What would you do if your son was a selfish, egotistical little wanker?
In this episode of As the Shogunate Turns, we talk about Minamoto no Yoriie 源 頼家.
He was the second shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, and the eldest son of Hojo Masako.
Masako didn’t have a close relationship with her son Yoriie.
He was raised not by her, but by his multiple menoto, or guardian families.
She didn’t have much chance to see him, and even when they did meet,
his guardians were there.
Ever since Yoriie was born, these families had all been massaging his bum, hoping for
a whiff of power once he succeeded his father, the first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo.
The Hiki clan was the strongest of these families.
Now if you grew up surrounded by people tickling your kintama 24/7,
you’d probably be a little spoiled.
Yoriie became selfish and hard-headed,
and had a strong bond to the Hiki family that raised him.
In 1199, the shogun Yoritomo was thinking back with pride at the military government
that he created, but he should have been doing less thinking and more paying attention because
he fell off his horse and died.
That’s right, the leader of the great Minamoto clan known for their horse archery died by
falling off his horse.
It’s funny how people later on tried to rationalize this,
because it’s a little embarrassing.
After all, future shoguns claimed to be descended from the Minamoto.
People said things from “oh it was a plot by his enemies” to
“it was his wife’s jealous spirit taking revenge for his cheating.”
Points for creativity, but sometimes a fall is just a fall.
After his death, Masako became a Buddhist nun, but she did not go live a secluded life
in some monastery, oh no.
She stayed in the middle of that nest of vipers that was Kamakura.
Her son Yoriie became the leader of the Kamakura shogunate.
The apple fell far from the tree.
He was no political genius like his father, but he did follow in his father’s footsteps,
finding fondness for the female form for sure.
Yoriie was bloodthirsty.
Sorry, he was butt thirsty.
He almost started a war over a woman.
One day, Yoriie sent one of his vassals away to fight bandits in some province,
because he heard reports of bandits there.
The samurai named Adachi Kagemori accepted the mission and went bandit hunting.
Once Kagemori had gone, Yoriie kidnapped Kagemori’s concubine.
He just made up that whole bandit story.
When Kagemori returned bandit-less, he realized he was also concubine-less.
He got SO MAD and just sulked in his room because Yoriie’s the shogun.
He was mad though.
Instead of apologizing like a decent dictator, Yoriie gathered some men to kill Kagemori
just in case Kagemori wanted to rebel.
Before a freaking civil war started over a stolen concubine,
our girl Masako stepped in.
Adachi Kagemori’s dad was actually the messenger who used to deliver the love letters
between her and Yoritomo way back in the day.
He was her love messenger.
The Adachi had always been loyal.
Masako sent her son a letter telling him to stop being a twat knuckle, then spent a night
at the Adachi’s home, as Yoriie’s men stood outside not knowing what to do.
She didn’t leave until the men outside left.
Yoriie eventually let the woman go a few days later.
Masako prevented bloodshed, and was pretty much the only person
who could keep Yoriie’s behavior in check.
Being Yoritomo’s widow gave her power, and she knew how to use it.
Yoriie was out of control.
He was totally in the arms of the Hiki clan that raised him,
he married a Hiki woman,
and he was a member of the Hiki Patreon.
He was out of control.
In land disputes, he kept ruling in favor of Hiki clan members, and everyone else was
pulling their top-knot out in frustration.
If there’s one thing that samurai hate, it’s you taking their land away.
It rarely ends well.
The higher ups in the government eventually said, “I can’t. I just can’t.”
and blocked Yoriie from ruling in these disputes.
They created a council of 13 people, including the heads of top military clans,
to handle these cases instead.
Minamoto no Joffrey was mad of course.
How dare they take away some of his power, but what was he going to do,
war against the strongest warrior houses in the east?
Instead, as an “oh yeah,” Yoriie issued an order saying that only 5 of his closest
followers -- his little Injustice League -- could have direct access to him,
plus they had immunity from any crime.
So they could kill someone and get away with it.
That’ll show those meanies.
Now the main conflict in the Kamakura government around this time was between two clans:
the Senju and the Uchiha--
The Hiki and the Hojo.
The Hiki had the most influence.
They were Yoriie’s main guardian family, his main menoto, and Yoriie preferred them
over his mother’s own Hojo clan.
But remember how samurai hated losing their lands?
Because Yoriie kept ruling in favor of the Hiki in land disputes, for the smallest reasons,
many long time supporters of the Minamoto found more and more of their lands being given
to the Hiki.
Hatred for the Hiki and for Yoriie slithered through the halls of Kamakura and gathered
behind the Hojo clan.
The Hiki leader was Hiki Yoshikazu 比企 能員.
The Hojo leader was Hojo Tokimasa 北条 時政.
These two clans were playing the same game, called Shogun Pong.
It’s like beer pong, but the cups are the shogun position,
and the ball is a little boy.
Whoever threw their little boy into the shogun cup first wins.
You see, neither Hiki Yoshikazu nor Hojo Tokimasa could be shogun,
they were not of Minamoto blood.
They had to back a real Minamoto, preferably someone young,
to be a puppet shogun while they ruled from behind.
