghold, the Taira took to their ships and fled. The Minamoto would catch up to them at Dan-no-Ura, in the Straits of Shimonoseki. If you believe the Heike Monogatari (which you shouldn’t), then the Minamoto had 3000 ships to the Taira’s 1000. According to the Azuma Kagami, which is a biased by slightly more believable source, the forces were actually around 800 to 500, which are still considerable forces, but a bit more plausible.

Despite being outnumbered, the Taira had home advantage and knew the tides and currents better than their foes. They also had the Emperor with them, which they assumed would give their side more legitimacy and encourage their men to fight harder.

It was a good idea in theory, but it didn’t work. Though the tides were initially in the Taira’s favour, they turned, as tides do, and one of the Taira’s commanders turned as well, as men often do. Surrounded and attacked from all sides, the Taira began committing suicide en masse. One of those who died was six-year-old Antoku. The story goes that his grandmother, Taira no Kiyomori’s widow, took the boy in her arms and jumped with him into the sea. Neither was seen again.

The Taira also tried to get rid of the Imperial Regalia, tossing them overboard. However, they apparently only managed to dump the mythical Kusanagi Sword and the Yasakani Jewel. The Yata no Kagami, a sacred bronze mirror, was apparently saved when the woman who tried to throw it overboard was killed when she accidentally looked at it.

All three items were apparently recovered, either on the day of the battle or later, by divers. They are supposedly housed at the Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture. The fact that no one has been allowed to see the artefacts since Dan-no-Ura is apparently just a coincidence.

A later illustration of the Battle of Dan-no-Ura, which brought an end to Taira control of Japan.

The result of Dan-no-Ura was the end of the Taira as a serious political force. Later that year, the Emperor Go-Shirakawa gave Minamoto no Yoritomo the right to collect taxes and appoint officials, effectively handing control of the state over to him.

Though it would be some years before Yoritomo would take the formal title, the Genpei War marks the time at which control of Japan shifted from courtiers and Emperors to warriors under a supreme military commander who took a title that had first been used in the earliest days of Imperial rule in Japan, Sei-i Tai Shōgun.

Cue dramatic music

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Uji_(1184)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuma_Kagami
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%8B%E5%B3%B6%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yashima
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E3%83%8E%E8%B0%B7%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%97%A4%E6%88%B8%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BA%90%E8%A1%8C%E5%AE%B6
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%B6%E5%88%A9%E4%BC%BD%E7%BE%85%E5%B3%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kurikara_Pass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yukiie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoshinaka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sunomata-gawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ishibashiyama
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%A5%E4%BB%81%E7%8E%8B
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Mochihito
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Takakura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Antoku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_no_Kiyomori
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Heike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Uji_(1180)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%BB%E6%89%BF%E3%83%BB%E5%AF%BF%E6%B0%B8%E3%81%AE%E4%B9%B1
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%BB%E6%89%BF%E4%B8%89%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%94%BF%E5%A4%89
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishigatani_incident
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%B9%BF%E3%82%B1%E8%B0%B7%E3%81%AE%E9%99%B0%E8%AC%80
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpei_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoritomo

July 8, 2025