The History Book

98

A MAN DESTINED TO

BECOME MASTER OF

THE STATE

MINAMOTO YORITOMO BECOMES SHOGUN (1192)

W

hen in 1192 the

Japanese clan leader

Minamoto Yoritomo

became the military commander-

in-chief, or shogun, it marked the

ascent to power of a Japanese

military class, the samurai, and

established a line of military rulers

who would govern Japan for the

next 750 years.

The Japanese imperial court

had been dominated since the

mid-7th century by regents from the

Fujiwara family, who had reduced

the emperors to mere figureheads.

The situation became entrenched

after the capital moved (following

the emperor) to Kyoto in 794.

Non-Fujiwara nobles were denied

preferment at court, so sought

positions in the provinces. The gulf

widened between the Kyoto-based

bureaucrats and the regional

nobility, the samurai, who assumed

At the time of the Gempei Wars the

Samurai fought as mounted bowmen,

but by the 15th century the sword, in

particular the long-bladed katana, had

become their principal weapon.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Shogunate Japan

BEFORE

1087 The Insei system begins:

emperors withdraw from court

but retain authority, in order to

counter the power of regents

and the rising warrior class.

1156 The Minamoto challenge

the Taira for the first time, and

are crushed.

1180 The Gempei War

between the Minamoto

and the Taira breaks out.

119 0s Minamoto Yoritomo

builds power in the provinces.

AFTER

1221 Emperor Gotoba fails to

re-establish imperial power in

the Jokyu Disturbance.

1333 The Ashikaga family

overthrows the Kamakura

shogunate.

1467 The Onin Wars, the first

of a series that plague Japan

for over a century, break out.

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99

See also: The An Lushan revolt 84–85 ■ Kublai Khan conquers the Song 102–03 ■ The Mongol invasions

of Japan are repulsed 133 ■ The Battle of Sekigahara 184–85 ■ The Meiji Restoration 252–53

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

a dominant role in local government.

The Kyoto court appointed the most

talented samurai as governors

(zuryo), both to bind them to the

imperial government and to prevent

them from building their own

power bases. However, the samurai

developed loyalty to their extended

family, or clan, and its leader rather

than to the emperor, and fought one

another from their power bases in

the provinces. The Minamoto and

Taira clans engaged in a series of

these struggles which culminated

in the Gempei War, during which

the Taira were utterly crushed.

The shogunate

Following his victory, clan leader

Minamoto Yoritomo established

a parallel government based at

Kamakura, about 250 miles east

of Kyoto. Other clan chieftains

became his vassals or gokenin,

and he dispatched military estate

governors to cement his control

over the provinces. In 1192, Yoritomo

accepted from the emperor the title

of shogun, becoming the de facto

military ruler of Japan.

Over the following centuries,

the emperors made periodic vain

attempts to reassert authority over

the shogunate, but the shoguns in

turn could not maintain control of

the samurai and their warlords,

who controlled their areas and

fought among themselves. Japan

dissolved into a patchwork of

military warlords or daimyo, each

with its own power base and

retinue of samurai warriors.

Establishment of the office of

shogun, which had seemed to offer

Japan stability in 1192, ultimately

led to the Sengoku, a civil war

lasting almost 150 years. This war

ended with the reunification of

Japan under the new shogunate

of Tokugawa in 1603. ■

The imperial court at

Kyoto becomes inward-

looking and loses touch

with the provinces.

After victory over

the Taira, Minamoto

Yoritomo is appointed

shogun.

The shogunate collapses

and power devolves to

the daimyo.

Lawlessness in the

provinces leads to the

rise of the samurai

military class.

Samurai clans become

semi-independent

as shogunate

authority weakens.

Minamoto Yoritomo

A descendant of the royal

emperor Seiwa, Yoritomo was

the heir of the Minamoto clan,

which had been crushed by

the Taira clan after a civil war

in 1159. After the war, the

now orphaned Yoritomo was

exiled to Hirugashima, an

island in Izu province. Here he

remained for 20 years before

issuing a call to arms and

rising up against the Taira.

He established a headquarters

in Kamakura, from which

he began to organize the

warlords and samurai into

an independent government.

A decisive victory over the

Tiara in 1185 sealed Yoritomo’s

military success, and he

emerged the undisputed

leader of Japan.

Yoritomo developed

policies to relieve the strain

between the military lords and

the court aristocrats, and set

up an administrative network

that soon took over as the

central government, but much

of the remainder of his life was

spent in suppressing those

clans who had not accepted

Minamoto dominance.

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