So who did they choose?
To understand that, let’s look at the family tree first.
It’s a big tree I know, but don’t worry it’s about to get much smaller.
First we had Hojo Tokimasa, his daughter was Hojo Masako,
who was married to Minamoto no Yoritomo.
Masako and Yoritomo’s eldest son was Minamoto no Yoriie.
They had more kids but this tree is about people who matter.
Yoriie’s main guardian family, his main menoto, was the Hiki, headed by Hiki Yoshikazu.
Yoriie ended up marrying Yoshikazu’s daughter, the Lady Wakasa.
Yoriie and Lady Wakasa’s son was Minamoto no Ichiman.
It was this baby Ichiman that Hiki Yoshikazu wanted to back.
If Ichiman became the next shogun, he’d be fully under the Hiki’s power.
Now Masako and Yoritomo had another son, Sanetomo.
Unlike Yoriie, Sanetomo was not put under the guardianship of the Hiki.
His menoto was Masako’s own sister, the Lady Awa, and her husband Zensei.
This decision to give Sanetomo to Lady Awa was probably Masako’s idea.
Seeing the power the Hiki had over Yoriie, she didn’t want any of that BS
for her second son.
Giving Sanetomo to the care of her sister allowed Masako to take part in raising him.
A solid idea, as it turns out.
Hojo Tokimasa secretly picked Sanetomo to be his ball.
He was planning a coup, and the young Sanetomo
would be a good alternative to that Hiki-loving little knob yanker.
Oh and this Zensei fella was also looking to gain some power,
being Sanetomo’s guardian and all.
Alright, now that we have this cool family tree, the fun begins.
Let’s start pruning.
In 1203, Yoriie fell really sick, and everyone thought his days were numbered.
Both sides started salivating because this was the opportunity they were waiting for.
Everyone started placing their Go pieces.
Hiki Yoshikazu convinced Yoriie to brand Zensei a traitor
and sent men to arrest Zensei and his wife Lady Awa.
Lady Awa ran to Masako’s residence and Masako refused to give up her sister to the men outside,
but Zensei and his son were captured, exiled, then killed for good measure.
Yoriie plotted with Hiki Yoshikazu to kill Hojo Tokimasa too.
The story is that Masako heard their planning while she was standing behind paper doors,
and warned her father, which honestly sounds too perfect to be real.
Whatever the case, one day, Hojo Tokimasa invited Hiki Yoshikazu to some religious service
to help Yoriie’s recovery.
On the way there, Hojo allies fell upon the Hiki leader and killed him.
Team Hojo invaded the Hiki residence and wiped out the entire family.
They torched the place, killing Yoriie’s wife and his heir, Ichiman.
Dun dun dun.
When Yoriie heard this devastating news, he sent messengers to some of his samurai telling
them to go after the Hojo.
Problem was, no one really liked Yoriie, so nothing happened.
One samurai, in a show of loyalty to Team Hojo, killed the messenger that came to him,
which was kinda dickish to be honest.
I’m anti messenger killing.
Yoriie had to become a monk and pass the shogun position to his brother Sanetomo.
They exiled Yoriie to Izu Province, where he lived peacefully
and one day he took a bath and someone pulled a rope around his neck
while other people stabbed him until he died.
Now did Hojo Tokimasa order this killing?
I really want to think so, but no one knows for sure.
Here’s a question.
Did Hojo Masako know of the plan to overthrow her own son?
So the main historical text that talks about this time in history is the Azuma Kagami 吾妻鏡.
The problem is that the Azuma Kagami was commissioned by the Hojo clan,
so it’s biased against Yoriie and the Hiki.
Now just because it’s biased doesn’t mean we dismiss everything in it, it just means
we need to question its words, as with any text.
The Azuma Kagami tells us that it was Masako who ordered the attack that deposed her son
and killed her grandson, because remember Ichiman was her grandson.
This is hard to believe.
But maybe she did know about the coup, even if she didn’t order it.
But that would mean she didn’t try to stop it,
that she chose the Hojo clan over her own son.
Also hard to believe.
There’s another hypothesis though.
Yoriie was really sick and everyone thought he was about to take a long vacation
to the underworld.
If Masako believed that her son would die anyways, then she wasn’t choosing the Hojo
over her own son, she was choosing the Hojo over the Hiki.
And she was choosing her other son, Sanetomo.
One other thing we should question is how terrible Yoriie actually was.
History is not kind to the second Kamakura shogun.
He was a tyrant who spent his days playing games and seeking the arms of women.
He had no positive qualities at all...says the biased Azuma Kagami.
It was awfully convenient that the Hojo saved the country from this terrible, terrible guy.
His terribleness must have been exaggerated, but to what extent, we don’t know.
Alright, today’s quiz question is this.
How many swords had Benkei collected when he met Yoshitsune?
Answer in the comments and you may win one of these.
Tomorrow I’ll choose a random winner from among the correct answers.
Good luck!
Okay, we have two new patrons this week.
MillenialMeat that’s quite dirty, and Arthur Nielsen.
Thanks you guys.
Alright, I love you and spread the knowledge.