Minamoto no Yoshinaka
Grave of Yoshinaka (Gichū-ji, Otsu, Shiga
Prefecture)
Minamoto no Yoshinaka (源義仲) (1154 – 1184) was a general of
the late Heian Period of Japanese
history. A member of the Minamoto samurai clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his cousin and rival
during the Genpei
War between the Minamoto and the Taira clans.
Born in Musashi province, Yoshinaka's father Minamoto no Yoshikata was killed and his domain
was seized by Minamoto no Yoshihira in an interfamily feud
while he was still an infant. Yoshihira sought to kill Yoshinaka also, but he
escaped into the care of Nakahara clan in Kiso, Shinano
Province (present-day Nagano
Prefecture) where he was then raised. He was raised with Nakahara Shiro who
was his milkbrother (Shiro's mother Chizuru nursed Yoshinaka and Shiro). This
Shiro would later become Imai no Shiro Kanehira, Yoshinaka's best friend and
most loyal retainer. Yoshinaka later changed his name from Minamoto to Kiso.
In 1180, Yoshinaka received Prince
Mochihito's call to the members of the Minamoto clan
to rise against the Taira. Yoshinaka entered the Genpei War
raising an army in Shinano and quickly conquered the province. In 1181,
Yoshinaka sought to regain his father's domain in Musashi which was already
under the control of his cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo. The two reconciled and
resolved to not fight one another but Yoshinaka had to accept Yoritomo as the
leader of the Minamoto clan, give up his aspirations for his father's domain,
and send his son Yoshitaka to Kamakura as a hostage. However, having been
shamed, Yoshinaka was now determined to beat Yoritomo to Kyoto, defeat the
Taira on his own, and take control of the Minamoto for himself.
Yoshinaka defeated the army of Taira
no Koremori at the Battle of Kurikara Pass and marched to Kyoto.
The Taira retreated out of the capital, taking the child Emperor
Antoku with them. Three days later Yoshinaka's army entered the capital and
the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa bestowed upon him the
title of Asahi Shogun. However, his army ransacked Kyoto, and the
emperor ordered him to attack the Taira, in order to get the army out of the
capital.
Later, returning to Kyoto after a battle, Yoshinaka was angered to find out
that the Emperor had sided with his cousin Yoritomo. He extended military
control over the city, pillaging it and imprisoning the Emperor Go-Shirakawa,
and forced the Emperor to bestow upon him the title of shogun. Minamoto no
Yoritomo, angry at Yoshinaka's actions, ordered his brothers Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Minamoto no Noriyori to attack and kill
Yoshinaka.
Yoshinaka was driven out of Kyoto, and killed by his cousins at the Battle
of Awazu, in Omi Province (present-day Shiga
Prefecture), along with his milk
brother Kanehira. He was buried in Otsu,
in Omi; a temple was built his honor during the later Muromachi
period. Its name, Gichū-ji, has the same two kanji as his given
name. Kanehira's grave is also in Otsu, but it is not close to Yoshinaka's. The
Edo period
poet Matsuo Bashō, pursuant to his last wishes,
was buried next to Minamoto no Yoshinaka in Gichū-ji.
Minamoto no Yoshinaka is one of many main characters in the Kamakura
period epic, the Tale of
Heike. The story of Yoshinaka and Kanehira is fairly well known in
Japan; it is also the subject of the Noh play "Kanehira", in which Kanehira's tormented
ghost describes his and Yoshinaka's death, and his wish to go to the other side.
Return to Gempei War